AFS ESSENTIAL: LOST IN BEIJING

Lost in Beijing

*** I've be scheduled to work this evening. I know. I know. If someone else would like to host this event ... please let me know. ***

AFS ESSENTIAL: LOST IN BEIJING
Rated Unknown; 112min; Director:Li Yu

( Excerpt from the Alamo South Drafthouse webpage ).

Several years ago we explored films of the "5th generation" of directors in China. With this series we will be looking at a wide array of recent films made by directors of that and subsequent generations in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The 21st century has brought an explosion of Asian cinema and China is an essential player in that burgeoning artistic industry. In this series we will look at the distances between fathers and sons, the changing socio-sexual mores of modern Beijing, the impact of Western culture on the youth of China, the loss of an old movie theater, and thirty years of changes brought upon a family after the Cultural Revolution.

An-kun and his wife Ping-guo have built a modest living for themselves following their move to the capital from China's poorer northeast. An-kun works washing the windows of Beijing's skyscrapers while Ping-guo earns a decent wage as a masseuse at the Gold Basin Foot Massage Palace, a popular parlor owned by Dong, a rich middle-aged businessman who epitomizes China's new money-obsessed society. When Ping-guo returns to the massage parlour following a liquid lunch break with one of her coworkers, Dong finds her sprawled across a couch in his office. Exploiting her drunken state, he awkwardly forces himself on her, not realizing that An-kun, atop his perch outside the office window, is a witness to what is happening. Seeing this as a moneymaking opportunity, An-kun decides to blackmail Dong - either he pays or he gets brought up on charges for rape. But when Ping-guo learns that she's pregnant, the stakes get even higher. [New Yorker Films]

Screenings are FREE for AFS members and $4 at the door.

http://www.austinfilm...

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