Okay, Chinese censors are just plain confusing. Not only was this year's acclaimed indie drama Lost In Beijing considered offensive enough - due to explicit sexual content - to pull from public release while And Lee's Lust, Caution mysteriously escaped any similar sanctions, the Lost In Beijing film makers have been banned from making any new films in China for a period of two years. And if you think that's extreme you're not alone ... banning films is harsh enough but banning film makers? Ouch. You would figure this would be the end of the film, yes? After all, if Lost In Beijing is such bad news that the film makers aren't allowed to make anything else that must mean that the film's being buried right? It's already off screens, after all.
You'd think so but consistency is not really a virtue of the Chinese censors. The film is not only receiving a DVD release in Hong Kong but it is the full, complete, sexually explicit version that is being released. You know ... the unauthorized version whose submission to international film festivals is one of the cited reasons for the ban. And it's English subtitled. And region free. So, afer being punished for showing this version to international audiences the film makers get to release the exact same version on a DVD primed for export. Wacky.
Well Hong Kong is not China! Hong Kong still has it's sovereignty - at least until 2047. And therefore it's not relevant for them what some old grumpy censors in Beijing decide!
One country, two systems! ;-)
Fan Bingbing? Sold! :D
saw it in Berlin last year. i fell asleep halfway. saw the bathroom sex though. really, nothing too explicit there. a lot of humping and no privates seen. not even acrobatic.
this is really unnecessary publicity created by the Chinese authorities for what is really a boring film.
Lust Caution got a pass from Chinese censors because Ang Lee prepared a shorter cut for Mainland release that excised the explicit sex.
re: wisekwai
Aha. Yes, forgot about that. I wonder if it was only the sex that was excised.
A good friend of mine who's a Chinese filmmaker and minor cultural historian told me that the mahjong scene at the beginning is an unflattering metaphor for power relations in China, both ancient and modern.
Also, it sounds like "Lost in Beijing" wasn't even given the choice to follow "Lust, Caution"'s route. Two years out of work is a hell of a slap on the hand. Something tells me that the censors just followed the standard procedure of the Chinese government: allow a compromise for the big players and sweep the little fish under the rug.
re: Michael
The film might play slower to foreign audiences than to the Chinese, for whom the implausible twists and machinations of the plot may seem not only plausible but downright familiar.
"Lost in Beijing" struck me as almost a foggy Chinese pond-reflection of Park Chanwook's "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance". But whereas Park's film saw its characters descend into a distinctly Korean moral inferno of ethics and empathy lost and gained, "Lost in Beijing"'s characters descend into a decidedly more Chinese Hell woven from Filial bonds and dreams of wealth.
Moral outrage and personal revenge is on the minds of the wronged parties in "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance". The characters in "Lost in Beijing" seek not rectification but profit, and a very personal violation of justice becomes an excuse for a transaction.
I think "Lost in Beijing" also speaks much for countless women in China quietly suffering their husband's authority over her and her body, and a culture that remains unofficially permissive of men who cheat on their wives.
Regarding gambling in China, I believe it's illegal except for a few cities, and underground in the rest. I could see it's presence in the movie being an issue to censors, but not a major one, unless there's more that I don't know.
Thanks for the response, Momo. I really like your focus on what the film says about the status of women. The scene towards film's end where the two women console each other was, in my estimation, the film's best moment.