SYNOPSICS
Ping guo (2007) is a Mandarin movie. Yu Li has directed this movie. Bingbing Fan,Dawei Tong,Tony Ka Fai Leung,Elaine Jin are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2007. Ping guo (2007) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
Lin and Wang are a wealthy couple, approaching middle age in Beijing. They are childless, because she is infertile. He owns a foot-massage parlor. One afternoon he rapes one of his workers, Liu, who has nearly passed out from drinking alcohol with a friend. Part of the assault is witnessed by Liu's husband, An-Kun, a window washer. He's angry with the boss and with his wife, and attacks Lin's car furiously. He seeks compensation and tries to blackmail him. Lin's wife counsels him and joins in revenge. Then, Liu realizes she's pregnant and a set of emotional calculations ensues: Lin wants to buy the child, Wang agrees but she has conditions, An-Kun goes back and forth and barely contains his anger; Liu withdraws. The baby comes. Can anything be sorted out?
More
Ping guo (2007) Reviews
Typical Chinese Man:
Weak at both ends. No honor, no integrity, no dignity and stands for nothing. And I mean at both ends. I recommend people watch this to see what Chinese men are really like. It could be based on a true story (if it is not already)
A nice movie about the true side of life in Beijing
Being an international student studying in U.S. I would probably have a very different point of view of this movie, that being said, I hope that I can give some insight of this movie with my past life of living 24 years in Beijing and additional 3 years of life living in U.S. First, let me make one thing clear, if anyone thinks this is a cheap movie with stupid plot such as a girl being raped and she actually enjoyed the process, please go back to watch the movie again, or just switch to some Hollywood movie which will give you a fantasy that ends up with happy after forever. This is a movie about the real life of people in Beijing, it is well founded, carefully thought about, and shot in a very skillful camera angles. Now I am going to give evidence and explanations why I think so. The background scene: if you watched it closely, you probably have found that most of the scenes are so gray, suppressing, with typical cold colors, the movie is also shot in winter. That is the realistic view of winter Beijing, having the cold wind cutting into your bones. It is not an easy weather to live in, as someone raised in this kind of weather, you learn to endure it, suffer from it, and adapt to it. This kind of weather of course makes the life even harder for poor immigrant workers. This detail is just so true and so carefully expressed over the whole film. This rendering effect sets the baseline of the whole film, which is a sad, unfortunate, but realistic movie. Characters and culture. I think one of the main things that the director/script writer wants to express here is, the mispositioned female status in the Chinese culture. I saw no one here actually commenting on this. This idea is hidden deep, but it is pretty obvious if you understands the life of Chinese people and have been in touch with some western culture. An kung and Lin Dong, one poor one rich, both regard the women as some kind of possessions in their lives. An kung asked for money when he found out that his wife has been raped. If you are a traditional Chinese, you may even find this reasonable, but if you look at this from a different view, he is regarding his wife as his belongings, he's asking for money as a compensation because, his belonging is damaged, and he believes that money can compensate all his sufferings (well, if you regard women as a commercial product, you can buy a different one with more money, right?). Lin Dong, regards his wife and ping guo as the tool for having offspring. This is revealed so nicely if you think about all the details, he wants a boy not a girl, prayed to God for it(probably to carry on his business since he's rich.) His own wife can not give birth, so he goes out all the time to hookers and he acts as if he has the right to do so. When ping guo was pregnant he just directly came to his wife and acted like: look, you can't do it, so it is reasonable for me to find someone else to do it. Ping guo and Wang mei, being the women in such a culture, regarded their inferior position as natural, accepted them and almost never disobeyed or tried to fight. Some details: Wang Mei said she could never object her husband's decision for 16 years. (But being a well educated rich woman, she eventually revenged by having sex with An kun. It is funny and interesting if you paid attention to what she said during the sex.) Ping guo, as a weak, uneducated woman, having no power in the society, no freedom, being so desperate to have someone to rely on and someone to love her, became the center of the whole tragedy. Raped, deserted by her husband, and raped by her husband, then slapped by the woman richer. She actually found a little love from Lin Dong, although she knows that it is purely on the sex basis, but even that is better than having nothing. And she even tried to accept such a disgusting relationship. The ending seems random, but actually giving all the information you need to understand what the movie wants to reveal, two women sitting together, both realizing that they are the victims of the culture, holding hands in tears. While both men, deserted by their women, pushing cars together on the high way.(Implying that the materialistic things, namely cars and money that they pursued after will eventually fail them. They are so stupid to lose love over trivial things as money, or power.) Xiao Mei is the character not so important, but also a crucial part of the whole story, being a hooker, she's a live description of how woman are forced by life itself to drop into the traps of death. It also gives a powerful impression on how limited the options are from which the poor Chinese people have to choose from, and how hard life is there. There are a lot more details, but I don't have space and time to explore them, it is a movie worth of watching, I have already gone through it for the 3rd time, and still find new things. I hope everyone reading this can understand a little more about the Chinese society and culture.
A brilliant characterization of life in contemporary Beijing
The story itself seems unlikely, starting when An Kun, a city migrant working as window cleaner, by chance witnesses Liu Pingguo, his wife, being raped by her boss, Lin Dong, the sleazy owner of a massage parlor. Seeing an opportunity, An Kun goes to Lin Dong for hush money. When he refuses, An Kun reveals everything to Lin Dong's wife, Wang Mei. Wang Mei is upset but not surprised at her husband's actions and tells An Kun he will never get the money. However, as a form of compensation, she offers to have sex with An Kun and they start an affair. These two couples are brought closer together when Pingguo becomes pregnant and there is uncertainty about who the father is. Since Lin Dong desperately wants a son, he now willingly offers compensation. An Kun accepts the money but becomes increasingly uncertain of his decision to give up the child. As farcical as this plot may seem, everything is handled in a realistic way. Even the story in some way represents the common dilemmas faced by immigrants to the big city. Personalities are nuanced. Characters are neither wholly abusive and evil nor passive and innocent. Every detail in the environment is authentic, modern China. The acting, and cinematography are brilliant. Beijing is remorseless, cold and bleak. The city provides opportunity and wealth but not without cost. Broadly speaking, this film is a social commentary about greed and desire and elusive satisfaction of modern life.
This Apple is Fresh
This is the first movie I've seen come out of Mainland China of respectable quality. I'll admit I haven't seen many, but from what I have seen, this is certainly above and beyond. The story is about a poor migrant couple and a wealthy couple living in Beijing. Their lives become intertwined through a set of unfortunate and somewhat disturbing circumstances. I'm not perfectly fluent in Mandarin, but the acting was good from all four main characters. The less experienced Bingbing Fang was especially good as Ping Guo, the lead character. The scenery is set amid the toxic haze of a sprawling Beijing with lots of greys and muted colours. The best thing about the movie for me was the amazing contrast between the lives of the rich and the poor. Even though I'm surrounded by it daily, this movie gives a little bit more intimacy than what I'm normally exposed to. Other common themes were greed and face. Ultimately, the production values of the movie were very good, from the cinematography to the acting, but the conclusion doesn't really leave you with a good taste in your mouth. I think this is good though, because it sticks closer to what reality might be like, instead of having clearly defined heroes and antagonists with a full circle ending.
Lost in greed and apathy
What happens to a collectivist, traditional society after it is traumatized by two extreme social experiments within a period of half a century dehumanizing communism and equally alienating rampant materialism? Perhaps the best film to come out of mainland China in a decade, Yu Li's Ping Guo is both a scathing social commentary on the state of present day China and a moving human drama. The film, as well as its characters, looks like Beijing: Grey, polluted, crowded and confused. Acting is uniformly excellent. Bingbing Fan, the stunning young actress with morning-after eyes, is superb in the title role as the all-too-human Ping Guo. As the story unfolds and the humanity of the other three leads begin to rise above their greed and apathy, Ping finds her inner strength. The ending, which should be predictable, comes as a touching surprise. Others have commented enough on the story. It is best to walk into this film without knowing too much about it. If you are a frequent visitor to China or an observer of its mind-blowing ascent, the film will have more to say to you. However, both the story and the characters are universal. Even a passing knowledge of that fascinating society is sufficient to enjoy this minor masterpiece, although you might miss its many subtle ironies. Chinese authorities banned the film from being shown in China. They also banned its producers from working in the industry for two years. The decision, which is almost an unofficial award, won't stop those who want to watch it.