An-kun (Tong Da Wei) and his wife Ping-guo (Fan Bingbing) live in a small apartment in Beijing. He earns a meager living washing the windows of the city's new skyscrapers, and she works as a masseuse at the Golden Basin Foot Massage Palace, a successful establishment owned and run by Dong (Tony Leung Ka-Fai). Like many of China's newly successful and wealthy businessmen, he lives mainly for himself. Wang-mei (Elaine Jin), his wife of 16 years, knows that he is unfaithful to her. Although he clings to a small bit of religion in his Buddhist devotional life, his daily activities are focused solely on his own pleasure.
One day, Ping-guo has too much to drink with a friend and winds up on a couch in Dong's office. He thinks that she wants to have sex with him but is mistaken; she resists and he rapes her. The situation is complicated by the fact that An-kun witnesses what happens from his perch outside the office window. He is extremely angry with his wife and decides to blackmail Dong. When Ping-guo discovers that she is pregnant, she wants an abortion but An-kun insists she wait. He knows that Dong desperately wants a child and so hopes for a big payoff.
Yu Li directs this Chinese film which convincingly conveys the ethical dilemmas which confront people living in a society convulsed by change. Ping-guo and her husband are like millions of other rural folk who have come to the city to improve their economic situation. Their yearning to make some easy money and satisfy all of their desires through sex leads them into misery. An-kun is envious of Dong's Mercedes-Benz and other signs of his wealth. The businessman, whose wife is barren, is convinced that happiness can be purchased.
The filmmaker puts these two couples in an uncomfortable relationship as they await the birth of the baby. Dong tries to dominate Ping-guo giving her food supplements and other advice. His wife grows increasingly estranged as time goes on, even as she extracts her own form of revenge. The experiences of Ping-guo and her excitable and restless husband changes their marriage and sets them on a course they had not expected.
Lost in Beijing really clicks as a parable about the dire effects of a Western obsession with money and the sad and bad things that can happen to people once they get hooked.
Special features on the DVD include theatrical trailer; Dolby Digital 5.1; enhanced for 16x9 TVs; scene selections; booklet: Interviews with Director Li Yu (by Grady Hendrix/The New York Sun and Artemisia Ng/Asia Pacific Arts).
