Lost Indulgence
Encyclopedia
Lost Indulgence (also known as Lost, Indulgence or Lost·Indulgence) is a 2008 Chinese
film directed by Zhang Yibai
and written by Zhao Tianyu. Like Zhang's earlier film, Curiosity Kills the Cat
, Lost Indulgence takes place in the central Chinese city of Chongqing
.
The film is a family drama about the relationship between a mother and son (Jiang Wenli
and Tan Jianci
) after the sudden death of the father (Eric Tsang
).
Lost Indulgence navigated a complicated series of schedules and cancellations before it was allowed to screen abroad, at the Tribeca Film Festival
in April 2008.
) and his mother Li (Jiang Wenli
) take in his father's last fare, Su-Dan (Karen Mok
), a bar girl, to fulfill the family's obligations. The father, Wu Tao drove his cab into the Yangtze River
, breaking Su-Dan's leg and potentially paralyzing her for life, though his body was not recovered.
The son, a bereaved and sullen teenager, does not take to the crippled Su-Dan at first, his thoughts preoccupied with a school crush and the sudden death of his father. As time goes on, however he warms to her presence (and her ever-exposed legs). Su-Dan, restricted to a wheelchair sees the boy as a substitute little brother.
Meanwhile, Li, who works as a medic at a factory, is forced to work double shifts at a veterinarian hospital to help make ends meet. There she meets a handsome stranger (Eason Chan
) who brings in his injured dog, and a tentative romance begins to form.
, the film was pulled at the last moment by its producers due to failure to gain Chinese censor approval. For many in the industry, the decision to withdraw the film was fallout from the decision by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television
to ban director Lou Ye
and producer Nai An for improperly screening their 2006 film Summer Palace
at the Cannes Film Festival
without permission. Others saw the heightened concern as a result of public criticism and controversy surrounding Ang Lee
's sexually explicit Lust, Caution and Feng Xiaogang's allegorical war story Assembly
. The withdrawal of the film was also seen as a sign of the growing influence that the Chinese Film Bureau has had on Hong Kong productions (or in this case co-productions).
Lost Indulgence missed a second scheduled screening at the Udine East Asian Film Festival, when a screening was again canceled due to failure to obtain official permission. Upon this second cancellation, critics speculated that producers were taking extra care before the Olympics rather than seeing the delays as a clear cut case of censorship.
Despite these setback, the film eventually did get its international premiere at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
on April 25, 2008.
Perry Lam of Muse
Magazine called the movie 'an object lesson in how bad casting can skew a movie irredeemably.'
Cinema of China
The Chinese-language cinema has three distinct historical threads: Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China, and Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and...
film directed by Zhang Yibai
Zhang Yibai
Zhang Yibai is a Chinese film director.-Directorial career:Zhang began his career in television and music videos before directing his debut, Spring Subway in 2002....
and written by Zhao Tianyu. Like Zhang's earlier film, Curiosity Kills the Cat
Curiosity Kills the Cat (film)
Curiosity Kills the Cat is a 2006 Chinese thriller film directed by Zhang Yibai. The film is set in the director's home city of Chongqing. Produced by China Vision Group and Eagle Spirit Management, Curiosity Kills the Cat stars Hu Jun, Liao Fan, as well as veteran Hong Kong actress Carina Lau...
, Lost Indulgence takes place in the central Chinese city of Chongqing
Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
.
The film is a family drama about the relationship between a mother and son (Jiang Wenli
Jiang Wenli
Jiang Wenli is a famous Chinese actress. She is a native of Tianjin, and graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1992. She married director Gu Changwei in 1993. Jiang Wenli was one of the members of the jury of the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2005.Wenli Jiang was born in a highbrow family...
and Tan Jianci
Tan Jianci
Tan Jianci better known by his stage name Kenji, is a Chinese pop singer and occasional actor. He is the youngest member of the Chinese boy band M.I.C.-Biography:...
) after the sudden death of the father (Eric Tsang
Eric Tsang
Eric Tsang Chi-wai , MH is a prolific Hong Kong actor, film director, film producer and television host best known for hosting the Super Trio series on TVB over the course of 10 years.-Biography:Due to his popularity, he is often the MC in events organized by TVB, and is nicknamed "the Prize Master"...
).
Lost Indulgence navigated a complicated series of schedules and cancellations before it was allowed to screen abroad, at the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
in April 2008.
Plot
Upon the apparent death of his taxi-driver father (Eric Tseng), Xian-chuen (Tan JianciTan Jianci
Tan Jianci better known by his stage name Kenji, is a Chinese pop singer and occasional actor. He is the youngest member of the Chinese boy band M.I.C.-Biography:...
) and his mother Li (Jiang Wenli
Jiang Wenli
Jiang Wenli is a famous Chinese actress. She is a native of Tianjin, and graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1992. She married director Gu Changwei in 1993. Jiang Wenli was one of the members of the jury of the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2005.Wenli Jiang was born in a highbrow family...
) take in his father's last fare, Su-Dan (Karen Mok
Karen Mok
Karen Joy Morris, known more commonly in the Sinosphere as Karen Mok or Mok Man-Wai, is a three-time Golden Melody Award-winning Hong Kong-based actress and singer-songwriter.- Biography :...
), a bar girl, to fulfill the family's obligations. The father, Wu Tao drove his cab into the Yangtze River
Yangtze River
The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...
, breaking Su-Dan's leg and potentially paralyzing her for life, though his body was not recovered.
The son, a bereaved and sullen teenager, does not take to the crippled Su-Dan at first, his thoughts preoccupied with a school crush and the sudden death of his father. As time goes on, however he warms to her presence (and her ever-exposed legs). Su-Dan, restricted to a wheelchair sees the boy as a substitute little brother.
Meanwhile, Li, who works as a medic at a factory, is forced to work double shifts at a veterinarian hospital to help make ends meet. There she meets a handsome stranger (Eason Chan
Eason Chan
Eason Chan Yik-shun is a prominent male singer in Hong Kong's music industry. Undoubtedly one of the most dominant male singers in the post-1997 era of Hong Kong music industry. Eason Chan has been praised by Time magazine as a front runner in the next generation of Cantopop...
) who brings in his injured dog, and a tentative romance begins to form.
Cast
- Jiang WenliJiang WenliJiang Wenli is a famous Chinese actress. She is a native of Tianjin, and graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1992. She married director Gu Changwei in 1993. Jiang Wenli was one of the members of the jury of the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2005.Wenli Jiang was born in a highbrow family...
as Li, the mother in the family. She takes on her husband's last passenger before his death. - Tan JianciTan JianciTan Jianci better known by his stage name Kenji, is a Chinese pop singer and occasional actor. He is the youngest member of the Chinese boy band M.I.C.-Biography:...
as Xian-chuen, Li and Wu Tao's sullen teenage son. - Eric Tseng as the father, Wu Tao, a taxi-driver, Li's husband and Xian-chuen's father, early in the film he is killed when his taxi plunges off a bridge into a river.
- Karen MokKaren MokKaren Joy Morris, known more commonly in the Sinosphere as Karen Mok or Mok Man-Wai, is a three-time Golden Melody Award-winning Hong Kong-based actress and singer-songwriter.- Biography :...
as Su-Dan, a crippled bar girl who was Li's husband's last passenger. - Eason ChanEason ChanEason Chan Yik-shun is a prominent male singer in Hong Kong's music industry. Undoubtedly one of the most dominant male singers in the post-1997 era of Hong Kong music industry. Eason Chan has been praised by Time magazine as a front runner in the next generation of Cantopop...
Release
Lost Indulgence navigated a complicated series of schedules and cancellations before it was allowed to screen abroad. Originally scheduled to premiere at the 2008 Hong Kong International Film FestivalHong Kong International Film Festival
The Hong Kong International Film Festival is a platform for filmmakers, film professionals and filmgoers from all over the world to launch and experience new film work. There are seminars, conferences, exhibitions, and parties celebrating the festival community...
, the film was pulled at the last moment by its producers due to failure to gain Chinese censor approval. For many in the industry, the decision to withdraw the film was fallout from the decision by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television
State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television
The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television is an executive branch under the State Council of the People's Republic of China...
to ban director Lou Ye
Lou Ye
Lou Ye , born 1965, is a Chinese writer-director who is commonly grouped with the "Sixth Generation" directors of Chinese cinema.-Films:Born in Shanghai, Lou was educated at the Beijing Film Academy. In 1993, he made his first film Weekend Lover, but it was not released until two years later in 1995...
and producer Nai An for improperly screening their 2006 film Summer Palace
Summer Palace (film)
Summer Palace , is a 2006 Chinese film and the fourth feature film by director Lou Ye. The film was a Chinese-French collaboration produced by Dream Factory, Laurel Films, Fantasy Pictures and Sylvain Bursztejn's Rosem Films...
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
without permission. Others saw the heightened concern as a result of public criticism and controversy surrounding Ang Lee
Ang Lee
Ang Lee is a Taiwanese film director. Lee has directed a diverse set of films such as Eat Drink Man Woman , Sense and Sensibility , Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Hulk , and Brokeback Mountain , for which he won an Academy...
's sexually explicit Lust, Caution and Feng Xiaogang's allegorical war story Assembly
Assembly (film)
Assembly is a 2007 Chinese war-drama film written by Liu Heng and directed by Feng Xiaogang. It stars Zhang Hanyu, Deng Chao, Yuan Wenkang, Tang Yan, Wang Baoqiang, Liao Fan, Hu Jun, Ren Quan and Li Naiwen....
. The withdrawal of the film was also seen as a sign of the growing influence that the Chinese Film Bureau has had on Hong Kong productions (or in this case co-productions).
Lost Indulgence missed a second scheduled screening at the Udine East Asian Film Festival, when a screening was again canceled due to failure to obtain official permission. Upon this second cancellation, critics speculated that producers were taking extra care before the Olympics rather than seeing the delays as a clear cut case of censorship.
Despite these setback, the film eventually did get its international premiere at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
on April 25, 2008.
Critical reception
The film opened to mixed reviews.Perry Lam of Muse
Muse (Hong Kong Magazine)
Muse is a bilingual Hong Kong-based multimedia publisher specializing in content related to Hong Kong's art and culture scene.. Until December 2010, Muse published an award-winning monthly arts and culture magazine...
Magazine called the movie 'an object lesson in how bad casting can skew a movie irredeemably.'
External links
- Lost Indulgence at the Chinese Movie Database