Forbidden fruit

Two families, one rich and one poor, thrust together in harsh circumstances in China's booming capital. Money, sex and maybe a little bit of love comprise Chinese female director Li Yu's third film Apple. It is also filled with the loss and loneliness of people struggling to get by in Beijing, like in many cities filled with bustling commerce, Among them are Ping Guo (Fan Bingbing) and her husband An Kun (Tong Dawei). Between Ping Guo's income as a foot masseuse and her husband's as a high-rise window cleaner, the two can just barely afford a dingy apartment and life's essentials. For now, their marriage is kept secret. Ping Guo's boss, Lin Dong, (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) is a multi-millionaire who's married to an elegant woman, yet spends most of his time paying for high-priced prostitutes to visit him in hotel rooms. While no sex takes place at his masseuse parlor, he likes his pack of girls to be young, single and flirty.

During a party with her colleagues, Ping Guo drinks too much. Taking advantage of her drunken state, Lin Dong rapes her. An Kun observes but does not stop the assault, and later has rough sex with Ping Guo in a sick bid to get rid of his own anger.

But it's money that turns out to be the common language between Kun and Dong as they settle their differences. When Ping Guo finds she's pregnant, all parties, including Dong's barren wife, beauty parlor owner Wang Mei (Taiwan actress Elaine Jin) - sign contracts. Dong, who's desperate for a child, will adopt the child, Kun and Ping Guo will get substantial coin, and Mei will get 50 percent of her husband's assets if he ever fools around again. Shortly after the birth, Ping Guo starts working in Lin Dong's household as a nanny for the child she has had to give up. Before long, the situation escalates dramatically. As emotional ties become blurred between the four, Ping Guo finds she can't give up the child.

Sprawling shots of Beijing skyscrapers, most of them under construction, open the film. With skillful camerawork and a dramatic narrative, Li put together a wonderful visual collection of the old and new Beijing, and chronicles the clashes between upper class city dwellers and the migrant workers. Li was in a city halfway across the world when she and her long-time producer, Fang Li, hit on the idea of making a film about the urban life they knew in Beijing. Li and Fang were drinking coffee at a streetside stand in September 2005 at the Toronto International Film Festival presenting their then-new film Dam Street. Looking at Toronto's city life, Fang and Li started chatting about their own city, and decided immediately to write a story about Beijing today. Since moving from CCTV to filmmaking, Li has developed a reputation at home and abroad for her provocative narrative features about modern China. Her latest, has been gathering steam from Berlin to New York City, and is on its way to becoming Li's international breakthrough. She made her 2001 directorial debut with Fish and Elephant, which won the Elvira Notari prize at the Venice Film Festival. In 2005, her second picture Dam Street scooped up the C.I.C.A.E. award at Venice. Apple was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival before mounting its successful North American premiere at Tribeca.

Apple is showing at cinemas citywide.