In an industrial mainland city on the banks of the Yangtze River, a middle-aged taxi driver ploughs his cab off the road and into the water. The driver (Eric Tsang) is never found, but the attractive hooker, Su Dan (Karen Mok) who was his passenger, suffers a broken leg. The driver's wife, Fan Li (Jiang Wen-li) offers to take the girl back to their family home while she recovers. However, no sooner has Su Dan moved herself on to their couch, under a haunting portrait of the missing patriarch, then her presence begins to upset the delicate relationship between Fan Li and her teenage son, Xiao Chuan (Tan Jian-Ci).
Xiao Chuan has feelings for the local beauty Qing Qing, but she quickly begins a relationship with his best friend Da Zhi. Having the seductive, yet incapacitated Su Dan around the house, helps ease Xiao Chuan's bruised ego, not to mention his grief, and it is not long before he is gazing amorously, or more probably lecherously, through the bead curtains at his new house guest. When Fan Li discovers she is pregnant, it serves only to add further burden to the shoulders of the already grieving woman, and just when she needs the support of her family most, they seem to be slipping away from her.
From its premise, Lost Indulgence was always in danger of descending from gritty drama into gruelling tragedy, but director Zhang Yibai does well to keep the tone light enough to not over burden his audience. It would have been an obvious step to demonise Su Dan, either by having her start a physical relationship with Xiao Chuan, or when her reasons for being in the taxi on that fateful day are called into question. However, Zhang again restrains himself from such melodramatic follies to examine the way of life for the working classes in industrial China, training his eye, and the narrative on Fan Li's struggle, rather than exploiting the opportunity for cheap titillation.
The three central performances are all worthy of recognition. Karen Mok does well to make Su Dan alluring, sexual but also likeable, even in the moments when she is exploiting her position as an invalid invader. Jiang Wen-Li is wonderfully understated as the film's true victim, never veering into melodrama, but keeping Fan Li strong, yet human throughout. Also, Tan Jian-Ci does well to make Xiao-Chuan more than simply a moody adolescent, as he wrestles with his newfound position as man-of-the-house. There are other, largely superfluous characters, including a brief cameo by Eason Chan, as a rich businessman who befriends Fan Li, but his character is never fully developed, although it never works to the film's detriment.
The result is a film that is both realistic and compassionate, if a little light on thrills. There is a slight misstep in the final reel as a mystery of sorts is revealed. Zhang never confirms or denies whether these flashbacks and revelations are the whole truth, or just an olive branch of closure passed on to a grieving family, as the Yangtze courses through their lives, played out in the shadows of an unfinished urban skyline.

James Marsh