BEIJING FLICKERS

Beijing, 2012. San Bao is dumped by his girlfriend and fired by his employer, all in the same day. Worse still, his landlord has also kicked him out of the shabby apartment he can barely afford, and his dog, “Lucky”, has left him. In extreme distress, he attempts to end his life by lying across the train tracks and later by eating glass; but he survives both attempts. He ends up in the hospital where he shares a room with a transvestite poet/dancer who is obsessed with plastic surgery. Later, when he is released, he finds that the predicament of his circle of close friends parallels his own. Included in this group of Beijing outsiders are his best friend, a hotel car attendant whose girlfriend has dumped him for a rich guy, a composer/pub singer whose band has dumped her for someone more “connected” and his transvestite poet pal who is “not appreciated in his homeland.” As they struggle with their life predicaments in the glamorous, prosperous, modern metropolis called Beijing, they find solace and support in each other.