Every culture seems to go through a phase as it makes cultural and social transitions, especially as agriculture declines and country townspeople move to the large cities where they find survival is not easy and they get caught up in the squalid side of life.  It seems that Chinese films have to deal with these themes now.

A retiring school teacher from the provinces comes to look for his lost son to bring him to see his dying mother.  His daughter has moved to Wuhan and, it is soon revealed, is a hostess at a casino and the mistress of the owner.  She keeps her father from finding this out.  He meanwhile, with the help of a friendly policeman, searches for his son. 

Complications arise, mainly from the daughter’s lifestyle.  These involve rival criminal bosses and their trying to outdo each other, some experiences of violence – and a flashback for the daughter’s and the audience’s benefit (not that of the father) as to what has happened to the son.

The luxury car of the title is both real and symbolic as it turns up in the latter part of the film. As with so many films in this genre, the heroine has to discover suffering of her ways, has to be disillusioned by what she has experienced in the wicked city and return home.  This one has a brief but nice optimistic ending.

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