Lost in Hong Kong
Director: Xu Zheng
Year: 2015
Rating: 8.0
Though this is a Mainland production, it is in
many ways a heartfelt comic homage to the Hong Kong films of the 80s and
90s with verbal and visual references to Chow Yun-fat, Chungking Express,
2046, the Hui Brothers, Jackie Chan and City of Glass (a mural that is painted).
And a wonderful soundtrack with songs from Faye Wong, Leslie Cheung, Jacky
Cheung, George Lam, Sam Hui, Francis Yip, Beyond and The Grasshoppers. On
top of that are cameos from Richard Ng, Lawrence Cheng, Lam Suet, Jerry Lamb,
Bobby Yip, Wong Jing, Kingdom Yuen and large parts for Sam Lee and Eric Kot.
This feels a bit like Stephen Chow and Michael Hui and Aces Go Places all
got mixed together. A lot of physical comedy, stunts, action with a big dose
of sentimentality that emerges at the end. At two hours I kept expecting
it to run out of gas and gags but director Xu Zheng keeps coming up with
another place for it to go.
The director had a huge hit in 2012 with
Lost in Thailand. It broke all sorts of Mainland records and caused a mad
rush to go visit Thailand by the Chinese. He also directed the 2020 Lost
in Russia though I doubt that it had the same effect on tourism. It is much
nicer in Thailand than in Russia. I saw Lost in Thailand on an airplane way
back and thought it was mildly amusing but kind of obvious hitting on ladyboys
and temples. That is one reason I was in no rush to see this one but Lost
in Hong Kong really manages to be an emotionally more resonant film as well
as being very funny. It also did quite well at the box office in the Mainland.
It begins with Xu Lai (Xu Zheng who is the
lead actor is all three Lost films) as a Mainland art student with desires
to be a painter. His speech to the class so impresses another student Yang
Yi (Du Juan) that they begin a romance that never seems fated to go anywhere.
Every time he tries to lay on the big kiss something goes comically wrong
and when she gets accepted into a program in Hong Kong, she goes away for
good. Another bookish, nerdy student though was in love with him and they
end up marrying and the years zip by. As they do in life but even more so
in films. By the way, his wife Cai Bo is played by Vicky Zhao, so not a bad
deal. He begins to design brassieres and Yang Yi goes off to a successful
career. Cai Bo just wants to get pregnant by any means possible.
Years later and many hair follicles removed,
Xu Lai hears that Yang Yi has a big show in Hong Kong. He and the whole family
go there - with him planning to secretly meet up with Yang Yi and finish
that kiss that has been buzzing like a mosquito in his brain all these years.
It is a day from hell. Like the Odyssey with Ulysses just trying to get to
her for that kiss. To recapture his youth for one brief moment. It gets crazier
and crazier as he and his very aggravating brother-in-law who is filming
all of it are chased by triads, wreck a brothel, threatened by cops, accidentally
breaking up two film sets with Wong Jing directing, falling off of bridges
on to a bus and finally ending up hundreds of feet in the air on a large
pane of glass in mid-air. Where love conquers all. Sweet and chaotic, it
brings back memories of the absurdity of Hong Kong comedies of a bygone era.
It is a love letter to that era that many of us miss as well.
