While “Lost in Hong Kong” may not be as wonderful as “Lost in Thailand”, the film still manages to have enough wild and crazy adventures to keep you interested. With an abundance of hilarious mayhem, “Lost in Hong Kong” is a film worth watching!
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TITLE: Lost in Hong Kong
FILM RELEASE: 2015
DURATION: 114 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English subtitles
COMPANY: Well Go USA Entertainment
RATED: Not Rated
Release Date: March 1, 2016
Directed by Zheng Xu
Written by Huan Shu
Produced by Zheng Xu
Cinematography by Xiofei Song
Costume Design by Cho Ting Chung
Starring:
Zheng Xu as Xu Lai
Wei Zhao as Spinach/Cai Bo
Bao Bei’er as Cai Lala
Du Juan as Yang Yi
Sam Lee as Tai Pak Ho
Eric Kot as Senior Hong Kong Cop
Xu Lai had dreams once. To be an artist and marry the girl of his dreams. 15 years later, he s sick of designing bras, humoring his baby-crazy wife, and catering to loopy in-laws. But his upcoming family vacation, now including his DVD-pirating, aspiring-documentarian brother-in-law, has a hidden agenda: a chance meetup with his old flame. But ditching his clan for a clandestine hookup might be the least of his worries. There s been a murder, and his new hot pursuit might be from the cops who want a word with him. Written, directed, produced and starring veteran actor Xu Zheng (LOST IN THAILAND, BREAKUP BUDDIES), LOST IN HONG KONG is the hotly-anticipated sequel to the highest-grossing film in China s history. Also starring Zhao Wei (RED CLIFF, SHAOLIN SOCCER) and Bao Bei er (SNOW GIRL AND THE DARK CRYSTAL, THE FOUR), LOST IN HONG KONG is a raucous comedy of errors that proves truth is stranger than fiction, and while you might not have the life you planned, happy endings might turn up in the places you least expect.
From the brilliant minds who created the 2010 sleeper hit “Lost on Journey” and the 2012 “Lost in Thailand”, comes their 2015 hit film, “Lost in Hong Kong”.
The film would become the second highest-grossing Chinese film of all time.
The film is directed by actor/producer Zheng Xu (“Crazy Racer”, “Crossed Lines”, “Call For Love”) and written by Huan Shu.
The film stars Zheng Xu, Wang Baoqiang (“Blind Shaft”, “A World Without Thieves”, “A Touch of Sin”), Wao Zhei (“Shaolin Soccer”, “Red Cliff”, “Moment in Peking”), Bei-Er Bao (“So Young”, “My Original Dream”, “Mural”), Du Juan (“American Dreams in China”, “Deja Vu”), Sam Lee (“Made in Hong Kong”, “Ping Pong”, “Gen-X Cops”) and Eric Kot (“Feel 100%”, “Fly Me to Polaris”, “Gen-Y Cops”).
The film features a theme song by Faye Wong and would pay homage with references to 1980’s and 1990’s cinema and also feature Cantopop hits from that time period.
And now “Lost in Hong Kong” will be released on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment.
“Lost in Hong Kong” begins with an introduction to two university art majors Xu Lai (portrayed by Xu Zheng) and Yang Yi (portrayed by Du Juan), who became very close during the mid-1990’s.
As they painted together, the two would fall in love with each other but each time they tried to kiss, something always prevented them from doing so.
But when Yang Yi transfers to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the two ended their brief fling and for Xu Lai, had a hard time being without his first love.
But he eventually meets fellow art student Cai Bo a.k.a. “Spinach” (portrayed by Zhao Wei), who’s father owns a famous brassiere business.
And as Xu Lai and Cai Bo eventually get married and Xu Lai works at her father’s business, he stops painting and focuses on building his family.
Nearly 20-years later since his college years, Xu Lai is now bald and he and his wife are still unable to have children. She desperately wants to have children but for some reason, they have not been successful.
When Cai Bo’s family plans a vacation in Hong Kong, Xu Lai finally feels that perhaps he can visit and see Yang Yi, as he always dreams of fulfilling the kiss that he never received. And part of him holds on to the past.
While in Hong Kong, Cai Bo’s brother Cai Lala (portrayed by Bao Bei’er) wants to shoot a documentary and begins focusing on his film target, Xu Lai.
And as Xu Lai is trying to plan his reunion with Yang Yi, Cai Lala starts to sense that his brother-in-law may be up to no good.
And as Xu Lai tries every chance to ditch his brother-in-law, it leads both he and Lala to trouble and plenty of adventures during their trip in Hong Kong.
VIDEO:
“Lost in Hong Kong” is presented in 1080p High Definition and the cinematography of Xiaofei Song is absolutely gorgeous. Wide angle shots are breathtaking, capturing various locations of Hong Kong and the crazy adventures that Xu Lai and Lala undertake. The film focuses on a lot of action scenes but outdoor shots are vibrant in HD. Closeups offer amazing detail of the actors, skin tones are natural, black levels are nice and deep and the film looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-ray!
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Lost in Hong Kong” is presented in Mandarin 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and features a lossless soundtrack that has crystal clear dialogue, music and offers a good amount of surround sound for crowd ambiance and action scenes. Overall, a lossless soundtrack that is appropriate for this film.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Lost in Hong Kong” comes with the following special features:
- Making Of – Interviews with the director/actor Zheng Xu and the cast of “Lost in Hong Kong”. Broken down into three short featurettes: The Stunts, The Actors and The Characters.
- Gag Reel – (1:45) Bloopers from the film.
- Trailer – (2:06) Theatrical trailer for “Lost in Hong Kong”.
With the success of “Lost in Thailand”, suffice to say that I had great expectations for Zheng Xu’s “Lost in Hong Kong”.
The first film was wild and crazy and its storyline and adventures made the film unpredictable, unique and all out fun. And because this is a “Lost in” film, I expected the same, minus actor Baoqiang Wang, who has since become one of the highly demanded actors from China since “Lost in Thailand”.
So, similar to “Lost in Thailand”, we have Zheng Xu’s main character Xu Lai, being paired with crazy young brother-in-law LaLa, played by Bao Bei’er.
The situations are much different this time around as the character Xu Lai is a man who dreams of his college past when he was close to artist Yang Yi (played by super model Du Juan). Each time both characters wanted to kiss each other, some unfortunate circumstance prevented them from doing so. And because she transferred to a more prestigious art school in Hong Kong, their college relationship had to end.
Xu Lai ends up with Cai Bo a.k.a. Spinach (portrayed by pop star Zhao Wei), who wants to have a baby so badly, but for some reason, they have not been able to have one.
When Cai Bo’s wealthy family plans for a trip to Hong Kong, Xu Lai realizes that this may be his chance to hook up with Yang Yi, who has now become a popular artist in Hong Kong. But when his brother-in-law LaLa, influenced by documentary filmmakers, wants to film the vacation but focusing on Xu Lai, Xu Lai does whatever he can to throw LaLa off, and so he can meet with Yang Yi.
But when LaLa sees his brother-in-law grabbing a condom, he starts to sense his Xu Lai is up to no good and starts to film his every move.
Unfortunately, this leads to both men getting in tons of trouble and crazy adventures awaits these two individuals as they get gang members chasing after them, cops going after them and even a metal helmet getting stuck on Xu Lai’s head.
For Hong Kong cinema fans, they will absolutely love the film for its many references to popular ’80s and ’90s HK films but also featuring popular Cantopop from that time period.
As “Lost in Hong Kong” has a consistent, wild & crazy adventure for the characters as its predecessor “Lost in Thailand”, the premise is different.
In “Lost in Thailand”, we have two people that are total opposites literally stuck together and need each other to survive, though they drive each other crazy. While similar in “Lost in Hong Kong”, LaLa is a persistent thorn in Xu Lai’s side and no matter what Xu Lai does to give him the slip, LaLa always finds a way to bother or get in Xu Lai’s way and even get both of them into major trouble.
I did feel “Lost in Hong Kong” ran a little too long and it’s ending was dragged far too long. But I did enjoy the film because of it’s wild and crazy nature and that is one thing that actor and filmmaker, Zheng Xu has discovered with the last film and tried his best to followup with the same formula. But there is also a difference with not having actor Baoqiang Wang in the film and I felt the storyline tried to forcefeed the meddlesome LaLa far too much.
While it was great to see Wei Zhao in another comedy, I was more surprised of how well supermodel Du Juan did for this film. She did a magnificent job.
As for the Blu-ray release, picture quality and lossless audio are very good and you do get a few short special features included on Blu-ray.
Overall, while “Lost in Hong Kong” may not be as wonderful as “Lost in Thailand”, the film still manages to have enough wild and crazy adventures to keep you interested.
With an abundance of hilarious mayhem, “Lost in Hong Kong” is a film worth watching!
