Lost In Time

Cast:
Cecilia Cheung – Siu Wai
Sean Lau – Dai Fai
Louis Koo – Ah Man
Daichi Harashima – Lok Lok
Paul Chun – Siu Wai’s Dad

Synopsis
Siu Wai (Cecilia Cheung) and Ah Man (Louis Koo) are due to be married. Ah Man has a son called Lok Lok (Daichi Harashima) from a previous marriage and is a bus driver. One night there is a terrible accident and Ah Man loses his life. Soon after, Dai Fai (Sean Lau) arrives on the scene and tries to help, but cannot save Ah Man’s life. Siu Wai is devastated by her loss.

Much to her father’s (Paul Chun) disapproval, Siu Wai decides to raise Lok Lok as her own son. She also decides to fix Ah Man’s bus and become a bus driver herself. Dai Fai sees her fruitless efforts at becoming a bus driver, decides to help her out a little and teaches her some basic methods of driving. At first he helps her with the bus, but eventually learns about Lok Lok and tries to help her cope with the demanding job of looking after him. When he sees that she cannot manage, he suggests that Lok Lok go to his family. Siu Wai explains that he has no other family other than his elderly grandparents who cannot afford to look after him. Dai Fai and Siu Wai try to get Lok Lok’s mother (Lee San San) to take him on, but she refuses as she is the wife of a wealthy businessman who doesn’t know that Lok Lok exists. Broken-hearted, Siu Wai is forced to take Lok Lok to an orphanage. Lok Lok pleads with her all the way as he doesn’t want to go. Dai Fai sees Lok Lok’s pain and tells Siu Wai not to do it. He says he will take care of Lok Lok if she cannot cope.

Over a period of time, Siu Wai and Dai Fai grow closer. And when they have become extremely close, Dai Fai reveals his secret: why he lives alone and why he was more than willing to help Siu Wai. Dai Fai had a gambling addiction. And he also had a wife and son. Because of his relentless gambling, Dai Fai lost 3 out of the 4 buses he used to own. And he also lost his wife and son. Dai Fai reveals that he and Siu Wai were only drawn to each other because they were searching for that someone they lost.

Siu Wai needed a strong man in her life to replace Ah Man, and Dai Fai just wanted to prove that he could be a good father and a good husband. Dai Fai and Siu Wai part soon after. Siu Wai learns to be stronger and more independent. She learns to take help when she needs it, and decides to move home with her parents. Her father is more understanding of her situation and he says that all he ever wanted was to know what is going on in her life. Dai Fai and Siu Wai meet up at a bus auction. They have both decided to sell their buses and get on with their lives. Afterwards, they decide to do it together.

Review – Plot
With the arrival of Wong Ka Wai on the Hong Kong (HK) movie scene, there has been a lot of call for the self-idulgent, soul-searching, look-for-the-underlying-meaning kind of movie. And in some sense, I suppose you could call ‘Lost in Time’ just that. James Yuen Sai Sang writes a script like no other (just look at classic films such as ‘Moment of Romance’ and ‘Golden Chicken’) and although ‘Lost in Time’ doesn’t really match up to them, it does manage to stand up for itself in its own way. The main idea of this film is how to cope with the death of a loved one and how to let go of the pain and grief. However, although there are some gripping moments within the film, such as the scene where Lok Lok pleads with Siu Wai to keep him, there are some moments where you feel as though the story is being dragged out somewhat. A lot of it is self-indulgent, pointless crap where you just plain feel sorry for Siu Wai’s plight. But oughtn’t there be more to a film?

Obviously a plotline that only has one element to it - which in this case is dealing with grief - can be difficult to turn into a 2-hour film. But you would have thought that there would have been more scenes where Siu Wai is in plain anguish while dealing with life, rather than her just going along with things to prove that she isn’t a totally dependent waste of space able to defend for herself. And even the scene where Lok Lok is being dumped at the orphanage is just plain daft because wouldn’t normal human beings sell their vehicle rather than give up their child? Yes, Lok Lok isn’t hers, but she very generously took him on and she more or less raised him for 5 years, so one would assume she loves him more than a bus, right?

However, considering the various holes in the plot, ‘Lost in Time’ does offer a storyline that will keep you in your seat for the length of the film. For anyone who has ever lost a loved one, this film will undoubtedly make you relive your experience and empathise with the characters, which at the end of the day should be the aim of any film. Does it make you think? No. Does it make you feel? Unless you have a heart of stone, then yes. It well deserved its nomination for Best Screenplay at the 23rd Annual Hong Kong Film Awards, but thank God ‘Running on Karma’ won, otherwise all faith in the panelists would have been shattered. It is good, but ‘Lost in Time’ is definitely not James Yuen’s best piece of work.

Review – Cinematography
Well I can say I was mildly surprised with the way that this film was shot, considering Derek Yee is HK’s answer to Quentin Tarintino by way of blood, gore and gratuitous violence in his films (e.g. ‘Young and Dangerous’, ‘A Fighter’s Blues’). One could be reminded of the classic Derek Yee film ‘C’est La Vie, Mon Cherie’ with Sean Lau and Anita Yuen Wing Yee, where a girl with leukaemia manages to touch the heart of a cynical and bitter jazz musician, and a fully loaded situation is brought to the attention of the cinema-goer through the brilliant use of camera angles and the like. But you aren’t. You kind of wonder where the Derek Yee of yesteryear has gone and then you realize that he has to keep up with the likes of Wong Ka Wai, try to come up with a clever plotline and use amazing shots while making a whole bunch of money at the same time.

I would like to say that there were a lot of beautiful shots that made it live up to and even comparable to Wong Ka Wai’s self-indulgent heartbreaker romance ‘In the Mood for Love’, but it didn’t. Maybe it’s my untrained eye, but there wasn’t anything that really made a certain aspect of the plotline stand out. It was just an ordinary film. There were one or two scenes that stood out, mainly Dai Fai’s rage being shown through a scrap with his friends that was shot in almost a real-time aspect and Siu Wai’s flashbacks to her times with Ah Man and the bus had almost a spotlight effect on it which was interesting. But other than that, there wasn’t anything that really stood out.

However, along the lines of direction, Derek Yee has managed to redeem himself. The actors have surpassed previous performances and one assumes that it is because of good direction. There is a high level of performance displayed and because of it, Derek Yee manages to pull off an otherwise tedious film with only minor attractions. I agree that he deserved a nomination for Best Director for this.

Review – Acting

Cecilia Cheung – Siu Wai
Well, from the queen of teenbopper films such as ‘Para Para Sakura’ and ‘Chung Wu Yen’, Cheung won a Best Actress award at the 23rd Annual Hong Kong Film Awards and put her name up there with the rest of the winners such as Maggie Cheung, Ng Kwan Yu and Anita Yuen. She gave her best in this performance and I do agree that she deserved the award for this role rather than ‘Running on Karma’, for which she was also nominated. She carried a lot more of the weight in this film whereas in ‘Running on Karma’, Cheung seemed a little wooden and that might have something to do with her two dimensional character having the naiveté of a 5-year-old, being happy even though she knew she was going to die soon.

Siu Wai is a complex character. She is a dependent woman who has lost the centre of her universe. No matter how she tries to plod through it all and give off the air of a 21st-century modern woman who can cope with all that life has to throw at her, she still is a dependent woman who can’t cope. Siu Wai is a difficult role to master and I wouldn’t have thought that the complexity of such a character would have been handed to Cheung, who has had a mere 5-year stint at acting. However, she managed to pull it off, either by her own talent or excellent directing. But the audience does feel that she is holding back on something and she doesn’t give an entirely convincing performance, with sometimes patchy acting. However, considering this film is about bereavement, it is well covered by some clever editing.

Sean Lau – Dai Fai
Why has this guy never won a Best Actor Award at the Hong Kong Annual Film Awards? I’m not usually a fan of Sean Lau, but he’s a consistent actor who always gives good performances. ‘Ce’st La Vie Mon Cherie’ is a prime example. And in this film, he pulls off the character of Dai Fai with his usual polished finesse and gives a believable performance. He totally sticks with the average Joe with a shady past kinda character and this enforces the revelation that Dai Fai is a reformed gambler who was not always the good man that he is now. I really don’t want to comment much on his acting because it speaks for itself, you don’t need me to tell you how good this guy is.

Conlusion:
Worth watching to see Cecilia Cheung’s performance and the wonderful Sean Lau. In terms of plotline, it’s not all that interesting, but I suppose in a character-driven film, you don’t really need it.