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Awards
at the Hong Kong Film Awards 2004:
Best Actress (Cecilia Cheung)
Best Original Film Score (Peter Kam)
Nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards 2004:
Best Picture
Best Director (Derek Yee)
Best Screenplay (James Yuen & Fong Ching)
Best Actor (Lau Ching Wan)
Best Supporting Actress (Pau Hei-Ching)
Best New Artist (Daichi Harashima)
Best Original Song Mong liu mong but liu (Forget The
Unforgettable)
Music: Peter Kam
Lyrics: Lam Jik
Performed by: Cecilia Cheung
Awards
at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards 2004:
Best Actress (Cecilia Cheung)
Film Of Merit
After losing her fiancee Man Liang (Louis Koo) in a traffic
accident, Holly (Cecilia Cheung), now taking it upon herself
to raise Man's son Laurie (Daichi Harashima) decides to pursue
that same line of work Man died doing: driving a minibus.
It comes with great difficulties but she's aided along by
Hale (Lau Ching Wan) who was with Man during his last moments.
The two form a bond that brings a needed comfort and a father
figure into Holly and Laurie's life.
An eagerly awaited return, Derek Yee's Lost In Time
was the first directorial effort of his since the surprisingly
low-key, cast-wise, The Truth About Jane And Sam in
1999. That's not to say the acclaimed, but actually infrequent
director, was not busy during his directing hiatus. No, he
put his producing skills to work on critically acclaimed movies
such as July Rhapsody and Double Tap before
finally placing himself in the directing chair again and giving
us Lost In Time. Derek's has previously shown a remarkable
talent of bringing out the very best in either already established
talent or he's managed to tap into undiscovered ones (best
being Chin Kar Lok's nominated performance in Full Throttle
in my opinion). The other major strength is that so called
sappy or corny storylines have been truly enhanced to greatness
in the hands of this director and that takes a lot of everything.
Dedication, belief and focus.
All that in addition to an uncanny skill of managing to nail
those little story beats makes Lost In Time a real
winner despite a few, very slight niggles along the way. Veteran
screenwriter James Yuen along with Fong Ching I think already
has beat the movie clichés at the script stage. Despite
being helped along in embodying the characters, by actors
Cecilia Cheung and Lau Ching Wan, James and Fong have already
put much weight to this story about mending. A story with
real people, not movie people, which is one of the major strengths
of the film.
The title lost in time certainly means a great deal, in particular
the word lost. We get subjected to loss, grief and the main
character of Holly being and getting even more lost as time
goes by. We witness her trying to be strong since she's not
conveying to Man's son that daddy is gone the way he is but
that strength soon develops into an emotional rollercoaster
of irrational behavior, ignorance, naivety and a sense of
clinging on to the past in the wrong way. True, her taking
on the same line of work as her late fiancee is for economy
reasons but it's soon made clear that she's not in a mental
position to balance her things in life. There's comfort missing
or rather one person is missing. Enter Hale who supports Holly
actually for all the right reasons when we meet him. His support
comes in the form of a colleague and sympathy goes out to
her during her hardships. The main driving point of Derek's
film therefore is the question of how far he should reach
out his hand. Also, what's his reasoning for going all out
and taking care of every bit of broken piece in Holly's life?
We're hinted as to why that is and Derek's very mature way
of handling the different plot strands makes for engaging,
albeit slow-paced viewing.
Just like his produced works such as July Rhapsody, Derek
brings a decent subtlety to the story that is not forcing
the viewer to listen but adopt a mindset of reality and a
relation to the situation. The maturity to the story works
greatly to the film's advantage because it's recognizable
globally, in this case, what we see in the line of work of
these minibus drivers. Helping along to enhance this feeling
are those important fillmmaking aspects such as direction,
writing, cinematography but foremost, the location work around
Hong Kong. Derek isn't interested in expected structure and
after a very emotional, yet rather properly restrained first
act, he does really slow down and let the movie develop naturally,
however long that may take. Viewers may feel a bit restless
in this middle section I'm actually referring to, even underwhelmed
but you do realize in the long run that all this time spent
has a purpose and one certainly is glad that development all
around is getting attention. For Holly and Hale, we get a
larger sense of what she's about early and the journey she's
helped along in but has to fully take herself is believable
while Hale is the big mystery waiting to be revealed in the
film. That latter point is definitely not hard to wait for
and while not original, it's handled with the back turned
from familiar clichés. Themes and revelations are handled
with sensitivity and again, maturity. Holly and Hale are definitely
real people but some filmmaking towards the end tend to stray
away ever so slightly from that reality, only to instead give
us some expected movie moments, which I know are beneath Derek.
That's a very minor quibble I'll tell you though.
Speaking of emotional, Peter Kam's score is suitably the
driving force for the melodrama. I talked about restraint
in direction, in characters as written and the music plays
that great role in making even those emotions feel heartfelt
without being manipulative. Utilizing familiar elements such
as strings, guitars and piano, Peter delivers a focused and
balanced musical experience.
Just last week, at the time writing, the mentioned composer
Peter Kam and actress Cecilia Cheung took home Hong Kong Film
Awards for their work in Lost In Time. Previously there
were great hints at Cecilia Cheung finally blossoming into
a great actress but I never saw it fully happen after the
impact she made in King Of Comedy. Not in Hong Kong
cinema anyway, referring to her terrific role in the Korean
film Failan. Another fan favourite role is Fly Me
To Polaris that certainly was a good turn but plagued
with such big hysterics in melodrama that made the impact
less than it should've been. Derek Yee must've carefully looked
at Cecilia and instead decided to carefully bring out those
acting nuances when directing her. He greatly succeeded as
did Cecilia as she carries the film and the struggling Holly
with skill. As mentioned early, Derek has brought out the
best in many actors and Cecilia is his latest achievement.
She's forced to have many emotions bottled up and when that's
brought out in a larger way, it's fully justified and affecting.
Lau Ching Wan fares as expected equally well, having 9 years
previously previously received his big break in director Yee's
C'est La Vie, Mon Cheri. Lau nicely strips away his
movie star aura and is aided by great costume choices to make
him fit Hale. I didn't expect anything less to be honest as
the Lau/Yee combination is gold beforehand, especially if
it's a drama. In more of a cameo role but equally crucial,
Louis Koo is the warmth to Holly's life before tragedy strikes
and his flashback sequences shot in yellow, warm tones makes
good use of Koo's assured presence. Little Daichi Harashima
is a charming and key presence (him and Lau really have terrific
chemistry) while veteran actor, and a genuine staple of Derek
Yee movies, Paul Chun provides good support as the father
of Holly.
Derek Yee is back and his long breaks between directing films
is well worth waiting for as evident in this mature and well-written
drama that is Lost In Time. With its stripped down
style of filmmaking, we as an audience can fully focus and
appreciate what's truly good about Hong Kong cinema nowadays:
drama, preferably without teen pop stars (although Yee could
probably churn out better than average performance from The
Twins, Boy'z and all those people). It's not action but I
urge you all to appreciate what Hong Kong cinema never really
stopped doing well.
The DVD:
Panorama presents the film in 1.78:1 anamorphic
widescreen. Signs of heavier print damage is apparent but
only on a few select occasions. This is otherwise a very strong
transfer with very good detail and a natural look to it.
The Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 option choosen
by me expectedly involves when it should. In this case when
music kicks in, the front channels do great work. The dialogue
heavy movie conveys that aspect very well through sound. A
Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1, Cantonese DTS 5.1 and Mandarin
Dolby Digital 5.1 options are also available.
Aside from a few spelling errors, the English
subtitles are excellent. Traditional and simplified Chinese
subtitles are also included.
There were two dvd editions simultaneously
released on the market. One called Gold Edition that came
packed in a Lunar New Year style envelope and 12 movie postcards
along with the dvd. This reviewed edition comes in a large
cardboard case holding the dvd keepcase and those same 12
movie postcards. A nice touch and thankfully the keepcase
has coverart so you can fit that in itself onto your dvd shelf
while displaying the bigger cardboard among your limited editions
or whatever.
The extras on the disc are limited though
to an unsubtitled making of (20 minutes, 34 seconds).
It's good for some amusing behind the scenes footage of the
adorable Daichi Harashima and cast is obviously smitten with
his presence on set. Otherwise, this your standard making
of with interviews, movie clips and shots from the set. Nothing
too exciting, especially since it doesn't have English subtitles.
Rest of the extras are trailers for Lost In Time, The
Spy Dad, Hidden Track and Naked Ambition.
reviewed by Kenneth
Brorsson
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