It’s hard to tell whether Someone Who Was Lost (失路人) is telling an absurdist tale of reckless, disenchanted youth or genuinely trying to make them seem like cool kids living on the edge like there’s no tomorrow.
Set in modern-day, post-protest Hong Kong, the film features a local brother and sister Tsung (Ng Chi Wai, 吳志維) and Panda (Kwok Yi Kwan, 郭爾君) scraping by on their own and their stoic Taiwanese college student buddy Taizai (Shih Tian-chih, 石田知), who have fled to Taiwan after inadvertently killing someone in a dispute. The film seems to aim for that kind of end-of-times, hardscrabble mood reminiscent of Made In Hong Kong (香港製造), Fruit Chan’s (陳果) iconic debut feature released right after the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
Featuring Sam Lee (李璨琛), Made in Hong Kong also featured youth from rough backgrounds who have little to live for in times of uncertainty. There are significant parallel features in the films, both highlighting the tender side of the characters (at times in strikingly similar ways) while relying on the absurd to make the bleakness palatable.
Photo courtesy of atmovies.com
But compared to Chan’s masterpiece, Someone Who Was Lost is too glossy and sappy, lacking the rawness and grit that made wasted youth films such as Trainspotting so powerful. It’s as if the filmmakers are trying to make the bleakness look warm and cute, to the point where they’re being overly sympathetic to the characters who never seem to show much remorse, self reflection or even grasp the graveness of their situation. The victim was a bad person who was oppressing the trio, but it was still a crime.
Nonetheless, Cheong makes a solid statement on the current atmosphere of doom and gloom in Hong Kong, especially with many disgruntled residents seeing Taiwan as a refuge from their problems. But can running away really solve everything?
The film is the first collaboration between the Central Motion Pictures Corporation and film students at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA), which is definitely a positive development for Taiwan’s film industry. Wang Toon (王童), who received the lifetime achievement award at the Golden Horse last November and teaches at TNUA, serves as executive producer while Macau directing student Cheong Chi-wai (張志威) helms the piece.
The story is inspired by the 2016 body-in-cement murder case in Hong Kong where the suspects fled to Taiwan. Due to the lack of law enforcement cooperation measures, all Taiwanese authorities could do was deport the suspects back to Hong kong after cancelling their visa. This case is an important factor in the story, as Taizai becomes the only person the police can actually arrest.
Chen Yi-wen (陳以文) reprises a similar role from Golden Horse darling A Sun (陽光普照) as the stern police father of Taizai, and he delivers with conviction in the little we see of him in the film. Veteran actress Huang Rou-ming (黃柔閩) also shines in her big screen debut as the seemingly frail mother who is determined to protect her son at all costs.
Ng, who is also a TNUA student, does his best to play the devil-may-care Tsung with swagger (we won’t compare him to Sam Lee) who has a tender heart, though Shih’s delivery is rather awkward and stunted.
Overall, the film is a good attempt, beautifully shot and consistent throughout in tone; it starts slow but does pick up the tension as the story moves on. It is invaluable to have film students participate in such a professional project, and despite its flaws, it is a step in the right direction for Taiwan’s cinema.
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