LOST & FOUND
A film review by Christie Tan
Copyright 1997 Flying Inkpot
Directed by: Lee Chi-Ngai Written by: Lee Chi-Ngai Cast: Kelly Chan Wai-Lum (Chai Lam), Takeshi Kaneshiro (Mr. Worm) Michael Wong (Ted), Cheung Tat-Ming (Ming), Jordan Chan Siu-Chun (cameo), Josie Ho Chiu-Yee, Hilary Tsui Ho-Ying, Maria Codero, Moses Chan Ho, Henry Fong Ping, Ma Chun-Wai, Yim Lei-Ming Produced by : UFO / Golden Harvest Rating : *** Run Time: Approx. 120 Minutes
Watching LOST AND FOUND, I was struck by a sense of deja-vu. LOST AND FOUND feels like a Taiwanese tearjerker caught on the Chunking Express, only without the latter's edginess. This was partly because of the film's female protagonist, songbird Kelly Chen , who is a dead ringer for 70s soap queen Lin Chin Hsia. And the male lead, Aniki Jin, also acted in the latter film.
The opening paean establishes the subdued, melancholy, slightly dissipated tone of the film as the camera pans along the dirty streets and sad faces of the inhabitants to convey the desolation and alienation of modern life.
Predictably, but engagingly so, the film brightens up with the appearance of Cheng (Aniki Jin), who bursts upon the screen in a furore of energy, rummaging through the dustbin for lost wallets and giving directions on his handphone simultaneously. The loss of his handphone provides the opportunity for the two protagonists to meet. Kelly discovers that Cheng specializes in finding lost things, his motto being "nothing is lost forever." A note of existential angst creeps in when Kelly asks Cheng to help herfind her "hope."
Cheng then shows his perceptiveness when he asks Kelly whether hope is a thing or a person. In a series of flashbacks, we are shown Kelly's recent history from a first-person point of view. Kelly is the daughter of the second wife of a self-made shipping
magnate with twelve children. A new graduate from an overseas university, she is determined to prove herself not only in her father's firm, but to her father, with whom she has an uneasy love-hate relationship. Being equally unable to articulate their fee
lings, their stubborn nature drives them to set up an employment interview for Kelly at the family film. Shockingly, Kelly takes this public opportunity to break the news of her leukaemia to her father.
Running from her imminent death, and her dysfunctional father-daughter relationship, Kelly meets Ted, a sailor (Michael Wong) who comes from a barren rock in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland. It's a place the natives call "the End of the World," where everybody has left, and only returns to be buried. In her wretched state, Kelly responds to the doomed gloominess of the place, and, briefly, to Ted. When her treatment leaves her too depressed, she decides to give up hope and face death as romanticism. But Ted has disappeared.
The rest of the plot is predictably straightforward. She hires Cheng to find Ted for her, and succeeds after an odyssey through the labyrinth of the city. Ted is about to leave for his grandfather's funeral, but he invites Kelly to join him once his grandfather's ashes are ready to be taken home to the island.
Meanwhile, Kelly volunteers to help Cheng. Searching for things ranging from the most trivial to the most bizarre, Kelly is fuelled by Cheng's zest for life and upbeat optimism in the face of impossible odds. She realizes that Cheng is essentially a lonely man whose job is an excuse to reach out to people by helping them. In between searching for wild ducks, and accepting the sobering proximity of death, Kelly falls for Cheng. However, she decides to leave him in order to spare him the heartbreak of eventually losing her to the illness, and leaves for Scotland. Will Kelly find true love? Will they find each other again? Unfortunately for my patience, the forgone conclusion was dragged out by Kelly's Scottish sojurn.
The leitmotif behind the film is the constant search for identity. in a metaphorical vein, Cheng's attempts to define Kelly turn out to be wrong because only she can decide who she is. Cheng is insistent upon the correct term of address, that his name is "The Worm," not "Mr Worm" or "Mr The." Later, in Scotland, we see that Ted's venture into traditional highland dress is totally commercial, a tourist side-show. Unfortunately the development of this motif isn't consistent. The ending, where Kelly is identified through her place in the family she has left, seems to be a compromise. Instead of an individual decision, social, monetary and familial constraints have together bound her to an identity she is only able to escape by virtue of her death.
I enjoyed the film's obligatory singing scene, though it was rather sentimental. Both Kelly's and Aniki's singing skills were adequately showcased, and the mood was joyously retro, especially the dancing scene -- hence very modern. The soundtrack, on the whole, was engaging, especially the traditional "Griogal Cridhe" in the Scottish scenes. At some parts, however, I was uncomfortably reminded of SIA and British Airways advertisements, and I felt that the film was unrealistic for not only glorifying foreign lands but also in the saving grace of humnan relationships.
In the end, LOST AND FOUND didn't make me cry, but some time during the screening, I found myself a little more hopeful about relationships again.
The Flying Inkpot Rating System:
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha!
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
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This movie review was written for THE FLYING INKPOT: an arts and
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