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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Love is thicker than blood, February 4, 2006
This review is from: Lost in Time (DVD)
Before you insert this movie in your DVD player, go get yourself a box of Kleenex. Ready? "Lost in Time" may be a tearjerker but it is a good, heart-warming drama. Cecilia Cheung plays Holly Lam Siu Wai, a young woman whose life turns upside down overnight when her fiance is killed in a car accident. Instead of a wedding and a happy life with her future husband, she is left with the pain of the loss of the man she deeply loved, a mounting pile of bills to pay and a little boy to raise. Her family is no help. They believe that she is not responsible for her fiance's son, Laurie, since she is not the biological mother and never got to marry the father either. In other words, the little boy is not family. Holly's bond with the boy is not a bond of blood, but it is a bond of love and for the well being of this kid, she takes up her late fiance's job as a mini bus driver. As she begins to learn the job, one of her fellow workers, Dai Lau (or Hale as he's called in the subtitles and played by Lau Ching- Wan) feels compelled to keep an eye out for her because he was the first to arrive to the scene of the tragic accident that killed Holly's fiance. As Hale becomes more involved in helping her and Holly comes to rely more on him for advice and support, they start to develop affection for each other, but is it love? Or is it gratitude? Or is it guilt?
"Lost in Time" may be a melodrama but there is nothing melodramatic about the acting. The actors are just perfect for their roles. Cecilia Cheung's petite frame adds poignancy to the scenes where her character is trying to master the mini bus. And she makes it heart wrenching for the audience to watch her character work so hard at trying to hold together a semblance of the life she had before the accident. Lau Ching-Wan is also very good as a bus driver and the man with a few skeletons in the relationship closet. I don't think a more glamorous actor would have filled the role as well as Lau does with his average Joe looks. And the little boy played by Daichi Harashima? Well, he is cute as a button and he'll bring tears to your eyes. This DVD also has a making-of featurette with comments from the cast and director. Unfortunately, this portion does not have subtitles.
"Loss in Time" is a moving and touching drama about coping with loss and about what family is. If this movie does not leave you teary-eyed, at least, it should have you consider buying life insurance if you have loved ones who depend on you financially.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Nice Surprise, February 19, 2009
This review is from: Lost in Time (DVD)
My online rental queue is filled with hundreds of East Asian films, some of which I add without knowing all that much about them. When Lost In Time came in the mail, I was expecting a generic romance film. I am now very happy to confess that I was very, very wrong.
The storyline itself is not particularly novel or original, but the character development here is outstanding. The filmmakers successfully used actions over words to build the foundations of the main characters. Cecilia Cheung is thrown into a very difficult situation early on. The introduction of her struggles, one after the other, adds significantly to her likability, and the viewer develops a deep concern for her wellbeing. No explicit conversations of her difficulties are even necessary because I experienced them with her. Ching Wan Lau comes off as an authentic gentleman who's good deeds are motivated by a rather complex history. The young boy did admirably and was extremely likable.
There is one scene in particular, that takes place during the second half of the film, which I consider to be one of the greatest in the history of cinema. I rarely cry while watching films. Joint Security Area forced a few tears down my cheek, but "The Scene" in Lost In Time made me cry so profusely that I had to stop the film and take a break to regain my composure. It's that damn good! To be honest, Lost In Time hit me like a ton of bricks in a very positive and happy way. It has earned it's place as one of my favorite Romance films, and comes with my highest of recommendations.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a film about romance but also about life in Hong Kong, January 12, 2008
This review is from: Lost in Time (DVD)
I saw this for the first time on a trans-Pacific flight back to the USA from Hong Kong. The film has a universal appeal because its themes--love lost, love found, and the redeeming power of love-- are universal. But as a native of Hong Kong who no longer lives there, I also thought it was ABOUT Hong Kong, that is, about what it really feels like to live in Hong Kong, to drive around and walk its streets. Anyone who has been to Hong Kong, or even seen pictures of the place, will have noticed the vital role played by the mini-bus in urban life. In this film, the lives of the protagonists revolve around the mini-bus, because the two men are mini-bus drivers and the heroine loses the one and finds the other because of her association with the mini-bus. So the mini-bus becomes the vehicle, literally and metaphorically, for a journey through life-- a uniquely Hong Kong kind of journey. Unlike many other Hong Kong films, which feature rich businessmen or corrupt policemen, "Lost in Time" shows life as it is lived by ordinary people of the lower middle class-- the vast majority whose major form of transportation is the mini-bus. But, like its protagonists, this film is modest and unassuming: no melodrama, no high speed chases. Yet people do die, they do face difficulty and danger, they do make mistakes that could cost them everything, because these things happen in real life. I suppose, to sum up why I think this is a great film, I would have to say: It feels real to me.
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