Lost in Hong Kong Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Lost in Hong Kong Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 5, 2016

As was mentioned in our Lost in Thailand Blu-ray review, it might strike some as at least a little unexpected that a country known for (as I termed it) “martial arts spectaculars, historical epics or gritty crime thrillers” should have made Lost in Thailand, an amiable if lightweight Odd Couple-ish comedy, one of the most successful films in the entire history of Chinese cinema. The overwhelming success of Lost in Thailand is probably directly responsible for this supposed follow up, a film which followed its progenitor to the top of the Chinese box office listings but which may pay somewhat less fulsome comedic dividends than the first film did.

One of things undercutting the humor in Lost in Hong Kong is a somewhat melancholic tone which comes courtesy of the central plot point that Xu Lai (Xu Zheng) never realized his art school dreams as a young student, nor the pull of a romantic spark with (gorgeous) fellow student Yang Yi (Du Juan), instead settling down into an unfulfilling married middle class life with another student named Cai Bo (Zhao Wei). When Xu Lai and Cai Bo’s family journey to Hong Kong for a vacation, Xu Lai feels he may have a chance to reconnect with Yang Yi, but of course all sorts of obstacles rear their contentious heads. The film is bittersweet at best, and it tends to fray at the edges once a subplot involving criminal activity intrudes, making an already frenetic film noisy and chaotic rather than consistently funny. Still, there’s some good content here, though many of its winking references to Chinese film will probably be lost on Western audiences.

Lost in Hong Kong Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Lost in Hong Kong is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in the somewhat unusual aspect ratio of 2.66:1 (it's so unusual our specs need to be updated, so the listing above is slightly off until that can be remedied). Digitally shot with the Arri Alexa XT (according to the IMDb), this is a very bright and colorful looking film, one which benefits from the beautiful scenery in and around Hong Kong. The palette is often quite lush and vibrant, and pops extremely well throughout this presentation. Detail and fine detail are both excellent, especially in close-ups. There's a bit of CGI and other SFX work on display here which can look slightly soft, and there are one or two brief compression anomalies that introduce a dusting of noise, but overall this is a very winning and enjoyable viewing experience.

Lost in Hong Kong Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lost in Hong Kong's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (in the original Mandarin, with optional English subtitles) offers a cartwheeling assortment of cacophony once the film gets to Hong Kong, where both the urban environment and the accrual of subplots allows consistent immersion and placement of ambient environmental sounds around the side and rear channels. There are even occasional bursts of LFE, especially later in the film once the crime element folds into the main plot. Dialogue is well rendered and typically well prioritized (individual lines can sometimes be slightly swallowed simply due to the amount of sonic information in certain scenes). Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range very wide (for a supposed comedy, anyway).

Lost in Hong Kong Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of includes:

  The Stunts (1080i; 1:24)

  The Actors (1080i; 1:47)

  The Characters (1080i; 1:47)

• Blooper Reel (1080i; 1:48)


• Trailer (1080p; 2:06)

Lost in Hong Kong Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lost in Hong Kong doesn't quite have the comedic mojo of Lost in Thailand, but it offers a few solid laughs along the way, even if the overall feeling of the film is rather melancholic and bittersweet. Those with a solid grounding in Chinese film will probably enjoy this more than "typical" Westerners, since the film makes copious use of tropes and references that no doubt spoke directly to its target (native) audience. Technical merits are first rate and with caveats noted, Lost in Hong Kong comes Recommended.