Three Hongkongers look for home in this hopeful handover drama
Movie
Hong Kong
Cantonese, English
Drama, Romance
1996
LEE CHI-NGAI
Alan Mak, Cheung Tat-Ming, Cheung Ying-Tsoi
109 min
TLDR
Admittedly, I watched this for Takeshi Kaneshiro, but I didn’t expect the emotional devastation…
What it's about
After being diagnosed with leukemia, Lam recruits Mr. Worm to trace down Ted, the Scottish sailor who she fell in love with. However, as Lam helps Mr. Worm solve some of his other cases, she finds herself increasingly charmed by her partner.
The take
At one of the world’s largest shipping hubs, packages (and sometimes people) can get easily lost. It can be disheartening to lose something important, but that’s why it’s important to remember to check the lost and found. Through the titular niche industry, writer-director Lee Chi-Ngai crafts a existential love story that intertwines the lost souls of Hong Kong with a mournful melancholy marked with each repetition of Dance Me to the End of Love. It’s beautiful and depressing, and yet somehow Lee manages to tie all of the pieces together eloquently into something hopeful, despite the inevitable, if abrupt, ending.
What stands out
The cast. Takeshi Kaneshiro may not be part Mongolian, and Michael Wong may not be part Scottish in real life, but they both have excellent chemistry with leading lady Kelly Chen, making their love triangle feel so compelling to watch.