Lost in Thailand (2012) by Zheng Xu

[cranefly]

Remember back when I dared review posters of movies? That was pretty shabby, I admit. Well, now I'm stooping even lower. No, I haven't seen Lost in Thailand. No, I haven't seen its poster. But I am very much interested -- even anxious -- to give it a gander. One could say I have a professional need to watch and deconstruct this movie -- based on the following:

The idea of a Chinese writing competition targeting American screenwriters came about after the limited release of Lost in Thailand in the U.S. box-office. While Lost became the highest grossing domestic film in Chinese history, it had a dismal opening in America, and was immediately pulled from theaters.

http://ljnmedia.com/beijing-internationa...s-winners/

Maybe after I get back from Beijing...

[Drunk Monk]

It defied all Chollywood conventions - essentially a low budget indie that stole the thunder of massive govt-funded blockbusters. I'll ask my connections for a version with subs.

[Drunk Monk]

...but it doesn't translate well just because it's Asian cinema. You have to know who Fan Bingbing is. It's a classic buddy travel flick complete with a villain close on their tails. It had some really good moments, surprising in the way that Asian cinema can be, kitchy in that very same way. It's a little longwinded at times, but it got a good chuckle out of me and it captures modern Thailand magnificently. There's some innovative cinematography too. But by Hollywood standards, it's not mind-blowing on any level, just a typical buddy travel flick only the buddies are Chinese and the travel is in Thailand. There's even a sword fight (well, more of a ratchet fight, but that totally counts). It's a must-see for anyone watching Asian cinema now as it had such impact, but I wouldn't really recommend it otherwise. You got to be into the genre to want to check it out.

[cranefly]

Well, the library finally has this, and tonight I sat down full of anticipation to watch it.

Gave up two minutes in.

What the freaking hell is Mountain View Library doing buying DVD titles that don't have English subtitles!

All right, all right. Guess I'm not the center of the universe. I'll just climb back in my little hole now....

--cranefly

[Drunk Monk]

Lost in Hong Kong is the 2015 sequel by Zheng Xu. It was another huge blockbuster in China. It's a completely different story with Xu directing, writing and starring in it, with many parallel thematic elements. Xu is an everyman facing midlife crises and stuck with a dopey buddy. There's a quest after a dream girl, this time the luminous Du Juan. There's a lot of absurd mishaps, and a few amusing twists, and it shows off HK magnificently. I was put off at the beginning with one of my fav starlets, Zhao Wei, sneak-banging Xu's morning wood in an attempt to get pregnant. Honestly, Zhao is someone dm would use his celebrity-exemption for in a heartbeat. Those huge eyes of hers - you know some actually tried to sue her because her eyes sucked his qi out thru the tv. Srsly. So dm is thinking a morning-wood-bone-jumping by Ms. Zhao is not to be taken lightly. But despite the awkward start, the film comes together in its own charming way by the end.

Note: you really got to know HK film to fully appreciate this one. It's full of nods to classics like Jackie's double-decker bus umbrella hang in Police Story. There are several other nods like to Comrades: a llove story, bit I'm guessing none of you have seen that one.

Won't play well in the U.S. tho. It's way too Chinese.

[cranefly]

I had seen that this was available on Netflix streaming, but doubted it would hold a candle to Lost in Thailand.  Now maybe I'll check it out.

I did finally see Lost in Thailand with subtitles and was suitably impressed.  It got pretty dumb in places, but overall it had a surprisingly strong screenplay.  So many threads were set up early on, and it delivered on a high note on each one.  Some very funny laugh-out-loud sequences.  It fully deserved being a blockbuster.

[Drunk Monk]

Zheng Xu has an eye for absurdity coupled with heartfelt sentiment that borders on sappy.  Seeing this one gives a better sense of his filmmaking style as LiHK uses the same recipe as LiT, but given the expectation, he has to take it a little further.  The finale is really absurd, and I'm still debating if that worked or not.  Missing is Wang Baoqiang, who I've really grown to like, but he's replaced by Zhao Wei, so there you have it.  It's an odd role for Zhao Wei, the sperm-hungry wife hoping to get pregnant.  Did I mention the fertility stimulating acupuncture scene?  That really stuck with me this morning (pun intended).

You know, Dm was in the same space as Zhao Wei once.  It was at the Shaolin Festival.  She performed in a huge stadium and dm sat in the audience with tens of thousands of others.  But there was a connection between dm and Zhao Wei for sure.  For sure.  

I saw LiHK on Netflix (mind you, I never went back for the subbed version for Lost in Thailand).

[Drunk Monk]

Buddies in India (2017).  I should trust Wang Baoqiang more.  He's a Shaolin-trained celebrity who grew up in Shaolin village.  Maybe he was one of the thousands of kids I saw when I was there.  Now he's leading the pack of pop Kung Fu Comedies, now that Jackie and Stephen have faded in their humor.  In some ways, BiI is what Jackie's Kung Fu Yoga and Stephen's Journey to the West aspired to be, with that distinct Baoqiang 'buddy flick' formula.  It's PRC meets Bollywood, colorful (yes, several dance numbers), fightful (yes, swordfights and some decent one-er wire-fu), scenic (yes, obligatory ancient ruin locations), crass (yes, fart jokes), racist (yes, poor mexicans in the chili eating contest), cliche (yes, buddy-break-ups-&-reconciliations), cheesey (yes, cartoonish cgi), foreign (yes, a few hairpin turns outside our cultural box), long-winded (yes, even at only 99 min runtime) and epic (yes, this is a wicked spin on the Monkey King and Hanuman legends).  

It's far from perfect, but it's a taste of what PRC thinks might win Chinese audiences and crossover to Bollywood, with absolutely no consideration for the Hollywood market.  And it did $100M in PRC so not too far off the mark (can't find India Box stats).

As a huge fan of Journey to the West and the Ramayana, the monkey king aspect really worked for me. I'm not confident it works for anyone not well familiar with the trappings of the Chinese and Indian filmmaking or those legends.  Maybe cf might be fascinated as I was but I'm not sure the rest of you will be as amused.  

Amazon Primer...

---

2 more things:

1 - this is very much a Chinese New Year flick

2 - trailer (this spoils some of the jokes)

[cranefly]

Haven't looked at the above trailer, because I'm thinking of watching the movie.
Where to access?  Son of a gun, it's on Hoopla that I access thru the library.
Soon.

[Drunk Monk]

Haven't looked at the above trailer, because I'm thinking of watching the movie.

good call.

[Drunk Monk]

Detective Chinatown (2015) 
Another buddy film with Wang Baoqiang cast as the bumbling fool. Set in Thailand too. Unfortunately this one sucks.  It was a holiday release, and the sequel, released last year for Chinese New Years was well received, so I figured I'd go back for the original.  Very disappointing on many accounts.  The fights are bad, a waste of Wang's skills, and almost all of them end up in groin grabs and strikes, for comedic effect.  Wang's buddy is a failed police candidate raised on detective stories and does a Sherlockian-style of memory effects when he discovers clues (he's so eidetic that he can recognize Thai even though he can't read it).  Wang gets framed for murder, and there's too many absurd chase scenes through Bangkok where dozens of cops are running behind Wang and his buddy.  There's a lot of hackneyed comedy tropes, like an extended everyone-hide-in-the-hottie's-boudoir scene, which is almost funny. There's a running joke on a foppish cop who keeps getting his nose broken that drew a smirk at one of the final breaks but not quite a laugh. There are multiple lines where they say something akin to 'that's like something out of a bad movie', a painfully self-aware observation.  Also ironic is that 'buddy' is subtitled 'bubby' in several spots.  

I almost didn't make it through to the ending, and sadly, the reveal wasn't bad. The mcguffins were actually pretty good - the murder plot was complex and works, although by that point, it didn't redeem the film.  

Here's the trailer.  Might as well watch it because I'm not recommending this film at all, even to cf.

[Drunk Monk]

I must recant my original review of Detective Chinatown. I just rewatched it because it’s now a 4 film franchise and I felt I should catch up, and barely remembered the first one. It’s not so bad really - I must have been overly critical when I first watched it, or I just didn’t get its vibe. It’s not great, still not a D00M rec worthy film, but I appreciate it more now, knowing where it goes. It is highly derivative of Lost in Thailand being another Wang Baoqiang buddy flick set there. Perhaps that’s what put me off. 

The fight choreo bothered me before because I expected more from Shaolin-trained Wang, but it’s stooge fu, eye jabs and groin grabs. And I confess, I giggled at some of the later groin shots for the most puerile reasons. Also, the detective that kept falling on his nose was a simple goofy gag that built up for me over the repetitions and eventually squeezed another giggle out.

There’s a lot of absurd running chase scenes but like the groin grabs, that’s a motif of the franchise. And there’s a twisty solution, an epilogue that changes everything, which also a franchise motif. And there’s a Bollywood dance ending. 

Seen on Amazon Prime.

---

Detective Chinatown 2 (2018)

Set in New York, this is a wicked jab at US culture. Wang & his eidetic nephew arrive in NYC with several other top quirky detectives to solve a murder. The sequel went over the top right away. There’s a ghetto Chinese language classroom filled with black gangstas who all draw guns. There’s an Irish bear biker bar who all draw guns. Theres a roofer out military bodybuilder detective that draws a bazooka. There’s a police chief trumper. 

The foot chase, the eye poke groin grab fu, and the twisty epilogue that changes everything are consistent (I did guess that final twist). This ramps it up with a third wheel to the detective buddies (the murder suspect of course), cross dressing disguises, more feng shui, the King of somersaults, the cancelled Jedi, and Sabine Wren! Luv her.

The King of Somersaults is Yuen Wah, a KF brother of Jackie & Sammo, and plays Tang Ren’s (Wang Baoqiang) Shifu. It’s a great role for him and he’s the master of eye poke groin grab fu. The cancelled Jedi is Bai Ling who plays a psychic detective. She’s underused but glad to see she still gets work. And Sabine Wren (from Ashoka) is Natalie Liu Bordizzo, who i once interviewed when she first emerged. She’s looking hawter then ever as a NYPD detective. 

Totally goofy, this installment just goes for the absurd, often commenting that solving the case is not like in the movies. NY is strangely empty for many scenes and part of the finale chase goes big the Times Square (which is also where the end credit Bollywood dance scene happens)

DC2 was the 5th biggest box office for PRC when it came out (Ne Zha 2 is now #1). Now DC2 is #17.

Seen on YouTube.

BC3 goes to Japan. BC4 came out this lunar new year and goes back in time - DC 1900. DC3 is #8 & DC1900 is #15.