Lost Love is a quiet gem of a movie that's full of love, and very much worth seeking out (Film review)

 

I really love this film so much!

 

Lost Love (Hong Kong, 2022)

- Ka Sing-fung, director and co-scriptwriter (with Lo Kim-fei)

- Starring: Sammi Cheng, Alan Luk, Hedwig Tam

 

More than 20 years ago now, Sammi Cheng charmed her way into my heart with her portrayal of the wacky but endearing OL (office lady) in Johnnie To's Needing You.  Over the years, she continued to make me laugh in films such as Love on a Diet, (2001) and Blind Detective (2013) and was, I felt, the funniest as well as best part of 2018 Chinese New Year comedy, Agent Mr Chan.  And although there are Hong Kong cinema fans who question her dramatic talent, she's actually been incredibly successful in making me cry when the occasion and movie demands it; with her performance in My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (2002) causing me to shed far more tears than I ever expected to! 

In her latest film, Sammi Cheng got me tearing up again in at least one scene, and also thoroughly moved me with her unshowy -- and all the better for it -- portrayal of a woman with a big heart who becomes the foster mother for a succession of children in need of care and love.  Sometimes seemingly more comfortable in their company (even though they are not her own flesh and blood) than her husband, Bun (portrayed by Alan Luk), Mei (Cheng's character) is not biologically incapable of having children but hesitates to do so after a tragedy befalls the couple.

 

Initially in Lost Love, the sense is given that Mei and Bun have become foster parents primarily to supplement their income. And their case worker, Miss Mok (played by Hedwig Tam), looks to have misgivings about them; worrying about such as the couple being smokers and thus not providing an ideal living environment to the children entrusted to their care.  But it gradually becomes apparent that fostering children is a labor of love for the pair, especially Mei; even if the first child they take into their cosy rural New Territories abode, an ultra taciturn boy named Sam (essayed by Sean Wong Tsz-lok), proves more challenging to deal with than they -- who are not without issues of their own -- probably had anticipated.  

Over the years (whose passing is subtly indicated by such as Mei's hairstyle changes and upgrades in phone technology), Mei and Bun become foster parents for six more children: usually singly; with the exception being the case of a spirited elder sister-younger brother pair (played by Maya Tsang and Tsui Ka-him), who need a home to stay in, and adults to care for them, while their father is in prison.  Among the strengths of Lost Love is how each and every character, child as well as adult, comes across as three-dimensional human beings; this even when, in such cases as that of the oldest of the children the couple welcome into their home, a teenager named Hang (played by Gordon Lam) who's taller than Mei, the character is accorded just a few minutes of screen time. 

 

Added pluses with regards to this quietly impressive gem of a movie come by way of everyone of the child actors putting in winning performances rivalling those of the adults.  In particular, Ng Tsz-ku as the cleft-lipped Fleur (who is inclined to address Mei as "Mother" rather than "Aunty"), will tug at your heart but Leona Li as Ching, the girl brought up by her grandmother (rather than the mother who's effectively abandoned her), and Matt Jiu Kai-nam as Ming, a boy who tries hard to be no trouble at all, also can't help but move.

 

Ka Sing-fung seems to have such a sure hand at the helm that it's hard to believe that he's yet another debutant director that is helping Hong Kong cinema have what amounts to a revival in the past year or so.  Like Oliver Chan Siu-kuen did with Still Human some five years ago now, he's come up with a mature dramatic offering that's full of humanity, and also feels so very honest and genuine. 

 

So much do I love this film, in fact, that I actually feel pretty cross that Lost Love was not Hong Kong's official nominee for the Best International Feature Film Oscar rather than Where the Wind Blows -- which I viewed in the same week as it!  And for the record: as much as I do respect Tony Leung Chiu-wai, I truly think that Alan Luk turned in a better performance in this movie than Little Tony did in that disappointing blockbuster!        

 

My rating for this film: 9.0