Lost in the Stars review – Chinese doppelganger twist-a-thon is too fun to resist – The Guardian

This thriller drama twist-a-thon from China was an enormous hit on house turf lately (far outperforming the most recent Indiana Jones function) and has been picked up for distribution within the UK and the US. Though the 180-degree plot pivots begin to get a bit ridiculous by the top, the script (credited to writer-producer Chen Sicheng, Shuyi Gu and Yixiong Yin) zips together with such gleeful mischievousness that the journey is simply too enjoyable to withstand. Intriguingly, it’s supposedly based mostly on a 1990 Russian movie referred to as A Lure for Lonely Man, which was itself an adaptation of a stage play by French author Robert Thomas for which Alfred Hitchcock as soon as purchased the rights. You’ll be able to see traces of what Hitch may need favored about it, as a result of it’s all about dopplegangers, femmes fatale and paranoia spoiling what ought to have been a pleasant vacation overseas.

The unfortunate holidaymakers on this occasion are Chinese language couple He Fei (Yilong Zhu, in an outstandingly good efficiency) and his spouse Li Muzi, who come to Belandia, a fictional south-east Asian island-nation, to have a good time their one-year wedding ceremony anniversary. Nevertheless, Li Muzi goes lacking simply days after they arrived. Together with his vacationer visa about to expire, He Fei is first met frantically making an attempt to persuade the native police to search for her, however with little success.

When he wakes up in his resort the following day, there’s a fantastic vampy girl there (Janice Man) who claims that she’s Li Muzi, however He Fei insists she’s an impostor, even when she has photos on her telephone, a passport and all of the supposedly secret information that helps her declare. Is He Fei, as soon as a diving teacher, affected by a neurological situation introduced on by his line of labor or is that this girl a con artist? He hires native Mandarin-speaker Chen Mai (Ni Ni, additionally terrific) to assist him examine his spouse’s disappearance and liaise between him and the cops. A troublesome cookie who drives like Lewis Hamilton and appears sincere sufficient, Chen Mai insists that He Fei inform her the entire reality concerning the circumstances of his spouse’s disappearance. Seems he’s not been fully sincere, in fact, and administrators Rui Cui and Xiang Liu begin skilfully peeling again the onion.

The evenly stylised cinematography appears to be like lush, and the pacing adroit, however as Misplaced within the Stars slides into full-on silliness in its final act, it additionally will get sticky with sentimentality, serving up soppy slow-tempo ballads within the background and a sob story for one of many essential characters. Even so, the movie goes to a reasonably darkish place within the final minutes, which is ballsy.

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