Lost in Thailand

Last year, the Chinese audience showed how absolutely unpredictable and indecipherable it is when it made Lost In Thailand the most successful film of all time in terms of attendance. On the one hand, the film doesn’t fit into any of the usual categories for which success is automatically a given – it isn’t in 3D, it’s not a spectacular blockbuster, it wasn’t made by Feng Xiaogang, it doesn’t feature any mega-stars like Shu Qui or Jiang Wen, and it’s not even a heavily computer-enhanced popular farce. What’s most surprising however, is the fact that the film is an extremely bland road movie that just endlessly draws out its nonsensical premise, repeats more or less identical scenes multiple time (I don’t even know how many times the protagonist snapped at his sidekick, after which they either go their separate ways or get into a fight). Perhaps the key to the success of this monotonously unentertaining film consists in its message, as the protagonists get joy from ordinary things such as family and friends instead of the egocentric pursuit of careers and money. Career stress and the loss of togetherness are apparently very familiar phenomena for people living in China’s highly performance-based economy and manically consumerist society. In such a situation, a farcical holiday in Thailand can be a welcome balm, or even a return to one’s roots. (02/10/2013)