Lost in the Stars

Lost in the Stars is a Chinese Hitchcockian-style mystery crime thriller that grips the audience and keeps them guessing with endless twists and turns. It's pulpy, melodramatic entertainment that burns brightest in the moment, assaulting the audience with questions but never providing enough time or the breathing room to solve them.

While celebrating their first anniversary at a Thai island resort, He Fei discovers his wife Muzi has mysteriously gone missing. Unable to file a missing persons case with the police and his visa about to expire, He Fei wakes up to find an unknown woman claiming to be his wife and that all the photographs on his phone have been replaced.

Desperate for help, He Fei hires Chen, a renowned hotshot lawyer, to disprove the mystery woman's identity and find the real Muzi.

Directors Rui Cui and Xiang Liu hook the audience from the beginning and keep the plot moving like a freight train. Yilong Zhu, Ni Ni, and Janice Man tune their performances to serve the mystery like a cog in the machine, finding the sweet spot between who their character appears to be and revealed to be. Little inconsistencies spotted are actually all paid off later in a fun way.

The final reveal... is so ridiculous that it's technically a cheat. I notably laughed out loud as the film blatantly switches genres to engineer an unguessable reveal.

It's the equivalent of revealing Darth Vader is a woman so the audience has no chance of guessing he's Luke Skywalker's father, if that makes sense.

By that point, the fun had already been had. I already cared and can't take it back. The journey was in guessing what was happening at the moment, less in the reveal itself.

The best mysteries place the answer in plain sight and deceptively steer the audience from seeing the obvious the entire time. Lost in the Stars falls short of this; its mystery is ultimately not sophisticated enough to warrant a rewatch. The mood, intrigue, and soap opera melodrama of it all still make it an entertaining one-time watch.

Pretty well, I didn't ever know this movie could be brilliant like this before I watched it.

The adapter was so rare in the Chinese movie field. The plots were up & downs, the plot twists were well designed, the actors' moods were also in place.

Somebody said the light effect was messy and old-fashioned, the actors' styles did not fit each other well. I agree with these. There were also some bugs in the plots, but the defects didn't obscure the virtues.

Anyway, it's worth watching. Plus: Please focus on now and don't predict the plots in the future. You'll find a better way to watch it.

Hope it works for you.

Distinctively Chen Sicheng, Lost in the Stars are in many ways imprinted with the director imprints, full of quick successive scenes filled with popping movements and colors, and quickwittedness but lacking in logic or any sort of explanation and I absolutely hate it. Zhu's, whom I believe is one the best Chinese actor right now delivers a performance that feels like an echo in an empty room. What makes the film better than the Chinatown series is that at least at the center there is a giant intrigue that you want to get to the end of it, but towards the end even that feels predictable and uncreative. The progression of the film feels driven by a series of plot holes. Again, the supporting cast is also a huge question mark, featuring awkward dialogues and motives.

Lost in the Stars is a mystery thriller about a man (He Fei) who is looking for his missing wife while on an anniversary trip to a fictional Southeast Asian country. Even more confusing is that a woman whom he doesn't recognize turns up claiming to be his missing wife. What follows is a succession of new clues and past stories that add more to the mystery, culminating in an explosive finale.

Although there are twists and turns, please also note that this is adapted from a 1960 French play which was also adapted before in an Alfred Hitchcock movie and a 1990 Russian movie. The Chinese adaptation is also done very well in its own right.

The pacing and acting are done well. Viewers are left at the edge of their seats amidst the conspiracy and paranoia. The story seems far-fetched at times but comes together at the end as to why the characters themselves behave the way they do. The vivid colors of the setting lend visual eye candy to this imaginary Southeast Asian country as well.

The twists propel the mystery to n a fascinating way, especially the multiple reveals toward the end. You really feel part of this intense ride from start to finish.

At the start, this is quite an intriguing drama. "He Fei" (Yilong Zhu) and his wife "Li Muzi" seem to be getting along nicely until she disappears. He is in despair until a woman appears asserting that she is the missing woman - and he is certain that she is not his wife. This lady (Janice Man) is adamant, and when he seeks police assistance she is able to prove her identity with videos, photos and friends who corroborate her story. Is he just losing the plot, or might something more sinister be afoot? Fortunately for our increasingly hapless hero, a local lawyer/investigator "Chen Mai" (Ni Ni) decides that she is going to help him out and the more they dig, the more confusion they discover. To be fair, the plot is anything but simple - it has plenty of twists and turns, but I rather lost interest in him as a character and the plot gradually became a bit too convoluted. There just aren't enough clues for us to follow, we learn at the same rate as them and that left me in limbo for too much of this two hour drama. The ending has a quirkiness to it, but the characterisations are too weak and the story too thin to make it worth the wait. It's a sort of grudge/retribution story - but for way too long I didn't know why or whom by. It is watchable, and the acting is OK, but I doubt I will recall much about this next week.