一半是喜劇，一半是和諧

（本片的官方英文翻譯有誤，應為「Lost on THE Journey」）

I cannot think of a better occasion than Chun Yun to showcase the fundamental realities of China. Every year, around Spring Festival time, the largest annual human migration in the world presents untold stories about home and struggle all at once.

But such good source material hasn't been fully exploited in art until the comedy film Lost on Journey was released this summer, when most people don't need to queue up at railway stations for a ticket home.

From the road movie genre, Lost on Journey concerns itself with a rich businessman (Xu Zheng) as he travels home for the family reunion and, at the same time a dairy worker (Wang Baoqiang) sets out to ask for his defaulted wage before the festival eve, both with the same destination of Changsha in mind.

The two characters meet on the journey and come across a seemingly never-ending streak of bad luck as they go. After their flight is forced to return-to-base, some rail track collapses, a road is blocked and they're involved in a car accident, they end up in the middle of nowhere and have to depend on each other for survival.

The movie's director Yip Wai-man presents a deep insight into the Spring Festival travel season on the mainland and depicts it very vividly, even though I'm sure the Hong Kong native in the film has never taken a green-colored passenger train during the Chun Yun period. What's more, he made the right decision to have Xu Zheng and Wang Baoqiang in the movie, the two are true comic geniuses. Fuelled with witty and well designed lines, the movie tickles our funny bone along the awkward journey, although some of its plot really pushes the boat out a bit too far in the quest for laughs.

While it is uproariously hilarious, the movie also reveals great hurt and truth in the first half hour, which makes moviegoers see its potential to become a real gem among the gross and outrageous Chinese comedies of recent years. However, it eventually crushes this promising opportunity and later begins to follow a beaten and secure path.

Don't be anxious if you lose your wallet because someone else will find it and spend the whole night getting it back to you; please show mercy to every beggar claiming to be collecting money for charity, because it's true; and you needn't feel any fear if you get lost in the wild because nice villagers will accommodate you and send you home. As a result, a viewer, who is awaiting a gradual reflection of China's contemporary society, will find it way too utopian after the movie only attempts to push the story to a harmonious ending.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give Lost on Journey 6.5.   舉報