The new Chinese box office record breaker Lost in Hong Kong impressed the market by making nearly 800 million RMB ($125.68 million) within just four days since its release on September 25. The film earned more than 200 million RMB ($31.4 million) in ticket sales per day last weekend, an unprecedented amount never seen before on the Chinese mainland.
However, the film received quite mixed reviews from the public. The ratings on Mtime.com and Douban.com, two of the biggest film reviewing websites, are 6.2 and 6.4 out of 10, which is rather low for such a box office smash hit.
The film tells the story about an embarrassing trip by businessman Xu Lai and his brother-in-law La La in Hong Kong. Xu takes his family to HK for travel, with the aim of meeting his first love in secret. However, La La, the brother of Xu's wife, follows him all the way in the city, leading to an unexpected yet dramatic journey.
The film is the third installment of a trilogy comprising of the 2010 film Lost on Journey and the 2012 film Lost in Thailand, which were huge successes in the Chinese market. The latter also created a box office record of 1.257 billion RMB ($197.5 million) at the time.
Despite the all-star cast in Lost in Hong Kong, critics complained that the humor was slapstick and lowbrow, the performance of the actors unimpressive and the theme of the film unclear and fragmented. Compared with Lost in Thailand (2012), this new film seems to receive less praise from audiences.
"It is far more lowbrow and tasteless than Lost in Thailand. The performance of Bao Beier (the actor playing the role of La La in the film) is so artificial and unnatural, humble and stupid. The music from old HK movies was misused. Luckily, the millions spent in marketing and promotion for the film paid off, congratulations, " said a comment by "Taoxinxu Shi Fan" on Douban.com, which got 2,225 likes online.
In the meantime, many netizens applauded the film, saying that the film brought them joy and laughter.
"It is just a comedy. It is funny, the theatric effect is good and it makes people laugh. It is good enough! What else are you asking for? Trying to find artistic significance out of a commercial film? This is not how the film market runs, " a Douban user named "Lu Ye" commented, which received 1,768 thumbs-up.
Faced with mixed reviews from viewers, its director Xu Zheng seems open-minded and willing to accept criticism.
"I believe that many fans will extend their love of the 2012 film (Lost in Thailand) to this new one. I appreciate that. The box office cannot represent everything and I hope to see more comments from the public," Xu Zheng said in an earlier interview.
The film is expected to continue to rock the box office during the upcoming National Day holiday.