My online rental queue is filled with hundreds of East Asian films, some of which I add without knowing all that much about them. When Lost In Time came in the mail, I was expecting a generic romance film. I am now very happy to confess that I was very, very wrong.The storyline itself is not particularly novel or original, but the character development here is outstanding. The filmmakers successfully used actions over words to build the foundations of the main characters. Cecilia Cheung is thrown into a very difficult situation early on. The introduction of her struggles, one after the other, adds significantly to her likability, and the viewer develops a deep concern for her wellbeing. No explicit conversations of her difficulties are even necessary because I experienced them with her. Ching Wan Lau comes off as an authentic gentleman who's good deeds are motivated by a rather complex history. The young boy did admirably and was extremely likable.There is one scene in particular, that takes place during the second half of the film, which I consider to be one of the greatest in the history of cinema. I rarely cry while watching films. Joint Security Area forced a few tears down my cheek, but "The Scene" in Lost In Time made me cry so profusely that I had to stop the film and take a break to regain my composure. It's that damn good! To be honest, Lost In Time hit me like a ton of bricks in a very positive and happy way. It has earned it's place as one of my favorite Romance films, and comes with my highest of recommendations.

Put it like this, Lost in time is the best romantic drama to come out of Hong Kong since the movie endless love(C'est la vie mon Cherie). What is even better is that the director of that movie, also directed this beautiful movie.Wai(Cheung)is waiting for her fiancée(Louis koo)who is a bus driver to come, unfortunately he meets with an accident, and eventually dies. Wai so shocked with his death, that she cannot even shed a tear. There is nothing she can do, with a son that her fiancée left behind, she has a handful of work to do. To provide support for herself, and supposedly her son, she goes in the bus service business that her fiancée was in. She has a hard time, but Fai a colleague of her fiancée helps her out, supports her and her son. Wai finds herself falling for him, but she is lost, in that should she forget about her fiancée and go for Wai, or she should just live with the good memories that she shared with her Fiancée.Oh I so wish Hong Kong would come up with plots more like this, that is the biggest problem. They do not make so much original romantic drama's, they are just Triad/cop crazy. Director Yee showed that Hong Kong can indeed come out with great, emotional, romantic drama's, and Lost in time is the greatest example for sure. You can't help but just love the feel of this movie when you are watching, from the streets of Hong Kong, to the inner feelings of the characters.Cecilia Cheung was just awesome, in looks, and acting. Her acting in this movie got her best actress award in the 23rd Hong Kong film award. Her character brought out a range of emotions, that were just great to watch. This is her best on screen performance since ever, 10 times better than her performance in her movies that came out after this movie, and wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better than Fly me to Polaris. I say watch Fly me to Polaris first, hate her in that movie, then watch Lost in time and then love her, then you will get a good inner feeling out her. For Lau Ching Wan, I just loved seeing this guy in his serious acting mode, cause honestly his comedic acting is very tiresome. Very refreshing it was to watch him in this movie, his acting was very natural, and a character that you can both love and feel pity. The best performance he has put on screen since his other project with Yee which was Endless Love. Although Louis Koo played a very minor role in the movie, you can also like him for some reason. The performance in this movie, is what boasts this movie way higher.Too bad there has been no other romantic drama as brilliant, and beautiful as Lost in time recently. Lost in time is not a supposed tear jerker like endless love, but lost in time has quite realistic emotions exploding out of the screen, that you can come to admire very much.This is my favourite movie of all time out of any movies, either Hollywood, China, Korea, Japan, Lost in time is my favourite of all time period. For me it is going to quite hard for a movie to top Lost in time for me.If I said that Lost in time is my favourite movie all time, that means that every single person reading this review should go and watch it, I don't care the way you get it either stealing, killing, or just buying or renting, go and WATCH IT!11/10 Extremely beautiful movie to watch.

Did you like her in Failan(Gut wrenching!)? How about Running on Karma(So sweet!)? Don't forget King of Comedy(Whoa!). Well, she is so real and struggling in this one that you just gotta give it to her. She's still beautiful even when portraying desperation. The bonding between her, Lau Ching-Wan and the little boy captures the essence of a family coming together after falling apart from previous ties. Painful to watch at times but well worth it in the end. Is that her singing during the credits?Lau-Ching Wan comes across so noble in this one as he just can't resist the urge to be the hero coming to the rescue and really melting away the past. You're rooting for him so strong to get the girl and he just makes such the wonderful dad/problem solver. Excellent performances by the leads.

Fans of Lau Ching-Wan and Cecilia Cheung will probably be quite happy with this film. Although the theme about coming to terms with your life after the sudden loss of a loved one is tough, the film balances out the high drama with some humor. The scene where Ching-Wan shows Cecilia how to maximize her earnings on the minibus route was a high-point. Overall, this is my favorite Lau Ching-Wan film of the last couple of years. After all the goofy comedy he's done recently, it was nice to see him in a more serious, natural role. Cecilia is good as well. Louis Koo's small role as the dead guy may disappoint those wanting to watch the film for him. Although he's quite good, he's just not in the film very long. This is a good compliment to C'EST LA VIE MON CHERI, the 1993 film that Lau and director Derek Yee worked on. As a word of advice, it's probably not best to view both films on the same night, as the emotions could be somewhat overwhelming.