Digitisation Project - 'Lost' (1970)

Hong Kong|1970 (in France)|B&W|76 min|DCP|Mandarin|German subtitles on print, Chi & Eng subtitles
The film was first released in Cannes in 1970, then in Germany and the US. Only a small audience had the chance to watch it as it had never been shown publicly in Hong Kong.
The screening copies are lost over half a century until RTRI located a sole surviving 35mm print with German subtitles from the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI). RTRI commissioned TFAI to scan this copy in 2K and digitise the optical soundtrack in 48kHz, and screened it at the ‘Reel to Reel Film Heritage 2021’ programme.

Directors: Ho Fan, Sun Po-ling
Screenwriter: Hong Kiu (aka James Lai), Sun Po-ling, Ho Fan
Cinematographer: Ricky Chow
Cast: Chui Yu (aka Chan Chun-wah), Dorothy Fu, Irene Lui, Cheng Tze-tuen

Caught between two entirely different women, an artist finds himself in conflict between the spiritual and the sensual, and at the same time lost creatively in the cultural clash between East and West. Based on Ho Fan’s 1966 experimental short Assignment, Part One, Lost depicts the artistic and carnal obsession of the modern creative mind. A departure from mainstream Cantonese and Mandarin films with European and Japanese new wave influences, it is shot with the colours of the 1960s and Lishan, Taiwan as backdrop. Sun Po-ling, an artist in her own right, co-directed and invested in the film, acting also as producer and make-up artist. She took the film to premiere in Cannes in 1970 and then screened it in Germany and the United States, while her ambition to release it locally in the foreign films theatre circuits did not materialise. Lost for half a century, this pioneering independent feature in the 1960s resurfaced in a print found in Taiwan by RTRI.

Ho Fan (1931-2016)
A native of Guangdong born in Shanghai and came to Hong Kong at the age of 18. Ho has dedicated much of his time to literature and photography since his school days. His photography was well-known for using light, shadow and composition to create a sense of drama, capturing the appearance of small people in Hong Kong, and has won numerous international awards. In 1961, Ho began his film career by joining the Shaw Brothers as a continuity and became an actor. He made his first 8mm experimental film Big City – Little Man in 1963 and participated in the activities of College Cine Club in the mid-1960s. In 1972, he directed his first feature film Love and Blood (1972) and directed nearly 30 cinematic works since then.
Sun Po-ling (1930-2005)
A native of Guangdong born in Shanghai and followed her sister to Hong Kong, Sun opened a photographic studio Foto Rosé in the 1950s and specialised in portrait photography. She then dabbled in drama and cinema and became a columnist in the 1970s. In the 1980s, she moved to Taiwan.
 

Press kit in English available on request, screening enquiries: info@reeltoreel.org