After losing their own child, a married couple become foster parents, healing from their own grief and rediscovering parenthood in this deeply moving, award-winning debut.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2023
Lost Love 2022
Lau soey lok faa
A modest married couple, Mei (Sammi Cheng) and Bun (Alan Luk), foster children to help subsidise their income, but it also allows them to take on parental responsibilities after the death of their three-year-old son. Mei, still grieving and resisting Bun’s desires to have another child, devotes her energy to the children that come under their care throughout the years, causing Bun to feel increasingly disconnected from her. With their vastly different experiences and challenges, the foster children become a source of healing and love, their bonds forming a supportive family for one other.
Ka Sing Fung delivers a touching and compassionate film, continuing the new wave of socially conscious films featuring Hong Kong society. Cheng, one of the biggest Hong Kong stars of her generation, gives a deeply moving and nuanced performance that won her Best Actress at both Hong Kong Film Critics Society and the Hong Kong Film Awards. While never losing sight of the profoundly transformative weight of grief, Lost Love reveals the power of care and resilience in this impressive directorial debut. — Vicci Ho
“Hong Kong superstar Sammi Cheng Sau-man gives one of the best performances of her acting career in Lost Love, playing a grieving mother who buries her sorrow by taking in a procession of foster children with often touching, sometimes heartbreaking results… Ka Sing-fung’s film is one of the best of Hong Kong cinema’s new wave, calling to mind Hirokazu Kore-eda’s work with its child actors’ naturalistic performances.” — Edmund Lee, South China Morning Post