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Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. Close-up shot of a young woman with long black hair. Wearing a white top, she is looking down to the side, hiding her face behind a white veil in her hand.

Lost

Details
Programme: Rediscoveries
Year: 1970
Director: Fan Ho, Sun Po-ling
Format: DCP / Category IIB / 76 min.
Language: Mandarin (with German, Chinese and English subtitles)
Audience: Everyone
Location: House 1
Accessibility: Wheelchair
More Info:

Ticket Information

Standard: HKD 85

Concession: HKD 68

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. Close-up shot of a young woman with long black hair. Wearing a white top, she is looking down to the side, hiding her face behind a white veil in her hand.

Lost

Fan Ho is one of the most important street photographers of the twentieth century. To others, he was a director of erotic films and a pioneer in Hong Kong’s independent arthouse cinema. Ho’s first feature film Lost stemmed from his 1966 experimental short Home Work. In both films, the male protagonist vacillates between two women: one pure and mysterious, the other alluring and seductive. The films are intricate metaphors for the experience of being torn between the spiritual and the carnal, the East and the West.

Funded and produced by co-director Sun Po-ling, Lost premiered in Cannes in 1970 and was released in Germany and the United States. In a twist of fate, the physical copy of the film was assumed lost, turning it into a legend. Almost half a century later, in 2021, a copy was found in Taiwan, and a 2K scanned digital version brings the film onscreen once again.

The screening on 25 February will be followed by a post-screening talk in Cantonese on Lost and Hong Kong’s 1960s experimental film with scholar Law Kar and Reel to Reel Institute co-founder Aki Kung. The talk will be moderated by M+ Curator of Hong Kong Film and Media Li Cheuk-to.

The screening on 5 March will be followed by a post-screening talk in Cantonese on the photography and film of Fan Ho. Join independent curator and art educator Rachel Ip, and curator and Reel to Reel Institute founding member Lau Yam. The talk will be moderated by M+ Associate Curator of Hong Kong Visual Culture Vennes Cheng.

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. High-angle shot of a young man with black short hair walking on a spiral staircase. Wearing a long-sleeved white T-shirt and a pair of black thick-rimmed glasses, he is looking up with one hand holding the handrail.

Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. On the seaside with dashing waves, a Western woman in a long black robe and a young man in white shirt are standing on a bumpy rock, looking into the distance in the same direction.

Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. Low-angle shot of a young man with black short hair. Wearing a pair of black thick-rimmed glasses and pastor apparel, he is looking outside the frame with a serious expression. His shadow is casted on the wall beside him.

Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. A trifold floor mirror reflects a partying crowd, in which stands a young woman. She wears heavy eyeshadows, floral accessories, and a white sleeveless dress, showing her right arm covered with tattoo. She glances at the man behind her, who wears pastor apparel and black thick-rimmed glasses.

Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. Close-up shot of two young man and woman touching noses. The woman wears long black hair, black eyeshadow and bushy eyelashes, lying with her eyes closed and mouth slightly open. The man above her also closed his eyes with a smile. Their lips almost touch each other’.

Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. High-angle shot of a young man with black short hair walking on a spiral staircase. Wearing a long-sleeved white T-shirt and a pair of black thick-rimmed glasses, he is looking up with one hand holding the handrail.

Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. On the seaside with dashing waves, a Western woman in a long black robe and a young man in white shirt are standing on a bumpy rock, looking into the distance in the same direction.

Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. Low-angle shot of a young man with black short hair. Wearing a pair of black thick-rimmed glasses and pastor apparel, he is looking outside the frame with a serious expression. His shadow is casted on the wall beside him.

Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. A trifold floor mirror reflects a partying crowd, in which stands a young woman. She wears heavy eyeshadows, floral accessories, and a white sleeveless dress, showing her right arm covered with tattoo. She glances at the man behind her, who wears pastor apparel and black thick-rimmed glasses.

Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

Still of black-and-white movie titled ‘Lost’. Close-up shot of two young man and woman touching noses. The woman wears long black hair, black eyeshadow and bushy eyelashes, lying with her eyes closed and mouth slightly open. The man above her also closed his eyes with a smile. Their lips almost touch each other’.

Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

About the Directors

Fan Ho (19312016, Hong Kong) was born in Shanghai. He moved to Hong Kong at the age of eighteen and had a particular interest in photography. Ho often created drama and atmosphere with backlit effects or through the combination of smoke and light, capturing life in the streets of Hong Kong. In 1961, he joined Shaw Brothers as a continuity assistant and moved into acting, most notably as Monk Tang in The Monkey Goes West (1966). Ho made his debut, an 8 mm short, Big City Little Man in 1963. His body of works include short films Gulf (1966), Home Work (1966), Drifting (1968), and Lost (1970).  He became a director in the industry in 1972, starting with Blood and Love, The Notorious Frameup (1978), Expensive Tastes (1982), and Yu Pui Tsuen II (1987). Fan Ho continued to direct films in Taiwan such as Carnal Desire aka The Locked Heart (1986) and L’Air Du Temps (1990). His last work is The Sichuan Concubines (1994).

Sun Po-ling (19302005, Hong Kong) was born in Shanghai and emigrated to Hong Kong with her sister. In the 1950s, she established the Madame Rose Photo Studio that specialised in portrait photography and was frequented by celebrities. In 1969, Po co-directed Lost and brought the film to Cannes. Afterwards, she devoted herself to the art and culture industry, working for director Li Dou-ying in her Cantonese opera Chasing the Fish and for director Lola Young’s opera Ma Wei Slope. In the 1970s, she began to write columns for newspapers and magazines such as Express and Sing Tao Daily. Po immigrated to Taiwan in the 1980s and then to the United States in the 1990s.

Image at top: Fan Ho and Sun Po-ling. Lost, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Reel to Reel Institute

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