Lost in Thailand

The first half of the film is particularly wonderful, with a good laugh point, careful production and smooth editing and transition. The combination of Xu Zheng and Wang Baoqiang is the guarantee of Chinese comedy films.

A typical "zany" Asian comedy, with the usual overacting and mugging... It does make a bit more sense and is probably funnier if you've lived in Asia awhile and grasp the archetypes and the social situations. But it's nothing special. Western comedies work more along the lines of playing it 'straight' - the characters in a comedy are not supposed to be aware that what they are doing is comedic. Only the main character, played by Zheng Xu, handles it this way - presumably because he is the 'straight man'. You can tell that he can actually act.

The movie is an excellent travelogue for Thailand (though there are no actual Thai characters - apparently, Thailand is a landscape and a bunch of featured activities, and the people who inhabit it - indeed created it - are somewhat irrelevant.) It has sparked a craze of Chinese tourists coming to Chiang Mai in droves, wanting only to retrace the characters' steps and check the same activities off the bucket list...

Thai media reports say that the influx of hacking,spitting, bossy, blunt and stingy mainland Chinese is driving the much more natty locals a bit nuts. In response to this distaste, the Chinese government recently issued a 64-page booklet of Do's and Don'ts (mostly Don'ts), urging Chinese tourists to represent their country better by not spitting out bones on restaurant floors and flushing the toilet after taking a dump.

Expected to see protagonists in funny situations based on cultural differences and Thailand-specific activities/places. So, like any other "X goes to Y" movie. Heavily disappointed. Not nearly enough Thailand, too much Chinese over-acting. It seems that the script was written by a kid that heard a thing or two about Thailand. Weak in every aspect.

Sadly, this is another lame movie that passes for popular in China. It's disappointing to see that Wang Baoqing has a knack for playing a painfully annoying character; Wang is pretty good at being an ordinary guy in indie movies, i.e. the amazing Blind Shaft. Here, Wang is cartoonishly destructive and annoying, and armed with a cactus. He's supposed to be a hapless idiot, but really he seems to want to be an injurious nincompoop.

The boss is another character that seems outlandish to me, but maybe less so to Chinese audiences. I find it hard to fathom someone so stiff and smarmy. Compared to these wackos, Xu is too straight. Perhaps it's that I'm American, but I can't see past this. With good Chinese independent films, there is little lost in translation; it's a smack of reality. With this movie, I can't seem to enjoy Chinese-style wacky comedy.

I wouldn't give this movie any awards, but it was zany and fun and a great stress-reliever. The shenanigans of the protagonists were nonsensical and bizarre, something that reminds me very much of several American films. These include "Step Brothers," "Black Sheep," and "Due Date," among many others. What these movies all have in common is ridiculous antics mixed with a little bit of heart.

As goofy as it was, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Any movie that can put a genuine smile on my face and make me laugh is a pretty good movie.

As a side note, I attempted to watch this movie without looking at the English subtitles. From my limited knowledge of Chinese, I was able to keep up with the plot to an extent. In fact, I think it made the movie that much more enjoyable. However, I definitely missed some aspects of the movie simply from a lack of understanding key words and phrases. For this reason, "Lost in Thailand," reminded me of watching movies as a kid. While I didn't understand exactly what was going on at every moment because of the language barrier, I was still able to appreciate certain aspects of the plot.