At the recently feted 41st Hong Kong Film Awards, Sammi Cheng was presented with the Best Actress award by former co-star and friend Andy Lau for her role in Lost Love, a debut feature film by Director Ka Sing Fung. And now the movie has come to Canada in select theatres, with the first showing on May 5th this week. 

Veteran Cantopop queen Sammi Cheng has starred in many movies before, and after many years of nominations that never resulted in wins, this film has helped her to earn her first 3 Best Actress titles in a very competitive and talented industry in Asia. The director, Ka Sing Fung has also recently received a Special Mention at the Udine Far East Film Festival. What makes this recognition so noteworthy for Cheng is that the entire movie centres around the journey of a family: a grieving couple who loses their son to illness, and moves on to foster children — and yet she herself is not a mother in real life. Her performance is emotional, powerful and captivating, and one that has earned critical praise from industry critics and colleagues. 

In the film’s officially released synopsis, we are given a sneak peek of the detailed layering of family complexities, challenges, and heartaches that every family can relate to. It also explores the miracle that is children. Parenting involves raising and nurturing children, but oftentimes it is just as true that children, in their childlikeness and simplicity, enrich and enlighten the lives of parents. In the story, Chan Tin Mei (Sammi Cheng) and Ho Bun (Alan Luk)’s son passes away abruptly at just three years old due to congenital heart disease. Suffering in unfathomable pain over the loss, Mei resists having another child. One day, Mei finds out that they can become a foster family. Her desolate heart finds sustenance from possibly regaining the feeling of being a mother. But when she discovers the emotional scars on the children caused by their harsh realities, she realizes that she has to adjust her expectations.

Bun’s extramarital affair leads to a big fight between the couple, but it also reveals the feelings concealed in Bun’s heart. Mei realizes her selfishness; she has neglected Bun’s feelings in her grief and the true needs of her wards. In the end, the foster children inspire her and help the couple to redeem their relationship. Although Mei is praised for her dedication to her foster children, she knows in her own heart the children actually saved her. When the couple finally settles into a simple and happy life with their foster child, Mei suffers a heart attack. In the final stage of her life, Mei’s seven foster children reappear, and she sees the spirit of her son grow in these foster children.

A former journalist, Director Ka Sing Fung is not new to the scene even though this is his first full length feature. He has directed and written several short films, including documentary The Art of Cantonese-style Congee (2017), the 13th Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival entry A Bird Goes By and closing short film Gai Dan Chai (2019) (Co-directed and co-wrote with Belgian director Kato De Boeck). Other works in his portfolio include 1043rd Day on Minibus, which was the winner of the Best Microfilm Silver Award, Best Microfilm Actor and Best Microfilm Screenplay at the 7th Microfilm Project in 2019, and short film Check please (2020). In 2019, Lost Love, which Ka co-wrote and directed, was chosen as a project of the 6th First Feature Film Initiative - Professional Group, and awarded the funding of HK$8 million from the Hong Kong Government’s Film Development Fund. The film was completed in 2022.

“The most important thing for a director's first feature film is the choice of theme. Everyone has a family; Everyone is somebody’s child, and some of us are also somebody’s parent. Fortunately, I am both of them, so I wanted to make a film about a topic that I am most familiar with,” shares Ka, who serves as both the Director and one of the two Screenwriters of the film.  “I wanted to further explore the relationship between "family" and "parenting". The result is this story of a foster family. Before filming, I already knew that this is not a social issue film. It is not about how a foster family plays a role in society. It is about how a couple traces the memory of their dead son from their foster children. When it comes to a film about family, authenticity is of paramount importance. Though this film is not based on a real family, its events do happen to families in both Hong Kong and other places. In that sense, this is a “true” story. Ultimately, this film is about how life continues. When one’s child is gone, can the love for them live on? I believe so. In this film, the parents’ love for their son live on through other children. Finally, I would like to say to my fellow new directors: We have all somehow made it this far. May we encourage each other in our endeavours.”

Lost Love launches in Canadian theatres today, May 5th. Be sure to catch it and support a meaningful film that so richly explores the relationship between family and parenting, and a unique theme of foster families which is rare in Asian productions.