A story of child abduction and a father's journey to find his son
The topic of child abduction is a difficult discussion to have in China for many reasons, first and foremost because kidnapping is quickly becoming a widespread business, an uncomfortable consequence of the one-child policy. It’s an unspoken part of Chinese society that is both reviled and grudgingly accepted, and the resulting black market for kidnapped children is tacitly allowed to exist (and even flourish) in order for families to avoid heavy fines for breaking the one-child policy and to obtain children by those who refuse to wait in long lines through the official state adoption process.
As such, it’s difficult to discuss child abduction and human trafficking in China, perhaps because of its widespread nature among all social strata of Chinese society.
Tackling the issue of child abduction in Lost and Love is a controversial choice for director Peng Sanyuan (彭三源) who, like his fourth-wave compatriot Jia Zhangke, sets his film amidst utopian rolling grasses, lush forests, and the dystopian urban background of southern China; such high expectations are, unfortunately, lost as it loses its meandering way through a combination of awkwardly-placed humor and a kitschy soundtrack composed of mostly Piazzola-esque Argentinian tango remixes.
Terence Hsieh is a writer, musical producer, and band leader formerly based in Beijing, now Taiwan due to COVID restrictions. Formerly an editor at TWOC, Hsieh now is a freelance musician and producer in the Chinese pop music industry. He has toured with Karen Mok (莫文蔚), Tia Ray (袁娅维), Alin (黄丽玲), and Tan Weiwei (谭维维), and leads the five time Golden Melody Award-nominated, instrumental deathpop band The Spice Cabinet (五香放克乐团). His interests include culture, music, art, philosophy, and all things culinary.
