Lost in Thailand, a masterpiece of Chinese comedy filmmaking, is so popular that it has become the highest grossing Chinese movie ever. The reason for this is partly due to its similarly popular predecessor, Lost on Journey, directed by Raymond Yip and featuring main actors Zheng Xu and Baoqiang Wang. For Lost in Thailand, Zheng Xu himself became director while another performer, Bo Huang, was added to the cast in order to make it even more colorful. All three protagonists have abundant experience and fame in comedy, which all but guaranteed the success of Lost in Thailand.
"Lost in Thailand, a masterpiece of Chinese comedy filmmaking, is so popular that it has become the highest grossing Chinese movie ever."
Compared to the official English title, the original Chinese is much more sophisticated: 泰囧. The pronunciation of “泰囧” is exactly the same as “太囧,” which means “too awkward.” Also, the first word, “泰,” has two meanings in this context: the country of “Thailand,” where the story is set, and “becoming good,” which implies a happy ending. The second word, “囧,” actually uses a very new meaning. Literally, “囧” means “brightness” in Chinese, but since the shape of the character itself looks so much like the facial expression of someone who feels awkward, it has acquired the new meaning of “awkward” in China. Even before seeing the movie, the title is already a big punch-line.
Lost in Thailand is about three men, Lang Xu, Bao Want, and Bo Gao. Lang Xu invents a new product named “Youba,” which makes gasoline very efficient. Before he can profit from it, however, further funding must be authorized by his company’s biggest shareholder, Lao Zhu, who happens to be vacationing in Thailand. Meanwhile, one of his colleagues, Bo Gao, would prefer to sell the product to the French. Thus, Lang Xu travels to Thailand to find Lao Zhu, while Bo Gao follows behind. On the plane, Lang Xu sits next to Bao Wang, who has a pancake store in Beijing. Bao Wang is naïve and bothersome, so Lang Xu wants to get rid of him as soon as possible. Later, Lang Xu finds out that Bo Gao is spying on him, and when Lang Xu accidentally loses his passport, he has to pretend to be happy with Bao Wang so that the latter can use his own passport to get them hotel rooms. Eventually, all three go through a variety of accidents on their journey in Thailand – including gangsters and broken computers – until they finally choose to cooperate in the end.
Plenty of Chinese slang is used in this movie to build a fun atmosphere. When Bao Wang asks Lang Xu why Bo Gao is spying on him, Lang Xu lies and says that it is because he “gave a green hat” to Bo Gao, which means he had an affair with Bo Gao’s wife. Elsewhere, when Lang Xu and Bao Wang see a very beautiful woman in the lift of their hotel, Lang Xu tells Bao Wang that she must be a “shemale.” Later, the woman picks up a call and says she met two “2B” in the lift, who thought she was a “shemale.” “2B” is a slang term from northern China, meaning “a very stupid person.” Another extremely humorous conversation happens between Lang Xu and a local taxi driver after they get stuck in a traffic jam. The driver tells Lang Xu to calm down, because Chinese people are always too hurried. Lang Xu, in turn, says that Thai people are always too “moji,” which is Chinese slang for “doing things too slowly or inefficiently.” All of this slang spices up the hilarity of the movie and helps make it into one of the most successful Chinese comedies.
