It wasn't the normal blowhard historical epic or martial-arts fantasia, but a limber contemporary comedy in which a businessman ( Xu Zheng, who also directs) trying to track down his boss in Thailand is waylaid by a Zach Galifianakis-like buffoon ( Wang Baoqiang). It's a blow for those interested observers who had noted that this unexpected hit from a minor studio was a very different breed of Sino-blockbuster. Not even Chinese-Americans represented in serious numbers, given this auspicious opportunity Lost in Thailand took only $29,143 over the weekend (a tepid screen average of $833), to bolster its record-breaking $194m Chinese haul.
Something unspoken lay behind expectant articles in the film press for its US opening: the idea that this could be the point when cinema's trade winds stopped blowing from west to east, and the reverse became possible. Dubbed China's answer to The Hangover, the $3m (£1.9m) chancer knocked Life of Pi off China's No 1 spot in December and blindsided several domestic blockbusters on its way to becoming their most successful film ever – homegrown or foreign. A whiff of revolution was in the air last weekend: could it be that it was coming from that new low-budget Chinese comedy? But Lost in Thailand, opening in a mere 29 out of America's 5,000 cinemas, was no ordinary Chinese comedy.
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