2022 Film Lost In The Stars

The film is adapted from Alexey Korenev's 1990 Soviet comedy film A Trap for Lonely Man and French playwright Robert Thomas' 1960 play Trap for a Lonely Man (Piege Pour un Homme Seul). It tells the story of He Fei's wife Li Muzi who disappeared mysteriously during the wedding anniversary trip. It's a film about a story of a shocking case. The film's style have been described by some critics as "Hitchcockian".

Lost in the Stars
Official film poster
Chinese	消失的她
Literal meaning	She Who Disappeared
Hanyu Pinyin	Xiāoshī De Tā
Directed by	Cui Rui Liu Xiang
Screenplay by	Chen Sicheng Gu Shuyi
Based on	A Trap for Lonely Man by film by Alexey Korenev A Trap for Lonely Man by play by Robert Thomas
Produced by	Chen Sicheng
Starring	Zhu Yilong Ni Ni Janice Man
Cinematography	Shan He
Edited by	Hongjia Tang
Production companies	Beijing Tianhua Huawen Motion Picture Investment Co. Beijing Weimeng Chuangke Network Technology Beijing Yitong Chuanqi Film Culture Douyin Culture Pearl River Film Media Shanghai Taopiaopiao Film Culture
Distributed by	China Media Capital
Release dates	25 December 2022 (2022-12-25) (Hainan International Film Festival) 22 June 2023 (2023-06-22) (China)
Running time	122 minutes
Country	China
Languages	Mandarin Thai English
Box office	$486.2 million

The film premiered at the Hainan International Film Festival on 25 December 2022 and released theatrically in China on 22 June 2023.

He Fei and his wife Li Muzi are celebrating the first anniversary of their marriage at an island resort in Barlandia, a fictional Southeast Asian country that appears to have Malay and Thai as their official languages. When Muzi goes missing, the local police refuse to open an investigation, citing the lack of evidence of a crime. Two weeks later, He Fei angrily confronts the police and is thrown out of the station. However, a man named Officer Zheng, who is fluent in Chinese, expresses some sympathy towards him. He Fei wakes up the next day and finds an unknown woman in his room pretending to be Muzi. She possesses a fake passport with Muzi's name. He Fei summons Officer Zheng, only to find that photographs of Muzi on his phone have been replaced with photographs of the unknown woman. Moreover, the woman knows intimate personal details that only Muzi should know. He Fei goes to a book store to find surveillance footage of his wife purchasing a book, but the footage has been replaced to include the woman instead. At a bar, He Fei sees a news segment about a successful lawyer named Chen Mai, and hires her to prove that the unknown woman is not Muzi.

Chen Mai finds evidence that the unknown woman is part of a criminal group who steals the identities of wealthy men's wives. Chen Mai notices that a car is following her and He Fei around Barlandia. She leads He Fei to a hideout where they find further evidence of the group's identity theft activities. As they exit the hideout, they are pursued by a mercenary who tries to kill them with a shotgun, but they successfully escape. Chen Mai then tracks down the local photographer who took photographs of He Fei and Muzi. The photographer demands money in exchange for testifying to the police. He Fei pays the photographer. On the way to the police station, Chen Mai accuses He Fei of hiding something from her. He Fei fires Chen Mai and tries to exit her jeep with the photographer. A sniper who was following them shoots and kills the photographer. He Fei decides to leave and return to China, but the unknown woman confronts him in his resort's room. The woman hits her own head with a glass bottle, whereupon security guards enter the room and arrest He Fei.

He Fei wakes up strapped to a hospital bed while the unknown woman and a surgeon sign a form consenting for a lobotomy to be performed on him. After they leave, Chen Mai sneaks in disguised as a nurse. She explains that she has been framed for the murder of the photographer, and that her only goal is now to prove her own innocence by finding Muzi. Chen Mai accuses He Fei of knowing and concealing Muzi's location from her, and repeatedly demands to know the location in exchange for helping He Fei escape. He Fei finally relents and says that Muzi is at a lighthouse. Chen Mai leaves but He Fei is able to unstrap himself from the bed. He wanders through the corridors of the hospital. When he exits the hospital, he finds that it is a constructed set in the middle of an abandoned complex. He then stumbles upon a dressing room where he is confronted by Chen Mai, the unknown woman, Officer Zheng, the surgeon, and the mercenary with the shotgun. All of them are revealed to be professional actors. Moreover, the local photographer was also bribed to serve as an actor and his death was staged. The police show up and arrest He Fei. It is revealed that He Fei murdered Muzi while they were scuba diving to inherit her wealth upon discovering that Muzi was preparing to file for divorce. Chen Mai reveals herself to be Shen Man, Muzi's friend who works as the director of a theatre troupe in New York. After Muzi failed to contact her, Shen Man flew to Barlandia. Shen Man asks her troupe to join her in Barlandia to trick He Fei into divulging Muzi's location. The drowned body of Muzi is subsequently found in an underwater cage near the lighthouse. She is found with an ultrasound scan of their baby. Shen Man tells He Fei that Muzi was not going to divorce because of the pregnancy. Before Chen leaves for New York, she visits He Fei in prison and tells He Fei that by killing his wife, he also killed his child.

The movie ends with a title card explaining that He Fei is sentenced to death and executed immediately. Shen Man is sentenced to 30 days' detention for causing chaos, burglary and illegal arrest. The rest of the theatre troupe is deported and barred from re-entering Barlandia.

• Zhu Yilong as He Fei
• Ni Ni as Chen Mai / Shen Man
• Janice Man as "Li Muzi" / Jane
• Du Jiang as Zheng Chen
• Kay Huang as Li Muzi

• In the film, when He Fei was nervous, half of his face would twitch. Zhu Yilong specially practiced muscle shaking for this purpose.
• Zhu Yilong revealed that there was a scene in the film where He Fei was shaving his head, which was shot in real life. Because the hair he was shaving was his own real hair, it had to be cut in one line, which was quite difficult to shoot.
• In order to pursue better dramatic effects, Janice Man requested to film another scene for the "bottle smashing scene"

Country/Region	Release Date	Distributors
Hainan Island International Film Festival (festival premiere)	25 December 2022	AN
China (advance preview)	21 June 2023
China (theatrical release)	22 June 2023
Australia	6 July 2023	CMC Pictures
United States Canada	7 July 2023
New Zealand	13 July 2023
United Kingdom Ireland	14 July 2023	Cine Asia
Malaysia Brunei	27 July 2023	Purple Plan, ATriNaga (Malaysia, Cambodia, Brunei), Golden Village (Singapore), Westec Media (Cambodia)
Singapore	3 August 2023
Cambodia	18 August 2023
Hong Kong Macau	24 August 2023	Intercontinental Films Distribution
Indonesia	30/31 August 2023	Encore Films, CBI Pictures (Indonesia), Warner Bros. Pictures (Thailand, Philippines)
Thailand Laos	21 September 2023
Myanmar	22 September 2023
Philippines	27 September 2023
Russia	12 October 2023	Arthouse
Globally	1 October 2023	Netflix
Finland	1 December 2023	BD Technology and Culture Co., Ltd
Ukraine	18 January 2024	Festivals Cinema

Box office