Review: Lost Course

An epic look at democracy, power, and the pitfalls of idealism in Southern China.

jonah wu

Mar 4, 2021

I am very happy to share my ~first professional movie review~ for Lost Course, which won the 2020 Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary, and is opening Friday, March 5 at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema. You can read the review in its entirety here, but I’ll share the first paragraph to whet your appetite:

“I was locked in Guangdong jail for twenty days,” says Hong, a resident of Wukan, China who became a key figure in the small village’s 2011 protests that drew worldwide attention. “During those twenty days, I developed a view of life. I now believe that the most important thing is not health, but freedom.” Such a view underpins Jill Li’s fantastic first feature, the documentary Lost Course, which explores the extraordinary events that led to the ousting of Wukan’s corrupt officials and subsequent ascension of the once-protestors to local government. The three-hour film at times feels more like a political epic on the scale of Dickens or Hugo, weaving a cautionary tale about democracy, power, and the pitfalls of idealism.

Hope you enjoy the read! Does this make me a real film critic now?