Chacha Huang, the new star.
Braulio ** (Julián López) ** and his inability for languages. From that final post-credits gag in losing north was born Losing East, the spin-off (premiere February 15) that travels to the other side of the world: **to Hong Kong. **
“When you start making a sequel, the obsession is to tell a story that has a common core, but not to repeat it. And the Chinese world gave us a very different story," he says. the screenwriter and producer, Nacho G. Velilla. “He gave us a very beautiful story of a Spanish immigrant with an extraordinary qualification, but with his social awkwardness is making it difficult for him to adapt ”.
Braulio is not a big fan of Chinese food.
This sequel maintains the hallmark of "The lost generation is looking for life around the world." After the Berlin adventure, Braulio, without possibilities in Spain, goes to Hong Kong, a city-state to which more and more high-level professionals, economists or scientists emigrate, as is the character of Julián López. “He is the new Gold”, Velilla says that he could not direct the second part.
The interiors were shot in Madrid, they spent a few days in Pamplona (because there are scenes in the Sanfermines) and, of course (and luckily), they were a week of filming in different locations in Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong is one more character in the film”, Velilla told, precisely in one of the most spectacular locations, the traditional park of Lai Chi Kok, in the northeast of the mainland of the city.
The port with the best views of Hong Kong.
Braulio lives with his Chinese teacher in the neighborhood of Mong Kok, the most Chinese neighborhood, understood as mainland Chinese, from the city. Narrow streets closed by immense masses of buildings that break the gray of its concrete with multicolored lights. A fun chaos with unidentified smells.
The particular street they roll on is full of hardware stores, stores that only have motors or plugs or cables. It seems like a nod to what is being shot on the other side of the world, in Madrid, where the character of Braulio's father (Leo Harlem) runs precisely a hardware store.
They decided that Braulio would live in Mong Kok because it is also the cheapest part of the city. “Everything is very expensive here,” says the director Paco Knight. “Only one is like 1,800 euros. We thought the more traditional part would give it more character."
Bruce Lee, Jacki Chan… Hong Kong is a capital of cinema.
in the park of Lai Chi Kok film the first date of the protagonists: Braulio and Xiao (Chacha Huang). A garden with pavilions, a pond, gentlemen doing tai chi (and scolding you for crossing a stone path with shoes, a lack of respect), a haven of peace that breaks with those characteristic Hong Kong towers that give so much pleasure on Instagram.
Xiao, on the other hand, is from a good family, the daughter of a hotel magnate. “With her we see another Hong Kong”, Knight says. They move around Hong Kong Island, through the area known as Soho, “more financial, more Londoner”.
Over there, on the roof of a 32nd floor, they shot the last dawn and dawn, with views over the entire bay. They turned the nondescript terrace into a trendy bar where Xiao and Braulio meet.
The views of Mong Kok from Hong Kong Island.
The entire team was impressed with how well he photographed the city, "even with the gray sky days" that passed that week in January 2018.
“We take everything from Hong Kong”, Velilla says. "It's brutally beautiful, I think it's going to give it a very good added value."
And of course it's also a little gastronomic journey through Hong Kong, although it serves more as a joke than a gourmet guide. Braulio doesn't get along with chopsticks. Too bad he didn't discover ** the feasts of dim sums and pork buns ** that he could have enjoyed for ridiculously low prices.
Culture shock is the theme of the film.