If you can get past Michael Wong Man-tak's wooden and uncharismatic performance "Lost and Found" is an otherwise affecting film beautifully captured by Bill Wong's lenses and spearheaded by Takeshi Kaneshiro's poignant portrayal of Mr. Lost and Found.

In Wong's defense, if there ever was such a thing, his character -- like the man himself -- is half-Chinese and only speaks conversational Cantonese. That being said Wong shows little range in his native tongue of English.

Following the actor on screen is a constant chore that began when the industry replaced overdubbing with live audio forcing Wong to deliver his lines partially in English even when his peers are speaking fluent Cantonese. His character Ted, a mixed sailor of Scottish and Chinese backgrounds is somewhat saved by a female admirer (Kelly Chan Wai-lam) who reminds both the characters as well as the audience that Ted only speaks "a little Chinese."

Chan portrays Lam the daughter of a shipping tycoon whose recently been diagnosed with leukemia. She becomes infatuated with Ted at the shipyard but after three days looses contact with him before bumping into a Mongolian named That Worm (Kaneshiro) aka "Mr. Lost and Found" a grassroots private investigator who finds whatever his clients may be looking for.

Lee Chi-ngai, who wrote, produced, and directed "Lost and Found" uses the girl-dying-of-cancer motif ineffectively and the parallels often do not add up to what they should, but Takeshi Kaneshiro and Kelly Chan's performances legitimatize the tears welling up in your eyelids rather than going for broke and attempting to extract them by force.