It’s one thing for a dying man’s life to pass before his eyes; it's another to wake up and find it’s 1998, the year he was born. That’s what happens to Lang (Chao Deng) after his race car collides with a train in this consistently merry Hong Kong action-comedy from director Han Han. Han never once tries to explain the hows and whys of time travel — we probably wouldn't believe him, anyway — instead focusing on mending Lang’s relationship with an estranged father and mother he never met. The affection Hen lavishes on his characters and the time period is more than enough to compensate for some of the more obvious doses of ironic dialogue his beeper-loving, VHS-advocating cast are asked to deliver. The title refers to tiny aquatic plants that form an impassive green coating on the surface of standing water, and it’s the perfect metaphor for Lang’s determination to protect his juvenile delinquent dad from the law and avoid entering into a love affair with mom. (2017) — Scott Marks
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