Lost in Russia, the latest installment in writer-producer-director-actor Xu Zheng’s franchise of box-office juggernauts (Lost in Thailand was for a while the highest-grossing Chinese title ever with 208 million dollars, with Lost in Hong Kong topping that impressive tally three years later with 254 million dollars) has known a drastically different fate upon its release. It was among the half-dozen high-profile Chinese New Year film releases cancelled due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus in China. Except while films like Dante Lam’s The Rescue, Chen Sicheng’s Detective Chinatown 3 or Stanley Tong’s Vanguard, among others, are for now biding their time, Lost in Russia was released online for free in the middle of the downcast festivities, as a result of a deal between the film’s studio Huanxi Media, and streaming giant ByteDance.

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