NYAFF ’19: Walk with Me

They are not likely to throw zombies out of work anytime soon, but evil dolls are still definitely having their evil moment. Even Malaysia is riding the wave. Sam believes the restless spirit of her brother who died in utero has inhabited her childhood doll, to wreak havoc and seek vengeance. The truth might be even worse than she imagines, but the body-count will be just as real in Ryon Lee’s Walk with Me, which screens during the 2019 New York Asian Film Festival.

Frankly, Sam’s life is terrifying enough without a haunting. She is bullied incessantly at her sweatshop place of employment, where she also must contend with a pervy boss. Things are not much better in the flat she shares with her scoldy mother and drunken wastrel father. Despite a first act exorcism, Sam is convinced the angry ghost of her little brother has possessed her insanely creepy doll. He died before he could be born, due to an accident she caused—at least that is how she remembers it, thanks to her mother’s constant reminders. Things will continue to get worse for Sam, in every way, except for the return of her suddenly fit high school pal, York.

Lee and co-screenwriter Ying-ying Chang drop a huge up-ending twist on viewers at the eleventh hour, so a little tap-dancing is required to avoid spoilers. Frankly, it is questionable whether the film makes complete sense in retrospect and it would be dashed difficult to assemble a scrupulously logical timeline for everything that transpires. However, it is all pretty scary, so you might as well buy in and roll with it.

Michelle Wai’s portrayal of Sam will just break your heart, even when things get a bit extreme. It might be hard to initially accept someone with her actress-model looks could be bullied so roughly, but her acting and the sad frequency that human nature often manifests in jealousy and resentment make it believable. Veteran HK thesps Anna Ng and Richard Ng are also terrific, in a fearlessly naturalistic and unsympathetic kind of way, as Sam’s parents.

Some really effective art direction and location scouting went into Walk, particularly the textile factory, which just looks oppressively evil. Seriously, this film should be quite a persuasive PSA for staying in school and resisting the urge to bully others. Recommended for fans of gritty supernatural horror, Walk with Me screens Thursday (7/4) night, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

Abertoir ’17: The Sleep Curse

Heather Langenkamp and Freddy Krueger’s other victims would be jealous of Dr. Lam Sik-ka and his latest patient, because no matter what they do, they cannot drift off to sleep. Yet, they still manage to have nightmares in Herman Yau’s The Sleep Curse (trailer here), which screens at this year’s Abertoir: The International Horror Festival of Wales.

Dr. Lam is a man of science, but not exclusively. He has seen uncanny things and visited his share of mediums. Neither he or his former girlfriend Monique want to end up like her older brother, whose mental collapse due to supernatural sleep deprivation takes place during the prologue. It turns out their respective fathers met the same fate, but it isn’t a hereditary condition. It is a curse dating back to the Japanese occupation.

Quite inconveniently (for a host of reasons), Lam’s decent but passive father Lam Sing was involuntarily recruited to serve as a clerk and translator to the Japanese commander. Part of his duties involve coordinating with Chow Fook, the collaborator managing the local so-called “comfort station.” Lam’s heart aches for the women enslaved there, but when his Japanese masters force him to make a pseudo-Sophie’s Choice, it sets off a chain of very bad karma, which unfolds in a series of flashbacks.

The prospect of using war crimes committed against comfort women as the catalyst for a horror film is admittedly dicey, but it certainly reflects still potent (and officially sanctioned) anti-Japanese prejudices. Intriguingly, the film is also set in 1990, pre-handover, at a time when many Hong Kongers were having nightmares. It is therefore easy to sense ghosts from two eras haunting the film. Initially, Yau seems more inclined to evoke feelings of uneasiness while maintaining a general sense of mystery, until total bedlam breaks in in the third act. We’re talking totally nuts here.

Regardless, in a dual role, Anthony Wong makes a credible Peter Cushing figure as Dr. Lam and is aptly tragic as the ill-fated Lam Sing. Likewise, Michelle Wai also shows tremendous range as both Man Ching and Man Woon, two twins of drastically differing temperaments, separated by cruel fate and Lam Sing. Jojo Goh only has one role, but she still makes an impression playing Monique partly as a femme fatale and partly as an increasingly vulnerable and agitated patient.

Herman Yau is maybe not quite as prolific as Takeshi Miike, but he certainly does not lack for a work ethic or ready financing. Despite turning out a steady stream of hit action movies and comedies, he still exhibits a distinctive touch for supernatural fare. Perfect for fans of the Nightmare Detective franchise, The Sleep Curse screens Thursday night (11/16), as part of Abertoir 2017.

HK Cinema at SFFS ’17: 77 Heartbreaks

Break-up are often measured numerically. There are fifty ways to leave your lover and ten things I hate about you. The underappreciated Eva Lui comes up with seventy-seven reasons to dump Adam Cheung’s sorry butt. He will read them for himself when he comes across her journal in Herman Yau’s 77 Heartbreaks (trailer here), which screens during the San Francisco Film Society’s annual Hong Kong Cinema series.

Lui understood Cheung had family issues, so she cut him a lot of slack. To antagonize his father, Cheung quite his job as a solicitor, becoming a kick-boxing instructor instead. Yet, one day, Lui up and leaves. This deeply depresses Cheung, but he doesn’t do any real soul searching over it. In fact, he passively falls into a relationship with Mandy, a love-struck student. As it happens, she will be the first to read Lui’s “77 Heartbreaks” journal, a volume purchased from the mysterious Heartbeat Shutter store. There almost seems to be a bit of magic to it. Regardless, it crystallizes Lui’s thoughts and gives Mandy fair warning.

Arguably, the various Chinas are becoming the world’s leading producer of rom-coms. Seriously, when was the last a Hollywood relationship comedy justified its space on a hard-drive? However, despite its rom-com elements, 77 Heartbreaks is neither very rom or com. Instead, Erica Li’s adaptation of her own novel is more of a tragedy and a withering indictment of male complacency. Although, in all honesty, there are not going to be a lot of guys willing to defend Cheung, who rather revoltingly, backs into a relationship with a woman just as attractive as Lui and even more eager to make it work, yet he treats her like dirt.

Strong and sensitive, Charlene Choi is terrific as Lui, while you could say Pakho Chow fully commits as an actor, making Cheung as self-centered and un-self-aware as could ever be humanly possible. However, Michelle Wai’s achingly vulnerable performance as Mandy will really make the audience want to line up to beat Cheung with their soap wrapped in their towels, in the manner of Full Metal Jacket. Not surprisingly, veteran Anthony Wong steals a few scenes as Lui’s boss, Solicitor Pak and Kara Hui cranks up the grace and dignity as Lui’s mother. Yet, the film’s secret trump card is Francis Ng as Shutter, the eccentric but profoundly humane photographer and silent partner in Heartbeat Shutter.

You have to give Yau and Li credit for never taking the easy way out. This isn’t like a slightly disappointing day for Bridget Jones. It is about coming to terms with the disappointments of life and the mortality of loved ones. Wisely, they also refrain from counting down every last heartbreak, concentrating on the general trajectory of the relationship instead. Considerably deeper than it looks, 77 Heartbreaks is recommended for fans youth dramas and break-up films like Singles, when it screens this Saturday (9/30) as part of the SFFS’s Hong Kong Cinema.

HK Cinema at SFFS '16: Insanity

You would think Hong Kong would be tougher when it comes to criminal insanity defenses, but Fan Kwok Sang still manages to beat the rap for killing his wife by pleading temporarily nuts. His good luck continues when he is placed under the care of the highly esteemed Dr. Chow Ming-kit, who cures him in three years. Or does he? Chow will start to wonder when Fan gets involved with another suspicious death in David Lee’s Insanity (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Hong Kong Cinema at the San Francisco Film Society.

The trauma of losing his son essentially broke Fan’s grip on reality. Suffering from extreme paranoid schizophrenia, he finally just snapped, defenestrating his long suffering wife from their apartment window. Dr. Chow eventually pieced together his fractured psyche and proscribed a full battery of anti-psychotics to keep them glued in place. Being ever so progressive, Dr. Chow periodically checks in with Fan. Usually that means dropping by the restaurant where Fan works with his grossly under-appreciated fiancée, Shum Po-yee.

When Fan accidentally kills a creepy homeless guy on the roof of his building, Dr. Chow is his first call. Fearing the scandal of a supposedly cured patient committing a homicide (justifiable or not), Chow encourages him to take flight. Oh by the way, Fan just happened to mention he’d stopped taking his meds. As the cops start swarming and his colleagues’ suspicions mount, Chow decides to cure Fan once and for all, with special round-the-clock one-on-one immersion treatments. Of course, there will be unforeseen complications to their marathon analysis session.

Frankly, anyone who has seen a lot of psychological thrillers should be about twenty minutes ahead of the script (co-written by Lee, Bullet Vanishes helmer Law Chi-leung, and uber-producer-director Derek Yee). However, the first-rate work of Sean Lau Ching-wan as Fan still makes it worth the price of admission. It is a remarkable performance, implying much under vastly differing circumstances. Yet, he is always so tragically human and sad. Mainland superstar Huang Xiaoming also stresses out pretty impressively, but Nina Paw Hee-ching might out do both of them as Fan’s unhinged mother-in-law. Plus, Michelle Wai adds some red hot nuttiness in a memorable extended cameo as Mona, the patient who develops an unhealthy attachment to Dr. Chow. Fortunately, Alex Fong is also on hand to keep things real as Chow’s deputy-rival, Dr. Liu.

Even if you have a hunch where Insanity is going, it is still entertaining to watch Lee and his cast revel in the conventions and trappings of the genre. Chan Chi-ying duly cranks up the noir with his atmospheric cinematography, in the Robert Burks tradition. At times it is almost shamelessly over the top, but that is part of the fun. Recommended for fans of head-spinning head-shrinker thrillers, Insanity screens this Friday night (9/23) as part of the SFFS’s annual Hong Kong Cinema series.