1998 ‘香港第一凶宅’ Directed by Do Lai-Chi
Married couple Gigi (Gigi Lai) and Fai (Anthony Wong) find themselves heading home to Gigi’s mother’s Yuen Long estate, instead of Japan as intended, for their annual vacation, as shifty property developers have been trying to oust Mum (Helena Law) and sister Fen (Shirley Cheung) from the family home. While Gigi struggles with mysterious stomach cramps, Fai and Fen have their own share of hassles with ghosts and ghostly possession.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
I give points to it for being terribly sincere.
But the finale involves saving a cursed man from an infinite game of mahjong. It involves playing Mahjong. It is hard to even MST3K that into fun.
Sometimes cheap genre fare isn't meant to be watched 25 years later in the hope of some weirdoid cult gem, you know?
OK, so there IS a scary bit in this movie - right at the start, a bloodied dog is dragged along the ground and then hung, limp, by its hind legs. And, for a cheap movie, this dog looks a hell of a lot more real than any of its other effects.
But, being a basically forgotten film I only dug up…
An eerie and atmospheric pro-life Hong Kong horror feature. You read that right, but despite the ramifications of what it's saying, the film is not at all interested in politics, but rather in spinning a supernatural yarn that harkens back to timeless ghost stories of the past, albeit with a darker edge. Some might find the pacing a bit slow, but this kind of moody ghost drama would hardly work at a faster clip. Best to let the hazy blue lighting and dream like music wash over you as you enjoy the ride.
