Now that the Oscars aren’t taking up all of my movie-review time, I can go back and catch up on reviewing some other films. And because goodness knows I need something to help hold me over until Shang-Chi comes out, that will absolutely include Tony Leung Chiu-wai stuff. While I still have a few old TV shows I’m trying to track down in subtitled form, I don’t have too many films left to get my hands on. This moody romantic thriller, in my opinion, doesn’t quite live up to its premise, but it still makes for an interesting watch.
Chung has been trying to make a name for himself in publishing and he thinks he’s finally found his big break, putting together a collection of the works of reclusive writer Siu Lau. He’s in love with her writing and fascinated by the whispers about her tragic past, and he puts his all into the book, including staying in the late writer’s former home while he edits. But as Chung is increasingly preoccupied with his work, his girlfriend Elaine is unnerved by unexplained occurrences in the old house, and she worries how far Chung’s obsession with Siu Lau will go when she starts to suspect that the writer’s ghost is still lingering among them.
I really like the basic set-up of the film. There are multiple deceased writers, actors, and musicians whose work I adore, some of whom had fascinating and tragic lives that were cut too short. There’s always a sense of loss there, a wistfulness for what they missed out on, as well as what the world missed out on from the works they never made. There’s the romance of hearkening back to a different time, wondering what it would’ve been like to walk in their shoes, and artists have a way of making us feel like we knew them intimately through their work, even if they died before we were born. An obsessive editor moving into the haunted house of the object of his fascination is right up my alley, and his girlfriend feeling caught between her fear of an apparent ghost and her jealousy that he might prefer the ghost to her adds an interesting wrinkle to the proceedings.
However, the movie never fully takes off in the way I want it to. It spends more of its time on eerie scares and dark, disturbed romance, both of which it does well but which don’t quite get at what I wanted out of the film. It feels to me like the film sticks closer to more basic horror/thriller tendencies, when there’s more that could have been done with the premise. That said, Chien-Lien Wu does a nice job playing Elaine as well as representing Siu Lau (part of Chung and Elaine’s issues is that Elaine bears an uncanny resemblance to the late writer,) shifting between the two with ease in a way that can be unsettling onscreen.
Because it ends up being Elaine’s story more than anything, Leung, playing Chung, doesn’t have quite as much to do. He’s a bit of an absent character, both physically, as he works long hours leaving Elaine alone in the haunted house, and emotionally, as his obsessions keep him at arm’s length from the real, living people in his life. It’s a performance that feels remote, and while it very effectively shows what’s driving Elaine’s worries and frustrations, it means it’s not an especially demanding role for Leung to play.
Recommend?
In General – A soft maybe. I still think it could’ve been better, but it has some interesting stuff going for it.
Tony Leung Chiu-wai – Not necessarily. This is a perfectly-serviceable performance, but there’s not a whole lot for Leung to work with.
Warnings
Violence, sexual content, disturbing images, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.
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