In Love with the Dead Film Review

While a bit too late for Halloween and by no means a spectacular movie, this latest Danny Pang product, leading up to The Eye's transformation into a Hollywood remake, is by no means a bad release, and has its fair share of little triumphs.

For starters, the handful of thespians on show here all perform well, especially leads Shawn Yue and Stephy Tang. Yue does a marvelous job, even further cementing himself as Hong Kong's strongest male actor. Tang is also good, surprisingly creepy in a film that succeeds in throwing at least one major curveball, namely where the basic premise takes us.

Sure, the Pang connection is a dead giveaway, but still, many viewers will think they're looking at a romantic tragedy when it starts. The setup is there and the horror doesn't get going till a much later point in the story. And it's a basically good premise: Tang plays Wai, a young woman diagnosed with cancer. Her life partner Ming (Shawn Yue), who loves her and her little kid sister more than anything, goes the distance and gladly sacrifices his career as a designer so he could spend more time with them.

This invariably leads to his dismissal and search for a new gig, which in turn becomes an opportunity to hook up with old childhood friend Chu Fong Ting, now a fully developed and decidedly gorgeous executive. That's when things go awry and the film takes that inevitable turn towards grossout land. Be warned, one scene in particular will have you skipping a few meals, and kudos to Stephy for agreeing to do the repulsive honors.

In fact, this one is probably the scariest, most disturbing release from the Pang collective. That still doesn't mean it's terribly frightening, but effective use of darkness and light adds volumes to proceedings, as does the superb soundtrack, once again contributed by Pang's usual Thai collaborators.

So we have good acting from everyone involved (even the brief hello from Patrick Tam works well), potent atmosphere, a few genuine moments to take home with you, and effective movie magic.

What we don't have is a solid punchline. Unlike the deceptive opening portions, you could see the ending coming from miles away, and one has to conclude the writers and director really didn't mind or even intended for this to be the case. As a consequence, forget about any Sixth Sense-esque revelations.

But in the context of horror releases from HK, In Love with the Dead not only features one of the more original and intriguing titles, it's also more heartfelt and intelligent than the rather mediocre average, and as such definitely warrants perusal.

Rating: * * *

Directed by Danny Pang

Starring Shawn Yue, Stephy Tang2007, Cantonese, 95 minutes