Who under the Bed

床下有人

China, 2011, colour, 2.35:1, 84 mins.

Director: Niu Zhaoyang 牛朝阳.

Rating: 5/10.

Well-packaged budget horror breaks with convention in its structure but to only so-so effect.

STORY

An old town somewhere in northeast China, the present day. The day before his birthday, Bing’er (He Keren) visits the hometown of her late boyfriend Zhou Xiaoming (Ge Honglin), hoping to connect with his spirit as he’d always wanted to bring her here. She still can’t believe he died two years ago, and writes emails to him as if he’s alive. Accompanying her is her husband Kuangyu (Guo Xiaoran), a friend of Zhou Xiaoming; he is very understanding, and they agree to take separate rooms in the old-style Spring & Autumn Inn for the few days they’ll be there. Bing’er has been plagued by a nightmare in which she paces an all-white room in which two ghostly hands reach out from under her bed; she has been taking medicine for a heart problem brought on by her anxiety. While Bing’er rests, Kuangyu secretly meets Zhou Xiaoming, who’s been making lacquerware boxes as a living for the past two years. His whole body is scarred from the fire in Yunnan province from which he saved Bing’er; afterwards, she was told he’d died but in fact Kuangyu had secretly taken him back to northeast China. With Zhou Xiaoming’s agreement, Kuangyu had married Bing’er, after dumping his girlfriend Mengmeng (Wu Wenjia). That night the hotel manager (Zhou Yaping) reports seeing a female ghost on the premises. Did she come from under Bing’er’s bed? Bing’er comes to check Kuangyu’s room but no one is there. After she’s gone, a ghostly female presence climbs out behind Kuangyu and the two make love. It is, in fact, Mengmeng dressed up as a ghost. Sensing that Kuangyu may be getting cold feet over their scheme to get hold of Bing’er’s property by arranging a convenient “accident”, she threatens to tell Bing’er. Next day, still convinced that Zhou Xiaoming is alive, Bing’er starts checking all the bakeries in town to see if anyone has ordered a birthday cake.

REVIEW

An okay Mainland “ghost” movie that later spawned a brief series, Who under the Bed 床下有人 breaks with convention by letting the audience in on the plot quite early and then re-building tension from whether the baddies succeed or not. Entirely set in the old quarter of a northern town, it’s sharply shot and framed by noted d.p. Zhao Yuqing 赵昱清 (Cool Young 正•青春, 2010; Coming Back 回马枪, 2011; Fantasia 幻想曲, 2014; How Are You 李梅和韩梅梅  昨日重现, 2017) and carefully directed by Niu Zhaoyang 牛朝阳, a songwriter-TV director who debuted with the so-so CNY comedy Super Player 大玩家 (2010) but who, after Bed, turned more to producing rather than directing horror movies. It racked up almost RMB15 million at the box office, a reasonable amount for a no-star scarefest.

Despite the film’s careful production values – superior to most budget horrors (e.g. the pre-title sequence) – the overall ruse by Niu and his co-writer brother Niu Zhaojie 牛朝杰 doesn’t quite work. After revealing the whole dastardly plot at the 25-minute mark, and effectively turning the film from a “ghost” movie to a murder mystery, they then play out the murder attempt in a 20-minute sequence that’s initially intriguing but is over-extended, especially at the end. A final twist is quite clever but doesn’t make up for the lack of a really tense climax. Then 23, model-turned-actress He Keren 何可人 (aka He Jing 何静) makes a sylph-like heroine but overall is bland. The more experienced Guo Xiaoran 郭晓然 has some effective moments of duplicity as her seemingly loving husband, but only Wu Wenjia 武文佳, 24, shows real personality, as the ex-girlfriend.

The film was shot around Pingyao county, Shanxi province. On posters the English title is What’s under the Bed. Niu turned creative producer 监制 for the next two films in the franchise – Under the Bed II 床下有人2 (2014) and Under the Bed 3 床下有人 3 (2016) – and was to have directed a fourth entry in 3-D, though this appears never to have been completed.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Tongren Shidai Film (CN). Produced by Beijing Tongren Shidai Film (CN).

Script: Niu Zhaoyang, Niu Zhaojie. Photography: Zhao Yuqing. Editing: Jiang Guoquan. Music: Chen Tong. Song music: Niu Zhaoyang. Lyrics: Niu Zhaoyang. Vocal: Che Jingzi. Art direction: Li Weixiong. Costumes: Yang Zhanhua. Sound: Chen Kun, Wei Junhua.

Cast: He Keren (Bing’er), Guo Xiaoran (Kuangyu), Wu Wenjia (Mengmeng), Ge Honglin (Zhou Xiaoming), Zhou Yaping (hotel manager), Sun Linpeng (Liang), Wang Shuangxin (Auntie Chen), Sun Geng (Zhiqiang, Zhou Xiaoming’s friend).

Release: China, 14 Oct 2011.