Flower’s Curse
花咒
China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 95 mins.
Director: Li Kelong 李克龙.
Rating: 6/10.
Stylishly packaged haunted-house horror that’s part hommage and part spoof, with tasty performances.
STORY
Shanghai, c. 1930s. Wealthy painter He Shuming (Luo Bin), a widower with a young daughter, He Sisi (Feng Xizheng), asks private detective Shangguan Tian (Qi Zhi) to investigate a haunting at his German-style Schloss in the countryside in neighbouring Zhejiang province. Xiaoyan (Liao Weiwei), a Chinese herbalist doctor who shares the same office, goes along with him. At the mansion, which lies in a huge field of lavender and verbena, He Shuming fills them in on the suicide of his wife Qu Yanzhen (Zhang Xiaoyan) and the subsequent haunting by a female ghost. That night Shangguan Tian and Xiaoyan go ghost-hunting and spot a presence that sets off some tripwires that Xiaoyan has set up in the corridor. She is therefore convinced that the “ghost” must be human, though Shangguan Tian, who claims to have seen the ghost of his own late wife, is not so sure. The pair find a locked room which contains He Shuming’s portrait of Qu Yanzhen wearing only some lavender. (The picture was painted before they got married, after he’d met Qu Yanzhen and her younger sister Qu Yanmin [Tian Yuqing], who had been left the mansion by their wealthy late parents. After the marriage, Qu Yanmin mysteriously disappeared, and He Shuming inherited the sisters’ estate. Next to vanish was the family’s personal physician, the foxy Su Cen [Zhang Mengtian].) Xiaoyan suspects that He Shuming’s taciturn and unhelpful maid, Xia He (Yang Zitong), is somehow involved; that night she hides in Xia He’s room and sees her putting on lipstick and one of Qu Yanzhen’s dresses, just like the “ghost”. The next day Xia He denies any involvement and tells Shangguan Tian and Xiaoyan about Su Cen, whom He Shuming had hired when his wife was unwell after giving birth. (He Shuming and Su Cen had become lovers. It was after Su Cen had disappeared that Qu Yanzhen committed suicide.) Questioned about the relationship, He Shiming claims his wife consented to it. Soon afterwards, however, Xia He is found dead.
REVIEW
A stylishly shot Mainland ghost story that’s part hommage and part spoof, Flower’s Curse 花咒 is by far the better of the two haunted-house horrors that super-prolific writer-director-actor Li Kelong 李克龙 has so far made in his decade-long career. Where his later Encounter Evil 撞邪31号 (2017) was a standard mystery with no special style and a weak script (not by Li), Flower’s Curse boasts tasty performances down the line, a richly textured look and a lively script that keeps the corpses coming and the far-out plot afloat. Despite its cult-y potential, however, the film only took a meagre RMB2.4 million, the average for Mainland horror quickies.
Much credit is due to the saturated photography by Gong Xiaolong 巩晓龙, who was responsible for the good-looking horror Under the Bed II 床下有人2 (2014), as well as the much more conventional Encounter Evil. As well as keeping things moving with a constant range of camera angles, Gong’s widescreen images push the colour palette in all directions – such as the vast sea of blue lavender surrounding the German-style Schloss – while making the most of the period art direction by Liu Xudong 刘旭东 and tasty female costumes by Chen Qi 陈琦.
Chen’s most out-there garb is for the herbalist doctor played by Li’s regular actress Liao Weiwei 廖蔚蔚, always at her best in comedy, who prances around in anachronistic bootees, wizard’s hat and colourfully checked Bermuda shorts that match her wacky performance as the investigating detective’s assistant. Most of the comedy stems from Liao’s goofiness vs. poe-faced actor Qi Zhi 齐志 (the lead in Li’s crime comedy Fight Side by Side 并肩作战, 2012) as the p.i. with a modern, brushed-up hairstyle. Playing by the female supports is all characterful, from the taciturn maid of Yang Zitong 杨紫彤 through the foxy doctor of Zhang Mengtian 张梦恬 to the classy wife of Zhang Xiaoyan 张晓燕 (now known as Zhang Xinyan 张欣颜). Director Li himself pops up as a hatchet-faced police detective.
The script gets round the Mainland prohibition on ghosts by making the herbalist doctor the voice of scientific reason vs. the more impressionable p.i. The film’s Chinese title means “Flower Curse”.
CREDITS
Presented by Hangzhou Jiahuan Cultural & Creative (CN).
Script: Li Kelong. Original script: Guo Yongfei. Photography: Gong Xiaolong. Editing: Tian Shifa. Music: Yan Fei. Art direction: Liu Xudong. Costume design: Chen Qi. Sound: Zhang Yuzhu, Ding Yeheng. Special effects: Ma Qiao. Executive direction: Yuan Jie.
Cast: Qi Zhi (Shangguan Tian), Luo Bin (He Shuming), Liao Weiwei (Xiaoyan), Tian Yuqing (Qu Yanmin, younger sister), Yang Zitong (Xia He, maid), Zhang Xiaoyan [Zhang Xinyan] (Qu Yanzhen, older sister), Feng Xizheng (He Sisi, young daughter), Wang Qi (Yuan, gardener), Zhang Mengtian (Su Cen, doctor), Li Kelong (Jiang Yibang, chief detective).
Release: China, 12 Dec 2014.