Nightmare

青魇

China, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 85 mins.

Director: Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau].

Rating: 7/10.

Modest but well-made horror movie is a brainteaser that works as a complete package.

STORY

Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China, 26 Feb 2012. Returning home late one night from work, insomniac Hao Dong (Huang Xuan) again sees a young woman, whom he’s nicknamed Moon (Zhou Chuchu), painting a ghostly portrait in the flat opposite. Suddenly, she’s attacked by a masked figure and thrown off her balcony; but when Hao Dong calls the security guard, her body has disappeared and the flat is vacant. The next day, Hao Dong visits his girlfriend Yifan (Xue Kaiqi), a psychologist who also has her own radio show, and unburdens himself to her. She says he’s over-tired from too much work and too litle sleep. With a few days free, he visits his birthplace, Nine Mile Village, to see his uncle Feng Suanshu (Tao Hai), a teacher who still lives alone. The village is depressed, its young people having left for studying or in search of work. That night, haunted by more nightmares, Hao Dong goes for a walk and sees a young woman murdered in the village’s rundown ancestral hall. Waking up, he finds he’s still in Yifan’s office, where he fell asleep. He tells her he first saw Moon a month ago, after returning from his grandmother’s funeral in the village. She reminded him of a young woman, Luo Xiaoyue (Zhou Chuchu), who came to the village when he was a boy with her agro-scientist husband (Xu Haiwei) to do some research. After the husband drowned in the river, Luo Xiaoyue was later found murdered; Yuan Er (Shang Daqing), the hoodlum brother of the village head (Cai Wei), was suspected but the case was never solved. Suspecting a psychological link between Luo Xiaoyue and Moon in Hao Dong’s mind, Yifan goes back with him to Nine Mile Village to piece together the mystery.

REVIEW

After a couple of more ambitious period pieces (The Legend Is Born: Ip Man 叶问前传, 2010; The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake 竞雄女侠秋瑾, 2011) between more routine local stuff, prolific Hong Kong genremeister Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau] returns to China for Nightmare 青魇, his first horror movie in three years. Made with Mainland money and a largely Mainland cast, but with regular Hong Kong crew like d.p. Chen Guanghong 陈广鸿 [Joe Chan] and editor Zhong Weizhao 钟炜钊 [Azrael Chung], it’s a classy little movie on its own terms, way above the level of The First 7th Night 头七 (2009) and exploitationer Gong Tau: An Oriental Black Magic 降头 (2007). With a corkscrew, circular plot that slides back and forth in time between the present and the past, and between dreams and waking, in the hero’s tortured mind, it’s part psychothriller, part ghost story and part whodunit – and in its preposterous way actually makes some kind of sense. Carefully shot, and with multiple twists in the final section, it’s exactly what it intends to be: a neat brainteaser with a few shocks that moves effortlessly along for a tight 85 minutes and keeps its audience with it.

As an insomniac who’s haunted by nightmares and blocked memories from his village childhood, Huang Xuan 黄轩, who’s jogged along in unmemorable supporting roles (Driverless 无人驾驶, 2010; Joyful Reunion 饮食男女  好远又好近, 2012; First Time 第一次, 2012), makes an okay hero, managing to bring a little character to a part that mostly requires him to look confused. Singer-actress Xue Kaiqi 薛凯琪 [Fiona Sit], the only Hong Konger in the cast, initially seems distant as his (conveniently psychologist) girlfriend who offers bland advice like “you’re just over-tired”. But there’s method in her curious performance – and Qiu’s visual framing of her – that makes sense at the end. The rest of the cast, playing villagers, are all very solid in Mainland style, and as the film morphs into a whodunit at the halfway point the screenplay satisfyingly keeps the audience on its toes with multiple suspects. With no single standout performances, or flashy setpieces, Nightmare is the kind of genre movie in which the whole craft package counts, and is entirely driven by the direction and screenplay.

Shooting took place around Heyuan municipality, in northeast Guangdong province.

CREDITS

Presented by Jiangsu Culture Industries Group (CN). Produced by Jiangsu Culture Industries Group (CN).

Script: Nan Ke, Liang Lihua. Photography: Chen Guanghong [Joe Chan]. Editing: Zhong Weizhao [Azrael Chung]. Music: Mai Zhenhong [Brother Hung]. Art direction: Ma Shiqi, Ding Li. Costumes: Yan Zi. Sound: Wang Qingsheng, Zheng Yingyuan [Phyllis Cheng]. Visual effects: Deng Weiyu (HK Screen Art). Second unit photography: Ni Wenxian, Guan Boxuan.

Cast: Xue Kaiqi [Fiona Sit] (Yifan/Eva), Huang Xuan (Hao Dong), Zhou Chuchu (Luo Xiaoyue; Moon), Tao Hai (Feng Suanshu, Hao Dong’s uncle), Shang Daqing (Yuan Er), Cai Wei (Yuan, village head), Zhang Qian (Hu), Qiao Lisheng (Zhang, accountant), Xu Haiwei (Jianguo, Luo Xiaoyue’s husband), Yang Yang (young Hao Dong), Zheng Wanqiu (Dr. Meng Lan, the psychologist), Liu Li (her assistant), Theodora Xie (hospital nurse), Jin Yinyan (Hao Dong’s grandmother), Li Guochao, Nie Wen, Sun Yanhua, Wang Xichun (villagers), Chen Shi, Dong Yang, Wu Jian (policemen), Shao Yanbin, Zhang Kai, Hao Ming (security guards), Zeng Guixing, Huang Wen (lift maintenance workers).

Release: China, 6 Jul 2012.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 30 Dec 2012.)