Yuanyanglou
鸳鸯楼•惊魂
China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 94 mins.
Director: Wang Shenghe 王晟赫.
Rating: 6/10.
Surprisingly effective horror film, anchored by undervalued actress Li Meng, simmers for an hour before boiling over with action and revelations.
STORY
A city on an island in the Pacific Ocean, 2019. One rainy night, at 18:45, three people gather in the entrance hall of a tall old apartment building known locally as Lovers’ Nest 鸳鸯楼 and made famous by a university student giving birth in the toilet of her flat and a later suicide in the bath, amid much media interest. The three people, all in their 30s, are Liu Zhenzhong (Su Xiaoding), whose family runs a shop specialising in paper products used at funerals; his fiancee, online journalist/editor Shen Yan (Li Ming); and Su Jieke, aka Jack (Liu Xun), the once-wealthy son of a businessman. They are greeted by Zhao (Yu Guming), of Anxiang Insurance, who announces that Liu Zhenzhong and Su Jieke are beneficiaries of a will that the dead woman, Feng Xueqing (Zhao Yingzi), made four years ago; the one condition to sharing the RMB7 million is that they stay for seven full days in Lovers’ Nest, without ever leaving the building, like a family’s seven-day mourning period. The third beneficiary, a woman called Zhang Chen, has not turned up. Meanwhile, the building’s sole security guard, Ye Fan (Xue Yuanqing), thinks he sees a female ghost while patrolling the ground floor; he also meets the building’s only tenant (Hu Xiaoyuan), of flat 105, who says he’s leaving because the building is haunted. Outside, Shen Yan questions Liu Zhenzhong as to why he was named in Feng Xueqing’s will; he says she was once an apprentice at his family’s shop. Shen Yan agrees to stay with him, in an adjoining room, in order to get the money so they can then marry. Su Jieke has his own problems, including the fact that he’s been diagnosed with auto-immune deficiency syndrome, which means he must avoid sudden shocks. Next day the three move in and are welcomed by Ye Fan, who explains that the building was originally for workers at a factory; but when the factory shut down, the owner sold the first six floors to a property management company which then sold the flats on the first three floors as graves. He puts Liu Zhenzhong and Shen Yan in 403 and 404, while Su Jieke prefers 503 on the floor above. All the rooms open on to an oval-shaped gallery above a central courtyard. Room 403. Liu Zhenzhong has a nightmare about a traditional wedding and being haunted by his bride and other ghosts. He confesses to Shen Yan that Feng Xueqing left his family’s shop and moved into Lovers’ Nest when she joined the factory as an intern; there she met, and became obsessed by, Su Jieke, who was in flat 505. After a subsequent haunting by Feng Xueqing, Liu Zhenzhong wonders why her ghost is going after him and not Su Jieke, as it was her obsession with Su Jieke that led to the whole scandal and her suicide. Room 503. At night Su Jieke is haunted by Feng Xueqing banging at his door and saying “We have a child”. Next day he tells a friend, Yangzi (Guan Peng), to keep on looking for the child. When Shen Yan, who is writing up events for her publication, interviews him, he says he’s being haunted every night by a woman who had his child, but does not identify the woman. Zhao reveals that Ye Fan’s name is also on the list of beneficiaries, and that the sole survivor of the week will get all of the RMB7 million. Also, the third person on the original list, Zhang Chen, could not be traced by his insurance company. One night Su Jieke is haunted by two female ghosts and collapses on the floor of his room. At midnight a woman calling herself Zhang (Hai Lu) arrives at Lovers’ Nest and asks Ye Fan for a room for the night as she’s lost. As he’s on night duty, he lets her use his sleeping quarters; peeping at her via a CCTV camera, he sees a woman giving birth in his bathroom and notices how she looks like Xiaowan (Hai Lu), Feng Xueqing’s roommate. Security Guard’s Office. Next morning Shen Yan calls Ye Fan to Su Jieke’s room, fearing he may not be okay. The room is empty and there are bloodstains on the floor. Shen Yan interviews Ye Fan, who reveals the truth behind the Feng Xueqing affair and whom he holds responsible for her death. Subsequently, Shen Yan and Liu Zhenzhong discover Su Jieke has gone missing and Ye Fan has been badly beaten up. Room 505. The whole truth is revealed.
REVIEW
Though it breaks no fresh ground, Yuanyanglou 鸳鸯楼•惊魂 is a surprisingly effective horror film that simmers in ghostly fashion for an hour before suddenly boiling over with action and revelations. It’s the latest production by one-man film industry Wang Shenghe 王晟赫, 33, and though the screenplay barely hangs together, and is way too complicated, the film is held together by its cast, especially top-billed Li Meng 李梦, a classy actress who rarely gets the leading roles she deserves. It’s equally notable for its box-office hawl of RMB130 million, unheard of for most local horror movies (which normally take just a couple of million at best), and especially for one which works within familiar “haunted house” lines. You have to go back a decade to find Mainland horror movies – like The House That Never Dies 京城81号 (2014, RMB412 million) or The House That Never Dies II 京城81号II (2017, RMB215 million) – earning over a hundred million.
Born in Ji’nan city, Shandong province, Wang has had a varied career so far, first studying at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and then immediately, in 2010, getting a leading role in a film. He soon combined acting with producing roles, and finally directed (plus wrote and starred in) his first movie, horror Red Cheongsam 恐怖禁忌之红旗袍 (2016). Soon afterwards he produced, wrote and starred in gay drama Alternative Love 别类爱情 (2016), which later spawned an online drama series, and continued acting and directing and producing in a full range of subjects, from comedies and dramas to horrors, for both online and theatrical release. The last include Taboo Terror of Going Back 午夜惊魂路 (2017), Spirit Touch Seventh Sense 七月半3 灵触第七感 (2017), Linglong Wells 玲珑井 (2018) and Taixian 台仙魔咒 (2018), the last directed by Song Rui 宋睿, one of his regular actresses from this period, when quickie horrors thrived.
All of the above films were under the name Wang Liang 王良, which he continued to use as a directing credit (apart from Wang Yue’ang 王栎昂 for Horror Shark 血鲨, 2019) until the 2023 online movie 中国青年 我和我的青春 (“China’s Youth: Me and My Youth”), of which he directed the third episode under the name Wang Shenghe. As well as returning him to a genre he inhabited during the 2010s, Yuanyanglou also marks his third use of the name Wang Shenghe, following his 2024 online featurette 小禾卿卿有点田 (“Xiao He, Qingqing Have a Bit of Land”).
In every respect – from the casting of Li to the underplayed widescreen photography by new name Li Muling 李牧羚 – Yuanyanglou marks a step up from the horror quickies Wang churned out during the genre’s heyday. The screenplay by him and two others – including Gu Rui 古睿, who wrote Wang’s 2024 online featurette – is sly in the way in which it parcels out information to viewers, leading the audience up and down various paths that often lead nowhere. This makes the plot – basically an excuse for a group of people to spend a week together in a spooky old block of flats – seem far more complicated than it actually is.
Given that this is a Mainland horror film, the “hauntings” have to be explained in a (reasonably) realistic way, though in retrospect half of what is seen on screen isn’t actually possible. (The film carries the usual protection that “this film is entirely fictional” and is set on “an island in the Pacific Ocean”, i.e. not mainland China.) This hardly matters as (a) it’s expected of horror films and (b) Wang’s direction and cast manage to suspend the audience’s belief for long enough.
At its heart, however, is a rather dark lesbian revenge story – only hinted at, never really explored, but still in plain sight – around which everything else is basically window-dressing. Some of the window-dressing – including scenes of a woman giving birth over a squat toilet – is remarkably graphic. Other window-dressing is standard shocks, often using paper funeral figures, to maintain menace. As a further diversion, the soundtrack is a busy mix of eery sounds, from a crying baby to the occasional (but thunderous) score by Xu Xin 徐昕, and the visuals a familiar blend of flashing lights, misty lighting and sudden close-ups.
Given solo top-billing, Changsha-born Li, 32, dominates the film’s female side and anchors the whole thing with her quietly forceful playing of an online journalist accompanying her fiance during the week-long stay. As played by TV actor Su Xiaoding 苏小玎, the fiance is rather too weedy to be a believable partner for such a strong-willed woman – though that is explained later in the plot. Making more immediate impression on the male side are Liu Xun 刘迅 (the serial lothario in Almost a Comedy 半个喜剧, 2019; co-lead in Rome-set rom-com The Italian Recipe 遇见你之后, 2022) as an arrogant business type and newcomer Xue Yuanqing 薛元清 as the building’s boyish security guard.
As well as being divided into chapters by room number (in English), the film also has Chinese titles that refer to current plot points, like “The Paper Bride” 纸扎新娘 and “Night Cries of a Strange Baby” 怪婴夜啼. The film’s Chinese title means “Lovers’ Nest: In a Panic”. It has no connection with Young Couples 鸳鸯楼 (1987), aka Yuanyanglou, a light drama centred on various inhabitants of an apartment block. That picture was directed by Beijing Film Academy professor Zheng Dongtian 郑洞天, also known at the time for the similar “community film”, Neighbours 邻居 (1981), co-directed with Xu Guming 徐谷明.
CREDITS
Presented by China Film Creative (Beijing) (CN), Beijing Juhuanle Film & TV (CN), Tianjin Maoyan Weiying Cultural Media (CN), Wanda Pictures (CN), Nanjing Cool Whale Film & TV Investment (CN), Fujian Wishart Media (CN), Beijing Ultra Comedy Culture Communication (CN). Produced by Beijing Ultra Comedy Culture Communication (CN), Beijing Juhuanle Film & TV (CN), Beijing Rurizhisheng Pictures (CN).
Script: Wang Shenghe, Gu Rui, Yang Jun. Photography: Li Muling. Editing: Gao Qiongjiali. Music: Xu Xin. Music supervision: Yang Kai. Production design: Zhang Jiahui. Art direction: Wang Xiaoyu. Costumes: Ma Jiao. Sound: Mu Lingfei, Wu Lei. Action: Yang Zhitao. Visual effects: Li Yongji, Guo Guanyu. Executive direction: Wen Baosen.
Cast: Li Meng (Shen Yan), Su Xiaoding (Liu Zhenzhong), Liu Xun (Su Jieke/Jack), Hai Lu (Zhang Chen/Xiaowan), Zhao Yingzi (Feng Xueqing), Xue Yuanqing (Ye Fan), Yu Guming (Zhao), Guan Peng (Yangzi, voice), Hu Xiaoyuan [Hu Yunzhe] (flat 105 tenant), Liu Wenjun (wedding MC), Hong Tao (Liu Zhenzhong’s father), Su Wen (Liu Zhenzhong’s mother), Qi Pan (doctor), Shu Gere (director), Tao Deyan (reporter), Li Muyang (Zhang Xiaoyang), Guo Yingxin (teenage Shen Yan), Lin Jingyi (teenage Feng Xueqing).
Release: China, 31 Oct 2024.