Spirit Touch Seventh Sense
七月半3 灵触第七感
China, 2017, colour, 2.35:1, 77 mins.
Directors: Liu Hong 刘鸿, Wang Liang 王良.
Rating: 5/10.
Modest but solid ghost story recovers some of the form of the first in the Mid-July Days franchise.
STORY
A city in central China, the present day, summer. Archaeologist Lu Mingyuan (Xu Hong) and his colleague Zhu Li (Dong Yang) are excavating a 2,500-year-old grave from the Wu Chu era that was looted by a US soldier, Mike, during the mid-20th century. At that time his action let loose the spirit of the witch Jiuli; now the grave is empty. Three years later, the seven members of a university society are looking for somewhere to go in the summer after their exams have finished. Lu Yibai (Luo Xiang), nephew of Lu Mingyuan, suggests using his uncle’s mansion in the mountains, which has been vacant since he went mad and disappeared about a year ago. The group comprises Lu Yibai, his girlfriend Lin Xiangwan (Zeng Yilian), geology student Li Song (Zhao Ji), society president Zhuo Yang (Wang Liang), athletics student Xia Minxue (Miao Qing) who fancies Zhuo Yang, and first-year students Su Luo (Shi Jingzi) and Zhong Qiqi (Song Rui). History student Su Luo has been having nightmares of being haunted; in addition, Xia Minxue dislikes Su Luo, whom she suspects is after Zhuo Yang, and has deliberately befriended Zhong Qiqi, Su Luo’s former roommate. Two days before the mid-July Hungry Ghost Festival, the group sets off, arriving the next morning. That evening Su Luo has a nightmare about a ghostly young woman who is chained up; the following night she sleepwalks down to the basement where she finds a box among the uncle’s ancient pottery. When she opens it, a green force emanates from inside and a stone falls out; before Su Luo passes out, a female ghost says, “Finally I’ve found you.” Next day, on the Hungry Ghost Festival, Li Song finds the stone and, thinking it may be rare, decides to take it to his supervisor for analysis. Li Yibai accompanies him down the mountain. When they haven’t returned by the following morning, Zhuo Yang decides to go and look for them, leaving the four women alone. By now Xia Minxue is crazy with jealousy over the time Zhuo Yang has spent looking after Su Luo.
REVIEW
After the feeble Past and Present 七月半2 前世今生 (2016, see poster left), the Mid-July Days 七月半 horror franchise recovers some of the modest form of the 2015 original with this third entry in the cycle of spooky tales set during the so-called Hungry Ghost Festival 中元节. Spirit Touch Seventh Sense 七月半3 灵触第七感, co-directed by creative producer 监制 Liu Hong 李鸿 (repeating his role on the 2015 original) and actor Wang Liang 王良, again centres on a group of university students but is otherwise unconnected with either of the previous two films, apart from some of the same actors (Wang, Luo Xiang 罗翔, Miao Qing 苗青) and crew (editors Li Jian 李健 and Luo Wei 罗伟, designer Ma Hongtao 马红涛). With a new d.p. in Liu Qingqing 刘情情, the result looks considerably better this time, though the script (by regulars Yun Momo 云漠漠 and Bei Bao 贝宝) is slim and again, by way of explanation, simply downloads a big chunk of the backstory about an hour in.
Box office was the weakest of the three to date, with a miniscule RMB3 million, a quarter of Mid-July Days 七月半之恐怖宿舍 and less than half of the (far weaker) Past and Present. But as a representative of the large school of budget Mainland horrors that flit across screens earning a couple of million RMB, Spirit Touch is solid, without being especially good in any department. Liu and Wang have put together an okay if modest production, have a cute lead in 24-year-old actress Shi Jingzi 施景子 – previously known as Shi Chaojinzi 施潮锦子, the ambitious class head in Growing Pains 会痛的十七岁, 2017, by Hong Kong’s Peng Fa 彭发 [Danny Pang] – and put most of the ghostly stuff into her nightmares while cooking the pot of female jealousies around her. Unfortunately, once the story gets going Shi doesn’t have much to do apart from jerking wide awake from nightmares, and Wang, 26, who’s a more interesting director (Taboo Terror of Going Back 午夜惊魂路, 2017) than actor, is wooden and prissy as the male lead, outplayed by Song Rui 宋睿 as the girl’s BFF and Miao as the resident bitch.
The film was shot in Mengshan, Guangxi province. The Chinese title means “Mid-July 3: The Spirit Touches the Seventh Sense”. The regulation scene of a psychologist “explaining” the hauntings is got rid of early on rather than popping up at the end.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing China Film Legendary Pictures (CN).
Script: Yun Momo, Bei Bao. Photography: Liu Qingqing. Editing: Li Jian, Luo Wei. Music supervision: Wang Liang. Art direction: Ma Hongtao. Sound: Sun Hengyue, Rui Dapeng. Executive direction: Gu Yafei, Liang Liren.
Cast: Shi Jingzi (Su Luo), Wang Liang (Zhuo Yang), Luo Xiang (Lu Yibai), Miao Qing (Xia Minxue), Song Rui (Zhong Qiqi), Zhao Ji (Li Song), Zeng Yilian (Lin Xiangwan), Xu Hong (Lu Mingyuan, Lu Yibai’s uncle, archaeologist), Dong Yang (Zhu Li, archaeologist), Tang Yiyuan (Li, university psychologist), Xu Hui (Su Luo’s fellow student), Shao Bingru (woman in red), Liu Haoran (boy).
Release: China, 24 Nov 2017.