Bleeding Mountain
凶间雪山
China, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 86 mins.
Director: Zhou Yaowu 周耀武.
Rating: 5/10.
Modestly budgeted, generic thriller keeps moving without generating real chills.
STORY
Hailuogou National Park, Sichuan province, southwest China, 3 May 2012. A group of friends, calling themselves the Flying Bird Mountaineering Team, are on a climbing expedition: team leader Shanghai (Wu Zhuoxi), Li Jian (Tae), Wei (Sun Zuyang) and Luo Yi (Deng Ziyi), with Shanghai’s girlfriend Xinyue (Deng Lixin) along for the ride. While driving in their jeep to their campsite, Xinyue sees a young woman by the roadside crying out “Don’t go up the mountain!” When they stop, however, she has disappeared, and the others put it down to the effects of the high altitude on the inexperienced Xinyue. At the campsite, one of the team says it was constructed by Japanese climbers, all of whom later died. According to the park’s management, whoever climbs an unnamed peak can have it named after them; Shanghai wants to scale No. 5 peak and name it after Xinyue. The next day, Xinyue stays in the camp while the other four go climbing. That evening, Li Jian, Wei and Luo Yi return, saying Shanghai died in an accident on the mountain. However, during the night Xinyue hears Shanghai’s voice on the radio telling her to run before it’s too late. He then appears, and says it was the other three who died, not him: Li Jian, Wei and Luo Yi are all ghosts and are coming to kill them. After hiding in an abandoned building, and then trying to escape in the jeep, Shanghai and Xinyue are attacked by the other three and Xinyue faints. She wakes up to find the other three telling her that Shanghai is really a ghost and is coming to kill them all. By now, Xinyue doesn’t know whom to believe.
REVIEW
A straightforward, modestly budgeted mystery-thriller centred on a single idea, Bleeding Mountain 凶间雪山 shows just what you can do with five young actors, a few tents and abandoned buildings, a jeep, and some good-looking scenery. Mainland writer-director Zhou Yaowu 周耀武 pretty much repeats the formula of his previous Harpoon 惊魂游戏 (2012), with lots of chases, a screaming heroine (Hong Kong singer-actress Deng Lixin 邓丽欣 [Stephy Tang], instead of Mainland actress Mo Xiaoqi 莫小棋) and a rondo-like plot that maintains interest without generating any substantial thrills. With Hong Kong d.p. Li Tianwei 李天卫 again providing the visuals, it’s a professional enough genre exercise that’s neither an advance nor a retreat for the mid-30s writer-director.
Based on an online story (actually less than 300 characters) by Kang Sifu 炕死夫 that’s the first in a series of doodles called Who to Believe 相信谁, the plot spins round the simple idea of a young woman who accompanies her boyfriend and three others on a climbing expedition and then finds herself menaced when all of them claim the others died on the mountain and are now ghosts. Deng, who’s had a busy acting career the past decade without making any particular mark, is cute enough as the confused heroine who doesn’t know whom to believe, and screams and runs around a lot on cue. The rest of the cast, including Hong Kong singer-TV actor Wu Zhuoxi 吴卓羲, Thai-Chinese singer-actor Tae (aka Suttawat Settakorn/Tang Chenyu 唐宸禹) and Mainland horror queen Deng Ziyi 邓紫衣 (Midnight Taxi 午夜出租车, 2009; No. 32, B District B区32号, 2011; Midnight Microblog 午夜微博, 2013; ) all hit their marks.
Dialogue is everyday and the final “solution” weak, but for most of the time Zhou manages to string out the one single idea – and not engender too many giggles when Deng looks confused for the umpteenth time – by keeping everyone on the move. Bleeding Mountain knows exactly what it is and doesn’t try to be any more. Sichuan’s Hailuogou National Park forms a scenic background, with help from the adjacent Yanzigou park, though the budget unfortunately didn’t stretch to exploiting the region’s famed glaciers. Technical credits are professional throughout.
[An earlier English title for the film was The Demon in the Mountain.]
CREDITS
Presented by Fujian Heng Ye Film Distribution (CN), Cayie International Group (CN), Beijing Huayiyuezhang Entertainment Management (CN), Beijing Chin Qin Culture (CN). Produced by Tempo Films Investment (CN).
Script: Ding Yuze, Zhou Yaowu. Online story: Kang Sifu. Photography: Li Tianwei. Editing: Teng Yun. Music: A Kun. Theme song vocal: Deng Lixin. Art direction: Huang Hao. Costume design: Li Xiaoxuan. Action: Xie Zhigang. Visual effects: Yang Xinyi (Beijing Hualangxingkong Digital).
Cast: Deng Lixin [Stephy Tang] (Xinyue), Wu Zhuoxi (Shanghai), Deng Ziyi (Luo Yi), Sun Zuyang (Wei), Tae [Suttawat Settakorn/Tang Chenyu] (Li Jian).
Release: China, 21 Dec 2012.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 31 Mar 2013.)