Fairy Tale Killer

追凶

Hong Kong, 2012, colour, 2.35:1, 93 mins.

Director: Peng Fa 彭发 [Danny Pang].

Rating: 3/10.

Scrappy serial-killer tale that fails to make a case for Hong Kong’s Peng Fa [Danny Pang] as a solo director.

STORY

Hong Kong, the present day. A suspicious looking guy, Wu Zaijun (Wang Baoqiang), is arrested by the police one night and claims he’s murdered several people, including Zhang Hui (Lin Xue), vice-chairman of a psychiatric hospital, because they are all “wolves”. At Changshawan police station, northwest Kowloon, Wang Weihan (Liu Qingyun), an inspector, decides to discharge him, as Zhang Hui is found to be still alive. Next day, however, Zhang Hui is found dead, with seven pieces of stone in his stomach, and Wang Weihan’s unit conceals the fact they let Wu Zaijun go free the night before. The police find that a patient at the psychiatric hospital has gone missing – an autistic woman called Wang Yue’er (Jiang Ruolin) who never talks and covers the walls with paintings of horrific fairytales. She is actually now with Wu Zaijun, who kills again. Meanwhile, Wang Weihan’s own son, Xiaorui, who is also autistic, starts manically painting similar images on the walls at home, putting further strain on Wang Weihan’s marriage to Hui (Wan Qiwen), who always takes their son’s side. Clues lead the police to Zhi He Orphanage, where Wu Zaijun and Wang Yue’er grew up together as close friends. Wu Zaijun turns himself in again for murder but the police can’t hold him as there’s no physical evidence. But the victims all worked at the orphanage at one time, and the next one looks like being Zhao Lan (Jiang Meiyi), a lawyer. As the case progresses badly for Wang Weihan’s unit, he loses the trust of his colleagues as well as his chances of promotion. And then Wu Zaijun strikes again, on a massive scale.

REVIEW

If there was still any doubt as to which of the Pang Brothers 彭氏兄弟 was head of the queue when the talent was handed out, Fairy Tale Killer 追凶 settles it. This first solo work in five years by younger twin Peng Fa 彭发 [Danny Pang] shows no improvement during his lay-off in going it alone, and fails to deliver on the marginal promise shown in his last movie, In Love with the Dead 冢爱 (2007). The gap between the two brothers is thrown into even higher relief by the recent film of Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang], Sleepwalker in 3D 梦游 (2011), which, despite some script flaws in its final half-hour, showed again his gift for genuine atmosphere-building, drawing real performances from his actors, and turning in good-looking product.

A serial-killer psychodrama in which the psychodrama doesn’t even add up at a pulp level, the film wastes a solid cast on an illogical script – credited to four writers, including Peng Fa himself and Situ Jinyuan 司徒锦源 [Szeto Kam-yuen] (who started in the Milkyway Image factory in the late 1990s) – that tries to cram everything from marital strife to police corruption into an already foggy plot centred on autistic orphans. The fairytale elements – a common theme in the Pengs’ horror films – is scrappily developed, while the serial killer himself, played by Mainland actor Wang Baoqiang 王宝强 (Blind Shaft 盲井, 2003), inexplicably veers from inanity to intelligence. As the detective faced with solving the crimes, Liu Qingyun 刘青云 [Lau Ching-wan] merely looks baffled.

On a technical level the film is just so-so, and not especially good-looking under Thai d.p. Decha Srimantra (Chocolate ช็อคโกแลต, 2008), a Peng regular who’s done better work under Peng Shun (The Detective C+ 侦探, 2007). Like Sleepwalker, the film is set in Hong Kong but was actually partly shot in Thailand.

CREDITS

Presented by Universe Entertainment (HK). Produced by Enable Film Production (HK), Films Station Production (HK).

Script: Peng Fa [Danny Pang], Situ Jinyuan [Szeto Kam-yuen], Zhu Jieying, Wu Mengzhang. Photography: Decha Srimantra. Editing: Peng Zhengxi [Curran Pang]. Music direction: Wu Lecheng. Art direction: Phakhawat Thatsakhorn. Costume design: Supitra Pornjarungsak. Sound: Wang Qingsheng, Zheng Yingyuan [Phyllis Cheng]. Visual effects: Narin Visitsak.

Cast: Liu Qingyun [Lau Ching-wan] (Wang Weihan, police inspector), Wang Baoqiang (Wu Zaijun), Jiang Ruolin (Wang Yue’er), Wan Qiwen (Hui, Wang Weihan’s wife), Lu Huiguang [Ken Lo] (Lao Gui/Old Guy, Wang Weihan’s colleague), Lin Xue [Lam Suet] (Zhang Hui), Luo Yingjun [Felix Lok] (Chen, Wang Weihan’s boss), Jiang Meiyi (Zhao Lan, lawyer), He Shangqian (Simon, detective), Zhao Juncheng (Xi, detective), Liang Junyi (pathologist), Fu Jiali (Cindy, detective), Lin Simin (newsreader), He Junwei (report-room policeman), Ye Yunqiang (Lee, coroner), Lin Yingyuan, Chen Chuqiao.

Release: Hong Kong, 10 May 2012.

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