Sleepwalker in 3D

梦游

Hong Kong, 2011, colour, 1.85:1, 3-D, 104 mins.

Director: Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang].

Rating: 6/10.

A very respectable undertaking by Peng Shun [Oxide Pang], with good performances and production values.

STORY

Hong Kong, the present day. Since her husband Yaming (Huang Debin) left her for another woman (Fu Xiaowei), Zheng Ziyi (Li Xinjie), who runs a small sewing business from home, has been having a recurring dream of walking a “barren land” where a body may be buried. She is seen sleepwalking at midnight in the street by a policewoman, Ou Biyi (Huo Siyan), who has her own problems: the son of her cousin, Ou Biqi (Yang Caini), has been kidnapped and she’s still making no progress on the case. When Yaming’s girlfriend tells Zheng Ziyi that he’s missing, Zheng Ziyi wonders where she’s been sleepwalking at night and whether she herself murdered him. Under questioning by Ou Biyi, it turns out that Zheng Ziyi’s young daughter (Namo Bualueng) was kidnapped two years earlier and, despite the ransom being paid, was found dead. Ou Biyi brings in a Mainland professor, Ye (Ma Yuke), to hypnotise Zheng Ziyi and try to solve the murder cases.

REVIEW

After the black crime comedy The Detective 2 B+ 侦探, writer-director Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang] stays in weird territory – but that of his favourite landscape, dreams – with Sleepwalker in 3D 梦游, a very respectable undertaking that shows yet again that Peng is several notches above his younger twin brother Peng Fa 彭发 [Danny Pang] when flying solo. A psychological whodunit centred on a lonely young woman who’s been abandoned by her husband and is having strange dreams – as well as midnight walks in her nightclothes – it looks great, has three strong performances by Malaysian Chinese actress Li Xinjie 李心洁 [Angelica Lee], Mainland actress Huo Siyan 霍思燕 and Hong Kong actress Yang Caini 杨采妮 [Charlie Young], plus an above-average score by Mainland composer Lao Zai 捞仔 [Loudboy], aka Wu Liqun 吴立群 (Kekexili: Mountain Patrol 可可西里, 2004; East Wind Rain 东风雨, 2010). When Peng is on form, he does have a gift for building atmosphere, drawing real performances from his actors, and turning in a good-looking product.

The scripts have always been the weakest element of the Pengs’ films and that for Sleepwalker is exactly so in the final half-hour as all the plot is tied up and over-explained. This results in a needlessly over-long movie as it shifts from a psycho-mystery to a psycho-drama, with Li and Yang’s characters coming to terms with the truth about their kidnapped children. In her third film with her director husband – after The Eye 见鬼 (2002) and Re-cycle 鬼域 (2006) – Li grows in her performance to a quite moving end. Huo (Distant Thunder 迷城, 2010) is equally good as the cold, procedural policewoman who hides the pain of not being able to solve the kidnapping of the young son of her cousin (Yang, also strong in a guest role). Among the men, Hong Kong character veteran Zheng Zeshi 郑则仕 [Kent Cheng] registers well in a small but crucial role near the end.

Though there are few exteriors – set in Hong Kong, the film was partly shot in Thailand – the atmospheric lighting by Hong Kong’s Wu Wenzheng 伍文拯 and Thai regular Decha Srimantra, holds the interest, and not surprisingly there’s a Southeast Asian feel to the main character’s flat. As usual for a Peng movie, the dream sequences have a fairytale flavour. Mandarin-speaking Li and Huo are both revoiced in Cantonese but Mainland actor Ma Yuke (playing a China professor who’s a hypnotist) speaks in Mandarin the whole time.

CREDITS

Presented by Universe Entertainment (HK).

Script: Peng Shun [Oxide Pang], Wu Mengzhang, Peng Baicheng [Thomas Pang]. Photography: Wu Wenzheng, Decha Srimantra. Editing: Peng Zhengxi [Curran Pang]. Music: Lao Zai [Loudboy]. Art direction: Li Weizhong, Narongchai Aunn-jai. Costumes: Guo Jiaci, Daranuch Sutthirak. Sound: He Zhitang, Zheng Yingyuan [Phyllis Cheng]. Action: Huang Weiliang [Jack Wong]. Visual effects: Cui Baiquan.

Cast: Li Xinjie [Angelica Lee] (Zheng Ziyi), Huo Siyan (Ou Biyi, police sergeant), Yang Caini [Charlie Young] (Ou Biqi, Ou Biyi’s cousin), Li Zonghan (Eric, tailor), Ma Yuke (Ye, professor), Bao Qijing [Paw Hee-ching] (Ou Biqi’s mother), Huang Debin [Kenny Wong] (Yaming, Zheng Ziyi’s ex-husband), Duan Weilun (police superintendent), Zheng Zeshi [Kent Cheng] (Eric’s elder brother), Chen Meishi (mother of girl in park), Cao Yongkang (father of girl in park), Kullanan Pubjuie (girl in park), He Junwei, Huang Zhihong (detectives), Ni Chenxi (Ye’s wife), Fu Xiaowei (Yaming’s girlfriend), Ou Xuanwei (psychiatrist), Chen Yuqing (Zhang, Zheng Ziyi’s employee), Teeraya Pupat (Zheng Ziyi’s other employee), Namo Bualueng (Zheng Ziyi’s daughter), Pavares Jareansin (De, Ou Biqi’s son).

Premiere: Tokyo Film Festival (Competition), 23 Oct 2011.

Release: Hong Kong, 3 Nov 2011.