The Deadly Strands

咒•丝

China, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 86 mins.

Directors: Zhao Xiaoxi 赵小溪, Zhao Xiao’ou 赵小鸥.

Rating: 7/10.

Above-average horror entry is more than just a serial-murder mystery.

STORY

Beijing, the present day. Lu Xian (Yang Qi) is married to radio celebrity Zhuo Zhentao (Dai Liren), a relationships guru, and they have a young daughter, Zhuo Xiaoqian (Wang Yifei). Zhuo Zhentao has two grown children by his late first wife Shen Ying (Liang Jing), who committed suicide over his philandering: wannabe model Zhuo Xiaoyi (Kong Qianqian), who can’t forgive her father and Lu Xian for her mother’s death, and hairdresser Zhuo Xiaobai (Zhai Wenbin), who is devoted to young Zhuo Xiaoqian. Lu Xian is depressed over her marriage and is thinking of divorcing Zhuo Zhentao but he, as with his first wife, is against it as it could ruin his reputation. Lu Xian has taken to working the nightshift at Beijing Acquarium, where her friend Jiameng (Yu Yue), who first introduced her to Zhuo Zhentao, also works. One night, after finding a beautiful long wig in her locker, Lu Xian is strangled. Later, at her funeral, Zhuo Zhentao gets a threatening phone call from an anonymous potential blackmailer. At home, Zhuo Xiaoyi also discovers a beautiful long wig in a cupboard, and finds it mysteriously helps her career to take off. Jiameng also discovers one in a box on the metro, and is murdered that same evening. Zhuo Xiaoyi, who has been having strange experiences since wearing the wig, plans to go to France with boyfriend Chen Haoyu (Guo Jiaming) after a forthcoming fashion show, and says she wants to move out of the family flat. Zhuo Xiaobai, who just wants the family to be happy, is distraught, though his close confidante, Zhuo Xiaoqian’s nanny Xia (Zhang Yao), insists the family will stay together. Then Zhuo Zhentao receives a blackmail demand for RMB2 million.

REVIEW

The requirement in China that horror/ghost movies should always have a logical explanation has often helped push the genre into areas unexplored by conventional Asian chillers that focus simply on shocks and visual effects at the expense of character and motivation. Sometimes the explanation is just a coda with a doctor or policeman making a speech; in more adventurous movies, the plot itself incorporates psychological elements that prove just as interesting as the scares. Without overrating The Deadly Strands 咒•丝 – the second suspense drama by sibling directors Zhao Xiaoxi 赵小溪 and Zhao Xiao’ou 赵小鸥 following Invisible Connection 天上掉下个林妹妹 (2010) – there’s at least a theme running through the film: the need to keep a family together even when ambition and animosity are tearing it apart.

Well cast, and with sleek, cool photography by d.p. Xu Wei 徐伟 (Esquire Runway 时尚先生, 2007; Unfinished Girl 第三个人, 2007; Lethal Hostage 边境风云, 2012), Strands is an above-average entry in China’s current horror boom that keeps the pot of suspicion bubbling in an entertaining way and even makes reasonable sense at the end. It’s not especially scary but the twisty-turny plot is more than just a by-the-numbers murder mystery.

Deadly female hair has been a longtime staple of Asian horrors – during the past decade alone, from the South Korean The Wig 가발 (2005), through Exte: Hair Extensions エクステ (2006) by Japan’s Sono Sion 园子温, to the first episode of Thai anthology 3AM 3D (2012) – and so it is (kind of) here. The film’s production title was The Wig 假发, and as various victims receive one from an anonymous donor you just know things are going to end badly for them. Strands, however, doesn’t fetishise the hair angle; in fact, the wig is more of a MacGuffin than a major plot component. The film’s true centre is how one man’s ambition and philandering are wrecking his family.

As the radio celebrity who’s already had one wife commit suicide and wants to keep the death of his second one hushed up, Taiwan actor Dai Liren 戴立忍 [Leon Dai] is well cast and reins back his frequent tendency to overplay. Mainland actress Kong Qianqian 孔千千 (previously known under her real name Kong Wenjuan 孔文娟) is a strong presence as his unlikeable, equally ambitious daughter, while Liang Jing 梁静 pops up effectively in flashbacks as the late first wife. Chen Kun 陈坤 lookalike Zhai Wenbin 翟文斌 – credited as a co-writer – looks the part of the family’s hairdresser son and seems comfortable opposite Kong, with whom he’s already made two screamers. Most flavoursome, however, in a smaller role, is singer-actress Zhang Yao 张瑶 (the know-all roommate in recent hit So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春, 2013), as the son’s nanny confidante.

CREDITS

Presented by Whole Tang Shengshi (Beijing) Culture Development (CN), Union Square (Beijing) Entertainment (CN). Produced by Whole Tang Shengshi (Beijing) Culture Development (CN), Union Square (Beijing) Entertainment (CN).

Script: Zhang Yiru, Zhai Wenbin, Xu Wen. Photography: Xu Wei. Editing: Yu Dong. Music direction: Kikuchi Keisuke. Art direction: Weng Yu. Styling: Xu Jianshu [Lawrence Xu]. Sound: Li Tao, Wang Chao. Visual effects: Cao Yong. Police advice: Dai Yan. Executive direction: Zhang Haijiang.

Cast: Dai Liren [Leon Dai] (Zhuo Zhentao), Zhai Wenbin (Zhuo Xiaobai, his son), Kong Qianqian (Zhuo Xiaoyi, his elder daughter), Liang Jing (Shen Ying, his first wife), Zhang Yao (Xia, nanny), An Hu (Lu Xian’s lover), Wang Yifei (Zhuo Xiaoqian, Zhuo Zhentao’s younger daughter), Wang Xiaoshan (Xu Zijun, police detective), Yang Qi (Lu Xian, Zhuo Zhentao’s second wife), Guo Jiaming (Chen Haoyu, Zhuo Xiaoyi’s boyfriend), Wang Hantao (lover), Yu Yue (Jiameng, Lu Xian’s work colleague), Yang Kui (radio station head), Lai Gang (photographer), Zhang Yingdi (photographer’s assistant), Xugu Jiahang (agent), Jiang Weiwei (tour guide), Jiao Aimin (man in acquarium), Tian Yuan, Zhao Ting, Wang Jiejia (visitors in acquarium), Gu Xiaobai (legal examiner), Wei Lei (admirer of Zhuo Xiaoyi), Zhang Yezi, Zhou Xinhuizi (models), Zhao Xiaoxi (radio programme director), Dai Yan (policeman at metro station murder), Zhang Aili (head of housekeeping service company), Zhang Xiaoyu (employee), Mao Mao (receptionist), Wang Qixu (assistant), Zhao Zhenhua, Li Fengrong (old couple), Zhao Xiao’ou, Xu Wen (stylists), Li Tang (young Zhuo Xiaobai), Weng Yu (makeup artist), Zi Hao (designer), Guang Gang (boss), Li Li (boss’ assistant), Wang Ziwei, Li Xiang (customers in hairdresser’s).

Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (Focus China), 17 Jun 2013.

Release: China, 5 Jul 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 17 Jun 2013.)