Apparition

恶灵之门

China, 2014, colour, 2.35:1, 88 mins.

Director: Guo Dalei 郭大雷.

Rating: 6/10.

Above-average supernatural drama, with a satisfyingly dense script and good performances.

STORY

Beijing, the present day. After several nondescript works, writer Ze Tian (Mo Shaocong) has had a big hit with his grisly thriller The Dream to Kill 梦杀 (aka Kill Dream), in which he used himself, his family and friends as characters. At home in his spacious new flat, he has an ideal existence with his wife Zhou Dan (Chen Tingjia) and young son Xiaotian (Zhang Haoting). However, his publishers are pressing him for a sequel, and he has writer’s block. One evening he’s disturbed when a mysterious young woman drops off a postcard of the idyllic Sunset Beach inside a copy of his novel. A beautiful young woman, Zhang Jingru (Zhu Zhu), later moves into the flat opposite, and her presence inspires him to write again, using her name for a character. One night, when he’s hungry and while his wife is in the bathroom, she visits him with some food. Ze Tian starts writing feverishly, and Zhang Jingru visits him again, late one night, while his wife is asleep. She says that, like him and his wife, she’s originally from Ningbo, south of Shanghai, and has prepared some Ningbo dishes for him. She questions him about the difference between dreams and reality, spiritual existence vs physical existence, and jokingly describes herself as a dream figure. After seeming to almost seduce him, she leaves. Late one night, through his front door’s spyhole, Ze Tian sees Zhang Jingru and others – including an old woman (Hu Keyu) and a younger psychologist (Zhuge Chengcheng) whom Ze Tian once saw in the lift – performing a kind of exorcism ceremony on the landing. Next morning there is chicken blood everywhere, so Ze Tian realises it wasn’t a dream. He angrily confronts Zhang Jingru, but later writes about his main character (him) having passionate sex with a mystery neighbour (her). When Zhou Dan announces she’s pregnant, Ze Tian is delighted and stresses again there’s nothing between him and Zhang Jingru. However, when Zhang Jingru announces to Zhou Dan that she and Ze Tian are in a relationship, and Zhou Dan later sees them having sex, tragedy strikes, leading Ze Tian on a quest to uncover the truth.

REVIEW

A successful writer finds himself unable to distinguish between dreams and reality in Apparition 恶灵之门, an interesting second feature by writer-director Guo Dalei 郭大雷, 39, that’s utterly generic but juggles its horror elements with skill. This being a Mainland production, the viewer knows there’s going to be a rational explanation for all the ghostly goings-on but this doesn’t reduce the film’s impact one bit. There’s even an argument that the Mainland ruling on supernatural elements forces horror writers to work harder in tying up their plots, and Guo and fellow writers Xiong Jia’nan 熊嘉南 and Yin Xiaoran 印小然 have come up with a satisfyingly dense tale that not only finally makes sense but also throws in some unexpected twists along the way.

It’s a tribute to the script that the first half is entirely set within the main character’s and his sexy new neighbour’s flats without any sense of the drama being cramped. Guo and Hong Kong d.p. Lin Huaquan 林华全 (a regular for director Chen Guo 陈果 [Fruit Chan]) find plenty of fresh angles within the flats, editing by Zhang Wenting 张文婷 is highly attuned to the emotional flow, the music is restrainedly operatic, and the visual contrast between the two flats – the writer’s neat family apartment, the neighbour’s deep-red furnishings and curtains – also adds visual variety. In fact, the lack of exteriors helps the intensity of the relationships, especially between the writer and his femme fatale neighbour as she keeps popping by with late-night snacks and bedroom eyes, and he finds his inspiration driven to fever pitch as his grasp on reality seems to weaken. After taking the story to a new level with a shock development, the film then opens out at the 50-minute mark as the writer sets off on a quest to make sense of things so far.

There’s nothing epecially new about the film’s content and it has its fair share of psychodrama cliches (floating underwater, throwing things at mirrors). But here they seem valid rather than just rote devices and – maybe due to his family’s background in theatre performance – Guo concentrates tightly on the characters during the first half, rather than on shocks and visual effects. In that way, he builds a lot of dramatic credit that he can then afford to spend during the second, more explanatory half. The solution is not so obvious, and the viewer is cleverly led up and down several paths to reach it.

In one of his increasingly rare big-screen appearances, Hong Kong’s Mo Shaocong 莫少聪 [Max Mok], now in his mid-50s, has developed some character to his features and does a reasonable job of looking surprised behind funny spectacles; but it’s Mainland actress Zhu Zhu 朱珠 (the glamour-puss best friend in The Old Cinderella 脱轨时代, 2014) who’s the engine of the movie as his mysterious neighbour. Floating easily between sultry, playful and hysterical, Zhu, 31, exudes sensuality, and is loved in return by Lin’s camera; she’s also backed by a strong supporting cast of photogenic actresses Chen Tingjia 陈廷嘉 as the writer’s oh-so-perfect wife and Zhuge Chengcheng 诸葛橙橙 as a psychologist who plays a key role in the second half. In a cameo, dependable Taiwan veteran Jin Shijie 金士杰 pops up as an ominous exorcist.

The film was actually shot in early 2013 and waited three years for release in China, at which time it got obliterated by the New Year movie crush. (In the meantime, Guo has shot two other features, the rom-com The Rise of a Tomboy 女汉子真爱公式 [2016] and action-comedy Once Upon a Time in the Northeast 东北往事  破马张飞 [2016].) Like several Chinese horror films, the original title contains a clue about the story’s solution. Earlier titles for Apparition were 小心没有影子的人 (“Be Careful of People without Shadows”) and Black Box 黑盒子, the latter referenced in the film’s opening and referring to what happens when misery and despair are unlocked from a person’s soul. For the record, there is no The in the film’s English title on the print.

CREDITS

Presented by Henan Film & TV Production Group (CN), Beijing Wuzilong Film & TV Media (CN), Beijing Xiaozhu Hengheng Media (CN), Beijing Yinhai Longzhou International Entertainment (CN), Zhonghan Dadi Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Hunan Letian Film Media (CN), Beijing Huanying Huayi Media (CN). Produced by Beijing Wuzilong Film & TV Media (CN), Beijing Xiaozhu Hengheng Media (CN).

Script: Guo Dalei, Xiong Jia’nan, Yin Xiaoran. Photography: Lin Huaquan. Editing: Zhang Wenting. Music direction: Guo Sida. Art direction: Ma Shiqi. Styling: Liu Mei. Sound: Sun Lijun, Gao Changqing, Li Yuesong. Special effects: Dong Mingxing. Visual effects: Zhang Wenting. Executive direction: Zhi Donghui, Zhang Xinbo.

Cast: Mo Shaocong [Max Mok] (Ze Tian), Zhu Zhu (Zhang Jingru), Chen Tingjia (Zhou Dan), Jin Shijie (Miao Kang), Zhuge Chengcheng (Zhang Jinglan, Zhang Jingru’s younger sister), Hu Keyu (Chen, old herbalist woman), Lou Jiayue (Miao Yu, Miao Kang’s daughter), Bahaguli (young Chen), Zhang Haoting (Xiaotian, Zhou Dan’s son), Lou Yujian, Wang Jing (radio voices).

Premiere: International Chinese Film Festival (Exhibition section), Sydney, Nov 2014 (as Black Box).

Release: China, 22 Jan 2016.