Back Home Review Bai Ling Brilliant In Return To A Hong Kong House Of Horror
This truly disturbing horror film marks the directorial debut of Nate Key, who shows a knack for delivering more than just backstory and an unstoppable streak of brutality. While most filmmakers shy away from traumatizing audiences with images of child abuse, suicide, self-mutilation, and rape, Kee jumps right in. At least the editing doesn't focus too much on the worst. , but for a film that pays as much attention to the horror tradition of Cantonese cinema as Western filmmakers, there's a lot to think about. For example, the use of location is reminiscent of David Lynch's Lost Highway mode, while the clandestine and sinister clichéd society is reminiscent of Arrie Astor's Midsomer, but that could be a coincidence.
The story begins with Hyeon Wing (Cantonese pop star Anson Ip-Sang Kong). His mother (Bai Ling, written here) receives a phone call to call him home in Hong Kong because he has cut out his tongue, tried to kill himself, and fallen into a coma. After visiting her in the hospital, where she can't do much, Wing goes to the apartment she grew up in, a tall, dirty building in a rough part of town. Wing recalls his childhood memories, especially how he saw ghosts around him as a child; It was a skill his single mother feared and envied, prompting her to take him to a local temple to lose it.
As the memories of these terrible old days fade, Wing helplessly watches the action from the same vantage point as a stage actor playing a flashback for others and realizes that all is not well. A young man named Yu (Wesley Wong) has the same powers and is filled with fear and anxiety as the correspondingly young Wing. At the end of the hall are the Chungs (Tae-bo and Yuk In Tam), an elderly couple who are uncomfortably over-friendly, like Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer's Mia Farrow to Rosemary's Baby.
Key relies heavily on panoramic cameras and tilt angles to make things pop, while the lighting favors deep yellow tones for daytime scenes and bright reds and blues for nighttime. Bai Ling terrifies her even more when she starts wearing a traditional Chinese opera costume, complete with glittering headdress and messy, smoky makeup. But seriously, it's good to remember what a good actress Bai is, as she uses that intense sensibility that's always been a trademark, but adds something sad and twisted to the mix.
