Ghostly Bus

                                                                     
Director: Wilson Tong
Year: 1995
Rating: 5.5
This 1995 film is a mess. It is as if a hand grenade was thrown into a buffet. But it is a Hong Kong mess and that can often be a good thing as they just didn't play by the conventional rules of filmmaking. Pretty much anything goes. In other words, this is your typical ghost triad pickpocket action tragic romance. It is held together by bubble gum but manages to work for the most part. The good parts are quite good; the so-so parts drag. Director Wilson Tong (Ghost Ballroom, The Musical Vampire - after a lengthy career in martial arts films) gets the balance of the film wrong. The ghosts are wonderful, the triads nasty, the pickpockets slick, the action brutal but the middle of the film is weighed down with a romance that seems to go on forever. Between a man and a ghost. The final fifteen minutes of the film though are sublime insane fun.



If you ever find yourself in Hong Kong late at night, don't take the 97 bus. Chances are it won't stop for you anyways, but just in case. That is the ghost bus.  Ghosts need to get places too and a bus just for them comes in handy. They need a special driver for that - at double pay - in this case Hero played by Vincent Wan. He has the gift of seeing ghosts - or curse depending. He keeps his head down, does his shift and goes home. If a ghost gets unruly, he kicks them off. This is no secret - the other bus drivers know and nobody thinks this is rather odd. It is Hong Kong and ghosts are everywhere. One female ghost Ling Ling (Valerie Chow - The Blade, Chungking Express) asks a favor of him - or I will kill you. An idle threat as knives whiz by his head and his stove nearly explodes into flames. "If ghosts scared me, do you think I will be driving them". What do you need. To find a man. Michael (Simon Yam). 



That takes us to the pickpockets. Michael is a professional pickpocket - a very slick one in which he scouts out the target and with his two partners (Tai Bo and Fung Hak-on) create diversions to help the pick. But one day, he picks the wrong person - a big shot triad who calls in his troops to go after Michael. Some nice chases around the city but these guys don't play nice. One night while having dinner with his fellow drivers, Hero tells them about why this is the ghost bus. A few years previously the 97 bus went over a cliff and everyone died. Ling Ling among them. And they are still on the bus waiting for reincarnation. She needs to marry Michael for this to happen. A little difficult as he doesn't see ghosts - but Hero can take care of that. I like that when Hero tells Michael that he has been talking to Ling Ling and she wants to see him, he expresses no surprise. Sure. In the finale it all comes together with two vicious ghosts trying to kill Michael, Ling Ling trying to marry him and the triads showing up. Needed more ghosts and triads and less of the flashback to when she was alive. Still, I miss films like this from Hong Kong.