The things I do for just a smattering of Diana
Pang Dan. I have watched a lot of bad films and a few decent ones because
she was in it. Hard to understand really. Ok, not that hard. She wasn’t nicknamed
“Mystical Breasts” for her acting skills. This is probably the first film
I have seen of hers since the 2000 “No Sweat” which I am reasonably sure I
was the only person to see it. I fact, I have probably seen more Diana Pang
Dan films than Diana Pang Dan. That was all long ago though and I have moved
on – but still it was nice to come across another of her films. Since 2000
her films have gotten more obscure and cheaper – but still titles like Kung
Fu from Latin Dance, Hong Kong Happy Man, Hong Kong Pie and Nightclub on
Fire intrigue me. As she moved to the century mark her cleavage got less and
less revealing as I think she wanted to showcase her acting skills – thus
films like these. This poor film doesn’t even make it on to IMDB and even
Hong Kong Happy Man did. She seems to still be working – mainly in TV and
the Mainland where she was born in Changsha, now renamed to Where the Mystical
Breasts were Born.
This film is drab in every way – the sets are basically two rooms but with
a few outdoor shots as well. And besides Diana it has Ray Lui and Joe Ma Tak-cheung
who have been in a number of solid films. So perhaps it isn’t as low budget
as I think – it just feels that way. It is a ghost story but not likely like
one you have seen before. Partly because they could probably not afford special
effects but also because they were not looking for scares but for sentiment.
And weirdly, it works more than it should. It is rather sweet and bittersweet.
Wai (Joe Ma) is a Hong Kong fireman who has to go off with his crew to Taiwan
when an earthquake hits. He enters one of the buildings and a man tells him
to follow him to a few people who are stuck. He finds a man dead under a
beam but also a woman and little girl who are alive. He saves them but the
man has disappeared. He turns the dead man over and it is the man who brought
him here. The woman and girl are his. Gulp. A ghost!! Friendliest ghost ever.
Nicer than Casper He (Ray Lui) comes to the hotel room of Wai to say
thank you and oh, by the way I see you are having issues with your girlfriend
(Pang Dang) back in Hong Kong. How can I help and proceeds to show him clips
of his life with her and with his own wife – and can show him what she is
doing right now. Kind of like Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life if he were
a Peeping Tom. He should have been one of those advice columnists - Ghosts
Have Lonely Hearts Too.
