Tales from the Dark Part
1
Directed by Various
Year: 2015
Rating: 7.5
Hong Kong horror film anthologies were a mainstay of that film industry
from the mid-1990’s to the early 2000’s with Three Extremes (1/3 Hong Kong)
in 2003 marking both the high point and to some degree the end of this format.
2003 was also the final year for the Troublesome Night series which began
in 1997 and totaled nineteen in all. A number of these anthologies were rather
fun – low budget, young directors, young actors, each story being an easy
30-minute gulp and generally at least one of them was pretty good and the
other two serviceable. But they were rarely scary. With very few exceptions
Hong Kong horror has never really been able to achieve scary like the Japanese
have. Crazy at times with films like The Eternal Evil of Asia and Ebola Syndrome
but not hair-rasing scary. They have tried at times to imitate the Japanese
flavor of horror but just can’t quite get there. The vast majority of HK horror
films deal with the supernatural – ghosts and demons - rarely a serial killer
(Red to Kill and Dr. Lamb being among the exceptions), monsters or sadistic
kidnapping leg-cutting maniacs – sub genres that are so popular in the West.
That isn’t their thing. Their horror is generally embedded within their
own cultural context which is what makes it very interesting to me. All the
various Gods, ghosts, superstitions and rites are culturally generated. I
think scary is dependent to some degree on what you believe – for me ghosts
are not real and so ghost stories don’t scare me (usually), but if ghosts
are part of your cultural belief system then they are realer and scarier
to you. I presently live in Thailand where ghosts are very much believed
with spirit houses all over to placate them. I mean really believe. A few
years ago two females were visiting a Thai friend of mine – and I went downstairs
to fetch them. As we turned the corner to the apartment, I noticed that the
lights in the hallway were out and had been for a few days. So I said to
them “Strange, the lights have been off since the guy across the hall died
last week”. That was all it took. Without a word to each other, they turned
and ran for the elevator; their faces sketched in absolute fright. I had
to chase after them and explain that I was joking. Not a funny joke in Thailand
but I admit it still cracks me up to this day. So context matters.
In 2013 the horror anthology made a mini-comeback with Tales from the Dark
I and II. The first Tales is a very good piece of work – with high production
standards, great cinematography, top notch acting, creepy imagery and two
highly respected directors and one very respected actor having his directorial
debut (and so far only director credit). But again they are not especially
scary – but I thought all three were good stories – one great – that were
very culturally localized. Ghosts play a role in all three stories and they
are in turn playful, tragic and revengeful. They are all based on short stories
by Lilian Lee, a very famous Hong Kong writer with some 120 books to her credit,
a few made into famous films – Rouge, Green Snake, Farewell My Concubine and
Kawashima Yoshiko.
The first story is directed and acted in by Simon Yam. Perhaps the weakest
of the three that touches on the social issue of poverty and high-cost of
renting as well as the supernatural. It begins with a young girl running down
empty streets at night trying to find a place to stay – where she runs into
ghosts – the very hungry ghost played by Lam Suet gorging on food – all turning
her away – and she then turns out to be a ghost too – a homeless ghost. Sort
of a metaphor for living in HK now. But the story turns to Simon Yam’s character
– a down and out man unable to hold on to a job living in a small decrepit
one room apartment surrounded by creepy dolls. That he speaks to. Complains
to. He hits on what he thinks is a brilliant kidnapping scheme. Stealing
urns from cemeteries and ransoming them to the remaining relatives. One relative
thanks him because now he doesn’t have to visit. Please dispose of the ashes
anywhere. Yam is all bug-eyed, sweaty and nuts here somehow paying
for the sins of his life that have come to collect a debt owed.
The second story is directed by Lee Chi-ngai who doesn’t exactly have a
reputation in the genre of horror but he has directed some terrific films
– though admittedly a while back – He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father, Lost and
Found, Magic Kitchen, Sleepless Town and a few other UFO productions. He
has a light touch and can mesh comedy and drama together very well. And he
does that here to produce a charming concoction with a tragic trajectory.
Tony Leung Ka-fai is a fortune teller who can see ghosts which drives his
wife (Eileen Tung) nuts. Stop telling me there is a ghost at the next table!
I’m eating! A couple come to his small shop buried within one of those old
styled malls with hundreds of tiny shops and tell him that the wife is feeling
sure that she is being trailed by a ghost. But Tony has decided to retire
because of rising rents and so tells them to go down the hall where another
woman works who deals with these sorts of things with the use of crystals.
She is played by Kelly Chen who had been in Chi-ngai’s brilliant Lost and
Found and she is as goofy and dizzy as an amusement ride gone haywire. Like
a jolt of sugar behind her enormous glasses with contact lenses behind them
that will allow her to see ghosts or so she hopes. The two of them decide
to investigate before the ghost (Cherry Ngan) does harm. They should have
made these two into a film on their own. Like Nick and Nora.
The final story is directed by Fruit Chan who was behind the Hong Kong section
of Three Extremes – the masterful Dumplings which was later made into a feature
length film. In Hong Kong there are women – generally older who gather in
the Causeway Bay area who beat villains with shoes. Not the real villains
but effigies or pictures of them that customers bring to them to get revenge
or relief. This practice is called “da siu yan” and the women are nicknamed
The Hit Women of Hong Kong. I mean this happens in real life. By performing
this ritual they bring bad luck to their targets – the White Tiger. One evening
a middle aged woman (Josephine Koo) comes to seek help, seeking vengeance
from the old woman (Siu Yam Yam better known to many as Yum Yum Shaw in her
days as a sexy actress in Shaw Brothers movies. Sexy no more but she is great
in this). Koo wants revenge on her in-laws who ruined her son’s life. But
that turns out not to be the real story here – the next customer (Dada Chan)
wants revenge on three men and one woman who did her very wrong and wants
to use the shoe herself. Bad things begin to happen as she pounds away. Almost
all shot out on the streets of Hong Kong. This is pretty terrific. As far
as I know this didn’t reignite this format but I hope to see Tales from The
Dark 2 at some point.
