Needless to say that I hadn't heard about this 2019 Singaporean movie "Nu Gui Ai Shang Shi" (aka "When Ghost Meets Zombie") prior to sitting down for watching it here in 2023. And seeing it being labelled as a horror comedy, of course I was interesting in watching it. Plus the fact that it was an Asian movie I hadn't already seen also helped to make me want to watch the movie.
Right, well as for this being a horror comedy? Well, there wasn't really horror in the movie, unless the mere presence of a ghost and a zombie constitutes it to be labelled as a horror movie. Nay, this was a romantic comedy laced with a hint of horror element. So I was somewhat disappointed to see that it wasn't really a horror comedy, as I had expected. That being said, I am not saying that "Nu Gui Ai Shang Shi" is a bad movie, because it definitely was watchable and fair enough for a single viewing.
I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, given my limited exposure to the Singaporean cinema. And only after perusing through the cast listing on IMDb, do I see that Gurmit Singh was in the movie. I just watched a movie of his, but failed to recognized him on the screen in "Nu Gui Ai Shang Shi". It should be said that the acting performances from the cast ensemble was fairly adequate.
I was mildly entertained throughout the course of the 102 minutes that the movie ran for. However, I have to say that nearly two hours of sitting through what I thought would be a horror comedy, but turned out to be a romantic comedy, was sort of testing my endurance. If you sit down to watch director Yew Kwang Han's 2019 movie and expecting a supernatural romantic comedy, I am sure that you will be more entertained than I was.
Visually then "Nu Gui Ai Shang Shi" was okay. It was low-key, I will say that, especially the make-up department, as the zombie was essentially just powdering the skin of the leading actor a pale shade. Don't expect anything ghastly or gory, because it is not that type of zombie movie.
Having sat through 102 minutes of this movie, I can honestly say that it is not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time, because the romantic comedy that it turned out to be seemed more aimed at a female audience in a way.
My rating of "Nu Gui Ai Shang Shi" lands on a four out of ten stars.
