Yao ye hui lang

NIGHT CORRIDOR (Yao Ye Hui Lang)

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Mono

Now firmly established as a popular figure in both the commercial and art-house sectors of Hong Kong cinema, hot young actor Daniel Wu (BISHONEN, ENTER THE PHOENIX) co-produced this eerie supernatural drama with Stanley Kwan - director of ROUGE (1988) and LAN YU (2001) - which Wu has described in interviews as: "A dark, non-typical Hong Kong story, with a more European feel to it than most". Based on a novel by writer-director Julian Lee, Wu plays Sam, a photographer pursuing a successful career in London, far away from the ghosts of his childhood in HK, where he suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of a 'benign' family priest (Eddy Ko). However, he's forced to return home when his alcoholic mother (Kara Hui) informs him that his twin brother Ah-hung has died following a horrific incident in which he was torn apart by monkeys (talk about creepy!). Beset by grief and confusion, Sam seeks answers from the ageing night porter (Guk Fung) of a local library which his brother used to attend, where he's introduced to Ah-hung's strange girlfriend (mainland model Coco Chiang) whose devotion to Sam isn't as innocent as it first appears. But Sam's return to HK has also rekindled his affections for a childhood friend (Allan Wu), whom Ko accuses of being partly responsible for Ah-hung's death. The mystery continues to deepen...

Filmed in twelve days on a limited budget and photographed with noir-ish intensity by debut cinematographers Wong Chi-ming and Charlie Lam, this multilayered shocker recalls the escalating paranoia suffered by Mia Farrow in ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968), though the Gothic tone and slow-burning tempo of Lee's film owes as much to similarly-styled Asian entries like RING (1998) and JU-ON: THE GRUDGE (2003). Lee maintains a cohesive narrative structure, despite his fractured editing style and non-linear approach to the material, whilst Wu anchors proceedings with his skillful portrait of a sensitive artist cast adrift in a threatening landscape. Many of the film's themes and images are linked explicitly to the famous painting 'The Nightmare' by 18th-19th century artist Henry Fuseli (that's the one in which a horned demon is sitting astride a sleeping/swooning woman draped across a bed), an image whose relevance only becomes clearer as the movie draws to its enigmatic conclusion, and while the stark location photography evokes an appropriate measure of creeping dread, Lee further unnerves his audience by introducing odd, disconcerting noises into an otherwise benign soundtrack, while half-seen images flicker briefly at the edges of the frame. Though it plays like a character study, the film is intensely cinematic in the usual HK manner, and while the ending is a little abrupt and confusing, events become clearer on subsequent viewings. Like BLOW-UP (1966), this is a movie which refuses to indulge the viewer's expectations...

Daniel Wu is in every scene, and he's hypnotic and beautiful and deeply tragic, all at the same time; tormented by the shadows of an unhappy childhood, and consumed by the darker shadows of an impending catastrophe, he tempers the anguish of his brother's death with the fortitude of a natural survivor. Chiang essays a character not unlike the nightmarish Sadako in the Japanese "Ring" series, an innocent-looking pawn of satanic forces, while Guk's kindly night porter turns out to be harboring more than a few guilty secrets of his own (my lips are sealed). Slow-going, but bewitching and dreamlike in the best possible way, the movie was given a Category III (adults only) rating by HK censors for some frank sexual material, including an extraordinary scene in which Sam sprawls beneath his bedclothes, masturbating langurously over a recent photograph of the young man he once loved and lost (now a hunky radio DJ). Few actors of Wu's standing have ever been so daring in HK cinema.

(Cantonese and English dialogue)

Unnerving and disorienting story of a man named Sam Yuen who returns to Hong Kong to see his brother after he put into a coma by an accident. Arriving home he finds that his brother has died, his mother has remarried. No one will speak to him directly and the best that he can get from most people is that he should simply return to London. It isn't long before Sam realizes that nothing, and no one is who they appear to be.

This is essentially a European style Gothic film that feels similar to films like, Rosemary's Baby, Angel Heart, Skeleton Key, The Ninth Gate but made in China. Hong Kong feels more like a European city than a jewel of the Orient. Its a disconcerting feel that puts you on edge from the start, and one that only gets worse thanks to the twists and turns of the plot. The plot is labyrinthine in its construction and is designed to drop you, along with Sam, through its twists in such away that you end up doubting who everyone is, even Sam. The film maybe a bit too twisty for its own good, but for the most part it works leaving you praying for the sun light and something happier.

I admire this film a great deal, however I'm not sure to what degree I like it. Certainly its a good film but I wonder if its trying to cover too much territory (perception, pedophilia, repressed homosexuality, identity, horror) in its brief 75 minute running time.I'm not sure it all works, other than as a disorienting ride. (I'm also not sure if the ending works) Worth a look especially if you like mind games over gore or want to see a Hong Kong film that simply doesn't feel like one.

When one grisly morning his phone rings, starving artist Sam Yuen (Daniel Wu) couldn't have been less prepared. An unrecognizable voice claims his twin had been severely injured, urging Sam to pack up and leave London for HK. Feeling obligated, the destitute painter somehow makes his way back, only to be informed of the twin's unfortunate demise. As if such grim tidings weren't enough, he finds his alcoholic mom deranged out of her wits.

Understandably stymied by these events of the macabre, Sam seeks answers, stepping into realms of HP Lovecraftian proportions. Everyone he literally bumps into have some dark secret or other dangling over their heads menacingly, including his former school teacher and priest, a classmate turned radio celebrity and a creepy librarian any idiot could tell would be best avoided.

Disturbing facts pertaining to Sam's twin surface, some through an alleged ex-girlfriend (Coco Chiang) who promptly proceeds to engage the new arrival in startling fornication. It transpires the twin was mauled by feral monkeys at a local zoo, but above all else, conflicting information hints at a severe identity crises as Sam begins to wonder which of the two brothers actually died.

Author-director Julian Lee wanted a Gothic, slightly grotesque atmosphere, shooting for one by incorporating sickly elements such as sexual deviance, paranoid delusions and murder. Sadly for him, the end result resembles more those pseudo-scary HK ghost flicks, albeit a very slick one at that. Despite tons of intellectual contrivances and direct references to Henry Fuseli's blunt imagery in his classic painting The Nightmare, Night Corridor doesn't reach lofty heights as did Seven, Twelve Monkeys and Memento, to name a few possible points of inspiration. However, it probably will work to raise Daniel Wu's career from its current mire following mediocre ho-hum appearances in both Love Undercover films, Naked Weapon and the atrocious Peeping.

Scant few locations and a short runtime probably stand as Night Corridor's main asset, not only constructing a viable ambiance but additionally helping put the simple story within an appropriately brief context. Any longer and the whole caboodle would come crashing down.

Rating: * * *