Dream Home

"Dream House" was somewhat of a great surprise. I love Hong Kong cinema and watch anything I can get my hands on. Though I wasn't familiar with "Dream House" prior to finding it by sheer random luck on Amazon, and decided to get it as it sounded interesting and was at an okay price.

And to make it all the more interesting, then the movie is based on true events that shook Hong Kong, and I got that confirmed from a friend living there, so it wasn't just something that was flaunted in the movie to make it more interesting - there was some truth behind it.

The story in "Dream House" is about Cheng Lai (played by Josie Ho) who has been saving money her entire life to buy her own dream apartment, a home of her own. She is living with her family, which is normal in Hong Kong, up until you get married, usually. Things seem to sort themselves out for her, except that the sellers raise the price, and other people are interested in the one and only specific apartment she wants. Cheng Lai sanity flickers and she is driven to inhuman actions.

"Dream House" was driven by a great story that sweeps you up and takes you along for a great ride. Plus it was really well acted, and it was mostly Josie Ho who pulled the weight. I, personally, do not care much for Eason Chan (playing Siu To) and his acting skills (or lack thereof).

The movie is filmed in a great way that makes it come off as right in your face, almost as if you were right there with the actors. Plus the camera work really helped the movie along as well, especially when Cheng Lai was having a breakdown on the street. That scene was just so amazingly nice.

And as a major plus, for all gorehounds out there, then there is a rather good amount of gore and really good effects in the movie, which makes it well worth checking out for the mayhem alone. I was impressed with some of the scenes. And I will say this, without giving away anything here; the scene with the pregnant tenant and her maid was one of the most brutal and graphically disturbing scenes I have seen in a long, long time. That really got my attention, as I had never expected that kind of graphic violence in this movie.

If you enjoy Hong Kong cinema, then you definitely should treat yourself to this movie, as it is a rather unique addition to the collection of Hong Kong cinema.

Josie Ho plays a young woman desperate to own her own flat. She makes the perfect deal for her dream home, but then the owners decide that the property is too valuable to part with. Ho decides to take matters into her own hands and lower that property value - by killing the crap out of everyone who lives next door to that place. I've never quite seen anything like this. The structure, which moves back and forth in time, is a bit confusing at first, but it all comes together in the end. The film is most notable for its violence. These are some of the nastiest, most disturbing murders I've seen in a long time. I can't remember the last time I was actually shocked by a movie.

This film is a fresh, entertaining, stylish and beautifully staged gore fest. The bloody mainframe of the film's structure is accompanied by an interesting side-story that serves to justify all the bloodshed and also to provide some social commentary, but all this is secondary to the rivers of blood. And God saw it was good.

Ho-Cheung Pang's "Dream Home" proves that well-made genre pictures satisfy a basic human need: they can focus our attention, for a while, to a sequence of events that entertains because we know, roughly speaking, what to expect, what kind of experiences are in store for us. Well, Dream House is an honest splatter. Victims are lined up to be slaughtered in the most inventive ways for our viewing pleasure. But the film also has elements of human drama, and these two aspects - gore and drama - play each other in and out very well. The overall result is an impeccably paced, brutal but surprisingly uplifting story, beautifully shot against the backdrop of Hong Kong's endless arrays of high-rises and apartment blocks.

The main character, played by an air of focused innocence by Josie Ho, has been saving up to buy an apartment with a nice seaside view, and she is working very hard to realize her dreams. Then things don't go exactly as planned. Lots of drama ensues. People die. Blood is spilled.

There is nothing much more to the plot than a general arch to justify the gore, but it all works out very well, and doesn't feel dragged out or phony or needlessly second-rate; in fact, the acting in this film is actually quite good for the most part, with the exception of the actress who plays the main heroine: she is VERY good. In addition to the action, there is some merit to the drama itself. It carries some weight, or, at any rate, enough to make the film seem interesting all the while. None of the social commentary is especially realistic or intelligent, but the splatter format can function as a kind of primal scream therapy, and thus bring some aspects of our repressed social anxieties to the bloody daylight.

Finally, one aspect of the film deserves special attention: the cinematography, editing and directing. The shots are beautiful, symmetrical, rich in detail. Whether inside or outside, the camera captures some beautiful scenes (and, let us not kid ourselves here, some beautiful people). Each frame could almost work as a photograph; each outdoors vignette of Hong Kong cityscape is hauntingly beautiful; each spewing of blood is swiftly and surgically captured on the screen.

The script is tight and the acting is sufficient. The editing is inventive and the staging rich in detail. Even the drama succeeds in never becoming boring and no single scene, or theme, overstays its welcome. The director-writer Pang has given us a good splatter film which is also a good film even outside its (criminally under-appreciated and depreciated) genre. I was pleasantly surprised by the craft involved. Did I mention it's also funny? Just wait for the moment when the... oh, never mind, just go see this bloody film already.

Snap judgment: Rivers of blood make for bloody good entertainment.

This movie caught my attention when it was reviewed by a friend of mine and I decided to give it a go and thankfully I did!!What can be said about "Dream Home" is that it's a very well done slasher movie with a fresh approach. I really loved this movie, what can I say! The basic story is a woman becomes so obsessed with buying a home with a view of the ocean she will go to any lengths to get that home....

I'm a huge fan of ultra violent horror movies and this one did not let down on that front by any means. But what really got me was the fresh ideas about a slasher/killer in this film. It wasn't the tired "crazed man follows stupid teens to a cabin" crap that gets turned out every week but a look at a seemingly normal person getting so obsessed with a dream that they will do anything and everything in their power to obtain that dream. Her performance was spot on and quite disturbing with kill scenes that made me cringe (which is very hard to do). Seriously, one of the greatest kill scenes I've seen in a movie this year! Do yourself a favor and check this out if you're into the slasher/killer genre. It won't be a waste of your time at the very least and you may just like it, maybe a lot!

Wouldn't it be nice to have a really good apartment? An apartment you always dreamed of? Of course not many of us could really afford our dream home, now could we? So what could we do about it? Other than work night and day (and the other way around) to really get enough money for it? Is there anything we can do?

According to the movie there is. But then again, you might not want to try that at (your future?) home. You could call this a social parody I guess and it is very well done. A very wicked sense of humor, great effects and an intercourse that is even more outrageous than the one that can be witnessed in "Hatchet 2" (though I'm pretty sure neither of the filmmakers were aware of that "similarity", maybe still aren't). If you like horror that also has something to say, but can also just be watched as entertainment, this is for you!