After finding a strange letter on the street, university students find themselves tormented by the ancient curse of the vengeful Nu Gui. As the malevolent spirit unleashes havoc, she is forced to confront her haunting past and unravel a tragic connection to the malignant figure known as Malice. Secrets will be unearthed and the boundaries of reality will blur in this harrowing tale of revenge.
For the most part, this is a pretty interesting short. One of the stronger features here is the way it manages to bring about the central storyline at play. The economic means of establishing the type of vengeful spirit it is and how she goes around selecting victims is really fun, establishing the folklore utilizing the common Asian horror trope of the angry, relentless spirit stalking all those who wronged them. This ability to include various folklore bits from several different Asian cultures regarding the ability to combat the spirit with different types of black magic and spells as a means of quelling her fury provides a strong touch of originality to what's otherwise a typical Asian ghost story. Add into that is a strong series of attacks and action scenes with the spirits' intensity showing through in several solid confrontations picking off the friend group during the resulting rampage. Filmed with the intriguing red filter over everything, these scenes provide the requisite thrills and supernatural action needed to have a fun time overall here.
That said, there are some problems with the short that crop up. The main drawback here is the overall brevity of the piece meaning that it has to rush through the storytelling to the point of outright confusion in places. Since this takes a feature-length concept about the concept of the vengeful spirit's curse affecting the friend group and boils it down to half the length of a standard genre entry a lot of the folklore and backstory is rushed through ending up making the final half where her obsession with the other girl feels like we're missing crucial information about the transformation that takes place. Additionally, the overly-familiar setup that takes liberally from a lot of the Asian ghost film genre means other parts of this one feel rather repetitive and familiar, lessening the impact somewhat. All told, these are what manage to hold it back.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
Comments
Post a Comment