Hello! Who is it?
There is something about beautiful but wrathful
female ghosts dressed in red that is just plain sexy. Troublesome Night
6 had such a spectral figure and so does this one. Female ghosts just look
very enticing in red. If ever one comes after me, I hope it has the good
taste to wear this color. Besides the red dress, there isn’t much else
in terms of special effects in this low budget supernatural film – but
once it gets going it does manage to be fairly entertaining.
The film falls into that special genre of HK
films – women seeking revenge against their rapists – except in this instance
she does it after she is dead. To a large extent I have a problem with
the number of HK films that depict rape – and in particular in the way
in which the filmmakers often make it seem that this is an act that so
many men have no problem committing. I find this thought somewhat insulting,
but also find it to be lazy and unimaginative filmmaking. This film does
go down that road – but at least it also shows the effects that the rape
and murder have on this woman and her family. There is one surprisingly
emotional scene (in the context of much of the film) when the dead woman
visits her elderly mother and pours out her anger, pain and sadness about
what has happened to her. Even though the film is basically a ghost
seeking revenge film, it does - even if superficially - have certain sociological
and psychological aspects that make it a more interesting film than you
might expect.
Anita Lee does not have a very easy life as she
has to take care of her elderly wheelchair bound mother (Helen Law Lan)
and a son who is in the hospital with a kidney disease that is killing
him. To earn the money to take care of them she has turned to prostitution
but she hates the work and hates the men she has to service. One evening
on her way home, she runs into a customer and he demands that she has sex
with him and his three telephone service co-workers. When she refuses,
they get angry and rape her - and in the process accidentally kill
her. They bury her body – walk away – have no remorse whatsoever – and
feel that is the end of it. No such chance.
One by one they start being gruesomely murdered
– by malevolent telephone wires. She was buried underground where the phone
lines are and is able to use them to track down and haunt her killers.
She can call them on the phone no matter where they are and tell them she
is coming for them. In one clever scene one of the men is running out into
the street to get away from the phone – and all of a sudden everyone’s
cell phone around him starts ringing and there is a voice on each asking
for him.
Lau Ching-Wan who happened to have been her upstairs
neighbor is a cop and is assigned the case. He has also started taking
care of the mother because the daughter only rarely appears. Eventually,
he realizes that this woman is a ghost (the fact that she never changes
her clothes should have tipped him off much earlier!) and that she is killing
these men. He feels he must stop her – even if they did commit this horrific
act. She doesn’t intend to be stopped.
The film is marred a bit by some silly comedy
performed by minor characters and a juvenile romance between Lau and a
female co-worker – but the main thrust of the film gets more interesting
and complex as it progresses – and by the end the viewer is quite caught
up by the fates of this woman and her family.
My rating for this film: 6.5