Sleeping with the Dead
Reviewed by YTSL
Unlike such as their Hollywood counterparts,
scaring people doesn’t seem to be a primary priority for “Jade Theatre”
makers of ghost- and ghoul-filled movies. Although their output can
disappoint those seeking out and out horror, this (re)viewer -- who considers
its genre-blending and -bending tendencies to be among Hong Kong cinema’s
major attractions -- has often found herself very delighted with the results
of mixing together supernatural themes with: romantic ones (Cf. “A Chinese
Ghost Story” or “Spiritual Love”); spectacular action along with often
admittedly base comedy (E.g., “Mr. Vampire” and any other offering that
has Lam Ching Ying’s learned Taoist as its hero); serious musings (like
“Inner Sense” and “The Eye”); or most anything else. And so it was
with this perceptibly low-budget potential sleeper of a ghostly crime (melo)drama
whose lack of technical imagination and polish -- especially in the cinematography
department -- is more than compensated by its main plus seemingly secondary
stories’ ability to touch one’s heart.
At the center of SLEEPING WITH THE DEAD lies a
married medico who came by his ability to see paranormal beings after undergoing
a near death experience as an infant. Like with a gifted spiritual
medium who is a patient at the hospital where he works (and who gave him
a free -- but valuable -- tarot card reading), Dr. David Tsang (who the
ever dependable Jordan Chan understatedly portrayed) appears quite matter
of fact about his post life-threatening bout of meningitis possession of
that which many humans might regard as a curse but also can be a talent
or gift. Indeed, when this Steve Cheng helmed film’s viewers initially
make their acquaintance with he who happens to be an adept artist on top
of it all, the understandably rare smiler is seen being much more troubled
by: having recently lost his beloved mother; and learning -- from a private
investigator he had hired -- that his wife (the suspicion provoking Jane
is essayed by Sharon Chan Man-Chi) has apparently been cheating on him.
A conversation with a priest friend doesn’t do
much to lift David’s spirits. Although they initially look like they’re
going to be a bust as well, visits to night spots that look to function
in large part as pick up joints for professional men and physically attractive
women -- at first in the company of a randier and more extroverted colleague
(played by Cheung Tat Ming) but later on his own -- turn out to provide
a welcome escapist panacea of sorts to the quiet man’s domestic woe and
related personal pain. More particularly, SLEEPING WITH THE DEAD’s
protagonist looked to have found an effective (even if just temporary)
soother of his mind -- among other things -- in a mysterious, and probably
all the more intriguing for being so, female who identifies herself to
him as Cindy (and comes in the alluring form of Kelly Lin).
While Dr. Tsang’s relationships were getting increasingly
opaque, people -- who get revealed to have been childhood playmates and
neighbors of his -- were violently dying. As it so happens, the police
officer (the memorably monikered Iron Head Cheung is portrayed by Simon
Loui, who also co-scripted SLEEPING WITH THE DEAD along with Wyman Wong,
Lee Ho-Cheung and Lau Sheung-Yin plus is one of the Category IIB offering’s
producers) assigned to head the criminal investigations turns out to be
another old friend and potential victim of the medical man who finds himself
being asked to assist in figuring out who the killer might be. In
the process, it is realized that it would help things to also come by the
details of what has prompted the series of fatal attacks that all occur
on the mutilated plus murdered parties’ birthdays. Also, that the
trail that David and the equally somber appearing Iron Head decide to follow
looks to be leading the pair of newly reacquainted individuals to once
familiar -- but latterly not much (t)ra(c)ked -- ground.
On a visit to the apartment building where he,
his policeman buddy and -- before the investigation is over -- three age-mates
whose lives were painfully snuffed had spent some of their formative years,
David detects a disquieting -- but not necessarily evil -- supernatural
presence in the abandoned home of a friend named Ling with whom he had
once been close but had subsequently lost touch. As unlikely as it
may (currently) seem, the story that it ends up telling is, IMHO, by far
more tragic than the premature passing away of a small group of men who
are revealed to have shared a very ugly secret. At the same time,
it is another compelling plus, as it turns out, actually bitter-sweet tale
in which the good doctor -- and a sad soul -- is involved that may well
be more successful in eliciting tears from the eyes of viewers of this
undeservedly under-heralded 2002 work.
My rating for the film: 7.5