Haunted Office
Director: Marco Mak; Bowie Lau; Wong Jing
Year: 2002
Rating: 7.0
And I thought economic
times were tough here in New York. It must be really difficult to find a
job in Hong Kong these days. Otherwise it would be difficult to explain
why anyone in their right mind would be working in the office building that
is the setting for much of this film. I don’t know about you but my first
sighting of a ghost in the bathroom would have me faxing in my resignation
from home – or maybe from the Caribbean! But even with rumors of strange
happenings, unexplained deaths and a creepy woman in white who wanders the
halls, these folks not only come into work every day but often stay into
the late lonely hours when you can only hear the rapid beating of your heart
and the slight murmuring whispers from the unseen. This new incursion into
the world of film horror is a fairly solid piece of filmmaking – nothing
particularly new – but it has an intriguing narrative structure, an element
of creepiness, a sense of humor and four major stars that make it go down
as easily as a bowl of salted peanuts and a cold beer.
The film consists of three intertwining stories (from three different directors)
in which the main characters cross each other’s paths at some point, but it
is primarily the location and theme that connect them. To differing degrees
the stories are successful in their attempt to create a tingling tale of the
supernatural. The first one with Karen Mok is the most realized in terms of
character and plot, the second with Jordan Chan has some good moments but
has a lackluster ending and the final segment with Stephen Fung and Hsu Chi
feels underwritten and holds no real surprises. All three move along quickly
though and make for an enjoyable if far from challenging 90-minutes of viewing.
The production standards are simple (primarily shot indoors) and low budget
but solid and the cinematography is light on its feet.
Like perhaps a thousand horror films before it, this one begins with a panicked
woman running madly (and of course stumbling) through the hallways in an attempt
to escape from the inevitable – her blood erupting demise. This is only the
prelude though to the three tales that follow upon its fleeting heels. Karen
Mok works as a trader and begins seeing women laughing hysterically in the
bathroom – she thinks it peculiar but not nearly as peculiar as when these
same women turn up dead soon afterwards – one by a gruesome hanging, the
other with her head smashed down on the Xerox machine. But does she quit and
go home to read a good book? No, of course not. In fact she soon gets assigned
the late shift – all alone - the lights down low - and damn does she
have to go to the bathroom! Yuen King Tan also makes an appearance in this
one.
Jordan Chan is a complete and total schmuck. After he has taken over the
loan business that his father had built up over forty years, he neglects his
duties and treats his employees poorly. He decides that he has to get rid
of a long term employee – Helen Law Lan – by giving her terrible duties such
as cleaning his house and doing his laundry in hopes that she will quit on
her own. But she doesn’t seem to mind and so he goes away for a vacation and
tells his suck up second in command to fire her while he is gone. When he
returns though Helen is still there – but something about the place is very
wrong and it takes Jordan a while to figure out exactly what that is. Wong
Wah Wo (the white haired guy!) is one of the employees. Next up has Stephen
Fung joining a new company and immediately falling for the girl in the collection
department – the very non-accountant looking Hsu Chi. She seems interested
in him as well but her late night work schedule makes things difficult as
does the eerie looking female albino who seems to always be watching the
both of them. Fung decides to confront this woman (or is she a ghost) – but
he discovers a lot more than he bargained for.
