Ngok toi (2010) Reviews

• Laughably Incompetent

  ebossert2010-08-05

  This is an incompetent attempt at horror involving the spirits of aborted babies. I'd like to say more about the storyline but to be honest there's really nothing to describe. Some people get stalked by ghosts. That's about it. There are numerous protagonists, which isn't a problem in itself, but none of them are developed properly and there's no way the viewer is going to care what happens to them. The scriptwriting is even worse. It just meanders around from person to person and never really bothers to expand on the underlying premise, which makes the horror elements feel haphazard and sloppy. Speaking of the horror elements, the Chinese borrow the Japanese Onryo ghost but when she appears she will almost certainly provoke chuckles or annoyance rather than fear. At one point the ghost floats around in circles above one of the protagonists, but the viewer will instantly notice that the filmmakers simply tied a harness around the girl and started swinging her around aimlessly. It looks like her white robe got caught on a ceiling fan blade and took her for a ride. I laughed. Most of the other attempts at horror are just as pathetic. Lots of jump scares with loud noises – the kind of gimmicks that are used when filmmakers are too lazy to think of anything else. There are two fairly decent horror sequences to mention. In one scene the ghost walks through Suet Lam and pulls his organs out, which on paper seems cool but the way it's executed is somewhat awkward and funny. In another scene the ghost rips open a girl's belly and crawls inside her womb, which is probably the only effective moment in the entire film. In general though, the scares are lame and there's no atmosphere to make up for it. The ending also uses a form of supernatural deception that was used far more effectively 42 years ago in the horror film "Bakeneko: A Vengeful Spirit" (1968) due to better conflicts, better death sequences, and more effective atmosphere. "Womb Ghosts" can be skipped entirely. You won't miss anything. There are far more entertaining Chinese language horror films to watch first: "Diary" (2006), "Abnormal Beauty" (2004), "Koma" (2004), "The Detective" (2007), "The Eye" (2002), "The Boxer's Omen" (1983), "Re-Cycle" (2006), "Calamity of Snakes" (1983), "Red To Kill" (1994), "Dumplings" (2004), "Silk" (2006), and "The Heirloom" (2005) to name a few.

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• HK Neo Reviews: Womb Ghosts

  webmaster-30172010-07-29

  An awful attempt at the Grudge by property developer Dennis Law... Director Dennis Law have officially gone from decent to worst filmmaking experience. Just when you thought Bad Blood is plainly awful, wait no longer, Womb Ghosts is crap. In some ways, Law seems to have become the new Wong Jing. His commercial ability is without question, casting pop singers in Love @ First Note, re-launching Wu Jing's career in Kung Fu roles (the decently made Fatal Contact and the better than expected Fatal Move), then the controversial issue of child abuse in A Very Short Life and even his recent low-blow in the form of Bad Blood is somewhat disguised by brutal fight sequences. However, Law is no editor or writer and at best a decent director. His problem is the nonsense and senseless prolonging of highly unnecessary and uninteresting sequences. Do we really need to see Chrissie Chau opening one door after another and Lam Suet sitting on a bench in the middle of the night? Poor filmmaking is okay, but these are usually compensated by a good editor who undoubtedly would have left these scenes as deleted sequences of a DVD special feature. Unfortunately, we are struck with everything that is incoherent, uneven, random and even boring. Casting the popular le-mo in Chrissie Chau is probably the only recent why this film even ran its cinema run, but her acting is far from good. It must be said that fans of Chau will probably have a decent time watching her naked stomach along with some sleazy camera work to portray the budging of her greatest assets. Still, this is a potential-less performance from a talentless Hong Kong le-mo. Other people show up here and there without being consequential, other than being randomly there to collect their respective pay check. It is once again good to see Lam Suet being the standout in his relatively interesting supporting role. All in all, Womb Ghosts is simply not scary enough to be a horror event and not thrilling enough to be considered a thriller. It is rare that a film has so little redeeming factors, but for a Dennis Law film, it is probably expected. Perhaps, Law should stop venturing into random Hong Kong issues and go back to what he does best – action films. A terrible mess of a film and giving it a miss would do you no harm at all...(Neo 2010) I rate it 2/10

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• Revenge of the aborted fetuses?

  joeshoe892010-05-27

  This movie seems to me to be very much an imaginative way for a male to express anti abortion sentiments. While there's the long hair creepy little ghost girl better used in Japanese fright fare, most of this is about abortion plain and simple. Now if creepy little ghost girls could both kill people involved in abortions and haunt the crap out of women who they feel caused them to not just die but not be able to be reincarnated (and this is a whole lot to have to believe in)then abortion clinic wackos who murder the people who are in them have some similar folk to relate to. There's a lot going on here. A doctor whose wife paid his way through school. A nurse who is having an affair with the doctor who becomes pregnant. A big fat guy who rips off women as some sort of advice giving ghost expert. While part of the film tries to be supernatural another part acts like the woman who sees the ghost is completely bonkers. There are sort of scary moments but not anywhere near the amount or quality of the Japanese scary little girl flicks. Maybe a rental?

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