As anyone who’s spent any time in the HKSAR can attest, Hong Kong has a strong claim to being the mobile phone capital of the world. And with such a reputation, it was surely only a matter of time before someone from the Fragrant Harbour’s film industry made a movie about a mobile phone game. And that is precisely what director-scriptwriter Carol Lai (Glass Tears; Floating Landscape) has done with Naraka 19, a horror movie about university students embroiled in the mobile phone game from hell!
Based on a best-selling novel by Cai Jun that has sold over two million copies in Mainland China alone, Naraka 19 – which takes its title from the conceit that there aren’t just 18 levels of hell as is stipulated in Buddhist and Taoist mythology but also a 19th – will have its world premiere in Mainland China on August 28. Something which the director of this $7-million effort considers fitting as that is where the novel originally hails from and has enjoyed its greatest popularity.
However, as Lai reveals, her movie’s release in Mainland China was far from certain as the film authorities there are notorious for their dislike of cinematic works with superstitious or supernatural themes and content. Indeed, she shot her movie with the Hong Kong audience primarily in mind since she had serious doubts about the work getting screening rights in that far larger and potentially more lucrative market to the north.
Lai, who studied marketing at university but who followed her heart and went into film-making after graduating, believes that local cinema-goers, in particular teenagers, will be drawn to Naraka 19. The movie is, in her own enthusiastic words, “Young, cool – yeah, it’s cool! – entertaining and special!” Why special? Even if nothing else, because the topic – the combination of phone technology and the supernatural – has yet to be explored by this territory’s filmmakers. As she observes, “Maybe it’s familiar in Japanese horror and maybe also in Thai horror but not in Hong Kong.”
Another of the film’s attractions is its young-adult dominated cast. The sole individual pictured in Naraka 19’s official poster, Gillian Chung of Twins, plays Rain, a third-year university student who plunges into a living nightmare after she receives a text message asking her “Do you know what the 19th level of hell is?” The Canto-pop idol/actress’s public image is of someone on the serious side and therefore well suited to appear in dramatic or horror works like this film. Still, director Lai reveals with a laugh that “actually, she is quite playful in real life!” and reckons Chung played the role “so well”.
Vincy Chan is another crowd-puller in Naraka 19’s cast. It is Chan’s film debut and Lai observes that the young singer “was a little bit nervous about acting” but believes she possesses a discernible star quality and an intensity that will attract attention. And while the third main female in the movie, Bonnie Sin, may not have as big a name as Chung and Chan, Lai singles her out as so impressive that “maybe she is born to be an actress”.
On a lighter note, Lai describes lead actor Patrick Tam Yiu Min’s acting style as “very strange”, yet appropriate because “his character is quite strange!” But for the other man with significant screen time in the film, she is disarmingly frank: “Sean Tam is still a little bit young. Not quite matured.” At the same time, though, she’s notes, “But he is acting with heart.” And that, as we have already seen, goes a long way for this filmmaker whose own love for movies dates back to her childhood.
Naraka 19 will open in local theatres on September 6. |
