Starring: Gillian Chung, Shaun Tam, Vincy Chan, Patrick Tam Yiu Min, Bonnie Xian (aka Bonnie Sin)
Director: Carol Lai
Scheduled release: Now showing

Touted as a horror work that appeals primarily to young adults, not least because that is who its cast is mainly composed of, Naraka 19 has ambitions to be more than your garden variety teen screamer. Still, that is not to say this Carol Lai-directed and co-scripted (with Thirteen Chan) effort doesn’t possess certain eye-rollingly familiar plot developments; including those which show once again that curiosity can kill the proverbial cat – or, at the very least, lead it into far more trouble than one would think it’s worth – and, also, that a room numbered 13 is likely to be saddled with an unfortunate history and unlucky.

In Naraka 19, the Room 13 that brings ill fortune is in a residence hall of a university campus. In 1997, a male student committed suicide within its walls. Ten years later, four female friends, unaware of what had happened there, move in. Very soon, one of them starts acting strangely and, before the half-hour mark, she’s out of the picture, having committed suicide by cutting out her own tongue.

Rain (Gillian Chung) is understandably traumatized by this horrific incident, for not only was it enacted by one of her roommates but she was a witness to it. Her re-acquaintance with Inspector Yip (Shaun Tam), the policeman who headed an investigation of another death she had been connected with some years previously, doesn’t leave her feeling things will get better anytime soon. Neither does her being sent for counselling to Dr. Yan (Patrick Tam Yiu Min).

It doesn’t help either that it appears she’s being sent text messages from beyond the grave by her dead roommate, along with an invitation to play a deadly mobile-phone game couched in the form of the cryptic question: “Do you know what the 19th level of hell is?” And worse is to come when a second roommate, Violet (Vincy Chan), is struck with overwhelming feelings of guilt and the third, Mandy (Bonnie Xian), looks set for a nervous breakdown after being dogged by visions of a vengeful monkey whose brains she had accidentally eaten!

By the time Rain finds out Violet and Mandy have been playing the mobile-phone game that ends with gamers being sent to their deaths or spiralling into madness, she too has become one of its players. As it turns out though, she’s luckier than the others, with aid coming in the form of two men knowledgeable about the game, its rules and philosophy...

Based on a best-selling novel by Cai Jun, Naraka 19, the film, appears to want to provide certain instructions on how to live life, not just succeed in playing the mobile-phone game from hell. While some may scoff at this idea, others might think it not a bad thing to get some lessons along with their entertainment. And for those, this otherwise modest offering might well be their kind of movie.

Yvonne Teh