This new Pang Brothers-produced (but Danny-only directed) film’s opening scene takes place in an antiseptic-looking doctor’s office, as a young woman named Wai (singer-actress Stephy Tang) is informed she has pancreatic cancer and only a 20% chance of recovery, even with chemotherapy and other treatments. Understandably, she is as distraught as if her death sentence had just been announced. And while her caring lover, Ming (a generally stoic Shawn Yue), tries to put on an optimistic front, the truth is that he, too, reckons she doesn’t have much longer to live. ‑

As the days go by and Wai shows few signs that she’s going to get better any time soon, she starts to worry that Ming will leave her (and the school-going younger sister she has had to take care of after the death of their parents – and whose predilection for horror comics is played for all it is worth in this film), possibly because the couple of 20-something-year-olds have been living together for some time but have yet to be legally wed. But when she voices her fears, Ming assures her of his commitment by misquoting a part of the Christian marriage vows: “I promise to love and cherish you, in sickness and in health, for as long as I live.” ‑

In substituting ‘I’ into the ‘we both shall live’ part of the equation, it seems Ming is setting up a straightforward scenario to which a movie with a title like In Love With the Dead will go! Cinemagoers looking for more imagination and mystery can rest assured, however, that director Danny Pang (who co-scripted this film with Pak Sing Pang) has a few twists in store in what is in essence a supernatural romance, albeit one that also contains elements of horror, suspense and, judging from the reaction of my fellow viewers at the movie’s premiere, a surprising amount of comedy! (Masters of horror, the Pang Brothers may be, but there is also no denying that they – like many other Hong Kong filmmakers, past and present – like to indulge in their share of genre bending, mixing, transcending and subversion!)‑
After Ming loses his job because he cares far more for Wai’s welfare than the company he works for, he finds a lower-level position at another establishment where the female boss is an old kindergarten friend. Fong (newcomer Yoka Yue Yong Yong) and Ming were bosom buddies in earlier days but circumstances, such as the wealthier Fong having gone off to study in the USA, intruded. This time around, however, Ming and Fong don’t let much – including on-going relationships with others – stand in the way of the further development of their friendship, including into the realm of sex and love…‑

The early visual and musical cues in In Love with the Dead are designed to get us thinking we are watching a romantic melodrama. As we go further into the film, the cues trigger in turns tragedy, then horror and suspense, then tragedy once more. Additionally, moments of loving are interspersed with scenes that one would associate with straight-out horror and gross-out fests – including two that caused me to physically gag and turn away from the screen to be sure I didn’t throw up!‑

Also of note is how often the characters in this movie say one thing (eg, that everything is okay – or is going to be all right) while other of the film’s elements communicate something else. The effect can be jarring but the disjuncture is for a purpose: an otherwise straightforward story can feel quite unpredictable and full of intriguing alternative ‘what if’ scenarios entertaining to mull over during the witching hour, even if obviously a bit silly in the cold light of day.

yvonne teh

danny WITH THE DEAD

Danny Pang wonders whether the market is ready for his latest horror romance.

Blame it on The Eye 1 (2002), 2 (2204) and 10 (2005), if you will, but mention the Pang Brothers, Oxide and Danny, together or independently, and movie fans will immediately think of horror. Even though the identical twins’ first co-directorial effort, Bangkok Dangerous (2000) is, in the words of one of its helmers, “an action killer film” rather than a movie with a supernatural focus. But even Danny Pang himself seemed to forget that at one point during an interview with bc, asserting instead, “All my films are horror films and ghost movies.”

And although he talks about wanting to target female teenagers – a group he feels has shied away from his previous films because they are too scared by them – for his latest movie, Danny Pang still isn’t venturing too far from the genre in which he and brother Oxide have so far found the most commercial success. To be sure, he does emphasise that In Love with the Dead has romantic elements but, as he laughingly admits, he sought in this work “to make a love story to cover a ghost story”!

Something else he is upfront about is that his new movie represents an experiment of sorts. He says this “romance horror” he co-scripted is intended as “a test of what we can do and what the market can absorb”. And precisely because it was such a production, he figured it was better to work alone, even though without his brother’s help he had to work harder and was prone to feeling isolated while shooting.

Although the Pang brothers are, as he says “100% Hong Kong people, born in 1965 and educated in Hong Kong”, In Love with the Dead was difficult to make as a Hong Kong production. It’s not just that the brothers got their first professional breaks in Thailand rather than their home territory or that their most recent collaborative effort took place in the USA. Instead, as Danny Pang baldly puts it, “The system in Hong Kong is not geared to help the Hong Kong film industry.” That is especially so when he compares support for local films to the generous assistance the Hong Kong government gives foreign productions like The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie. And also when he compares it to the help from the local authorities he gets when filming in Thailand and Hollywood.

Yet he takes some consolation from the local actors he got to work with in this movie. The director is particularly impressed with his lead, Shawn Yue. “I think he’s quite talented: his acting range is broad, really big. Working with him feels comfortable,” he says. Although Yue is still young, he is already such an experienced actor that, Pang says, “he does what he wants and I just quality check”.

The director also has plenty of compliments for his leading lady: “Stephy Tang is a very clever girl, very hardworking.” Consequently, even though she’s still a young actress and lacking experience, he trusted that the Cantopop singer could pull off a difficult part that he realized upon completing the script required a lot of emotional, very demanding reactions. “Finally I’m quite happy and feel lucky to see that Stephy Tang could play [it] very well!”
he concludes.

In Love with the Dead will open in local theatres on November 29.

yvonne teh