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Nightmare Zone
Directed By Yuk Jan Lee
Released: 1998
Starring: Max Mok, Yvonne Yung, Emily Kwan, and Lai Yiu Cheung
Running Time: 87 minutes
This trilogy of horror stories begins when May Ho (Emily Kwan)
becomes bored and calls her family’s old phone number only to find herself
on the other line. In the next story, Mr. Tin (Lai Yiu Cheung) and his
wife, Lily (Cheung Yuen Man), are just trying to get by in their failing
marriage and squalid apartment. Tin’s urge to murder innocent people after
they even slightly offend him and Lily’s need to carry a meat cleaver
around with her at all times don’t help matters much. Lastly, Simon Chu
(Max Mok) is haunted by dreams of the past and finds that the only one who
can help him is the con artist, Feng Chin (Yvonne Yung).
I can’t even say “Nightmare Zone”
without screaming, falling to my knees, and shaking my fists at the sky.
Director Yuk Jan Lee’s horrifyingly bland and terrifyingly lame
Nightmare Zone runs
less than 90 minutes but feels just under 90 years long. Come to think of
it, other than some stylish (yet very brief) moments in the cinematography
department and amusing flubs in the subtitles (“Yeah, human is never up to
the Heaven.”), there is nothing even remotely valuable about watching this
picture. Well… Hold on, maybe I can come up with something.
The first story is filmed very nicely in a moody blue hue. Unfortunately,
the script is gray and tan paisley. The unluckily named, May Ho (played by
Emily Kwan of The Untold Story
and Dr. Lamb),
goes goth while feeling lonely without her boyfriend around
(codependent!). Pretty sad to watch someone bottoming out in Hong Kong
because she called herself and herself answered the phone. Confused? You
won’t be but you’ll wish you were. May’s whipped boyfriend, Chi On, is
sufficiently dreamy but man, get a life. The finale at the “Tin Tin
Building” couldn’t come any sooner with an open or closed ending that
hurts if I think about it too much. Not a good way to start the trilogy.
The best story of the three (and that isn’t saying much) is up next. The
story of Mr. Tin (Lai Yui Cheung of
The Stewardess) and his crazy wife
has the plot of a Cat III flick but none of the extreme sex and violence.
This is a damn shame since the best performances in
Nightmare Zone are
wasted on a tame and bloodless storyline. Other than a couple of quick
murder scenes and some implied cannibalism, we’re left with a quick and
unsatisfying ending to a decent story.
They saved the best for the last if you happen to hate entertainment. The
gorgeous Yvonne Yung (Chinese Torture
Chamber) plays Feng Chin, a fake psychic
who cheats people out of their hard earned money. It’s amazing to watch
such a beautiful woman playing a money-grubbing scumbag like this. Poor
Simon Chu (Max Mok of Ghost Fever),
he has to follow this biznitch around and try to find the answer to his
dreams. Hell of a hobby. The ending will simply not stop taking its sweet
time wrapping up and pretty soon the whole thing just induces giggles and
eye-gouging.
If you feel you have to see every Asian horror movie ever made then put
this one at the top of your list so you can get it over with quickly.
Nightmare Zone
gives all Hong Kong horror movies a bad name just by its very existence. I
keep trying to figure out why I have watched this one twice when twice is
three times too many. That’s it, screw this, I’m going out to have some
“monkey affairs” of my own, whatever that means.
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