I have really started to enjoy horror films from other cultures – and I’m not alone given the batch of Japanese horror films making their way to the States or re-made into ‘starring-whiteys’ versions. Ron’s mom had dropped off a bunch of DVDs for him to watch. We watched one tight little freak-out called Feng Shui, directed by Chito S. Roño and starring Kris Aquino, daughter of former Phillipines President Corazon Aquino (and her national hero husband Benigno Aquino).
A Chinese bagua left on a bus causes murder and mayhem for a working-class family in a suburb. The Bagua is usually known as a talisman of luck and good fortune, but Kris’s character Joy soon finds that each time her family is struck with good fortune, another terrible event happens to others around her. Gradually her life and family start to come apart and she must find the way to dispel the curse of the bagua.
I think what freaks me out about these asian horror movies is they are much less about monsters – and usually about ancestors. The horror isn’t out in the country or outer space – it’s very urban. That’s why Ron says monster movies really don’t freak him out – but the spirits of the dead haunting the living really throw him for a loop. The film more than a few sequences that brought chills (encouraged by a creepy soundtrack). The movie shares elements of Ringu and Grudge in that the framework is a character having to investigate a horrific set of events and everything leading back to a wronged dead woman.
I was surprised how much I liked the movie – I recommend it!
(in Tagalog w/English subtitles)
Oh and remember that feng shui is really pronounced fung shuway not fehng shwee.
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