20131017: Horror Review--Dream Home

Dream Home

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Hong Kong live action feature length film, 2010, NR, 96 minutes. Spoken language Cantonese; subtitles in English.  Aspect: 2.35
2. IMDB: 6.5/10.0 from 2,610 users. 
3. Rotten Tomatoes:  74% on the meter; 64% from 886 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.1/5.0 from 38,776 audience members.
5. Directed by: Ho-Cheung Pang
6. Starring: Josie Ho as Cheung Lai-Sheung, Eason Chan as Siu To, Norman Chu as Sheung's father, Lawrence Chou as On Jai, Juno Mak as Cop Fat, Michelle Ye as 8A female owner.


2. Setup and Plot
1. There are two main threads.  In flashbacks, we follow Sheung's growing up in Hong Kong, from 1991 to the present, 2008 in this case.  We see why, ten times over, she wants a nice flat to live in with what's left of her family.  In the 'current' thread, we see to what lengths she goes to get to that difficult goal.


2. In the current thread, she's on a mission to kill certain people.  The murders that she has planned for she executes well, and seldom gets hurt in the process.  It's the extra killings she does out of irritation that get her into trouble.  Loud music sets her off, as explained in the flashbacks.  While finishing up her planned murders, she's annoyed by music from a nearby flat.  She ends up killing five people to make it stop.  Then the cops show up.


3. A running commentary is made through many characters: infidelity is rampant, as is the brutality of humans toward one another.  Despite the widespread acknowledgement of the infidelity, it still engenders hard feelings that sometimes have very bad results.  Her married lover is not all that great a choice for her.


4. Her father's illness due to persistent aspiration of asbestos fibres (he was in construction) was set against the coldness of the insurance company. Again, money limits caused large, painful problems in her life.


5. Sheung comes to quite a decision point when her father is in a crisis with his breathing.  She lets him die.  He was bankrupting her, after all, and he had insurance.  Through working a couple of jobs, plus collecting the insurance money, she scrapes together enough money to get the flat she wants.  Unfortunately, the seller made other arrangements while she was getting ready.


6. This is the spark for the killings mentioned above.  By a set of favorable outcomes (dumb luck, that is) the cops die as she's being handcuffed.  The seller of her target flat not only is willing to sell to her, but drops the asking price from 6.5 million USD to 4.9 million.  She demands 3.9 million.


7. Will her exceptional luck continue?


3. Conclusions
1. Like Caterpillar, Dream Home is much scarier than most fake gore films with supernatural themes.
2. In terms of visuals and sound, this is one of the most gorgeous movies I've seen in years.
3. One line summary: Obsession with lost family life destroys many others.
4. Five stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent.


2. Sound: 10/10 Amazingly good, rich, evocative for this tale of obsession.


3. Acting: 9/10 Steady and good.


4. Screenplay: 9/10 The well-crafted story was about a difficult subject.  The director and actors did well together executing the script.