Dream Home (18)

Film

Horror films

Dream Home.jpg

Time Out rating:

<strong>Rating: </strong>3/5

User ratings:

<strong>Rating: </strong>3/5
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Time Out says

Tue Nov 16 2010

Pang Ho-cheung’s gleefully violent Hong Kong horror movie takes a harsh, satirical look at the city’s property market through the eyes of Cheng Lai-sheung (Josie Ho), a hard-working single woman who – while working two jobs, nursing her ill father and having joyless sex with a married man – dreams of buying a tiny apartment with a view of Victoria Harbour. Flashbacks to Lai-sheung’s slum childhood explore the roots of her obsession and help to explain her slide into psychotic violence. Her ruthless strategy is a clever one: by bumping off the occupants of adjoining flats, she hopes to lower the asking price of the one she has her eye on. The film’s homeland release was allegedly delayed by a dispute between director Pang and his lead actor/co-producer Ho, who felt that the extreme violence meted out by her psychotic anti-heroine undercut the audience’s sympathy with her character. It must be said, Ho had a point. For all the film’s bleak ironies, Lai-sheung’s brutal asphyxiation of a pregnant woman, who aborts her child while dying, destroys any residual empathy.

Author: Nigel Floyd

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Release details

Rated:

18

UK release:

Fri Nov 19 2010

Duration:

96 mins

Cast and crew

Screenwriter:

Chi-Man Wan, Ho-Cheung Pang, Kwok Cheung Tsang

Cast:

Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Josie Ho, Eason Chan

Director:

Ho-Cheung Pang

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Comments & ratings

Rated as: 3/5 (1 rating)

  • A very nasty, mean-minded film but good of its sort, if you know what I mean. I'm not a big fan of the 'knife kill' genre of films(as Harlan Ellison used to put it), but this film's satirical edge gives it an interest it might not otherwise have for me. The lead character is sort of like a psychotic female Duddy Kravitz, if I might resort to a literary analogy. On the one hand, the abortive orgy scene is pretty funny; there are some intelligently observed things throughout; and the ending is quite satisfyingly ironic. It is also good at capturing the overcrowded nature of Kong Kong. On the other hand, the violence is extreme, putting one in the mind of the 'Extremes' film series. The stuff with the pregnant woman is pretty off-putting. Proceed with caution, I guess. Pretty good, if you can stomach it. But 'stomach' is the operative word here, quite decidedly....Greg Cameron, Surrey, B.C., Canada

    Greg Cameron Fri Mar 11 2011
    Rated as: 3/5
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  • I left early too, and I'll watch pretty well anything. This movie is an abomination - I urge you to stay away.

    asdf501 Fri Nov 26 2010
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  • Repulsive. You wonder what sick mind is at work to make a film as graphic as this for so little result. Where was the censor when this film was granted an 18 certificate. This film is gross. Walked out 1 hour.

    ARCHGATE Sat Nov 20 2010
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