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The Victim
   |     review    |     awards     |     availability     |
Lau Ching-Wan and Hui Siu-Hung (in background)
  
Year: 1999
Director: Ringo Lam Ling-Tung
Producer: Joe Ma Wai-Ho
Cast: Lau Ching-Wan, Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Amy Kwok Oi-Ming, Lai Yiu-Cheung, Chow Siu-Lung (Ngai Sing), Emily Kwan Bo-Wai, Hui Siu-Hung, David Lee Seung-Man, Lam Siu-Jam, Suki Kwan Sau-Mei, Joe Lee Yiu-Ming, Chung King-Fai, Joe Ma Tak-Chung
The Skinny: Ringo Lam's mystery/supernatural thriller delivers on all counts, delivering a suspenseful, well-acted melodrama that involves and entertains.
Review
by Kozo:
     Ma Man-Sun (Lau Ching-Wan) is mysteriously kidnapped and Detective Pit (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) is on the case. After staking out Ma’s girlfriend Amy (Amy Kwok), they receive a call that places Ma in a haunted mansion with a notorious history. It seems that the owner of said house discovered his wife was unfaithful and decapitated her before poisoning himself and his son.
     If that weren’t spooky enough, Ma exits the experience a changed man. He drinks heavily, is incredibly jealous, and seems to be obsessed with holding onto his overpriced home. Could he be possessed by the murderous husband?
     Ringo Lam touches upon numerous supernatural themes in this otherwise routine suspense thriller. We’re meant to think that something spooky is happening to Ma, but it could perhaps be otherwise. Ma is a victim (as the title suggests), but is he the only one?  Lam proves that he hasn’t lost it as he returns to his specialty: character-driven crime melodrama. His characters aren’t terribly likable; Ma is more than a victim and Pit is as insanely jealous as the subject of his investigation. However, both characters are recognizable in their own repugnant ways. This is typical Lam, as he uses the opacity of his characters to his advantage. We aren’t exactly sure what his characters are capable of, which makes them even more compelling. (Kozo 1999)
Awards:

19th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards
• Nomination - Best Director (Ringo Lam Ling-Tung)
• Nomination - Best Actor (Lau Ching-Wan)
• Nomination - Best Cinematography (Ross Clarkson)
• Nomination - Best Sound Effects
6th Annual Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards
• Recommended Film

Availability: DVD (Hong Kong)
Region 0 NTSC
Mei Ah Entertainment
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks
Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Removable English and Chinese subtitles

image courtesy of Mei Ah Laser Disc Co., Ltd.

   
 
 
 
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