Angel Whispers (花街柳巷) (2015)


	Angel Whispers		Return to Review Archive - A
	Carrie Ng hears Angel Whispers.
	Chinese:	花街柳巷
	Year:	2015
	Director:	Carrie Ng Ka-Lai, Shirley Yung
	Producer:	Carrie Ng Ka-Lai, Shirley Yung, Chan Pang-Chun
	Writer:	Carrie Ng Ka-Lai, Shirley Yung, Can Pang-Chun, Pang Pak-Shing, Chan Cheuk-Yin
	Cast:	Carrie Ng Ka-Lai, Kabby Hui, Sammy Hung Tin-Chiu, Lin Chu, Leanne Fu, Ling-Ling Kwok, Sun Zhi-Qiang, Chan Pang-Chun, Chan Cheuk-Yin
	The Skinny:	Arty exploitation fare that doesn’t succeed at being arty or exploitative enough, and too often engenders unintentional laughs. Director Carrie Ng seems to enjoy this genre so maybe she’ll make something better in the same vein someday. Or not.

	Review by Kozo:	It could have been OK, but Angel Whispers insists on jumping multiple sharks in its attempt at being an artful and meaningful exploitation thriller. Co-directed by Shirley Yung and – in her directorial debut – actress Carrie Ng, this Category III film stars Ng as Sister Lily, the landlord of a Shamsuipo building where she and her tenants work as prostitutes. The girls comprise various types, including a sassy plus-size hooker (Ling-Ling Kwok), a junkie (Lin Chu) and a university student (Leanne Fu) working on her thesis. However, the main character besides Lily is the morose Ching Ching (Kabby Hui of May We Chat), whose self-hatred prevents her from being in a relationship with Lung (Sammy Hung), the building handyman who dotes on her. These relationships get put through the meat grinder when prostitutes start getting murdered, and signs point immediately to Lung. However, there’s much, much more going on here and the audience will get the full story in due time. Correction: They’ll be told. Again and again and again. Angel Whispers offers multiple twists but too many occur through exposition from the characters involved. The script by Carrie Ng, Shirley Yung and three other screenwriters offers some potentially potent, if over-the-top twists. However, reveals are lackluster, and the outlandish plot twists happen so frequently that they engender unintentional laughs. Also, the blood and sexual content, while present, likely isn’t enough to entice hardened fans of Hong Kong Category III fare. Props to the filmmakers for attempting such dark material but if they can’t tell a more effective or interesting story then it’s best to go more extreme, and Angel Whispers doesn’t do that often enough. The most positive takeaway from this mess can be found in the macro view: With Angel Whispers and her second, better effort Knock Knock, Who’s There?, Carrie Ng shows that she likes making edgy genre fare. If she continues in this vein, it may not necessarily mean that she’ll make better films. We can certainly hope, however. (Kozo, 3/2016)

	Availability:	DVD (Hong Kong) Region 3 NTSC Kam & Ronson Enterprises Co. 16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen Cantonese Language Track Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS Removable English and Chinese subtitles *Also Available on Blu-ray Disc


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