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Review
by Kozo: |
A familiar genre gets another incarnation with Ghost
Office, a trio of moderately amusing, not-so-scary
ghost stories from three separate directors. Producer/writer
Matthew Chow oversees the whole shebang, and this
typical concoction does hit the occasional funny bone.
Still, this is not really a step up from the numerous
Troublesome Night films. It may, in fact, be
a step down.
Story one stars Chan Chin-Pang
(of the not-classic 1998 film Rape Trap) as
a mousy ad exec who gets sexually approached by his
dragon-lady boss Stephanie Lam. Meanwhile, his co-worker
and high school buddy Lin Chi-Hao starts to think
his old buddy is a freak. The atmosphere in this short
isn't bad (the flourescent lights flicker annoyingly,
and the boss' office walls are painted an ominous
ghost red), but the hows and whys aren't really surprising
or compelling. Director Andy Ng loads on the style,
which actually makes his portion of the film competently
watchable. Still, nothing that exciting truly happens
here.
Story two features Milky
Way regular Lam Suet as the lecherous proprietor of
a small porno production house who needs to come up
a ton of money before the loan sharks shut him down.
His salvation lies in the dubbing of a soundless porno
film, but unfortunately he gets killed while reaching
for toilet paper in the bathroom. Undaunted, his ghost
haunts his nearly all-female staff (Jojo Hui, Mango
Wong and Samantha Teoh) by sexually harrassing them
in ghost form, just like he did while alive. Lam Suet
is amusing and the girls are gratingly cute, but the
overall story is just a half-hour of mindless fluff.
The payoff here is your standard "unfinished
business" joke, and should come as no surprise
to anyone who's seen other Hong Kong horror comedies.
Plus, the girls go from gratingly cute to just plain
annoying.
Story three features
Crystal Tin Yiu-Lei (Sandra Ng's best pal in Golden
Chicken) as an office lady who's famous for her
mouthy office antics. She lusts after the office player
(Khan Ishtiaq), openly curses her co-workers, and
generally plays the annoying mother hen to a chicken
coop full of other mouthy office ladies. However,
her smack talk leads to a spiraling rash of unfortunate
incidents, which encompass such deadly topics as getting
fired, faking your bust size, having flatuence during
sexual activity, and eventually dooming your entire
office to a sordid, undesirable fate. Crystal Tin
is convincingly unpitiable, and director Law Wing-Cheong
gets his comic rhythms down pretty well. At the very
least, this tale features some intriguing plotting
which helps sustain interest. Unfortunately, that
interest is never delivered upon, and things eventually
collapse beneath annoying acting and a storyline that
screams, "So?" The most exciting thing about
this short is that it was shot in the exact same office
as Needing You. Woohoo!
The big problem with Ghost Office: it's simply unnecessary. The
three stories featured here are all slight, moderately
interesting, but totally inconsequential pieces
of fluff. If you're going to spend time watching a
movie, why would you choose something so unfulfilling?
One might ask the same question of the very similar
Troublesome Night films, but if one were to
really pick apart those flicks (well, the first six,
anyway), they'd find some decent storytelling, good
character development, and even some subtle emotions.
Ghost Office provides none of those, and is
just a cheap distraction for people who really have
nothing better to do. Maybe the most entertainment-starved
Hong Kong Cinema addict might find some diversion
here, but that's probably about it. (Kozo 2004) |
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