Home Movie Vault Disc Vault Coming Soon Join Our Mailing List Articles About Us Soundtrack eStore
CURSE OF THE DESERTED (HK/China)

 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Starring: Shawn Yue, Kitty Zhang, Yue Xiaojun, Hai Yitian, Liu Shuhan, Li Zefeng, Dai Xu, Chin Zihan, Fu Miao, Shi Liuyi
Director: Lo Chi Leung
Rating: PG (Brief Nudity & Some Disturbing Scenes)
Year Made: 2010

 


 SPECIAL FEATURES

- Trailer
- Photo Gallery

 


 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: Mandarin/Cantonese
Subtitles: English/Chinese
Aspect Ratio: 16x9 Fullscreen
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0
Running Time: 1 hr 36 mins
Region Code: 3
Distributor: InnoF
orm Media

 

 

SYNOPSIS:

An ancient love curse drew four students to visit a haunted village. When the trip turned horribly wrong, it's up to a young writer and his ex-girlfriend to face the supernatural behind the curse.

MOVIE REVIEW:  

As prejudiced as this sounds, we’ve always had our reservations about horror movie rated PG by our friends at the censorship board. How horrifying can a flick be if it can be seen by audiences of all ages? We understand there is something called psychological horror (not everything needs to be blood and gore), but our concern still stands. There may be a consumer advice of “brief nudity and some disturbing scenes” for this Lo Chi Leung directed movie, but we don’t think it will bring the production far.

And as the end credits began rolling, we could only tell ourselves: how right we were.

The story starts off decently, where a writer publishes a novel about a mansion haunted by a vengeful spirit. This (female, nonetheless) angry ghost wants to curse all lovers because she was burnt to death some years ago. With that background set up, we have four students who decide to visit this haunted village, only to meet with tragic deaths – one by one. Elsewhere, the writer seems to be repeatedly haunted by the spirit, and as if that’s not troubling enough, his ex girlfriend shows up to add dimension to the story.

You’d think you are in for a thrilling ride of suspense and intrigue, especially when the DVD cover tells you that this is the movie is helmed by the director who brought you Leslie Cheung and Karena Lam’s creepy Inner Senses, but you’d only be disappointed by the half baked script by the end of the 96 minute movie. As mentioned, the setup is promising, but as the tale progresses, it gets muddled by a lack of focus and cluttered storytelling. It loses direction and becomes a mess. To make things worse, things never got too scary (it’s rated PG, so expect nothing outstandingly spine chilling), and the final nail to the coffin is the ending. Without giving too much, let’s just say it is something our primary school teachers warned us not to do while writing compositions.

Performances wise, Shawn Yue (a very busy man, we presume, considering the movies he has been starring in lately) takes on the writer role competently. His brooding good looks serve him well and help him portray his character with ease. Kitty Zhang plays the ex girlfriend, and this may be harsh, but we do not fancy someone like this character in our lives, because it can get rather irksome at times. That said, Zhang pulls off a passable performance too. The rest of the supporting roles are filled by less well known Mainland Chinese actors.

With nothing to offer in the scare department and nothing to look forward to in the storytelling section, die hard horror fans will diss this one, we are sure.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

This Code 3 DVD contains a Trailer and a Photo Gallery.

AUDIO/VISUAL:


There is nothing to complain about the movie's visual transfer. You can choose to watch it in either Mandarin or Cantonese (there is really no need to include the latter audio track, because most of the actors are from China).  

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING:



Review by John Li

Posted on 16 October 2010


YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...






. Curse Of The Deserted (Movie Review)

Other titles from Innoform Media:

. La Comedie Humaine

. Wheat

. Flirting Scholar 2

. Ip Man: The Legend Is Born

. Snow Prince

. Kung Fu Hip Hop 2

. Le Grand Chef 2

. District 13: Ultimatum

. Happy Go Lucky

. From Paris With Love

. The Tao Fighter Woochi

. Future X-Cops

. Crossing Hennessy

. The Marc Pease Experience

. My Rainy Days

. Goemon

. Fire of Conscience

. Just Another Pandora's Box

. It's Not Me I Swear

. Happy Flight

. Here Come Fortune

. Fame

. Confucius


. Possessed


. Law Abiding Citizen

. District 9

. Little Big Soldier

. Not Without You

. Hear Me

. Blood:The Last Vampire

. Tokyo Gore School


. Chaw


. Penguins In The Sky

. Sophie's Revenge

. Threads of Destiny

. The Founding Of A Republic

. Kung Fu Cyborg

. The Restless

. Haeundae

. Sunshine Cleaning

. Coweb

. On His Majesty's Secret Service

. Sotum

. Power Kids

. Youth Without Youth

. Push

. Bad Habits

. St Trinian's

. Dive!!

. Kung Fu Chefs

. The Bank Job

. The Blue Elephant


. Love

. Elegy

. Coming Soon

. Tokyo!

. The Lazarus Project

. Summer Days With Coo

. [REC]

. Hell's Highway KM31

. Outlander

. Transporter 3

. Ghost House

. Vicky Cristina Barcelona

. Dragon Hunters

. Wushu

. The Women

. Smilers

. Ip Man

. The Good The Bad The Weird

. If I Were Superman

. Closing The Ring

. Adiantum Blue

. Murder of the Inugami Clan

. Forever the Moment

. Smother

. Boys Over Flowers: The Movie

. Butterfly Lovers

. Miss Gold Digger

. The Fox & The Child

. Missing You

. Kallang Roar

. A Promise

. Hansel & Gretel

. Accuracy of Death

. Half Nelson

. Funny Games

. Chocolate

. Pleasure Factory

. Becoming Jane

. Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon

. The Pye Dog


. Dangerous Games

. Evangelion 1.0

. Vexille

. Le Grand Chef

. Tokyo Tower

. The Warlords

. The Willow Tree

. Mor. 8


. Khao Chon Kai

. The Detective

. Nakara 19

. The Bodyguard 2

. The Sperm

. Blood Brothers

. Poltergay

. Invisible Target


. Nightmare Detective

. Secret

. Dynamite Warrior

. 13: Game of Death

. Surgeon Bong Dal-Hee

. Men In White

. Wing Chun

. Prince Hours

. Freeze

. Stranger Than Paradise

. Dancing Lion

. Yam Yosothon

. Noo-Hin The Movie

. Curiosity Kills The Cat

. 200 Pounds Beauty

. 1942

. Just Follow Law

. Nada Sou Sou

. A Mob Story

. The Third Eye

. Undercover

. Perfect Match

. The Unseeable

. Mercury Man

. Colour Of Hope

. Confession Of Pain

. Loveaholic

. Colic


. Silk

. Ghost Variety

. The Knot

. Boa

. The Host

. Forbidden Siren

. The Banquet

. Hell

. Eating Air


. Ghost Valentine

. 4:30


. My Name Is Fame

. Letter

. Born to Fight

. Lizard Woman

. Chai-Lai Angels

. Helen the Baby Fox

. Love Asia

. The Commitment

. The Story of X-Circle

. Beautiful, Wonderful, Perfect

. Hit Man

 


This review is made possible with the kind support from InnoForm Media


 

DISCLAIMER: Images, Textual, Copyrights and trademarks for the film and related entertainment properties mentioned
herein are held by their respective owners and are solely for the promotional purposes of said properties.
All other logo and design Copyright©2004- , movieXclusive.com™
All Rights Reserved.