In Japanese, Thai, Mandarin and Cantonese
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Patrick Leung (HK), Takahiko Akiyama (Japan) , Thanit Jitnukul (Thailand)
Starring: Dylan Kuo Pin Chao, Annie Liu, Asaka Seto, Takashi Kashiwabara and Nutsha Bootsri.
RunTime: 1 hr 48 mins
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Rating: TBA
Official Website: http://www.fivestarent.com/blacknight/trailer.html

Opening Day: 13 April 2006

Synopsis :

Under the current trend of Asian horror, BLACK NIGHT challenges not only Asian but global audiences to be satisfied with fear, gone beyond the predecessors. Three directors created the episodes from their own perspectives to accomplish the task of creating scary yet intriguing film. They pursued the way of storytelling, visual sense and technique to give their answers to the theme.

Movie Review:

By this day and age, fans of the horror genre would probably have seen Asian horror films from various countries. Black Night appears to have the intent to showcase the best of C-grade horror from Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand. Assembling three short features from each country entitled Next Door, Black Hole and The Lost Memory, the films fall short on credibility.

Quite rightly, Black Night are the words to sum up the experience of watching the film of the same title. Having uncreative and lazy titles, the film fails to capitalize on the intent of unifying all three short features, all of which has themes related to water and infidelity. Think of it as a mish-mash of all the Asian horror films you have seen thus far and you would probably get an idea of what Black Night is like.

The first short, Next Door, comes from Hong Kong. It involves a love triangle, handcuffs, a boy with a marble who served no purpose to the story and water. This one is guaranteed to draw tons of laughter with its extremely bad acting, el cheapo scares and distastefully bland dialogue. Think Romeo and Juliet married with Dark Water and you will get Next Door.

The following one, entitled Black Hole starts off strongly with a little girl and her mystical creature which is never seen. It piques your interest but as the story progresses, it drags on. The girl, all grown up, works at an aquarium and is suffering from bouts of amnesia. Strangely enough, the people around her end up drowning and we soon discover that her creature plays a part in the accidents. This felt like a cross between the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the upcoming Lady in the Water.

To round things off, the Thai short, The Lost Memory, appears to be the one that takes itself seriously. A family story about a mother, her son and his estranged father will be the one which anyone can identify with most. The story though eventually looks like a cheap modern day rip-off of Nang Nak. Towards the end, you will realize that the cross between Ju-On and The Hulk.

A dearth of creativity and originality would be best to sum up Black Night. Overall, a forgettable experience.

Movie Rating:

(This film will leave you with a black night, just as the title suggests)

Review by Mohamad Shaifulbahri