The Chinese movie market is running a bit light ahead of summer vocation. Hong Kong director Tsui Hark's new flick stands out. Famous for his action movies,Tsui is getting into horror movies for the first time. He took his inspiration from a sunken city that thrived over ten thousand years ago. Tsui learned about the city from a documentary. So let's see what it's about.
The Hollywood movie "Ghost" tugged at many hearts over the years. Tsui Hark's new film "Missing" is something like it. It tells the story of a man, whose ghost remains beside the girl of his dreams, after his untimely death.
Underwater photographer Dave Chen plans a romantic rendezvous. He wants to take his fiancee, Gao Jing to the mysterious ancient ruins on the seabed of Yonaguni Island. He will give Gao the ring that he hid there many years ago. But Chen mysteriously disappears. Chen's psychopathic sister turns on Gao and threatens the life of the bereaved young woman. But Chen's ghost watches over Gao until she discovers the truth.
The first half of the flick is rife with horror and suspense. In its latter scenes the horrific elements are set aside, and the story becomes moving.
Tsui's film emphasizes the psychological stress on the characters as the action unfolds.
Tsui started shooting "Missing" three years ago. He was inspired by a documentary about an ancient sunken city. The city is located at Yonaguini Island, at the westernmost tip of Japan. The 10,000 year old city was unknown to the world until its ruins were found by a diver in 1986. The ruins also touched Tsui's environmental spirit.
The crew learned diving skills for two months before shooting began. The film also set the record for the number of underwater scenes shot for a Chinese film. Tsui sought out the beauty in the shots. As the film closes, the illusion of the hero and heroine transformed as mer-man and mermaid reveals Tsui's romantic dream of the underwater world.
Although the film is categorized as "horror", many people coming out of theaters said horror-flick fans are likely to be disappointed. But people who like love stories would think it was wonderful - as long as they survived the horror scenes at the beginning.
Horror doesn't mean each segment is horrifying. Horror can be romantic and warm. I hope after watching the film people can spend more time with ones they love.
Although "Missing" has just been in theatres for about a week, the film has earned some praise from audiences. They're saying the ghost in the film is the most romantic in the cinema, the story has the most romantic ending. So if you are not afraid to be a little bit afraid, you can experience the underwater love story from Tsui Hark.
