Visits: Hungry Ghost Anthology

A four-part film that resulted from inventive cooperation between a commercial client and several young independent film makers. The film was made to mark the advent of digital projection equipment in a multiplex cinema. It had to be shot on digital video and the theme had to fit in with the Chinese Hungry Ghosts Festival that took place around the time of the opening: ghosts are said to leave purgatory for a month to move among the living. In this project, the film makers remained faithful to their own style and approach. They did not make commercial horror films, but rather psychological dramas in which the belief in ghosts had a place. The ambiguity between believing in ghosts and not believing in ghosts is suspected or even evoked and plays a role in all the parts. Without exception, they play with the thriller-like suspense of the visiting spirits. The price they have to pay for choosing subtlety was that the multiplex audiences didn’t really storm the box offices, while the film wouldn’t logically find its way to festivals either. Films by two of the directors, Ho Yu-hang and James Lee, can also be seen elsewhere in the programme (Sanctuary by Ho and The Beautiful Washing Machine and the short Goodbye to Love by Lee). Both directors are key figures in Malaysian independent film. (GjZ)