Angel Whispers (2015) (Blu-ray) (Hong Kong Version) Blu-ray Region A

Carrie Ng also acts in the film, playing Lai, the kindly landlady of the mostly-empty building, located in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong's infamous red light district. Lai spends her days looking after her young tenants, most of whom have led sad and troubled lives before ending up in prostitution, inviting them to her apartment for a special dinner to celebrate the Winter Solstice. When one of them called Ping fails to turn up for the meal, Ching Ching (Kabby Hui, Full Strike) decides to investigate, worrying that her friend may have fallen prey to a vicious killer who has been stalking the city. Ching Ching soon comes to suspect that the building's handyman Lung (Sammy Hung, Dragon Blade) might be involved, though her poking around reveals a long-buried tragic secret.

Carrie Ng is certainly no stranger to horror, having acted in a variety of genre films during her career, from the likes of Ghost Meets You, Ghost Promise and Faces of Horror earlier on through to Nick Cheung's Hungry Ghost Ritual and Knock Knock Who's There? in 2014 and 2015. As such, it shouldn't be too surprising that Angel Whispers in general sticks fairly close to the formula, and is basically a murder whodunit with splashes of gore and sinister happenings along the way. Although not especially gruesome, the film does have a few moments of unpleasantness and mutilation, and though it seems likely that the category III rating was at least partly earned by the subject matter, viewers looking for bloody shocks won’t feel too short-changed. Similarly, while the film isn't actually frightening, Ng and Yung's direction is atmospheric and moody, benefiting from some lurid lighting and appropriately dilapidated sets, helping to paper over the cracks in what was clearly a fairly low budget.

With some five writers having apparently worked on the script, it's a convoluted and often confusing affair despite its simple-sounding premise, with lots of red herrings and attempts at misdirection as it builds towards what is admittedly a pretty amusing and far-out big final revelation. This all works reasonably well, enough so to keep genre fans with a hankering for this kind of ripe, old-fashioned nonsense happy, and oddball delusions of grandeur add some welcome unintentional amusement, helping to distract from a few dull stretches where Ng and Yung throw in a few too many flashbacks about the pasts of the characters. These aside the film generally rattles along at a decent clip, and while none of its characters and their stories are interesting or offer more than middling melodrama, an efficiently short 85 minute running time ensures that it never outstays its welcome.

Coming across like a real throwback to the days of 1990s Hong Kong genre cinema, Angel Whispers should be enjoyed by undemanding fans of the form, if perhaps not by general audiences. A solid directorial debut for Carrie Ng and Shirley Yung, who at least win points for taking a stab at the kind of film which rarely gets made in Hong Kong anymore, it’s a short and modestly entertaining piece of shlock.

by James Mudge - EasternKicks.com