Ng goi ze wai

An excellent all around movie entwined with supernatural bindings. Picked this DVD up because Anita Yuen was in it. Expected a light hearted, or slap stick, supernatural comedy. Even the jacket cover depicts this image. Not so. The comic side was primarily well written dialog, pitting the mother-in-law and son-in-law against each other. Each actor carried off a believable performance.....from the office tease to the Philippine maid.

Anita Yuen, who is pregnant, lives in the country with her husband (who works in the city), two children and a Philippine maid. The home is jointly owned by Yuen and her mother, who has just arrived at the HK airport after being away for several years. Shortly after she moves in, a spirit who committed suicide while pregnant wishes to take over Yuen's body. The mother has a near fatal accident and because of this can now see spirits.....and the battle to save her daughter is on. A plus for me was the director didn't opt for cheesy treatment of the supernatural side.....no unnecessary gore or silly props that bring down an otherwise good effort.

This is a horror comedy from Hong Kong that stars veteran actress Deannie Yip of the "Pom Pom" movie series fame. She plays the mother of Lisa (Anita Yuen), who has been possessed by a female ghost bent on taking over her body for her resurrection.

This is a well-paced and well-acted movie that I've found to be very engaging and entertaining from start to finish. The first part of the movie deals with Marianne Siu (Deannie Yip) coming to live with her daughter Lisa and son-in-law Wai (Chi Wah Wong), and the resulting feud between Marianne and Wai. Though not scary in a supposedly horror movie, it's still pretty fun to watch.

The feud results in Marianne having a near-death experience from an accident that eventually leads to her seeing spirits from the other side. It's back and forth between family problems and ghost haunting that one will find gripping.

Though a horror comedy, the filmmakers didn't rely on slapstick and nonsensical stuff. Instead, they relied on humorous dialog, carefully crafted character development and freaky but realistically done supernatural elements such as the mere discovery of a skull in the yard in making this movie well-balanced between humor and horror.

Great, entertaining stuff here. Highly recommended!

Grade A