Asian Film Review: 'Dream Home' (維多利亞壹號) 2010

Went to the world premiere of Josie Ho and Conroy Chan's first film produced by their company 852 films,  the long awaited Pang Ho Cheung directed slasher film 'Dream Home'. The chinese title is 'Victoria #1' (維多利亞壹號), the name of the building that is the location most of 'Dream Home'.  

This is definitely a biased review,  but I think its worth reading!

I didn't expect to like this movie at all.  I'm generally not a fan of slasher / gorefest type movies...  so I was pleasantly surprised by the movie being more than 'just' that... and doing the genre well enough to satisfy people who are there for that too. :-P

You have to give the team behind this movie credit.  They created a movie unlike anything I've seen in HK cinema in a while...  since perhaps as far back as 1992's Dr. Lamb.  Its nice to see something besides a police/gangster action flick or yet another formulaic romantic comedy coming out of HK.    I predict this movie will have a good future on the international DVD market,  even though its probably too much for the HK theater-going market to handle.

I was surprised to see that beyond the base thrills and frights of seeing people getting stabbed,  shot and otherwise impaled,  there's actually a real story underneath.   The story telling is non-linear,  jumping back and forth in the life of the main character from the present to the past.  It sets the stage and explains the inexplicable violence that is happening in the present.    Somehow it manages to fit a bit of social commentary about the inequality of wealth and government bias towards property developers that exists in Hong Kong too....  more than I expected out of a slasher film!    A lot of it resonated with me because of my recent moving of apartment too (who wouldn't want to pull a 'dream home' on an old landlord!)

The story has some nice twists and some riveting (although bloody) action scenes.   Andrew Lin did a great job on the special effects.   Its over the top without being too too overdone that you stop even flinching (as you see in some Japanese gore films perhaps).  

Definitely worth checking out.  I give it a 7/10.  Good performances by Phat Chan,  Derek Tsang and Laurence Chou,  and of course Josie as the main protagonist.