Name: Zhaibian (Taiwan)
The Heirloom (Intl)
Director: Leste Chen
Release Date: September 16, 2005
Tagline: Sometimes inheritance is a curse.
Introduction:
One less well known Chinese/Taiwanese tradition is the raising of child ghosts. Several affluent families would obtain a dead fetus and feed it blood from a member of the family in order to claim the ghost’s power as their own. These child ghosts were incredibly useful; not only could they be used to augment a family’s fortune, they could also get rid of the family’s enemies.
Synopsis:
James Yang has inherited an old mansion left to him by his deceased relatives in Taipei. He moves into the magnificent, though abysmal, house with his girlfriend Yo, who is a marvelous dancer. They celebrate their moving in with two friends; Yi-Chen and Cheng. Yi-Chen begins to explore the house with Yo, and the two women go up to the mysterious attic, and Yi-Chen, who is a reporter, is compelled to take a few pictures of the Yang family, whose pictures they find completely covering a wall. The next day, Yi-Chen mysteriously appears in their house at midnight, and strange things begin to happen to their friend Cheng. Eventually, Cheng is found dead in his bathroom, mysteriously killed by hanging at midnight, though no rope was found at the site.
With the help of Yi-Chen, Yo struggles to uncover the cause of these disturbing events. Soon, she finds out strange things about the Yang mansion, and her boyfriend’s odd ancestors.
Review:
The Heirloom looked great. The colors were wonderful, and the atmosphere was nice and gloomy throughout. I expected to be a bit more scared, and I guess I would be in comparison to most of you guys, just because the child ghost tradition is something from my own culture. I even know of people that have validated this practice. I don’t suggest you attempt it though!
Terri Kwan, who played Yo, did an amazing job, in my opinion. On the other hand, Jason Chang (James) gave a less than dazzling performance, to say the least. The storyline was fairly good, though there could have been a bit more development on the ghost, because not once was a ghost actually present. I guess the scarier element in this movie was what people were willing to do to gain in this world, despite the adverse effects it had on their family and their own lives.
All in all, a movie definitely worth seeing, especially since Taiwan (and China in general) is rather unrepresented in the horror movie field. The movie does stay with you after you watch it; I couldn’t go up to my attic at all afterwards!
Ratings:
Entertainment: 9
Scares: 5
Gore: 1
*Recommended*
You can find this video at http://www.crunchyroll.com/showseries?id=2943
I highly suggest that you get a Crunchy Roll account. It’s really good for streaming videos when it comes to all things Asian!
