| Review: Angela Mak Leng-chi, one of Hong Kong's few female filmmakers wrote and directed this New Wave horror film starring top female TV star Ida Chan. Ida plays a young woman who returns to Hong Kong to stay with her parents, but soon discovers they have kept a troubling secret from her. She was born a Siamese twin and her infant sister had died in a failed operation to separate the two. Worse yet, the dead twin's ghost has remained in the house and isn't happy to see her sister return. Ida, her doctor, family, and friends are in for a night of terror as the juvenile ghost lashes out in hatred. This is a film that did very well for Shaw Brothers upon its initial release in 1984. However, it hasn't aged well at all, especially with the more recent release of similar, yet genuinely creepy Japanese horror films like Ju-on and Ringu. The premise of a vengeful spirit of a Siamese twin is intriguing and would make a great remake, but here it just doesn't provide the necessary chills. There isn't enough tension leading up to the violent end and too much time is squandered on relational issues. I kept expecting more from the ghost, but it never pays off to my satisfaction. Things only start to get twisted when the spook witnesses two of Ida's friends having sex. The ghost then assumes the form of her adult sister and seduces two different men in order to possess them and turn them against Ida. There is a bit of softcore action here that doesn't add anything of value to the film, especially when cheesy special effects are used to show a transference of the ghost's essence to the victim. Mak tries for a classic twist at the end, but everything has moved so predictably up to this point that it's easy to spot from a mile away. Of interest to classic wuxia pien fans is the presence of former leading man Yueh Hua as Ida's father. But this time he's unable to pick up a sword to defend himself from a grizzly death. The Siamese Twins is a fairly well-structured horror piece that is mildly scary, yet lacking in anything that would make it hold up to similar films twenty years later. |
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