Over the last few years, Chinese and Hong Kong films have delved into a small but noticeable trend of incorporating terror in locations that were originally places of communal experiences. Films like “Back Home” and “Yum Investigation” started the trend and it extends now to director Jack Lai‘s feature-film debut “Possession Street.” The incorporation of zombie horror and more traditional Taoist elements creates a thrilling survival horror-inspired feature now screening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Possession Street is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
Once a popular commercial center, Golden Treasure Plaza is now a rundown mall marked for demolition. Among its last remaining shopkeepers is Sam (Philip Keung), an injured stuntman who runs a DVD store with virtually no clientele. One fateful day, when Sam’s beloved daughter Yan (Candy Wong) comes for a long overdue visit, a storeowner accidentally breaches a supernatural barrier in the mall’s basement. As the mysterious gas that turns its victims into purulent, flesh-eating zombies is released, a battle for Hong Kong’s survival begins.
Overall, “Possession Street” was quite an impressive film. The story by writers Joey O’Bryan, Shum Kwan Sin, and Poon Ho Fai is a great feat, giving this one a fun grounding point. The use of Taoist teachings to explain the backstory haunting of the mall’s location as the site of a bombing raid during the war and the spirits of those who died there in the disharmony that could threaten the living, are all brought together finely. The idea of appeasing their spirits and promoting harmony in their world and ours is a great way to bridge the gap to their eventual release later on. With a secondary storyline involving Sam trying to do what he can to keep it afloat while raising Yan who’s just returned home to reconnect, this comes about during the first signs of supernatural activity present which don’t help their struggling relationship. By providing a great central emotionally-charged relationship at the core of a spirited zombie feature, the setup has a lot to like about it.
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With that established, “Possession Street” makes great use of its setup to unleash plenty of spirited action scenes. Establishing the cause of the outbreak to be the gas canisters buried with the soldiers in the bombing raids during WWII, the gradual build-up to the zombies being released on the trapped workers makes for a solid time here. With early hints involving complaints of power outages, unnatural smells emanating from the area, and sightings of the gas seeping out of the walls all paint a great picture of the danger they’re in but can’t recognize. As the situation grows more desperate and the threat becomes more obvious, the attacks increase in severity and intensity as more staff members are swarmed and turned into creatures that are tied back to the Taoist beliefs in their creation. Figuring out the cause of their unrest and how they’ve come back to life that ties directory into those traditional beliefs, allows for a generally intriguing means of getting the zombie curse unleashed.
As a result, “Possession” has quite a lot of fun encounters. The early swarming scenes offering the zombies taking out the curious personnel trying to investigate what’s going on in the mall or the different means of sneaking around to take out others have some great moments running through the stores and hallways taking out victims. The grotesque appearance of the zombies, featuring spores emanating from their faces that signal the original burial method of the soldier that started the curse, gives them a distinct appearance that lends itself well to the tone of the film. Capable of spraying an odor on their target that incapacitates them as well as aids in the spread of the infection, the battle tactic here doesn’t devolve around the traditional methods required to stop zombies. Rather, the Taoist means of combat and appeasing spirits by wrapping them in red string and attaching printed parchments to their forehead so they can reverse everything keeps it all intriguing and energetic throughout.
There are several slight issues with “Possession Street”. The main drawback is a decidedly lackluster finale that tends to opt for a more spiritual touch than anything. As we’ve already gotten the relationship dynamics between Sam and Yan by this point, the finale focusing on letting her bring the skills she’s learned so far to save the day should be more of a triumphant angle. Instead, it’s played more for a heroic loss with the sacrifices taking place to accomplish everything, draining the fervent energy and urgency that was in store before then. The mystical energy and rituals used to downplay the zombie threat from a physical one into a spiritual force is a rather underwhelming tone to take for these kinds of films. There’s also the series of obvious and lackluster CGI used for the creature effects, mainly used on the dangling tentacle-like spores wiggling around the face that stands out here.
Featuring plenty of likable elements and not that many flaws, “Possession Street” has plenty to recommend about it, making everything come off far better than expected. Give this a shot if you’re a fan of these kinds of zombie films or are a general fan of Asian horror.
