Disconnected from her family, My Tien (Phuong My Chi) a Gen Z content creator, returns to her ancestral home in search of viral supernatural content, despite being skeptical of the occult. While she stays there with her family, her mom (Hanh Thuy), grandfather (Dao Anh Tuan), and her Aunt and Uncle (Puka, Huynh Dong), she encounters the ghost of her late brother, Gia Minh (Huynh Lap) staying there and haunting her to fulfill his last wish. To help Gia Minh find peace, the siblings must protect the disputed by relatives family estate, demanding that her grandfather divide the property and unravel its shocking secrets.
The Ancestral Home is distributed by Skyline
Overall, “The Ancestral Home” comes off as a fairly enjoyable family-friendly film. The central setup from writer/director/star Huynh Lap provides an intriguing look at a cultural touchstone. As the majority of the first half here is spent on the issue of how to deal with the specific house, whether through the idea of inheriting it through the next generation or putting it up for sale to a new owner, it makes a fine point to touch on the importance of their home. How it’s been in the family for nearly a century and that the heirlooms and memories within are immensely important to keeping family together as that is soon revealed as the cause for Gia Minh to stay around and haunt My Tien while she stays there.
As she spends more time with her family in his presence, partaking in his old routines by cooking for everyone, playing his music, or simply being present to listen to their stories and memories, the more My Tien learns to be a more well-rounded and complete person. Accomplished behavioral changes, lessening her mood swings, or just generally appreciating the little things in life rather than her social media following, creates a fine celebration of the burgeoning emotional bond between the two.
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By establishing this proper narrative, “Ancestral Home” offers some well-received comedy involving Gia Minh and My Tien bonding and building their relationship. Focusing on lighthearted scares at the very beginning with My Tien not being able to handle the fact she sees Gia Minh hanging around the house talking to her, the interactions about trying to get rid of him turn into a series of exorcism attempts that fail spectacularly and forcing her to turn to understanding why she’s been called upon to save the house. That gives way to more confrontations later on, with the Shaman and other locals attempting to exorcise the house of his spirit but failing grandly due to his supernatural powers and presence, giving way to the scenes of them coming together to understand the importance of family and honoring the past.
This is only enhanced as time goes on with the ability to properly respect and honor elders which My Tien becomes more in tune with after the different interactions with her brother teaching her about the value of family and why each of her relatives is after the sacred house of theirs. It comes about their interactions as he’ll possess family members to help tell his story or take her into the spirit world to meet other deceased relatives. As it all leads into a spiritual and thrilling finale that attempts to bring in emotionally charged action as well as spiritual motivations for the house, these factors end up giving the film a lot to like.
There isn’t much wrong with “Ancestral Home”. The main factor against it is a bit of an overlong running time that really could’ve been trimmed down without much incident. Quite a large portion of the first act si spent watching My Tien and Gia Minh try to see the error of her ways as she’s left home for so long and forgotten the way of her ancestors which is a fine purpose to have them together. However, the repeated attempts at doing so revolve around the same thing, with Gia Minh using ghost tricks to drive people away and taunting My Tien about it so that she stays. This becomes immensely repetitive and formulaic as it takes place multiple times when one or two would’ve been fine, especially as the film then introduces multiple side-tangents due to including these storylines.
The idea of the various family members fighting each other for their past behaviors or failure to control the house tends to be the biggest factor throughout here which runs the length out detailing these parts of the storyline. As well, there’s also the final half which feels like it’s lifted from another movie entirely with way too many special effects and a fantastic whimsy that’s not present until this point.
The Ancestral Home” has quite a lot to like while being mainly let down by a few minor drawbacks. Viewers looking for this style and can appreciate this approach will be quite entertained.
