Film: Dream Home
Release date: 28th March 2011
Certificate: 18
Running time: 96 mins
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Starring: Josie Ho, Michelle Ye, Eason Chan, Lawrence Chou, Norman Chu
Genre: Horror
Studio: Network
Format: DVD
Country: Hong Kong
In this age of economic turmoil, it has never been harder to get on to the property ladder, yet for many this is a benchmark in measuring our success. As we find ourselves in more and more debt, the distance to the first rungs of real estate can seem out of reach. Dream Home is a Hong Kong slasher that will make anyone question whether it is a leap that is worth taking. It is also a movie that shows us that the economic crisis is exactly the same on the other side of the world, and also satirises the obsessive nature of global consumerism. Dream Home takes things a fair bit further than similar ventures such as American Psycho, and is definitely not for the faint hearted.
Josie Ho stars as Cheng Li-sheung, a young professional who has spent more than a decade dreaming about a nice, although not extravagant apartment with a sea view. She works hard and saves money, but no matter how much she has saved, it is never enough to afford the mortgage for her dream home. Every time she gets close, the market changes and the price goes up.
Cheng becomes increasingly desperate to get what she wants for her family, which is simply a home big enough to house them. The apartment in question is the same apartment that she has wanted since childhood, and the dream becomes an obsession. As the obsession spirals out of control, she comes up with an idea to bring down the property value by means of a murderous scheme…
Dream Home is a story that is told by means of a non linear narrative that mostly takes place over one night, with flashbacks to various events in Cheng Li-sheung’s past, which explains her motivations. This makes for interesting viewing, since rather than American Psycho’s very linear narrative, where we see the monster emerge from a human, we instead begin with the monster and are then shown the human side, which allows us to partly identify and understand the character in between the evil and abject deeds. This makes Dream Home far more than an exploitative and empty series of gory set pieces.
This is a character-based film, and its success is based largely around the central performance. Josie Ho, who also produced the movie, is a seasoned Hong Kong actress, and has many titles under her belt. Her performance in Dream Home reinforces the style of storytelling, with a portrayal that is both cold, calculating killer and desperate dreamer.
Fetishism is rampant throughout Dream Home, with frequent close ups on household items, such as vases, cups, glasses and window frames, which linger in the foreground, obscuring the characters and their conversations. There are also a wide range of household items being used as weapons by Cheng Li-sheung, like furniture slats, nails, vacuum cleaners, kitchen knives and cable ties (to name but a few!). The way in which these domestic goods are fetishised delicately emphasises Cheng Li-sheung’s obsession with her dream apartment, and even during flashbacks to her childhood, we are reminded of her omnipresent fixation.
The burden of debt and financial stress is also a constant theme throughout the film. Cheng Li-sheung works for a credit card company, desperately selling cards and loans to people who cannot afford them in order to meet targets and keep her job. She has constant meetings with her bank manager about her mortgage. There are also health bills and insurance claims, personal lending from boyfriends, and the constant pressure to simply maintain repayments.
The other strong thematic point that shines through is that of the family unit. This is something which in China and much of Asia holds far more importance than here in the west. Without giving too much away, Cheng Li-sheung starts out wanting a home for her family. Her main motivation is not personal, but for the greater good of her family unit. She even chooses the apartment based on criteria that will satisfy her parents. By the time she begins to really fixate on the apartment, this overrides her family need, and it gradually becomes an entirely stubborn personal motivation.
Gore and violence are, of course, central to any slasher film, and Dream Home has lots of it on offer. The most difficult scene to watch involves the murder of a pregnant woman and the resulting miscarriage. This is rather extreme, but serves to illustrate the level of the killer’s psychosis and mania. There are some brilliantly choreographed scenes, where you really couldn’t guess the outcome until it has happened, and even then find yourself in a state of disbelief.
Despite the narrative distortion and a little bit of expressionistic Snorricam and rapid montage, the general aesthetic is a very clinical realism. Much of the lighting used is either soft lighting or a slight blue hue, which, at times, is very reminiscent of other Asian slasher classics such as Freezer or Audition. The first few shots of the initial scene in fact trick the viewer into thinking it is set in a morgue rather than a security office. The main effect that this realistic and clinical look has is to give extra gravity to the main feature: the violent acts being carried out by a deranged psychopathic woman.
Dream Home is an extreme thrill ride and satire, with some rare attention being given to character development and explanation that, for many, will make it an instant classic. It has several intricate sequences that unleash buckets of gore in new and original ways, and will put the frighteners into any respectable property owner, so be warned! DOB
