Even though the production situation in the Hong Kong film industry is better than that or the previous two years, it is still difficult to raise money for big productions. Ghost stories, which don't require a large budget for production, have become the most popular genre in Hong Kong movies lately. In January we had several ghost movies released in Hong Kong cinema. "Ghost Promise" is one of the small scale productions.

30 years ago, Blood Monster (LUNG Fong) was caught by Mentor (TSUI Siu-keung). Blood Monster promised that he will turn over a new leaf and Mentor makes a promise with Blood Monster. 30 years later, Bond (LAU Shek-ming) gets married to Mindy (CHOR Yung). Bond leaves Mindy awhile to attend to business in the mainland. While Mindy walks around, she gets lost in foggy weather and she decides to stay in an old building. There, she is raped by Blood Monster and drained to death. Her spirit flows back to her house and she wants to stay with Bond and takes revenge by becoming a blood-feeding ghost. Her relative Cousin (NG Kar-lai) and Cousin's boyfriend Chak (WAN Tin-chiu) note Mindy's strange behaviour after her 'return' ....

"Ghost Promise" is another crappy movie. The beginning of the movie shows the poor quality of the production. The magic fight between Mentor and Blood Monster stays at the level of black and white films from the 60s. If the whole film was done 10 years before, it would be acceptable but not now. The dialogue between Blood Monster and Mentor is also too simple to convince audiences.

The costume of the movie is another ridiculous point worth discussing. We know that there should be some differences when Mindy is running out of blood. However, the costume is not serious. What we have is a Mindy with a very white face with a little paint on her faces to look like blood vessels. If you don't know you are watching a ghost story, you may wonder if Mindy is practising a Chinese Opera!

We understand that "Ghost Promise" is a very low budget production. Most of the scenes were shot at the same house. However, they should have putting more effort into the script. The script is not enough to fill the running time. There should be some sub-plots like the relationship between Cousin and Bond. On the wedding day of Mindy, it looks like Cousin is unhappy to see Mindy marry. This could have established the conflict in Mindy seeking Cousin's help.

For actors and actresses in the movie, they are not fulfilling their jobs very well due to the poor script. CHOR Yung is assigned a role without acting but with sex. WAN Tin-chiu, is once again acting the role of a young Mentor. There is nothing for NG Kar-lai to do in the movie while it also lacks opportunity for LAU Sek-ming to do anything either.

With such crappy production, costume and acting opportunity, there is no point trying to convince audiences that "Ghost Promise" is worth watching.

Written by Ryan Law, from Hong Kong Movie DataBase, on 24 March, 2000.