After trying in vain for a few times to get through Every Dog has his date, I was almost ready to give up on HK cinema for good and revert back to watching Adam Sandler comedies and or some teen action flick starring hunk de jour Vin Diesel or whatever else is coming out of Tinseltown these days. But then I discover this well-crafted, intelligent and touching movie that completely restores my faith and leadeth me away from temptation. And did I mention it stars Loletta Lee, who somehow manages to keep getting cuter and cuter the older she gets?

I thought the story was highly original as a whole, even though the plot elements by themselves are fairly conventional. It's not really a horror film at all, but a character study involving death and loss. In that respect, it has some parallels with last year's Paramount Motel, which was also written by Simon Loui, who is starting to put together an impressive portfolio of intelligent movie scripts on top of his always impressive acting. He's on my radar screen now and I'll have to start seeking out some of his other work.

Anyway, the film is about a detective (played by Andy Hui in a nicely nuanced performance) who gets shot in the line of duty and ends up in a coma for several years. When he finally awakens, he has to deal with the guilt of being responsible for the death of some fellow officers, with the loss of his girlfriend (Fennie Yuen in a small cameo) and more importantly, with the fact that he can now see and communicate with ghosts. On the positive side, he also has to deal with nurse Oscar (Loletta Lee) who took care of him while he was in a coma and who has developed a little crush on him. But she's in danger from a psychopath serial killer who is targetting nurses, and it becomes Andy's job to try and save her.

I found the film compelling, and actually quite thoughtful. Mind you, this is a low budget movie, and perhaps I was a little to eager to like it after that infamous dog movie, but still I'd have to say this was definitely one of the more interesting films to come out of HK in a while. Actually, now that I think about it, most of the recent blockbuster titles coming out of the HKSAR have been somewhat disappointing, whereas there have been a number of satisfying smaller titles, such as Bullets of Love, Sharp Guns, and this one. I think I'll stick with small movies like this for a while (especially if they star Loletta Lee...).