Are a you a horror movie fan? Have you watched the movies we recommended last week yet? Because this week, let’s look at Top Chinese Horror Movies, part two!

1.诡丝 / Guǐsī (2006)

诡丝 (Guǐ sī) exactly means “strange string” and was translated as “silk”. The string that plays an important role in this movie is really looks like a silk string, so the choice of this name was quite understandable. If you like to watch movies about ghosts, you have to clap eyes on Asian cinematography, especially, on Chinese one. Thanks to Asian folklore, China has tons of ghost stories and legends most of which can be turned into a good horror movie. Western cinematography has many thrilling stories (maniacs, aliens, viruses, zombies etc), but when it comes to “ghost movies”, asian cinematography is a real treasure. 

Plot

Huang Santai (黄三太) is a leader of a scientific group. They find a ghost of a three-years old boy with their new invention which helps to expand the human vision abilities and see beyond our own reality. In order to find out the cause of his death, Huang Santai asks an agent Ye Qidong (叶起东) to find out more about this boy. Finally, Ye gets to know the horrible truth about his death: the boy was killed by his own mother. In his eyes he saw a strange silk string which seem to connect with some mysterious power.  At the same time members of this scientific group starts to afraid that the boy can hurt them and captured him.  By doing this they release terrible forces and start dying one after another. Ye and his girlfriend has no choice but to stand this forces and try to find answers in order to save their own lives. 

Conclusion

This story is a mystic one with a little touch of science-fiction. It has its own atmosphere. But this movie is not just to scare you, it has its own moral. It shows us that anger can’t bring us happiness and that only love makes us powerful. The purer, the stronger. So maybe it’s not the rage or anger what brings the dead back to life, but something else and deeper?

2. 妄想 / Wàngxiǎng (2006)

The name of this movie was translated as “Diary”, but the word 妄想 (wàngxiǎng) actually means “delusion” or “wishful thinking” and it reveals the main point of this movie, but, of course, the diary itself plays an important role here, especially at the very end.

Plot

The main plot is quite simple. The breach between Liang Shuna (梁咏娜) and her boyfriend becomes a very difficult challenge for her mind, she takes it too close.  One day she meets Weihao (伟豪), who looks really similar to her ex-boyfriend and that brings hope into her life.  Her friend also tells her to let go her pain and build a new relationship with Weihao. They seem to understand each other really well, but Liang still worries that Weihao will change just like her ex and leave her. Finally, Liang starts to fall into these terrible delusions of hers.  After the disappearance of Weihao, the police stars an investigation and gets to the horrible truth.

Conclusion

This movie keeps you in suspense since the very beginning with its dark, great tones and gloomy atmosphere. You can feel the loneliness of the main heroine, who suffers from unrequited love and betrayals. But the main diamond here is its ending. It twists so famously that you definitely have to see it. It’s a strong emotional movie rather that a horror one. The dramatic component here will carry you away into the dizzying stream of suffering illusions and hallucinations of the main heroine.

3. 维多利亚一号 / Wéiduōlìyà Yī Hào (2010)

This movie was translated in English as “Dream Home”, referring to its main plot.  I should warn, that it’s not a story about ghosts or phantoms, it’s a story about murders. It’s more a slasher than a typical horror movie with its suspense and screamers. Murder scenes in this movie are made sometimes too realistic. So, if you don’t like these types of movies and you feel sick while watching such brutal scenes, I definitely NOT recommend this one. But if you’re not…

Plot

It’s a story about a woman. Deng Lizhen (邓丽嫦) grew up in a normal family in Hong Kong. Lizhen suffers for the whole life. She has to survive living in a disadvantaged area with high criminal rate, then she has to look after her sick father. She has a simple dream, that one day she’ll buy a house with a harbor view. In order to fulfill her dream, she works hard every day and also have two part-times jobs to fill up the time after her day-work as a bank operator. She holds tight each chance to earn extra money. One day she finds an opportunity to buy an apartment in the luxury building Victoria No.1. At the same time, real estate prices stars rising and the landlord denies to sell the apartment for its original price. It was a great stroke for Lizhen, who worked hard for this. And on Halloween Eve the mind of this woman collapses. She returns to this building to make everyone pay for her sufferings.

Conclusion

Apart from realistic killing scenes, this movie has also a good and logic story line. The main story with murders interchanges with fragments of flashback, to give us more information about the past of our main heroine. Slasher interchanges with drama and then drama changes into slasher again. It’s not the best movie in its genre, but it’s still a good one and worth watching.

[If you like movies, you may be interested in how Chinese people translate their names. You can see Chinese names of modern popular western TV Shows here!]

[If you like to watch Chinese movies, it’s better to know some basic vocabulary. Here you can check the list of Chinese words or phrases you might need. How many of them you already know?]