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49 Days (HK 2006)
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Director : Lam Kin Loong
Exec Producers : Stephen Ng, Siuming Tsui
Producers : Siuming Tsui, Amy Li
Starring : Gillian Chung, Stephen Fung
Also Starring : Raymond Wong Hou Yin, Jess Zhang, Debbie Goh,
Wong Yat Fei, Law Mon
Special Appearance : Steven Cheung
Special Introducing : Xue Bin
Child Talent Star :Qiu Li Er
Associate Producer :Tom Cheung
Original Screenplay : Siuming Tsui
Screenplay Writers : Fong Sai Keung, Cindy Ma
Director of Photography : Ko Chiu Lam
Action Choreographer : Kong Tao Hoi
Art Director : Frederick Chan
Line Producer : Ho Ching
Editor : Wong Wing Ming
Visual Effect Supervisor : Stephen Ma
Original Music by : Lincoln Lo
Sound Design : Nip Kei Wing
Release Date : Feb 2006 |
Detailed Plot :
WARNING : Spoilers
The worlds of the living and the dead are separate, and
ordinarily, no contact is permitted across the divide. And yet in
Chinese tradition, the so-called ["eldritch flame / shadow flame"],
which involves the buring of rhinoceros horn, is a proverbial method
of piercing the veil between the mortal realm and the hereafter.
What is the truth behind this legend?
Liu Cheng, a wealthy young entrepreneur from the countryside, heads
for the provincial capital with a band of his "village brothers" to
set up a Chinese herbal medicine shop, and in only four short years
manages to turn his establishment "The Immortal Herb Store" into the
finest in the land. His ambition fulfilled, Liu is anxious to return
home to be reunited with his wife and young daughter. A blazing
inferno, however, shatters all his dreams.
On the night before his departure, Liu's plan to have a farewell
get-together with his village brothers is tragically interrupted
when "The Immortal Herb Store" is burnt to the ground by a blazing
fire. Rushing into the conflagration with no thought of his own
safety, Liu is unable to save any of his trapped friends, and can
only watch them die one by one in the most gruesome ways --
entangled in a pulley-rope while fleeing and choked to death,
falling from a great height, crushed beneath tons of falling debris,
or simply roasted alive...
What Liu could never have guessed is that the man responsible for
the arson is none other than his own trusted right-hand man, Peng
Si! And to make matters worse, the dastardly Peng now turns on his
master and frames Liu for the murders! Thrown into jail, Liu meets
with the young female lawyer Xiao-Qian, who initially declines to
take up his case due to her lack of experience with criminal
litigation. The very same day, however, while participating in the
re-burial ceremony for her grandfather's remains, Xiao-Qian
unwittingly ruins the auspicious "Ravens Descending on a Field" feng
shui setting of the intended entombment spot, causing thousands of
crows to suddenly appear and attack the funeral party. Receiving an
epiphancy from the uncanny occurrence, Xiao-Qian becomes convinced
of Liu's innocence and resolves to represent him and clear his name.
Unfortunately, the scheming Peng Si has taken the precaution of
bribing all the right people to ensure that despite Xiao-Qian's
valiant effort, Liu is found guilty at the end of the trial -- and
given the death sentence! On the night of the execution, dark clouds
cover the moon, and Liu realizes that the end is nigh. Feeling
guilty for her own failure, Xiao-Qian does her best to console the
condemned man, and impresses upon him that it is vital for him to
listen closely to every word the executioner has to say. Liu does
not know what to make of her instructions, and continues to hesitate
until the final moment when, just before the fatal blow, the
executioner cries out to him: "Run, and don't look back!" The blade
falls -- but it is Liu's bonds which are severed! Liu flees for dear
life and successfully makes his escape.
While on the run, Liu meets up with Xiao-Qian, and the pair
furtively make their way back to his home village. Expecting a happy
reunion at last with his family, Liu is shocked to find his
ancestral mansion fallen into serious disrepair, and nothing the
same way as he had left it. His wife Wen-Hui has lost her mind, and
now can do nothing but sit unmoving all day in her wheelchair with a
sinister look in her eyes. As for his daughter Ling-Zhi, untold
hardships have turned her into a strange little girl who creeps
around day and night with lighted candles made from powdered
rhinoceros horn, and behaves as if she harbours some grave, immense
secret.
Overcome with guilt, Liu does his best to make it up to his wife and
child, and his efforts serve to increase Xiao-Qian's admiration for
him. The young lawyer resolves to return to the provincial capital
and reopen Liu's case to overturn her client's wrongful conviction.
Gradually, Liu notices unusual physical changes in himself,
culminating in the discovery while looking in the mirror one day
that there is deep, bloody groove at the back of his neck! Turning
his neck forecefully, to his unspeakable horror his whole head falls
off! It is only then that he finally realizes that he had in fact
died on the day of the execution, and he is now no more than an
"intermediate shadow" hovering in a limbo state between life and
death, a ghost that has yet to be conducted into the afterlife. At
the end of seven times seven or forty-nine days after death, a
disembodied spirit like himself must be guided into the hereafter,
or be doomed forever. In utter resignation, Liu sews his head back
on and considers how he can best take care of unfinished business
before his time on earth is up.
Meanwhile Xiao-Qian, making her way back to the provincial capital,
encounters the missing key witness in Liu's case -- his erstwhile
partner, the businesswoman Su Si. As if exerting some mysterious
force on Xiao-Qian, Su Si leads her to the burnt-out ruins of "The
Immortal Herb Medicine Store". Just as the young lawyer is at a loss
as to what to do next, a ghostly hand comes out of nowhere to drag
her into an enormous medicinal urn -- inside which she discovers a
broken-limbed, doubled-over female corpse! Despite decomposition and
the twisted expression on the dead body's face, Xiao-Qian recognizes
it to be none other than Su Si. It seems the businesswoman has been
dead all this time, but her ghost is attempting to tell Xiao-Qian
that there is more to the affair than meets the eye. Sensing somehow
that Liu is about to be in danger, she hurries back to the village
to his aid.
With only a few days to go before Liu's time on earth expires, he
makes the most of it by trying to impart as much medical knowledge
to his daughter Ling-Zhi as possible, so that she may take care of
her mother after he is gone. The usually obedient girl, however,
uncharacteristically refuses to learn, as if she has some
inexpressible reason for her recalcitrance. One day, she hides
herself, and when Liu goes to the attic to look for her, he
discovers hundreds of rats surrounding the crying girl, trying to
gnaw at something while she does her best to fight them off. Coming
closer, Liu is shocked to find that the rats are gnawing at a
rotting corpse -- that of his wife Wen-Hui!
It seems that, overcome with grief when she heard about her
husband's execution, Wen-Hui had killed herself well before Liu's
spirit returned home; and Ling-Zhi, for her part, also knew as soon
as her father appeared that he was a ghost, but kept her knowledge a
secret all along in the hopes of maintaining a "normal" family life.
As for the little girl's ability to interact with her deceased
parents, it was all down to those special candles made with powdered
rhinoceros horn -- the legend of the ["eldritch flame" / "shadow
flame"] is apparently true! At this juncture, Peng Si appears and
attempts to steal the title deeds to Liu's ancestral property. When
Ling-Zhi tries to stop him, the villain turns his attentions to her
-- and Liu, as a disembodied spirit, is powerless to intervene.
Xiao-Qian arrives just in time, but as a defenceless woman, how can
she hope to overpower the evil man? Will Peng have his wicked way,
and will Xiao-Qian be reunited with Liu? The resolution of
everything hinges on the ["eldritch flame"/"shadow flame"] .
Review
*Coming Soon*
Stills
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