Years ago, a family of millionaires committed mass suicide by hanging. Now James (Jason Chang), brought up in England, has inherited a rotting, labyrinthine mansion. He settles in with his fiancée Yo (Terri Kwan), a successful dancer who is uncertain that a life with James will be fulfilling. The house proves to be a poor place to relax. Strange noises are followed by mysterious footprints. Then their friends appear late at night, with no memory of how they got there. Deaths follow. James takes it all in stride, but Yo realizes there’s a family secret and she needs to uncover it if they are to survive.
J-horror, Taiwanese-style, meets art film in The Heirloom, a creepy haunted house thriller that doesn’t try to scare, but to impress. The tension is high, but so is the beauty, though it is often accompanied by decay. I’ve never seen such meticulous work before in a creature feature. Every angle, every piece of furniture, every beam of light, and every color mean something. The red of blood is important, but no more so than the red of the flower pedals that fall on Yo during one of several modern dance numbers, and you can bet that the dances are symbolic of the chaos or pain going on elsewhere in the film.
Feeling original for Asian horror, The Heirloom still has an old-school vibe. It’s reminiscent of 1960s American haunted house films, where the dread builds slowly until it is ever-present. There isn’t a twisted Ringu-type spirit in sight, nor the expected chases. The house is the monster here, and even if the ghosts can be pinpointed more precisely, it’s still the whole structure that will make you shiver.
While most Asian ghost stories have a back-story involving pain and betrayal, The Heirloom‘s takes it to a new extreme. The history of the family up to twenty years ago would make a marvelously twisted movie. Unfortunately, too much of that background is fed to the viewer as text before the credits. If you watch on DVD, turn off the subtitles for the first two minutes and you’ll have a better experience.
So much is good about The Heirloom, particularly Terri Kwan, yet my overwhelming feeling after it was over was anger. It could have been one of the great ghost stories and they blew it. A few too many flashbacks got on my nerves, but the real problem is James. His character isn’t explained, has an unrealistic background (he doesn’t remember anything from when he was eight and has never heard about the deaths of his very close and extremely wealthy relatives whom he had lived with), fades out of the second act, and is part of a ludicrous climax that saps much of the power from the film. In the first half hour, all indications point to James being the protagonist, but his emotions and thoughts cease to be any part of the film. That’s OK as Yo is a far more compelling character. That is, it’s OK till the end. James’s behavior then discounts everything Yo and he have learned (except that the family is trouble). It also brings up some questions about his medical knowledge, but I’ll let that go. If the movie is going to end as it does, then the filmmakers needed to show us (a lot) more of what was going on with James. Apparently they were going for shock. Well, I wasn’t shocked, just disappointed.
The Heirloom is still a good movie, but it should have been so much more.