Text © Richard Gary/Indie Horror
Films, 2013
Images from the Internet
Strawberry
Cliff
Directed and
written by Chris Chow
Cinema Asian
Releasing
105 minutes, 2010 / 2012
Let me take you down coz we’re going to
Strawberry Cliff, a late comer in the
Asian horror genre that has apparently taken it’s time to get to the Western
market. This is strange, considering it is mostly filmed in English and
contains location shots in Los Angeles, Paris, and the majority takes place in
Hong Kong.
Apparently, L.A.’s occidental waitress
Kate (Leslie-Anne Huff) has the ability to know when someone is going to die
just by looking at them, though she doesn’t know how, as is explained in the
very first and expository scene. She tells a young man that he will perish that
very night. It seems everyone she tells has no more than a couple
of days. In typical Asian cinema, there is some figure that is too white to be
natural crawling around to help speed things up.
 |
| Leslie-Anne Huff |
To further complicate matters, this doomed
man, Jason (Anthony Chaput), is part of a mental collective of three called a
hive, where different individuals all share a “soul”. They can each see what
the other is doing as they live their own lives. One character explains that it
is like watching multiple televisions as the same time. Truly a cosmic
consciousness. The other two, are Jeanne (Antonella Monceau) in Paris, and
Darren (Chinese pop star Eason Chan) in Hong Kong.
The irony of the film is that while
Kate can look at others and know, she cannot do the same with herself, despite
the fact she has grown up with a congenital heart disorder that should have
killed her years before, even though she is a young woman in this story (the
film description is that she is a teen, but I don’t buy that). A secondary fatefulness
is due to her and Darren’s particular psychic histories, as both have low-level
jobs, with Kate working in a diner and Darren as a bartender; we see both
taking abuse from overly masculinist customers. You know something has changed
when one stands up to their bully. An inconsistency, however, is that both
Jeanne and Jason seem to be doing quite well, judging by their clothes.
Despite some reminiscence of Ringu (1998), such as the quest and the
fate of one of the characters, this film relies a lot more on atmosphere than
on horror. Sure, there are a couple of good scary moments peppered within, but
much is played up in mood, highlighted by a haunting score full of drawn out violin
bass notes and woodwinds.
 |
| Eason Chan |
While Huff’s Kate is obviously the
central character of the film, it is also abundantly clear that Chan is the
star. Heck, it’s his picture on the cover, and his appearance is probably what
sold most of the copies of this film. The Asian markets love their pop stars,
and Chan is right at the A-line. As with so many of these stars, especially in
Hong Kong, he is also an actor, but thankfully a good one. This is his first
film in English, and though he states that he had to learn a whole different rhythm
of acting thanks to the new language (from the making of documentary that is not on the disk, but is on YouTube for
those interested), it is seamless, and he appears confident in the role.
Huff’s character often seems stunned
about what is happening or being said around her, but that is not surprising as
I have found that Asian horror either over- or under-explains things, and this
case is the former. Not a complaint, just an observation.
Another character of the film is the
city of Hong Kong, with its numerous dauntingly high buildings (this statement
coming from someone from New York City), and both new opulent and older seedy
neighborhoods. For us in the West, a good thing about filming in Hong Kong is
that because it was until recently a British regent, nearly everyone speaks
English, and all the store signs are bilingual.
The way the film leaves off would make
it primed for a sequel, though as far as I know there haven’t been any plans
for it. I get the feeling this didn’t get the audience numbers it was
expecting, despite Chan’s presence. I’m not surprised, because today’s audience
of Asian horror have come to rely on much more creepy killings, in such now
classics as the aforementioned the Ringu
(The Ring) series, Ju-on (aka, The Grudge, 2002), Gin qwai
(The Eye, 2002), or Chakushin ari (2003), rather than this
amount of suspense and mood.
That being said, this film kept this
viewer’s attention throughout, even with all the expository chatter, and the
action moments (such as the growing shadow) were all the sweeter for their
moments. Personally, I hope a sequel does rear its head.
Bonus video:
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