48 Hours - `Call Time' by Team `Kantakaca'

Genre - Ghost Movie
Heart Attack quotient - zero, scares (if any) were low impact
Psycological (The Ring) quotient - maybe........... if I understood the story correctly
Greatest moment - The appearance of the ghosts. From normal girls, they turn into glamorous divas from the twilight zone. I wished they died earlier.
Worst moment - Carressing the Hongbao. I was always lost at that shot, not sure of what it meant.
Production value - This is either an expensive/well-costumed production or one of the team members actually works in Boom Boom Room or the SAF Music and Drama Company.

It always starts from an axe to grind. So it was not difficult to feel that familiar sense of unease in horror movies, that eventually leads to a full-fledged scare. In `Kantakaca', the grudge starts from the dressing room of a place that looks like a cabaret. I found it hard to follow the threads of conflict. And I felt further confused by the `carressing' of the Hongbao (the most unique Hongbao treatment among the 14 short films). Later in a cross-refernce, I realised that it was supposed to set off some bad luck.

So the performers left the dressing room and went their separate ways on the road. Somewhere along the journey, there hints of traffic difficulties and it was not difficult to suspect something would have happened to some of the people. Moments later(or maybe the next day?), probably it was near performance call time (hence the title) when the male lead returns to the dressing room, he gets a call from one of the girls who said she was on her way. Within a second literally, she is there. It was obvious by then that this was the `ghost' scene. And the film ended just about there.

I really think if the team had access to a backstage wardrobe, they could have dressed the ghosts in more effective ways. Maybe the girls love their performing jobs so much that even as ghosts, they are as `vaudeville' as ever. Come on, grab some white cloth, or maybe something really tattered. Use lots of sauce to create that bloody road accident effect. Add in some sound design and I guarantee you after that, I will never dare to `carress' my Hongbaos again during Chinese New Year.
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