A movie by Eason Chan, Ying Cai Er and Gu Zu Lin, 《幽灵人间2之鬼味人间》.
Jack (Eason) and Ching (Zu Lin) were newly weds and moved into this old apartment that's rumored to be haunted. Jack went down to buy condoms and was knocked down by a car. He was severely injured but recovered miraculously, though he still had to make use of a walking stick. However, since his recovery, he found that his wife had been behaving mysteriously. He also had a vision of a dead lady in red Chinese Cheongsam lying in a weird position facedown everytime he sneezed. Coupled with a few strange incidents happening in and around his apartment (a weird old woman sitting at a bench, a strange mother-and-daughter pair who wore red leotards, a freaking neighbour and a sudden failure of light bulbs in his house), he decided to investigate into this matter.
He went to look for a PI friend (Guo Jin An) but was surprised to see September (Cai Er), a gal she met long ago who later became his step-sister. September brought him to a piano shop when they first met and Jack played a song that he once played for her in their 1st encounter, 《你会不会》. Upon hearing his troubles, September offered to help Jack. With the aid of September, Jack went on to uncover a few mysteries and stumble upon a few discoveries.
-Jack and September followed his wife to a grave and saw her being chided by a woman that she caused her son's death. When Ching left, Jack approached the woman and his daughter, claiming he was the deceased's friend. He found out that Ching was once married to that man, who was the woman's son, but he died mysteriously after she bought an insurance for him. Strange thing was that he died on the day she can claim insurance. She was left with a huge sum of money.
-September followed Ching to a mental institute, only to find out that one of the mental patients was her mom, whom she told Jack that she had passed away. Her mom uttered things that dun make sense "My daughter did not curse her husband, he did not die because of her."
-Jack was walking on a street when he met a bespectacled guy in front of a fortune-telling stall. The guy was stunned when he looked at Jack and told him this was destiny and just accept what happens. Even thou Jack pressed him to help him, the guy claimed he cldn't and told him "U may not have done anything wrong, but ur family members might have." It seems like he's indicating that Jack had met his mishap due to his family -- his wife.
-Jack, along with September, talked to the new security guard at his apartment and found out the security guard died 2 days ago after talking to this lady who lived in the 3rd floor -- his wife, Ching.
-Jack and September bought a pinhole camera after Jack saw his wife behaving as if she was a ghost in the house. He wanted to film what she did (watching tv with no channels and lying on the bed in an awkward position which he saw everytime he sneezed. To his surprise, he discovered that someone had already installed a pinhole camera and his shelf contained a red umbrella and a pair of red silk shoes. His wife denied that those were hers.
-Jack and September managed to sneak into the apartment beside his and realized that his neighbour is a sadist who installed pinhole cameras to film all the units in his block thru their windows. While they were scrambling to find the tape that contains what was filmed in his unit (304), his neighbour returned. They managed to get away after knocking the mad man unconscious. After watching the tape, they were astonished to find out that Ching appeared in the unit long b4 the newly married couple moved in. This raised Jack's suspicions.
-After that, he went to find Ching's good friend, who was also the property agent that sold them their apartment. She admitted that Ching once lived in and owned that apartment and they had conspired to make it seems like they were really buying it. She also revealed that the unit was the one Ching lived with her ex-husband and was where her ex-husband committed suicide.
In addition, Ching also went out in the middle of the nite wearing a red cheongsam, red silk shoes and a red umbrella. She stopped at a small altar in the corner of a street. In many occasions she did not know what happen to her and she looked like she was possessed. She even vomited and had pale faces like a dead ghost occasionally.
When Jack asked Ching if he could pay respect to her parents' graves on his birthday, which is on Ching Ming Jie (a traditional festival when Chinese went to pay respect to their deceased family members's graves) , her wife behaved suspiciously and left the house saying she got to visit her aunt. Jack's suspicions were hence further confirmed.
One day, Jack decided to confront his wife and wanted her to stop keeping anything from him by telling him the truth. But his wife did not obliged and went about doing her stuff. While demanding the truth from his wife, they accidentally broke the photo frame containing their wedding photo. His wife cried and left.
Jack found a tape recorded by his wife. She told a story in the tape.
"Once, there was a loving couple. The fiancee was unexpectedly married to another man without the fiance knowing. So he went to find a monk, who gave him a mirror. The fiance saw a sea in the mirror, and a dead lady lying naked on a shore. The 1st man who passed by her shook his head and left. The 2nd man who passed by her used his clothes to cover the woman's naked body. The 3rd man who passed by her dig a hole to bury her.
The fiance did not understand. The monk told him the lady was in fact his fiancee."
Then Ching went on to say that their situation was very much like the story, where Jack is the dead lady. Ching told him that the person who Jack shld repay most is in fact the 3rd man, and she kept thinking she was the 3rd man. But she realized she was actually the 2nd man..just another bypasser whom the dead lady owed alot to. Ching revealed that while Jack was lying in crucial condition on his bed, she went around all the temples to pray for him to recover, but nothing worked. She finally stumbled across this small altar in the corner of a street and made a deadly promise "If my husband can recover, i'll give u my life". It really worked, and since her husband's speedy recovery, the spirit of the altar kept reminding her of her promise to give it her soul.
Jack went back to the fortune teller. Upon pressing him to help him, the fortune teller admitted that he was only a watch smith and was the one responsible of knocking him down. As he was about to get his driving licence, he dared not help to save him and drive away instead. That was why he could recognise Jack and was stunned to see him well and alive. However, the watch smith told Jack that he knocked into him coz he saw someone leaping from a building.
Jack then went to find Ching's aunt and learnt from him that Ching did not tell her about her past coz she wanted to preserve a happy marriage. Her mom got insane after her ex-husband committed suicide by leaping down a building and she did not tell Jack so as not to be reminded of this tragic past. Her ex-husband left her a huge sum of money from his insurance as well as the old apartment. When she knew that Jack did not have enuf money after getting bankrupt a few years back when he was still a web video designer, she decided to help him save money by moving into her old apartment.
Finally learning the truth, Jack ran back his apartment to search for his wife. And saw her standing alone in the room in darkness. As it was Jack's birthday that day, they decided to light candles to celebrate. Jack expressed his concern to Ching and told her he would protect her from the harrassments of the spirit. But Ching told him that the spirit was actually harrassing him. Ching then revealed that in many occasions he was seen talking to thin air. (Such as when he was talking to the security guard) She also said that the pinhole camera installed by her in their unit showed him talking to himself. Then Ching handed a letter from September to Jack. The letter was written by September b4 she encountered an aircraft disaster that caused her to be paralysed while rushing back to Hong Kong to attend Jack's wedding. The letter revealed that September liked Jack and wld have wished his fiancee was herself and not Ching.
Jack thought everything was made up by September and hoped she won't harrass both of them anymore. All of a sudden, Ching was possessed again and left the house, while September entered the room. Jack told her he had never liked her and wanted her to disappear from here. He also dropped a purple crystal necklace from her envelope, which she gave him as a wedding gift. This caused great grief to September's soul and the same purple necklace hanging on her neck slipped and fell to the floor b4 she disappeared.
Ching suddenly appeared in the red costume and ran to the rooftop, while Jack searched frantically and cried for September to stop pestering Ching. The possessed Ching grabbed him by the neck and intended to throw him off the building when the actual Ching cried "I remembered my promise. Please let go of my husband!"
And so she stepped onto the edge of the rooftop uncontrollably. She was about to leap when Jack cried to the spirit " Let my wife go and i'll give u my life. I promised u."
The spirit stopped and Jack stepped onto the edge. He said he was very happy to meet Ching and told her what she always liked to tell him "In my vision of the future, you will always be an indispensible part of it." With that he leapt off the building. As he was falling 2wards the bottom, he saw September smiling at him and turning into a white glow of stars...
Jack did not die, neither did his wife. They discovered that the September is not the evil spirit that was harrassing them. The evil spirit belonged to a lady dressed in red who leapt off a building on the same day Jack encountered the car accident, and the altar in the corner of the street belonged to her. They also found out that September, who was paralysed in the hospital, did not know that she was dying and appeared in front of Jack as a soul to help him, eventually offering her life to the evil spirit, thus saving the lives of both Jack and Ching.
With that, the song 《你会不会》sung by Eason filled the ending. A sorrow but touching song.
&its not what you think
6:13 pm
