Dream Home
Encyclopedia
Dream Home is a 2010 Hong Kong slasher film
directed and co-written by Pang Ho-cheung
. The film is the story of Cheng Lai-sheung (Josie Ho
) who saves up money to buy her dream home. After the sellers decide to turn her down, she goes into a murderous frenzy.
Dream Home was originally meant to be released in October 2009 in Hong Kong but due to legal disputes between 852 Films and the director the film premiered in Italy on April 23, 2010 and in Hong Kong on May 13. The film received mixed reviews which focused on whether or not the satirical and horrific scenes worked well together.
) works two jobs with the hope of earning enough money to buy her own apartment with a view of the Victoria Harbor.
Cheng eventually saves enough for her dream home when a hike in the stock market makes the owners decide to raise the price. This sends Cheng into a murderous frenzy where she attacks people who live or work in the coveted high-rise towers.
's film financing and production studio 852 Films. Josie did research and found that horror films were the best selling genre for films which led to the idea of producing one. She was also influenced by the Hong Kong action film The Story of Riki proclaiming that she had "never seen such an outrageous film from Hong Kong before" and thought that "if that could be done, why can't we do the same"?
Director and writer Pang Ho-cheung
worked on the script in 2007. Pang stated he wanted to write a film about the average Hong Kong citizen facing the local inflated property market. Pang searched Hong Kong to make sure that no property name matched the one in his film stating that "otherwise, we'd be in real trouble". He chose to make the story a slasher film
saying that he had always loved Hollywood b-movies. The film was set to start filming March 27, 2009 in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay
area. Pang believed that music and lighting were important in slasher films and hired Wong Kar-wai
's regular light man Wong Chi-ming and Italian composer Gabriele Roberto. Roberto had previously worked with Pang on his film Exodus
. The film includes documentary footage of protesters against the demolition of Queen's Pier
in 2007.
Dream Home finished filming around May 2009. It was originally set to be released in October 2009 in Hong Kong. The film was delayed due to legal disputes between the company and director Pang Ho-cheung. Despite the dispute, Pang continued to work on post-production on the film stat that he had not "received any message telling me to stop working on it". Josie Ho stated that she pushed Pang to make the film more violent and outrageous while Pang wanted the film to be "more violent in a realistic manner". Dream Homes worldwide rights were bought by Fortissimo Films
.
, Italy. Two audience members vomited and one fainted during the Udine premiere. The North American premiere was at the Tribeca Film Festival
in 2010. On July 25, 2010 the film had its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia Festival
where the film won the Bronze audience award for "Best Asian Film". The film premiered in the United Kingdom
on August 28, 2010 at the London FrightFest Film Festival
.
The film was released in Hong Kong
on May 13, 2010. The film debuted at fourth place at Hong Kong box office earning $171,351 on its first week. The film ran for six weeks in Hong Kong grossing $378,650 in total. Variety suggested that the mid-May opening date was "overshadowed by the socko B.O. of Ip Man 2
". Dream Home was shown at the Sitges Film Festival where it won awards for Best Make Up FX (Vitaya Deerattakul and Andrew Lin) and Best Actress (Josie Ho). Dream Home is set for release in North America by the Independent Film Channel
who will release the film theatrically and on video-on-demand in early 2011. In the United Kingdom, Network DVD
have scheduled the film for a Region 2 PAL DVD release on 28 March 2011. .
praised the film, describing it as a "deliciously dark take on the dog-eat-dog Hong Kong housing market...another slickly produced, femme-driven item from local multihyphenate Pang (aka Edmond Pang), with its intricate editing and dash of capitalist critique adding some gloss and a hint of topicality to the blood-soaked proceedings." After its showing at the Tribeca Film Festival, Salon.com
declared it as one of the best films of whole festival. The Montreal Gazette
wrote that the film was "really well done but also really gory". Screen Daily gave the film a positive review, stating that "with its clever packaging and slasher credentials, the film will be grossing out viewers on the festival circuit and home video markets for some time to come" and that "Josie Ho in the lead role is focused but a bit wooden...Nonetheless Pang's direction is tight and cinematography by Yu Lik-wai is unobtrusively effective." In New Zealand, 3 News
gave the film five stars, calling it "a classy, clever film with an interesting story that is a darkly comic take on Hong Kong’s ever increasing property prices".
Film Business Asia gave the film a six out of ten rating, writing that the film "starts with a brilliant idea and has some great moments along the way but, as so often, doesn't quite manage to make all the bits cohere as the audience expects." The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, finding that the social observation of the film is lost to the "increasingly unrealistic and grotesque splatter material." Time Out gave the film a three out of six rating, opining that it is "Rendered with tremendous style but with little narrative intrigue, it's a shame that the macabre humour gracing Dream Home's (literally) eye-popping extreme violence doesn’t extend to its portrayal of Cheng’s hardship." Kim Newman
in Empire
gave the film three stars out of five stating that "there's an undeniable sense of liberation in the killing frenzy, though some scenes (the asphyxiation of a pregnant woman using a vacuum cleaner attachment) will cross a line for many."
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
directed and co-written by Pang Ho-cheung
Pang Ho-Cheung
Edmond Pang Ho-Cheung is a Hong Kong novelist, playwright, actor and filmmaker.-Biography:Pang was born in Hong Kong in 1973. At the age of 15, he started using a video camera to direct short films with his elder brother....
. The film is the story of Cheng Lai-sheung (Josie Ho
Josie Ho
Josephine "Josie" Ho Chiu-Yi is a daughter of Macao casino magnate Stanley Ho, and a singer and actress from Hong Kong.-Movie career:She was involved in numerous movies, TV commercials, TV dramas, and singing performances....
) who saves up money to buy her dream home. After the sellers decide to turn her down, she goes into a murderous frenzy.
Dream Home was originally meant to be released in October 2009 in Hong Kong but due to legal disputes between 852 Films and the director the film premiered in Italy on April 23, 2010 and in Hong Kong on May 13. The film received mixed reviews which focused on whether or not the satirical and horrific scenes worked well together.
Plot summary
In Hong Kong, Cheng Lai-sheung (Josie HoJosie Ho
Josephine "Josie" Ho Chiu-Yi is a daughter of Macao casino magnate Stanley Ho, and a singer and actress from Hong Kong.-Movie career:She was involved in numerous movies, TV commercials, TV dramas, and singing performances....
) works two jobs with the hope of earning enough money to buy her own apartment with a view of the Victoria Harbor.
Cheng eventually saves enough for her dream home when a hike in the stock market makes the owners decide to raise the price. This sends Cheng into a murderous frenzy where she attacks people who live or work in the coveted high-rise towers.
Production
Dream Home was the first feature production from Josie HoJosie Ho
Josephine "Josie" Ho Chiu-Yi is a daughter of Macao casino magnate Stanley Ho, and a singer and actress from Hong Kong.-Movie career:She was involved in numerous movies, TV commercials, TV dramas, and singing performances....
's film financing and production studio 852 Films. Josie did research and found that horror films were the best selling genre for films which led to the idea of producing one. She was also influenced by the Hong Kong action film The Story of Riki proclaiming that she had "never seen such an outrageous film from Hong Kong before" and thought that "if that could be done, why can't we do the same"?
Director and writer Pang Ho-cheung
Pang Ho-Cheung
Edmond Pang Ho-Cheung is a Hong Kong novelist, playwright, actor and filmmaker.-Biography:Pang was born in Hong Kong in 1973. At the age of 15, he started using a video camera to direct short films with his elder brother....
worked on the script in 2007. Pang stated he wanted to write a film about the average Hong Kong citizen facing the local inflated property market. Pang searched Hong Kong to make sure that no property name matched the one in his film stating that "otherwise, we'd be in real trouble". He chose to make the story a slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
saying that he had always loved Hollywood b-movies. The film was set to start filming March 27, 2009 in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay
Causeway Bay
Causeway Bay is a heavily built-up area of Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, located on the Hong Kong Island, and covering parts of Wan Chai and Eastern districts. The Chinese name is also romanized as Tung Lo Wan as in Tung Lo Wan Road...
area. Pang believed that music and lighting were important in slasher films and hired Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
's regular light man Wong Chi-ming and Italian composer Gabriele Roberto. Roberto had previously worked with Pang on his film Exodus
Exodus (2007 Hong Kong film)
Exodus is a 2007 Hong Kong film directed by Pang Ho-Cheung.-Cast and roles:* Simon Yam - Tsim Kin-Yip* Annie Liu - Ann* Nick Cheung - Kwan Ping-Man* Irene Wan - Pun Siu-Yuen* Maggie Shiu - Fong* Candice Yu - Ann's mother...
. The film includes documentary footage of protesters against the demolition of Queen's Pier
Queen's Pier
Queen's Pier, named after Queen Victoria, was a public pier in front of City Hall in Edinburgh Place, Central, Hong Kong. For three generations it served not only as a public pier in day-to-day use but also as a major ceremonial arrival and departure point...
in 2007.
Dream Home finished filming around May 2009. It was originally set to be released in October 2009 in Hong Kong. The film was delayed due to legal disputes between the company and director Pang Ho-cheung. Despite the dispute, Pang continued to work on post-production on the film stat that he had not "received any message telling me to stop working on it". Josie Ho stated that she pushed Pang to make the film more violent and outrageous while Pang wanted the film to be "more violent in a realistic manner". Dream Homes worldwide rights were bought by Fortissimo Films
Fortissimo Films
Fortissimo Films is a multi-national film production, sales and distribution company. The company has been behind such East Asian films as Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love, the Thai films Tears of the Black Tiger and Last Life in the Universe, as well as such independent films as Pleasure...
.
Release
Dream Home had its world premiere at the Far East Film Festival on April 23, 2010 in UdineUdine
Udine is a city and comune in northeastern Italy, in the middle of Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic sea and the Alps , less than 40 km from the Slovenian border. Its population was 99,439 in 2009, and that of its urban area was 175,000.- History :Udine is the historical...
, Italy. Two audience members vomited and one fainted during the Udine premiere. The North American premiere was at the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
in 2010. On July 25, 2010 the film had its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia Festival
Fantasia Festival
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996...
where the film won the Bronze audience award for "Best Asian Film". The film premiered in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on August 28, 2010 at the London FrightFest Film Festival
London FrightFest Film Festival
FrightFest is an annual film festival held in central London over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The first event was held in the year 2000....
.
The film was released in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
on May 13, 2010. The film debuted at fourth place at Hong Kong box office earning $171,351 on its first week. The film ran for six weeks in Hong Kong grossing $378,650 in total. Variety suggested that the mid-May opening date was "overshadowed by the socko B.O. of Ip Man 2
Ip Man 2
Ip Man 2 is a 2010 Hong Kong biographical martial arts film loosely based on the life of Ip Man, a grandmaster of the martial art Wing Chun. A sequel to the 2008 film Ip Man, the film was directed by Wilson Yip, and stars Donnie Yen, who reprises the leading role...
". Dream Home was shown at the Sitges Film Festival where it won awards for Best Make Up FX (Vitaya Deerattakul and Andrew Lin) and Best Actress (Josie Ho). Dream Home is set for release in North America by the Independent Film Channel
Independent Film Channel
The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...
who will release the film theatrically and on video-on-demand in early 2011. In the United Kingdom, Network DVD
Network DVD
Network DVD is a DVD publishing company that specialises in classic British television. In particular, it has the rights to a number of well-known ITV programmes...
have scheduled the film for a Region 2 PAL DVD release on 28 March 2011. .
Reception
The film received mixed reviews after its festival showings. VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
praised the film, describing it as a "deliciously dark take on the dog-eat-dog Hong Kong housing market...another slickly produced, femme-driven item from local multihyphenate Pang (aka Edmond Pang), with its intricate editing and dash of capitalist critique adding some gloss and a hint of topicality to the blood-soaked proceedings." After its showing at the Tribeca Film Festival, Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
declared it as one of the best films of whole festival. The Montreal Gazette
The Gazette (Montreal)
The Gazette, often called the Montreal Gazette to avoid ambiguity, is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with three other daily English newspapers all having shut down at different times during the second half of the 20th century.-History:In 1778,...
wrote that the film was "really well done but also really gory". Screen Daily gave the film a positive review, stating that "with its clever packaging and slasher credentials, the film will be grossing out viewers on the festival circuit and home video markets for some time to come" and that "Josie Ho in the lead role is focused but a bit wooden...Nonetheless Pang's direction is tight and cinematography by Yu Lik-wai is unobtrusively effective." In New Zealand, 3 News
3 News
3 News is the television, internet and radio news service of New Zealand's TV3. Its flagship bulletin, which airs every evening at 6:00pm, is anchored by Hilary Barry and Mike McRoberts. Carolyn Robinson and Simon Shepherd are weekend and substitute anchors...
gave the film five stars, calling it "a classy, clever film with an interesting story that is a darkly comic take on Hong Kong’s ever increasing property prices".
Film Business Asia gave the film a six out of ten rating, writing that the film "starts with a brilliant idea and has some great moments along the way but, as so often, doesn't quite manage to make all the bits cohere as the audience expects." The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, finding that the social observation of the film is lost to the "increasingly unrealistic and grotesque splatter material." Time Out gave the film a three out of six rating, opining that it is "Rendered with tremendous style but with little narrative intrigue, it's a shame that the macabre humour gracing Dream Home's (literally) eye-popping extreme violence doesn’t extend to its portrayal of Cheng’s hardship." Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
in Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
gave the film three stars out of five stating that "there's an undeniable sense of liberation in the killing frenzy, though some scenes (the asphyxiation of a pregnant woman using a vacuum cleaner attachment) will cross a line for many."