Sam hon (2003)

Sammi and her husband Chan find themselves resurrecting their nearly failed marriage after Sammi suffers a severe injury during a robbery. Though the injury gives Sammi and Chan another ... See full summary »

Director:

Siu-hung Chung

Stars:

Francis Ng, Nick Cheung, Athena Chu

Cast

Credited cast:
Francis Ng	...	Chan Kwok-Ming
Nick Cheung	...	Ko Chun
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Athena Chu	...	Mok Sum-Yi
Shiu Hung Hui
Tiffany Lee	...	Zhou Kit-Yu
Ying Kwan Lok
Patrick Tang

Storyline

Sammi and her husband Chan find themselves resurrecting their nearly failed marriage after Sammi suffers a severe injury during a robbery. Though the injury gives Sammi and Chan another chance at love, it also puts her in great danger. After she heals from the incident, Sammi begins to have premonitions of murders, an event which Chan, a police officer, uses to further a murder investigation, but which also places them at risk from the murderer.

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Plot Keywords:

murder | covered female frontal nudity | shot in the heart | policeman | shot glass | 

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Genres:

Thriller

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Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

4 September 2003 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Shiver

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universe Films Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Odd mix of ghost story and serial killer thriller

SHIVER is a strange, low-key film which tries, somewhat unsuccessfully, to blend two genres into one. It starts off as a traditional ghost story, with a woman involved in an accident and subsequently finding herself subjected to out-of-body experiences in which she's accompanied by a ghostly girl and witnesses a string of murders committed by a vicious serial killer. The first half of the film is low key and unengaging, let down by Athena Chu's wishy-washy turn as the haunted housewife. I got the impression that Chu was struggling not to laugh during many of her so-called scare sequences, and sure enough a deleted scene reveals how many takes were needed before she managed to keep a straight face (the answer: lots). If the leading actress can't convince you then how's the rest of the film supposed to? Thankfully, things improve a notch during the second half of the production, when the protagonist dues shift over to Chu's cop husband, played by Hong Kong movie stalwart Francis Ng. The whole mood of the film changes tack, too, transforming from a slow-paced haunting affair to a suspenseful chase-focused thriller, with Ng hot on the heels of the aforementioned killer. There are car chases galore, stunts and as a whole the film is a lot more exciting and engaging. The acting isn't great – Ng is rather bland, although nowhere near as bad as Chu – but at least there's stuff happening. The ending, though, is a cop-out, hinging on a vital bit of information we aren't given until that point, which invariably left me feeling cheated rather than satisfied.