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| A man with a low level of employment skill is
looking for a job. His wife is pregnant, and they're
struggling financially. The man says, 'I don't
care for the baby,' which I guess translates
to 'I'll take any job I can,'
and ends up a night watchman. But the building he's
watching has some spookily-wookily stuff happening
in it, like an elevator that takes him to a very
low level, then fills with water while an unseen
infant makes obscene phone call noises. His co-workers
start having problems with staying alive, and his
wife begins acting odd. Naturally, a ghost is up
to no good. It's an Asoan horror movie, after
all. Can't have one of those without a ghost.
The Imp is a somewhat slow movie
that lacks any real eeriness until the climax.
There is some weirdness on display, like a fat
guy who wears a shirt with the legend 'Am
I a Girl,' and the follow up shirt 'No,
I'm a Boy,' or the curse threatening
a baby be born with no asshole. The only really
good thing are SOME of the undead guards in the
finale, so I found this movie a bit slow and overrated,
since it's evidently regarded by some as
the best Hong Kong horror film ever. |
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| Video |
| The DVD presents The Imp at approximately 1.85:1.
Even though it's a Mei Ah release, the image
is well produced for a Chinese DVD at the time.
The print itself, though, is very speckley and suffers
blotches and scratches, and the colors, especially
blacks, are muted. There's also a weird blotch
that shows up in lighter backgrounds, which I thought
was just dust on my TV at first. The film bleeds
off the lower matte, creating a weird haze. |
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| Audio |
| The film is available in Cantonese or Mandarin
with a few sub options, including English. As usual,
the Mandarin dub is inferior to the Cantonese track.
The subs are on the matte, and get a bit lost in
lighter backgrounds, but remain legible. Despite
being a Mei Ah DVD, the subs are mostly error free
and audio quality is fine, but not impressive. |
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| Extra Features |
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| The Verdict |
| I didn't really like The Imp,
but even if I did, the DVD is not a thrilling presentation
of the film. It seems some effort went into the
disc itself, which is a rarity from Mei Ah, but
no effort was put forth in procuring a decent print
of the film as a starting point. |
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