Wai dor lei ah yut ho
Tags: violence, satire

Plot synopsis:
In Hong Kong, Cheng Lai-sheung (Josie Ho) works two jobs with the hope of earning enough money to buy her own apartment with a view of the Victoria Harbour. In mixed chronological order, we see scenes from Lai-sheung's past. In her childhood, her family and friends are evicted from their low-rent housing so that developers can build expensive flats. Later in life, she vows to buy her mother and father a new apartment, but is unable to fulfill her promise before her mother dies. When her father becomes ill, she begins searching in earnest for a new place, having an obsession for the Victoria Bay No. 1 high-rise address from a childhood vow that she would one day buy a flat near the harbour so that her uncle would not have to walk there and back on a daily basis and not needing to search for him every evening.
The bank will only give her a 70% mortgage and payments would reach over $15,000. Unfortunately, because of an oversight in declaring her father's medical history, she no longer has insurance to pay for his expensive treatment and has to take a second job. After Lai-sheung does save enough for a down-payment, her father's medical bills become excessive. When she asks her married lover for a loan to cover these, he refuses. One night her father has trouble breathing and, instead of giving him his oxygen, Lai-sheung allows him to die. The insurance payment now adds enough money to her current savings to purchase her dream flat.
On her way to finalize the purchase, there is a hike in the stock market that makes the owners decide to raise the price. This sends Lai-sheung into a frenzy where she goes to the flats and attacks people who live and work there, killing them with low-tech, household items. During the course of the final killings, the police arrive at the flat, demanding entry. A struggle ensues during which both officers are killed.
Returning to her day job, Lai-sheung receives a call from her agent saying the owners of the flat she wishes to buy are willing to sell after all. Lai-sheung suggests that they might want to sell for a lower price, since there were 11 murders in the building the previous evening. That night, Lai-sheung's lover comes round to pick her up, but she turns her back on him and walks away, ending their relationship. The film concludes with Lai-sheung staring out at the harbour as newscasts discuss how America's worsening subprime mortgage crisis is beginning to have global repercussions.

Review: The bloody mainframe of the film's structure is accompanied by an interesting side-story that serves to justify all the bloodshed and also to provide some social commentary, but all this is secondary to the rivers of blood.
And God saw it was good.Ho-Cheung Pang's "Dream Home" proves that well-made genre pictures satisfy a basic human need: they can focus our attention, for a while, to a sequence of events that entertains because we know, roughly speaking, what to expect, what kind of experiences are in store for us.
The overall result is an impeccably paced, brutal but surprisingly uplifting story, beautifully shot against the backdrop of Hong Kong's endless arrays of high-rises and apartment blocks.The main character, played by an air of focused innocence by Josie Ho, has been saving up to buy an apartment with a nice seaside view, and she is working very hard to realize her dreams.
Blood is spilled.There is nothing much more to the plot than a general arch to justify the gore, but it all works out very well, and doesn't feel dragged out or phony or needlessly second-rate; in fact, the acting in this film is actually quite good for the most part, with the exception of the actress who plays the main heroine: she is VERY good.
None of the social commentary is especially realistic or intelligent, but the splatter format can function as a kind of primal scream therapy, and thus bring some aspects of our repressed social anxieties to the bloody daylight.Finally, one aspect of the film deserves special attention: the cinematography, editing and directing.
Cheng Lai-sheung(Josie Ho)is desperate to buy a flat in the famed Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong.He works two jobs and is already in debt.Not enough money for her dream home prompts her to spill the blood of the rich."Dream Home" is one hell of a gory slasher.The killings are extremely vicious and insanely bloody.The murderous rampage of the main character leaves nothing to imagination.The cinematography is stylish,the acting is fantastic and the score provide some chills."Dream Home" paints an ugly side of corrupted society with some of the bloodiest murders ever captured on screen.8 blood sprays out of 10.A must-see for horror fans with an iron stomach..
What I mean by that is that it's a slasher film with a point, as it contains all the outlandishly kills from famous slashers like Friday the 13th (it probably goes further actually) but all the excessive blood and violence has a point, and a very valid point about the current house market in Hong Kong.
Still, it illustrates the point of the film further as the age old issue of money has seriously taken its toll!Dream Home has an interesting structure which I don't know if it entirely worked.
In its favour it did add a nice layer of mystery to the film, and also helped to balance out the drama-heavy scenes with the horror-heavy scenes, allowing us to take a break from the last gruesome massacre and look forward to how it's all going to pan out!
Dream Home showcases some of the most inventive kills I've seen on screen for a long time.
There's some lovely cinematography of the high-rise buildings which could also be metaphorical as it seems so out of her reach!Dream Home is a highly successful slasher and one that I'd be happy to revisit again.
The basic story is a woman becomes so obsessed with buying a home with a view of the ocean she will go to any lengths to get that home....I'm a huge fan of ultra violent horror movies and this one did not let down on that front by any means.
Still we are not prepared for the "helter skelter" sadistic cruelty she unleashes.Lastly, let me say that it was hard to feel sympathy for this woman because of her sadism (some of it, it seemed to me, spiteful and gratuitous) towards people who had nothing to do with thwarting her dream except maybe they were able to rent where she wanted to live.
The plot is quite simple: A young cute, sexy female telemarketer in Hong Kong has a deep, disturbing, obsession to buy a condo with a water view in a hyper inflated housing market, and she is willing to do anything from car blow jobs to multiple, egregious and gruesome multiple murders to buy one.
There is a kernel of truth to that as in Russia, some renters were actually killed for their apartments, and without a view.The story is an old one: developers tear down old, shabby buildings and build new ones, and woe to the people that move in the new condos, when stalked by the dispossessed.Although the director, Ho-Cheung Pang has created an exquisitely crafted movie, in terms of lighting, composition, scene development, story line, music track, editing and great actors, the movie disturbs our psyche unlike any other slasher/gore films.
If you want "hilarious" in a housing movie, check out Duplex with Ben Stiller.If you giggled when Sharon Tate was stabbed in the belly while pregnant in the Manson movie, you will howl during the pregnant killing in dreamHome , when a pregnant woman is killed by Cheng Lai, aka The Condo Killer, as she sucks the life out of her with a vacuum bag as she wiggles for air like a worm while tied up on the hardwood floor.
If only she would listen to You Can't Always Get What you Want.You may wonder, why the graphic scene descriptions, because that really is the film, and one could do some pseudo economic poor/rich commentary, but that pales compared to the total visceral experience of this movie.If you can stand gore and I mean really stomach gore, this is a very well crafted movie.
Though I wasn't familiar with "Dream House" prior to finding it by sheer random luck on Amazon, and decided to get it as it sounded interesting and was at an okay price.And to make it all the more interesting, then the movie is based on true events that shook Hong Kong, and I got that confirmed from a friend living there, so it wasn't just something that was flaunted in the movie to make it more interesting - there was some truth behind it.The story in "Dream House" is about Cheng Lai (played by Josie Ho) who has been saving money her entire life to buy her own dream apartment, a home of her own.
I, personally, do not care much for Eason Chan (playing Siu To) and his acting skills (or lack thereof).The movie is filmed in a great way that makes it come off as right in your face, almost as if you were right there with the actors.
That scene was just so amazingly nice.And as a major plus, for all gorehounds out there, then there is a rather good amount of gore and really good effects in the movie, which makes it well worth checking out for the mayhem alone.
When going in to seeing this film, I knew the general outline of the plot and much talked about death scenes, what I did not expect was a genuinely well-made, acted, written and shot horror movie with a great blend of comedy and social context.
Dream Home is one amongst a recent slew of fantastic Asian horror films, and shows that it is the foreign horror filmmakers who are making the top quality movies.Ho-Cheung Pang (who directed and wrote) has made a simple story very entertaining.
Cheng Lai-sheung (an incredibly beautiful Josie Ho) works two part time jobs in order to save her money to buy an apartment with an ocean view.
Unfortunately, with market prices the way they are she can't really afford the price being asked, and her obsession turns into a madness which only blood can satisfy.Dream Home is not told in a chronological manner, rather, the story is told in bits and pieces, slowly revealing how Cheng became the murderer we are seeing.
Speaking of the killings, this movie contains some extreme violence which most fans of this genre will love, I know I sure did.
The majority of these are over-the-top and comic in the way they unfold (apart from the most talked about scene involving the suffocation of a pregnant woman), most of the scenes go for a few minutes, in which we see Cheng is not that adept at killing, and she will only get the upper hand out of luck.
Although it wasn't terrible, it was obvious and did detract a little in some scenes, but that's just me being finicky.Dream Home is not just about the death scenes, the film is technically well-made in all aspects.
The scenes in the apartments where the all the murders take place are filmed in a variety of ways and angles, giving these scenes an intense, claustrophobic and sometimes surreal feel.
The acting is fantastic from everyone, especially Josie Ho, who turns her psychopath into someone that at times you can sympathise with.This movie, while being a great horror film, is also a very relevant commentary on the future home owners issue.
The new film from Hong Kong director Pang Ho-Cheung, Dream Home, depicts the unsettling descent into madness of a seemingly ordinary young woman as she endeavours to secure the sea-view apartment of her childhood dreams.
Despondency and desperation at a stressful, overworked lifestyle, Hong Kong's ever- rising house prices and her insufficient savings prove so overwhelming that her sanity begins to wane, and she ventures down a more direct, murderous route to reach her goal.With its satirical portrayal of Hong Kong's booming property market, and the extraordinary lengths to which aspiring owners will go to get on the ladder, this film is a neat piece of social commentary.
The film relates her day-to-day trials, and as she grapples with two part-time jobs, a callous, terminally ill father, an uncaring partner and dwindling chances of obtaining her dream home, we gradually uncover the rationale for the killing spree on which she will later embark.Underpinning Dream Home is an artful tension between our sympathy for this cute, hard-working idealist and our revulsion at the savage, merciless psychopath she becomes.
Her asphyxiation of a pregnant woman, by the ingenious use of a plastic bag and vacuum cleaner, and her severance of a young man's genitalia, however, fall well beyond the realm of comprehension.It can only be concluded that in Pang's excitement at his first film venture into the world of horror, a sense of proportion was the unfortunate casualty.
Conversely, horror fans might find the film too bogged down by backstory, as impressive as the special effects may be.If you're one of that select group for whom a large dose of senseless, grisly bloodshed and a moderate sprinkling of intelligent social observation makes compelling viewing, go and see Dream Home right away.
A Hong Kong woman has wanted to own a high-rise apartment for most of her life, and she's not going to let anyone stop her from achieving that dream.Not only is Dream Home wince-inducingly entertaining, it also has a story that actually makes sense.
The film jumps between the childhood of the main character, more recent events in her life, and the murderous rampage happening in the present, and it all ties together quite nicely.
I highly recommend this to slasher fans looking for something beside the usual set-ups and characters and those looking for a foreign movie with a little more bite, but those with a tender disposition or no stomach for on-screen violence need not apply..
Gore-hounds and violence enthusiasts should enjoy this one a lot, except that all the horror plot points are interrupted by a lot of story and social commentary about rising home prices in Hong Kong.
Dream Home is a serious and thoughtful drama with a lot of blood.The flashback narrative technique doesn't serve the film very well except for the fact that it lets the blood start flowing from the opening scene.
the basic premise of the film is as a young girl the main character was kicked out of her house by the sea and since that day she has had a dream of buying it back.
The problem being that houses are super expensive around the time it is set and several events tip her over the edge as she will do anything to accomplish her dreams.The plot is extremely well scripted in my opinion and the gore effects are over the top.
The whole film is satirical and the people killed are considered evil in the directors eyes.
All the characters are like typical people you would meet in Hong Kong adding a sense of realism furthermore the director says he got the idea from a news article so its based on real events.
The music is all composed by the lead actresses band which is quite a nice touch.In the end you are left with a controversial film with some nasty gore scenes with hints of black comedy and an original believable plot that stands out from typical slashers and will keep your attention throughout the film.
Brutally graphic blood and guts is balanced well with dark comedy.Negatives:Jumping back and forth through time is often confusing.The claim that it's based on a true story is a complete fabrication.Bottom Line: This is a brutal and stylistic film.The story is interesting enough although the jumping through time is a little jarring at first, but the real fun happens when Cheng Li- Sheung is murdering her way through apartments.
On one hand, Dream Home is a poignant drama about a young Hong Kong woman's life of hardship and her dream of living in an apartment overlooking the bay; on the other, it's a gore-drenched tale of obsession and madness, the lady in question going to extreme and very bloody lengths in order to achieve her goal.
As a whole, the film works brilliantly as a shocking slice of social satire on the difficulty of getting on the property ladder (although it's not as far fetched as it might seem: the film is apparently based on true events!).Josie Ho plays Cheng Lai-Sheung, who, ever since she was a child living in a run-down high-rise, has longed to move with her family to No.1 Victoria Bay, an apartment block affording views of the sea.
So when the opportunity arises, she does whatever it takes to secure her dream home at an affordable price—by killing off the other inhabitants to drive down the property values.The emotional drama is sensitively handled by director Ho-Cheung Pang, with touching flashbacks to a childhood friendship, Cheng's relationship with her ailing father, her unfulfilling job, and intimate moments shared with a married man, but for me, Dream Home is all about the gritty violence, which, along with the true-story connection, lends the film an atmosphere not unlike that of a classic Cat III movie.
Desperately trying to own a fabled flat in a high-rise apartment in Hong Kong, a woman begins a deadly rampage against those that try to keep it from her and try to make her fantasy come true of living in the building.This ended up being quite a genuinely enjoyable effort with a lot to like about it.
The stalking scenes in the rampages are a lot of a fun anyway, really making for some great gore set-ups, a series of bloody murders and a lot of action within to make for some real highlight moments, especially at the stoner's loft where there's a huge rampage against the inhabitants which is just a total blast.
As a person with a right mind i would say not as far as the main character Sheung go but that not really the case here cause for Sheung it not just a dream home but also her life goal as well.Sheung is a hard working girl there no doubt about it and the more you know about her the more you want her to archieve her dream although the methor she uses very wrong and sadistic.Blood and guts gonna spilled everywhere in this extreme horror movie from Hong-Kong so hold on tight to your sit and remember do not eat or drink before watching Dream Home.
DREAM HOME is a modern-day homage to the nasty Category III boom of the 1990s which saw Hong Kong film producers making such tasteless products as THE EBOLA SYNDROME, RUN AND KILL and BUNMAN.
The film follows a young girl who wishes to purchase an apartment in crowded Hong Kong and will do anything to get the property she desires.The acting is decent throughout and you feel a certain empathy with the killer even though you know you really shouldn't.
The killings themselves though far fetched and bloody are gruesomely enjoyable.Yes if you wanted you could pick plenty of plot holes but I don't watch films for realism just escapism.
But a woman who kills people just so she can live in her dream home?
The background of her character is worked out well, based on true facts of the practice of rich people forcing out home owners in Hong Kong in the '80s.
A young Hong Kong woman has her heart set on an apartment with a sea view.
In its own small way, "Dream Home" could be one of the stranger Category III movies from Hong Kong.Sure, there's no black magic turning people's heads into penises, nor centipedes crawling in and out of girls' mouths, or men with superhuman strength turning heads into a red spray.There is, however, a strange young woman going on a killing spree because she can't afford to buy an appartment or...
Perhaps the filmmakers thought that if they made the movie confusing enough, people would assume that there was an adequate explanation for the carnage in there somewhere and they just didn't notice it.The plot is something to do with a young woman who really wants to buy an apartment overlooking the ocean in HK.