The Heirloom (2005)

That was an excellent one.

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This movie had a decent buildup the first fifteen minutes. Everything following is for the worse. The story itself is pretty simple. The way it was told however was very confusing. Also the main actors haven't got a clue what to do with the material. At the climax this becomes clear when the lead actress acts surprised when she is told something. Completely forgetting that she already discovered this several scenes ago. Confusion is one thing but lack of suspense is not something that can be overlooked in a movie like this. Therefore "Heirloom" could be conceived as a drama with some supernatural elements. Only without any sympathy for the characters on screen or real emotions shown it does make it difficult to be touched. It did bother me though that apart from 1 or 2 scenes they didn't show much that could be considered supernatural. The movie doesn't show anything that would make sense of what is going on. It is like scenes were cut that otherwise would provide better transitions between scenes. The viewer just has to accept it without questioning anything. But even then it is hard liking this movie when essentially not much is going on. In short,don't waste your time with this one.

I thought that the Asian film called The Heirloom was a good supernatural horror film. An architect called James Yang returns from the UK with his girlfriend called Yo, to inspect an old mansion that he has inherited on the outskirts of Taipei, they move into their new home. but then strange things start to happen. Yo's journalist goes missing and the James's friend Cheng gets strangled in a bathtub. they soon find out that the house may have strange or murderous powers. To find out the truth about the house, James and his girlfriend Yo start to begin to investigate the history of James's family and uncover a tale of mass suicide.

A young man inherits a home from his family, though he really doesn't know any of these relatives. The place is very large but also very dilapidated--as if no one has lived there for decades. Oddly, when friends visit the man and his fiancée at the house, these friends begin acting strangely--as if in a daze. Later, the friends die mysteriously by some outside force--and so does a police detective investigating. So far, so good as far as the plot goes. Then, the fiancée finds out about an aunt that lives in an asylum and she tells them a super-bizarre tale about a curse on the home due to a frightening and stupid ritual that has been in the family for many generations. It seems to get good luck, they buy dead babies and pour their blood on them!? What all this means is pretty confusing as well as the bizarre tale of the family members.The music, lighting and setting for this film all give it the eerie and ghostly quality the film needs. So at least from an aesthetic point of view, this horror film is very competent. Unfortunately, when it comes to the story, it was far, far from engaging and seemed downright silly and full of plot holes. After all, if the house is so evil and bad, why didn't they just burn it down or bulldoze it when they figured this out? Instead, they reacted in the most silly and unexplainable fashion--proving they were too stupid to live. In fact, the people often just acted like zombies and the acting was especially poor and unengaging.Overall, not especially interesting or satisfying, but at least it set a lovely and scary mood.

My motivation for this comment is the only, very negative review, that says exactly the opposite of what I found in this movie! The overall rating is terrible (though 11 votes is not representative of anything), and the film definitely deserves more.To me, it has a good story, for once. It avoids Asiatic horror movie clichés and creates a mood of its own. It is superbly photographed. Under a seemingly classic form and approach lie lots of elements that makes this movie much more special than you'd expect it to be in the first 10 minutes.It's well worth a try. To be perfectly honest, I saw it in a festival, and one develops a certain tendency to see the good things in the four to six movies you watch every day, so I can't rule out that I might react otherwise if I saw it today.Still, I am confident this is more than just another Asian horror-flick, and that, if you're curious and open-minded, you'll find something to feed your movie-hungry appetite...