Review | Lucid Dreams film review: superficial horror-comedy anthology more nightmare than dream narrative
- Teddy Robin Kwan is no Fellini, as he quickly proves with this haphazardly scripted fare
- Film’s four unconnected short stories offer a shallow grab bag of genre elements
2/5 stars
From Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch to Alain Resnais and Federico Fellini, the free-flowing nature of dream narratives has inspired some of the greatest filmmakers to contemplate the link between the essence of storytelling and the workings of the human subconscious.
Despite its Chinese title that openly references Fellini’s 1963 classic 8½, this Hong Kong horror-comedy anthology directed by Teddy Robin Kwan is so superficial it contributes nothing worthwhile to the genre.
Lucid Dreams begins with a prologue that sees a film director (Kwan) clash with his producer and rendered unconscious in an on-set accident. Four unconnected short films follow, all purportedly watched by Kwan’s character in a cinema, that feature abrupt turns into horror.
In the first, a small-time thug (Louis Cheung Kai-chung) looks to clear his debt by staging a fake wedding banquet on a building rooftop with the help of a pal (Wan Chiu) and a kind prostitute (Dada Chan Ching). The farce turns macabre when characters reveal their true selves.
The two stories that follow both involve romantic heartbreak. In one, Kevin Cheng Ka-wing plays a salaryman who must put up with daily abuse by his boss (Tony Ho Wah-chiu), who also blatantly steals his girlfriend. His pent-up anger finds release in slasher thriller fashion.