{"id":10853,"date":"2014-05-10T13:22:49","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T19:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=10853"},"modified":"2014-05-10T13:22:49","modified_gmt":"2014-05-10T19:22:49","slug":"the-great-hypnotist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=10853","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Great Hypnotist\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

A brooding psycho-mystery which pits a confident hypnotherapist against a beautiful patient who claims she can \u201csee dead people,\u201d \u201cThe Great Hypnotist<\/a>\u201d reconfirms Taiwanese helmer Leste Chen as an accomplished stylist capable of dressing up B-movie material in a classy package. However, despite lush visuals, a melodic rhythm and a pair of screen-chewing lead perfs, the film is still hamstrung by a screenplay that not only blatantly steals from \u201cThe Sixth Sense\u201d but extinguishes all suspense via an inane twist. Even so, local auds and Asian genre fans may respond to marketing hype exaggerating the film\u2019s mind-bending elements.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the vapid but commercially successful romance \u201cSay Yes,\u201d Chen reconnects with his horror roots, dormant since his spine-tingling haunted-mansion debut, \u201cThe Heirloom,\u201d back in 2005. With a bigger budget (approximately $8 million) this time round, he mounts a brisk, tony-looking production, but falls short of first-class genre ranks by failing to elevate the concept of hypnosis into a mesmerizing cinematic experience. Neither mystifying nor demystifying the process, the film simply ignores the subject\u2019s vast potential, visualized these sequences as little more than fancy montages or stylized dream sequences.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s prologue channels stock elements from Asian horror movies (including a long-haired girl, whispering corridors) to demonstrate the ingenious methods Dr. Xu Ruining (Xu) has developed for treating patients with guilt complexes, while an early anecdote about child trafficking hints at the film\u2019s moral \u2014 that people are not who they seem. At a lecture, Dr. Xu expounds on the technicalities of hypnotism, guaranteed to leave laymen more confused than ever. Soon afterward, he is enlisted by his academic mentor, Prof. Fang (Lv Zhong), to help Ren Xiaoyan (Mok), a patient who has stumped numerous psychiatrists with her claims of psychic powers.<\/p>\n

Ren turns up after dark at Xu\u2019s creepy clinic just as something is going bump upstairs. The film wrings some haunting atmospherics from the lusciously-lit Euro-style mise-en-scene. However, as soon as Xu puts Ren under hypnosis, the story changes course and turns into a more routine mystery. As Xu probes into Ren\u2019s past as an abandoned child adopted by Hong Kong parents, repressed facts and feelings, including her engagement to fellow orphan Lu Yusong (Mark Wang) come pouring out. Her visions are shot in striking, de-saturated images by Charlie Lam with a fluidity that recalls Chen\u2019s flair for gorgeous tracking shots in his sophomore film, the gay coming-of-ager \u201cEternal Summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

A parallel emerges between her obsession \u2014 the need to explore not \u201cwhat\u201d she sees but \u201cwhy\u201d she can see these startling visions \u2014 and Xu\u2019s conviction that the ends matter more than his professional means. At one point, when Ren seems to have counter-hypnotized Xu, auds may begin to suspect the whole story is being filtered through an unreliable subconscious. Alas, these intriguing shifts in power balance and clever manipulations of narrative are ruined by the predictable final twist.<\/p>\n

Under the Chinese film bureau\u2019s restrictions on how supernatural elements can be represented onscreen, it\u2019s unrealistic to expect full-blown horrors of a ghostly nature, but the pseudo-scientific point-by-point exposition tacked on to the reveal is so ludicrous and gratuitous it cancels out the relative sophistication of the mentalist sparring that went on before. Not content to just spill the beans, Ren\u2019s pedestrian screenplay even smothers the final moments with cloying sentimentality.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong singer-thesp and fashion maven Mok (who hasn\u2019t starred in anything that fully utilizes her range and sensuality since Zhang Yibai\u2019s \u201cLost Indulgence\u201d in 2008) gives her title role all the layers she can. Sultry at first and softening gradually to reveal vulnerability and neurosis, she never compromises Ren\u2019s intelligence and keeps auds guessing as to her motives. Xu, who became a celebrity for directing and starring in China\u2019s highest-grossing domestic film \u201cLost in Thailand,\u201d sheds the on-the-nose performance style he displays in comedies like \u201cLost\u201d and Ning Hao\u2019s \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land\u201d to deliver a calibrated portrayal of hubris. He creates palpable excitement opposite Mok without upstaging her.<\/p>\n

Tech credits are above average for a mainland genre film, especially Zhao Nan and Yang Jing\u2019s Dolby Atmos sound design, which eschews the usual foreboding hints of horror-film background sound to evoke natural sounds like rain with sharpness, and is seamlessly aligned with Benson Chen\u2019s alternatively playful and romantic score to conjure a mood of teasing uncertainty. Lam\u2019s swirling camera