Scarecrow-88 James(Jason Chang)an architect, inherits a massive mansion with a disturbing family history. His stage-star fiancé Yo(the stunning beauty Terri Kwan)was planning to go abroad but decides to remain and live with James. Soon their friends, who visit them in the creepy abode, fall prey to supernatural terror..they fall unconscious only to awaken inside James' home unannounced and bewildered. Soon, Yo discovers, when meeting James' Aunt in an asylum(..and through newspaper clippings from her reporter friend experiencing the strange phenomena), that James' family committed a massive suicide and that they had performed an evil ritual concerning a child spirit and blood sacrifice for fortune and the elimination of enemies. Even worse is that James' mother was locked away by the family for being afflicted with an illness..as part of the family's curse for performing the ritual, their offspring, for the most part, were born diseased or ill. James was a healthy child sent away before the mass suicide occurred. When James' friend..and colleague..is found murdered by what appeared to be a hanging from a rope(..we see that he is murdered by a rope not visible meaning some specter or ghost had committed the deed), the family curse rears it's ugly head once again. When a cynical detective, who scoffs at the mere mention of some ghostly involvement in James' friend's murder, suffers the same fate, the idea that anyone who remains in the home for any major length of time could be in danger becomes quite prevalent. Who is causing the horrifying acts that are taking place? Could it be James' long-dead mother blazing a trail of murder? Can James protect Yo from the same grim fate others are suffering?While I shrugged my shoulders at the reasons behind the horror taking place to the cast of this flick, I certainly believe this director, Leste Chen, is a major talent. I thought his exceptional handling of such mediocre material is proof that he is one to watch in the future. Being so young is even more impressive because I found the film visually intoxicating while not being so blown away by the plot or characters within it. Director Leste does what he can, though, milking as much terror as he can from the script presented to him. It's to his credit that this film is loaded with creepy atmosphere(the stunning sequence in the opening with all this hanging bodies while a woman crawls in agony sure opens the eyes wide)and has a eerie mood that remains from start to finish. This is simply a proved case of style over substance where a talented director rises above the material he's stuck with. One aspect that majorly plagues this movie(as it does "Amityville Horror")is why this couple remains in the house when it's quite clear something's amiss..a certain evil they should get as far away from as possible.

wkduffy I know, I know. Here it is 2006, and who on planet earth is paying attention to Asian horror movies any more? I mean, haven't we all moved onto Spain or France or whoever is the new Korea already? Clearly, if the Asian Wave of Horror has washed itself down the drain, who could be left but a bunch of sixth-generation Sadako wannabees, right?Actually, scrap all that. I have another theory. If J-Horror has truly gone stale, and no one is paying attention (or money) any longer, maybe the filmmakers still hanging around the soundstage are the true heroes--maybe those directors who continue to unapologetically explore the genre are the truly dedicated artists who believe there's still meat on them thar bones.If this theory is true, that means "Zhaibian/The Heirloom" offers something to the genre that is decidedly different, new, convincing, or at least creative. And, ultimately, it does just that. More specifically, it creatively turns back the clock on horror films, and transports the viewer backwards in time to the glorious era of classy 1970s horror flicks that relied on plot turns, creepy settings, and characters. Although narratively the film shares next to nothing with American classics like "Rosemary's Baby," "The Changeling," or "Audrey Rose," I couldn't suppress the urge to make the comparison (repeatedly while watching). The problem is, I just couldn't put my finger on why. There's some ineffable quality about "The Heirloom"--maybe the photography, the color palette, the dilapidated mansion as setting, or the wistful music-- that kept me saying, "Jeez, this reminds me of The Omen more than the 2006 remake of The Omen." I think there's no hiding the fact that this film is awash in that "ephemeral something" borrowed from those 70s classics; the director is clearly influenced by the era and style (even the lead women wear bell-bottoms rivaling those donned by Cristina Raines in "The Sentinel"). And allowing those influences to shine through is what I believe is so striking--and even risky--here. Again, I'll reference the recent remakes of so many genre classics--The Omen, The Amityville Horror, The Hills Have Eyes. What I often see in these remakes is not an understanding or embracing of 70s high-class horror style, but instead mere mimicry (often shot-for-shot). Who cares?Of course, the flick has its faults--most prominently (at the 1 hour, 15 minute mark) the action slows to a melodramatic crawl with nonstop slo-mo panning shots of people and places, accompanied by sweeping violins. Unfortunately, the film never regains its pace before the end--but it's still eye-candy worth savoring.Ultimately, seeing a film like "Zhaibian/The Heirloom" is like tripping upon some long lost 70s American horror classic I've never heard of. (It's just that the story is steeped in Buddhist tradition and is peopled by Asian actors, heh.) In so many intangible ways, it's like watching "The Manitou" or "Burnt Offerings" for the first time. For a director to achieve that kind of "seventies something-ness"--I applaud him roundly. On the other hand, I suppose many movie buffs (and especially younger horror buffs) would shrug off this 70s appropriation, saying "That's old stuff. It's out of date, out of step." But I wonder--will they be pining for "Hellraiser 6--straight to DVD" when they turn 40?

fedtho 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...

alexliu_1999 Perhaps what drew me to this film was that it touted a haunted mansion, and a Chinese haunted mansion at that! It was an interesting premise, and the poster image featuring a bottled fetus (something to do with a child ghost) did little to deter me. After all, it was featured on a local newspaper along with snippets of an interview with the film's director, who stated it was his first horror movie, after directing mainly music videos.That alone should have told me all I needed to know.But like a protagonist in one of these horror movies, I trudged eagerly forward, blissfully ignoring those warning signs. Now, having bore witness to this travesty, I must say that it was just plain bad for a horror movie. It fails in all regards: It is NOT scary in any way, shape, or form. I am a fan of psychological horror (like the 1963's The Haunting, The Others, and the Japanese masterpiece, The Ring), but this film did nothing for me. It had only one single scene that was averagely scary in suggestion, but that was placed early on in the movie, and was ruined by MTV style jump-cuts... obviously the director's music video routes showing through here.And though I don't always enjoy shock-a-thon type scarefests, well placed moments certainly work wonders for a film. Unfortunately, this 'movie' has not a single scary jump-in-your-seat type jolt. Considering that I was seated in an almost empty cinema on an empty row at midnight, that IS quite an accomplishment. Strange that for a horror film, nothing in it is even remotely scary. What little resembled horror in this film was borrowed from other Asian movies that did a much better job (Shutter comes to mind). There was however a slightly disgusting point about the fetus, but throwing in a bag of worms (hypothetically speaking), while disgusting, won't make a scary movie scary.I must admit though, that the soundtrack for this movie was the (only?) highlight of the film. At times, it sounded almost like a disconcerted rendering of an old fashioned Gothic horror movie. Likewise, the premise of the film is quite an interesting one, but thrown into this neophytes hands is nothing but a jumbled mess.Now I suppose that while this is decent for his first try, but the director should go back to directing those music videos. For now though, all you parents out there, this is probably a horror movie you can show your kids without fear of giving them nightmares...