Victim



Victim (1999) is a strange movie from Ringo Lam, a thriller that is a Frankensteinian amalgam of, in order, a kidnap thriller, a haunted house movie, a possession movie, and a heist thriller. Incredibly it almost holds together, and manages to be very entertaining.

The movie opens with a van speeding out of a parking garage, killing a security guard in the process. The police, led by Pit (Tony Leung), determine that the people in the van kidnapped one Manson Ma (Ching Wan Lau), an unemployed computer programmer. The police pick up Manson’s girlfriend, but she claims no one would have a reason to kidnap him. Stymied, the police tap the couple’s phone, and wait for a ransom call. When the call comes the voice on the line doesn’t ask for a ransom, but rather instructs the girlfriend to go to an isolated hotel. The hotel was abandoned in the sixties because of a gory murder/suicide (the owner killed his wife because he thought she was cheating on him, then gave his young son rat poison and killed himself), and is reputed to be haunted. Pit and his partner Bee take the girlfriend there, and break in to see what they can find. The hotel is suitably creepy, and some strange things happen, the last of which is Manson suddenly appearing in a room where he wasn’t minutes earlier, hanging upside down from the ceiling.


"Me? I'm just hanging around."

Pit takes Manson into custody to interview him, but the kidnapped man is not very helpful. He’s largely non-communicative, and when he does talk it’s in phrases related to the murder at the hotel. The interrogation ends when Manson vomits all over the table and passes out.


"I'm sure Yu-Gi-Oh will be around forever."

After his girlfriend takes him home Manson continues to act strangely. He accuses her of cheating on him, and becomes strangely obsessed with the small rose garden behind their house. He dotes on the garden, then inexplicably paves it over.

Pit continues to keep an eye on Manson because the kidnapping still doesn’t make sense. Days later Manson calls someone from a bar and Pit has the call traced to another woman. Is Manson having an affair? Or is something more sinister going on?


"Like in Reservoir Dogs? That would be stupid."

It would be unfair to give away any more of the plot. Victim changes gears every half hour or so, though you can tell Ringo Lam is more interested in crafting the gritty crime drama parts than supernatural thriller parts. About a half hour in a car chase breaks out for no real reason, and  I realized Victim wasn’t going to be the haunted house movie it had appeared to be up to that point. When all is laid bare it turns out that one character executed a plan far too complicated for anyone to actually plan, and even took the time to lay some false clues s/he couldn’t possibly think she’d need, but Victim is still a pleasing mystery.

Posted: Tue - August 17, 2004 at      

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