Compared with the ghost films in the West that rely on special effects to create visual impact through plasma,
Hong Kong ghost films have always had a strong urban style, which is terrifying and humorous at the same time.
Huang Baiming's Happy Ghost series, Lin Zhengying's zombie series, and Zhou Xingchi's "Night of the Returning Soul" are the best examples.
But over the years, with the proliferation of similar works, many people say that ghost films have declined and have no creativity.
Coldly, TVB has brought surprises to audiences who love horror movies.
Say the fallen little partner, may wish to take a look at it -
The Cleaner
"Cleaner" is the first TV series jointly produced by Hong Yongcheng and Zheng Shijun (commonly known as C Jun).
Since Zeng Zhiwei took over the power of TVB, he has been trying to innovate and hopes that TVB can return to its former glory.
This gave Hong Yongcheng and C Jun the opportunity to play their hard work.
In this play, the two can be described as dedicated, and the writers, directors, and performances are all hands-on.
The "Cleaner" born in this situation can be said to be a good time and place, and it is difficult to hit the street.
The story goes back eighteen years.
Zhao Tsai and Hong Zai, who are still in high school, in order to cope with the history test of the next day, Zhao Zai decides to take a risk and ask Di Xian for advice.
As a result, not long after the ceremony began, it was interrupted by the sudden intrusion of Hong Zai's father.
The iron law of horror movies, interrupting the disc fairy ceremony in the middle of the way will bring misfortune.
So Zhao Tsai and Hong Tsai hurried back to Zhao Tsai's house, hoping to continue to complete the whole ceremony to send the disc immortal away to avoid misfortune.
Just at this moment, Zhao Zai's father evil ghost got up, attacked everyone like a madman, and strangled Zhao Zai's mother to death in front of Zhao Zai.
Fortunately, Uncle Ping, the exorcist of Mingyue Hall, came to the rescue, and Zhao Zai and Hong Zai only recovered a life.
Zhao Zai's father was not so lucky, he was repulsed by the evil ghost and died on the spot.
The "ghost" sea is vast, and it is even more difficult for Zhao Zai to find the disc fairy ghost to avenge his parents than to ascend to the sky.
So Hu Zhaozai turned hatred into motivation, and Uncle BaiPing became a ghost exorcist for the teacher, hoping to use his ability to prevent similar unfortunate events from happening to others.
Uncle Ping, who had just experienced the pain of losing his son, also agreed to accept Zhao Zai as an apprentice and treat Zhao Zai as if he were his own son.
Eighteen years passed in this way, and Zhao Zai became an independent exorcist under the guidance of Uncle Ping.
During this period, Zhao Tsai also met a rich third generation who worked as a real estate agent.
Whenever this rich third generation took over the murderous mansion, before changing hands, he would definitely ask Zhao Zai to go to the murderous mansion to drive away the ghosts.
The two became good friends, and Zhao Zai was awarded the title of House Cleaner.
The house cleaner sounds professional and tall, but it is actually a thankless job.
Gods and ghosts are such things as believing in it and believing in it or not, and many times the recruits will be treated like a god stick by others.
In case of encountering an evil ghost with deep resentment, it is not something that several magic weapons can deal with, and every minute of life hangs in the balance.
If you meet someone in the same way, the situation can be said to be how bad it is.
Once, when Zhao Zai was driving away ghosts in a building, he found that there were 4 haunted incidents in this building.
The building itself is not a very shady place, and it is not normal for such frequent hauntings to occur.
After a round of careful investigation, Zhao Zai found that this was all intentional.
Uncle Zhao Zai is a well-known ghost exorcism master, who secretly helps those rich people to raise small ghosts to accumulate wealth.
There was an assistant around Uncle Shi who wanted to worship Uncle Shi as a teacher all day, but Uncle Shi saw that the assistant's heart was not right, so he never accepted him as an apprentice.
The haunted incident of the whole building was made by this assistant, and the purpose was to use the magic tools and the little ghost in the hands of Uncle Shi to make himself famous and rich.
Unexpectedly, the whole plan was inadvertently destroyed by Zhao Zai, which made the assistant lose face.
Embarrassed and angry, he stole the powerful evil ghost that was still being purified in his uncle's hand, and planned to use the evil ghost to take revenge on Zhaozai.
As a result, the unlearned assistant is controlled by the possessed demon.
Zhao Zai and the evil ghost have always been in the inferior position, but it is good that Zhao Zai uses a trick to trap the evil ghost in order to turn defeat into victory.
The reason why people become ghosts after death is because they have nostalgia, or family affection, or love.
It is not their will to become ghosts, and it is not their intention to harm others.
For the sake of so-called fame and wealth, the assistant does not hesitate to let ghosts harm others, and the result is that they will eventually harm others and harm themselves.
Not only the assistant, the original person who caused the destruction of the Zhaozai family was not the disc fairy ghost that Zhaozai had been greedy for a while.
Instead, in order to save their own relatives, some people did not hesitate to use evil spirits to absorb the yang qi of others to prolong the lives of their relatives to cause this tragedy.
"The Cleaner", although it is talking about ghosts, is actually talking about people.
Because the human heart is often more sinister than the ghosts.
Even good people can make a big mistake because of a momentary mischievous thought, let alone a person with an unhealthy mind.
After watching it, Xiaomei felt that this was one of the few excellent ghost films in recent years, even better than the "Demon Descending" and "Golden Night Building" that were fired in the previous two years.
For reasons that are well known, there are many restrictions on filming ghost films in the mainland.
This leads to a lot of ghost films tossing and turning to the end, either the protagonist has a mental problem or someone pretends to be a ghost behind his back, so that the audience feels deceived and has called for a refund.
In contrast, Hong Kong films have fewer restrictions in this regard and can tell ghost stories in a down-to-earth manner, and "Cleaner" also benefits from this.
Among them, breaking the traditional way of exorcising ghosts and introducing a concept similar to the martial arts novel is Xiaomei's favorite.
In the case of zhaozai, for example, they would seal the spirits of resentment in the black water stone, and then hang them above the Taoist hall, wipe the surface of the black water stone every day and chant incantations to achieve the effect of driving away the ghosts of the resentful and excessive.
Luo Cao, who only appeared as an Easter egg at the end of the play and helped Zhao Zai get out of his predicament, is undoubtedly from other sects.
Unlike ZhaoZai's sect, Luo Cao's method of exorcising ghosts is more like the star-sucking Dafa in the Book of the Dragon Slayer in the Heavenly Heavens, absorbing the spirits and then appropriating the spiritual power for his own use.
If there is a second season of "Cleaner", the fight between different exorcism sects is extremely exciting to think about.
The overall story is complete and logical and self-consistent, the actors' acting skills are online, and the character shaping and emotional description are delicate and in place.
The theme is clear and clear, and while talking about ghosts, it is also talking about people.
A new experiment has been made in the ghost films that have already rotted down the street, adding new elements.
"Cleaner" can reflect the word "intention" in both aspects, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the dark horse of the ghost film of the year.