First time feature film director, Kelvin Shum’s
horror-thriller “Deliverance” 源生罪 hits the
local theatres during Tomb Sweeping Day (Qing Ming festival) period. It’s a
family affair for Kelvin, as his younger brother, Kyle Shum, also serves as the
screenwriter and had a cameo role in this production. If you are hoping for
“Deliverance” to fall into “scare the shit out of you” category, you will be
disappointed. It’s a psychological terror about unravelling dark family
secrets. No doubt the movie’s stylish and aesthetic cinematography helped in
the story telling but as a whole, the plot lacks substance. With that said, it
is still a commendable effort, considering that the brothers are still pretty
new in their vocation. This movie was
shot prior to Kenneth Tsang Kong’s demise and it has quite an impressive
supporting casts. We’re talking about power house artistes such as Simon Yam,
Nina Pao and Carrie Ng. Main performers
are Ron Ng and Summer Chan. Thanks to film distributor, Mega Film
Distributions, the leading stars, producer and director were in a promo tour in
Malaysia, covering KL, Ipoh and Penang. Over the years, Ron’s popularity is
certainly on the rise, especially after appearing in “Call Me By Fire” and
“Night In The Greater Bay” variety shows.
Another glaring difference is I noticed a more mellowed Ron, who is
extremely accommodating to fans’ requests as opposed to several years ago. He
was a cool cat then. To his credit, Ron
still managed to retain his youthful appearance. He hasn’t aged much. One of the emcees was spot on when
he showered praises on director Kelvin and younger sibling, Kyle’s good looks.
I was surprised to find out later that Kyle was a former contestant of Viu TV’s
“King Maker” talent show. I do not have
any recollection of him although I followed each season religiously. Ron’s message to the audience is
try to have meals with your parents at least once a week and cherish them when
they are still around. Living with guilt and the grief will haunt you for life
when they are gone. This resonates
strongly with me and something I should constantly remind myself, more so with
my worsening temperament in recent years.
I have seen off-springs of long time family friends asking their aged
parents to pay for meals (even for a miserable bowl of noodles or rice that
costs less than RM10.00). This irks me to no end. A point to ponder - whenever
I go for the annual Qing Ming prayers at the memorial park and come across
loads of offerings at adjacent tables, I couldn’t help but wonder what’s the
point of offering so much goodies if you were never filial and stingy to your
parents when they are still alive ?
