49 Days Directed by Lam Kin Lung    Cast: Gillian Chung, Stephen Fung,  Raymond Wong, Jess Zhang Movie Site              Trailer Average User Review:

 

Synopsis: The worlds of the living and the dead are separate, and ordinarily, no contact is permitted across the divide. And yet in Chinese tradition, the so-called ["eldritch flame / shadow flame"], which involves the burning of rhinoceros horn, is a proverbial method of piercing the veil between the mortal realm and the hereafter. What is the truth behind this legend?

Liu Cheng, a wealthy young entrepreneur from the countryside, heads for the provincial capital with a band of his "village brothers" to set up a Chinese herbal medicine shop, and in only four short years manages to turn his establishment "The Immortal Herb Store" into the finest in the land. His ambition fulfilled, Liu is anxious to return home to be reunited with his wife and young daughter. A blazing inferno, however, shatters all his dreams.

On the night before his departure, Liu's plan to have a farewell get-together with his village brothers is tragically interrupted when "The Immortal Herb Store" is burnt to the ground by a blazing fire. Rushing into the conflagration with no thought of his own safety, Liu is unable to save any of his trapped friends, and can only watch them die one by one in the most gruesome ways -- entangled in a pulley-rope while fleeing and choked to death, falling from a great height, crushed beneath tons of falling debris, or simply roasted alive...

What Liu could never have guessed is that the man responsible for the arson is none other than his own trusted right-hand man, Peng Si! And to make matters worse, the dastardly Peng now turns on his master and frames Liu for the murders! Thrown into jail, Liu meets with the young female lawyer Xiao-Qian, who initially declines to take up his case due to her lack of experience with criminal litigation. The very same day, however, while participating in the re-burial ceremony for her grandfather's remains, Xiao-Qian unwittingly ruins the auspicious "Ravens Descending on a Field" feng shui setting of the intended entombment spot, causing thousands of crows to suddenly appear and attack the funeral party. Receiving an epiphancy from the uncanny occurrence, Xiao-Qian becomes convinced of Liu's innocence and resolves to represent him and clear his name.

49 Days Trailer

Unfortunately, the scheming Peng Si has taken the precaution of bribing all the right people to ensure that despite Xiao-Qian's valiant effort, Liu is found guilty at the end of the trial -- and given the death sentence! On the night of the execution, dark clouds cover the moon, and Liu realizes that the end is nigh. Feeling guilty for her own failure, Xiao-Qian does her best to console the condemned man, and impresses upon him that it is vital for him to listen closely to every word the executioner has to say. Liu does not know what to make of her instructions, and continues to hesitate until the final moment when, just before the fatal blow, the executioner cries out to him: "Run, and don't look back!" The blade falls -- but it is Liu's bonds which are severed! Liu flees for dear life and successfully makes his escape.

While on the run, Liu meets up with Xiao-Qian, and the pair furtively make their way back to his home village. Expecting a happy reunion at last with his family, Liu is shocked to find his ancestral mansion fallen into serious disrepair, and nothing the same way as he had left it. His wife Wen-Hui has lost her mind, and now can do nothing but sit unmoving all day in her wheelchair with a sinister look in her eyes. As for his daughter Ling-Zhi, untold hardships have turned her into a strange little girl who creeps around day and night with lighted candles made from powdered rhinoceros horn, and behaves as if she harbors some grave, immense secret.
Overcome with guilt, Liu does his best to make it up to his wife and child, and his efforts serve to increase Xiao-Qian's admiration for him. The young lawyer resolves to return to the provincial capital and reopen Liu's case to overturn her client's wrongful conviction.

Gradually, Liu notices unusual physical changes in himself, culminating in the discovery while looking in the mirror one day that there is deep, bloody groove at the back of his neck! Turning his neck forecefully, to his unspeakable horror his whole head falls off! It is only then that he finally realizes that he had in fact died on the day of the execution, and he is now no more than an "intermediate shadow" hovering in a limbo state between life and death, a ghost that has yet to be conducted into the afterlife. At the end of seven times seven or forty-nine days after death, a disembodied spirit like himself must be guided into the hereafter, or be doomed forever. In utter resignation, Liu sews his head back on and considers how he can best take care of unfinished business before his time on earth is up.

 

Cast List 

Gillian Chung

Raymond Wong

Stephen Fung

Jess Zhang

 

Meanwhile Xiao-Qian, making her way back to the provincial capital, encounters the missing key witness in Liu's case -- his erstwhile partner, the businesswoman Su Si. As if exerting some mysterious force on Xiao-Qian, Su Si leads her to the burnt-out ruins of "The Immortal Herb Medicine Store". Just as the young lawyer is at a loss as to what to do next, a ghostly hand comes out of nowhere to drag her into an enormous medicinal urn -- inside which she discovers a broken-limbed, doubled-over female corpse! Despite decomposition and the twisted expression on the dead body's face, Xiao-Qian recognizes it to be none other than Su Si. It seems the businesswoman has been dead all this time, but her ghost is attempting to tell Xiao-Qian that there is more to the affair than meets the eye. Sensing somehow that Liu is about to be in danger, she hurries back to the village to his aid.

With only a few days to go before Liu's time on earth expires, he makes the most of it by trying to impart as much medical knowledge to his daughter Ling-Zhi as possible, so that she may take care of her mother after he is gone. The usually obedient girl, however, uncharacteristically refuses to learn, as if she has some inexpressible reason for her recalcitrance. One day, she hides herself, and when Liu goes to the attic to look for her, he discovers hundreds of rats surrounding the crying girl, trying to gnaw at something while she does her best to fight them off. Coming closer, Liu is shocked to find that the rats are gnawing at a rotting corpse -- that of his wife Wen-Hui!

It seems that, overcome with grief when she heard about her husband's execution, Wen-Hui had killed herself well before Liu's spirit returned home; and Ling-Zhi, for her part, also knew as soon as her father appeared that he was a ghost, but kept her knowledge a secret all along in the hopes of maintaining a "normal" family life. As for the little girl's ability to interact with her deceased parents, it was all down to those special candles made with powdered rhinoceros horn -- the legend of the ["eldritch flame" / "shadow flame"] is apparently true! At this juncture, Peng Si appears and attempts to steal the title deeds to Liu's ancestral property. When Ling-Zhi tries to stop him, the villain turns his attentions to her -- and Liu, as a disembodied spirit, is powerless to intervene. Xiao-Qian arrives just in time, but as a defenseless woman, how can she hope to overpower the evil man? Will Peng have his wicked way, and will Xiao-Qian be reunited with Liu? The resolution of everything hinges on the ["eldritch flame"/"shadow flame"] .

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