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Linger Review

By Brian Chen

Bad

A general rule of thumb for ghost movies: When neither the living nor the dead characters show any signs of life, you have a serious problem. Such is the failure of Linger, a Hong Kong film with virtually the same premise as Ghost. Poor character development, lifeless acting, a pedestrian script, and unnecessary subplots make Linger pale in comparison to the movie it copied (which I never imagined to be possible). And though director Johnnie To's attempt at horror/melodrama is tragically hilarious, this film won't make you laugh or weep. The only lingering emotion you'll have is regret -- from the time and money lost to this film.Linger centers on a college couple, Dong (Vic Chou) and Yan (Li Bing Bing), whose relationship isn't strong from the start. We learn Dong is cheating on his girlfriend, the college "beauty queen," to sleep with Yan. In the introduction of the movie, Yan is wearing Dong's basketball jersey in front of Dong's girlfriend -- a move so conspicuous it's silly -- which instigates the adulterous couple's fight, leading to a shockingly unrealistic motorcycle accident that results in Dong's death.

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