Now, when you hear that the film comes from a Pang underling with many other Pang regulars in support roles and Danny Pang serving as a producer you may very will conclude that what you’ll get with Chien’s film is a sort of Pang-lite. And in many ways you’re right, that is what you get and that’s both a good and a bad thing. Chien’s work is light on story and character, factors that many complain about in Pang Brothers films and factors that are a major issue here when Chien tries to rely on narrative to drive the film. His writing simply isn’t good enough to go down that road convincingly. However Chien is a solid idea man and a stellar stylist and when he chooses to indulge those urges he is capable of producing some stellar work.

Though the first and third segments each have their solid moments – the gambling piece stars Sam Lee and features a truly gruesome moment that will horrify dog lovers – but it is the middle segment where Chien’s really hits his stride. The story of a young woman who awakes to find herself in a building populated by cannibals and zombies the piece plays out almost entirely without dialogue, beginning with an aggressively edited sequence of images that lays out the entire work before going back and playing it out again in more detail. It’s a surprisingly effective trick, one that works in much the same way that the original Japanese Ju-On films’ tipping the name of the person who would die did: you know where you’re going but not how you’re going to get there and the tension comes from the route rather than the destination.

Anthology projects are always a mixed bag and this is no exception. It’s an inconsistent film, often frustratingly so, but the high points are certainly high enough to mark Chien as a talent worth watching. It he gets the chance to develop his own voice a little bit more he could prove to be something fairly unique.