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| Visual Interpretation of 'Dream Home' (2010): A fusion of the glittering Victoria Harbour skyline and the bloody reality of the property market. (AI-generated artwork by Gemini) |
While the holiday season usually brings high-profile blockbusters and Oscar hopefuls to the screen, a cult classic from Hong Kong has made a belated but striking appearance in South Korea. Directed by Pang Ho-cheung, Dream Home (2010) arrives years after its original release, yet its themes of economic despair and social rage feel more relevant than ever. On the surface, it is a gruesome slasher film, but at its core, it explores a hell far more terrifying: the cutthroat world of real estate.
The original title, Victoria No. 1, refers to a prestigious high-rise overlooking Hong Kong’s iconic Victoria Harbour. Anyone who has seen the city's signature night view knows the skyline is a symbol of immense wealth. However, the reality for the average citizen is a claustrophobic nightmare of skyrocketing property prices and predatory developers. Dream Home uses the 2008 global financial crisis as a backdrop to show how this pressure can break a human soul.
The protagonist, Cheng Lai-sheung (portrayed brilliantly by Josie Ho), is a bank telesales agent who has spent her life witnessing the displacement of the poor. Having grown up in a cramped tenement that was eventually demolished for luxury towers, her sole purpose in life is to buy a flat with a sea view. She works multiple jobs and saves every penny, but the goalposts keep moving. When her father falls ill and insurance fails to cover the costs, she realizes that hard work and filial piety are not enough to beat the market.
To secure her "dream home" before prices surge again, Lai-sheung descends into madness. She decides that if she cannot afford the price, she must lower it—by turning the luxury building into the site of a horrific massacre. The film becomes a relentless, blood-soaked journey as she kills residents, visitors, and even responding officers with cold, mechanical efficiency.
The production of Dream Home was as intense as the film itself. Producer and lead actress Josie Ho reportedly fought for "more extreme and shocking" visuals, while director Pang Ho-cheung aimed for a "realistic" portrayal of violence. The result is a Category III rated film—the highest rating in Hong Kong—comparable to the notorious The Untold Story. It is a film so graphic that it reportedly caused fainting and vomiting at its Italian premiere.
The ultimate irony lies in the casting: Josie Ho is the daughter of the late Stanley Ho, the legendary Macau casino tycoon and one of Asia’s richest men. Watching a member of the ultra-wealthy elite play a woman driven to murder by poverty adds a surreal, meta-textual layer to the experience.
Dream Home is a brutal piece of social satire disguised as a "property horror." It suggests that in a world where a flat is worth more than a human life, the only way to win is to become a monster. It is a masterpiece of dark comedy that will make you look at the glittering lights of Victoria Harbour with a newfound sense of dread. (By Jae-hwan Park, Seoul (2026))
