3.5/5 stars

Depicting the prosaic concerns of two adult children in a single-parent family in Hong Kong during the Covid-19 pandemic, Lo’s bittersweet film is a character-driven drama that is heavy on feelings. It is thoughtful and endearing, and prefers minor developments to major dramatic conflict.

The film begins with an old photo as its protagonist, Mei-chen (Gladys Li Ching-kwan in her most complete performance yet), explains in a voice-over that it is the first and last time she was pictured in a family portrait alongside her father, who left the household before she turned one and never returned.

All her life she has regretted not having had the opportunity to get to know her father, although she faces more immediate problems in the present.

Mei-chen, who is inexperienced in romance, has just started using a dating app at the urging of her happy-go-lucky cousin (Amy Tang Lai-ying), but her first date produces not a match but an awkward trip to a love motel, followed by plenty of unanswered texts and even more question marks in her head.

BJ (Anderson .Paak) is an LA-based karaoke bar drummer, passionate about making it big with his original music. On a particular evening in 2009, he encounters Yeji (Jee Young Han), a punk emo girl who struggles to find a committed man in the city. They fall in love after a duet and dinner date at a Korean restaurant. They break up after a while because of his lack of involvement with her. 12 years later, the very confident BJ is still working at the same place with no prospects. His boss Cash (Jonathan “Dumbfoundead” Park) connects him to a new gig in South Korea as his great aunt’s drummer for the show she hosts, an American Idol-like competition for the next teen K-Pop star. 

Cash tries to get BJ to meet Kang (Kevin Woo), the show’s heartthrob, and see if they can work together. While on the job, he’s rebuffed by Kang and winds up meeting one of the lowest projected contestants, Tae Young (Soul Rasheed, .Paak’s IRL son). When he sees Yeji for the first time in 12 years, he realizes that Tae Young is his biological son. In the wake of this discovery, BJ takes it upon himself to take Tae Young under his wing and teach him with his know-how about music outside K-Pop, putting the “Bla” in “Blasian”. With his skill, BJ makes every effort to turn Tae Young into a superstar.

“Speak No Evil” is a remake of a 2022 Danish movie with a famously vile twist. I went into this film expecting it to have the same twist. That’s not to say that I expected it to have the same “ending,” exactly, as I knew the film might deviate from the source material once it reached a certain point. But there could be no question that it was indeed winding its way to that point. It was no surprise that what came after that point was horror movie shlock, but I was surprised by how captivated I was by what led up to that point.

The film finds protagonist couple Ben and Louise Dalton (Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis, respectively) on vacation with their daughter Agnes (Alix West) in Italy. They’re about as unhappy there as they are at home in London, which is to say pretty unhappy, with Ben falling short as a provider and Louise possibly dabbling in infidelity. But things pick up when they meet fun couple Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their mute son Ant (Dan Hough). The kids become fast friends, the families have a great time together, and Paddy and Ciara invite the Daltons to their house in the country.

The thing is that when everybody met, they were all on vacation, so the playing field was level in terms of accommodations and shared mood. The dynamic shifts a little when the Daltons are guests in Paddy and Ciara’s home. At first it’s just little inconveniences like the guest room sheets having stains and there not being a proper bed for Agnes. But as the days go by, the Daltons find that they like their hosts less and less. Paddy and Ciara don’t treat an immigrant neighbor very well, they’re too open about their sex lives, and they have some differing views on parenting that they’re increasingly unafraid to impose. Also, Ant keeps urgently trying to tell them something, which is frustrating because a condition with his tongue makes it impossible.

The film is at its best in this portion. Everyone has acquaintances whose sense of boundaries don’t quite mesh with their own, and the film milks that universal anxiety for all it’s worth. It might not be “horror” in the traditional sense, but I’d sure be scared to be in some of these situations where I might come off as a bad friend or ignorant or “in the wrong.”

Of course, this movie isn’t being sold on exploiting the audience’s fear of social faux pas, eventually the other shoe has to drop and proper horror elements have to present themselves. And from that point forward, this movie becomes just another exercise in flat tires, cut phone lines, and characters running up the stairs when they should be bolting out the door. Oh, and a villain or villains that have been meticulous for years suddenly getting so sloppy that you’ll wonder how they ever had any success in the first place.

“Speak No Evil” was doing so well for so long. The astute technical team recreates certain shots perfectly from the original movie and the gradual dissolution of politeness and respect is paced beautifully. Part of me was hoping that the Daltons could get away from Paddy and Ciara just so their battle of passive-aggressiveness could be picked back up at another time. But no, this just has to be a movie with a body count, and the chances for a sequel are as bleak as the original’s ending. I do give a recommendation to “Speak No Evil,” but it would be evil of me to say that you should expect a truly excellent movie.

Grade: B-

“Speak No Evil” is rated R for some strong violence, language, some sexual content and brief drug use. Its running time is 110 minutes.

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.