Introduction: Reflections of Regret
Anthology horror films are like buffets—you know most of it will be cold and disappointing, but you hold out hope there’s at least one dish worth your plate space. The Mirror, a 1999 Hong Kong horror anthology directed by Siu Wing, proves that sometimes the buffet is just a sneeze guard over week-old leftovers. Produced by Raymond Wong and featuring a cast that deserved much better (Nicholas Tse, Ruby Lin, Law Lan, et al.), the film promises supernatural chills and cross-generational scares. What it delivers is a cursed antique mirror and five stories of half-baked melodrama, clumsy gore, and unintentional comedy.
The Gimmick: Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Who’s the Dumbest of Them All?
The connecting device is an antique dressing-table mirror that has witnessed more blood, betrayal, and bad acting than a soap opera convention. Each of the five stories introduces a new set of characters doomed by their reflection. You’d think the filmmakers would use this setup to explore vanity, obsession, or the haunting nature of self-image. Instead, they use it as an excuse for recycled tropes: murder, jealousy, ghosts, and one scene that looks like it was staged with leftover Halloween props from a dollar store.
Segment One: 16th-Century Brothel Blues
The anthology begins in 16th-century China with a courtesan’s murder. Blood splatters on the mirror, cursing it forever. That’s it. That’s the origin story. It’s basically the cinematic equivalent of, “A wizard did it.” You can almost hear the screenwriter sighing, “Close enough,” before cashing his check.
It’s meant to be sensual and tragic, but the acting is stiffer than the corpse, and the gore looks like ketchup packets exploded during filming. By the end, you don’t feel scared—you just feel sorry for the set designer, who probably had to mop up fake blood with paper towels.
Segment Two: Shanghai Secrets (1922)
This chapter introduces Mary, a wealthy heiress who inherits the mirror and immediately starts getting spooky phone calls about her past sins. Turns out she poisoned her married lover to steal his mansion. Her two servants reveal themselves as his daughters and exact revenge.
What could have been a gothic morality tale plays like a bad period drama with ghost prank calls. The servants’ “shocking reveal” lands with all the subtlety of a soap-opera cliffhanger. And the mirror’s role? It just hangs there, reflecting Mary’s increasingly guilty expressions like a passive-aggressive roommate. By the end, you don’t care that Mary gets what’s coming—you’re just annoyed you wasted 20 minutes watching her answer a haunted rotary phone.
Segment Three: Singapore Slop (1988)
By far the weirdest—and not in a good way. James, a slimy lawyer, has a one-night stand with Lora, only to be forced into marriage by her Teochew-speaking brother, Roman. Lora drags in the antique mirror, because apparently Singaporean apartments weren’t furnished enough. James takes a case defending a rapist-murderer, wins out of greed, and then gets into a car accident. Cue reconstructive surgery. When the bandages come off, James now looks exactly like the rape victim’s dead boyfriend.
It’s supposed to be cosmic punishment. Instead, it’s an unintentionally hilarious PSA about why you should read the fine print before defending monsters in court. The mirror just sort of sits there like an incompetent stage manager while the plot does cartwheels over logic. By the time James is screaming into the glass at his new face, the audience is screaming too—but with laughter.
Segment Four: Hong Kong Histrionics (1999)
This one stars Nicholas Tse, Ruby Lin, and Law Lan—an actually decent cast wasted on a story that feels like Days of Our Lives with added dismemberment. Ming returns from overseas with his girlfriend Judy, much to the jealousy of his cousin Yu. Enter the cursed mirror, which does… absolutely nothing except glare menacingly. Soon, the puppy is murdered (always a cheap shot), grandma is chopped into pieces, and Yu is blamed. But wait! Judy is revealed to be the real villain, stabbing people for inheritance money like she’s auditioning for a Dynasty reboot.
The climax has Judy impaling herself on scissors attached to the dressing table—a death so clunky it feels like slapstick. Imagine tripping into a craft box and dying. The best part? The mirror’s curse is basically irrelevant. This entire bloodbath could’ve happened without supernatural intervention. At this point, the mirror is just an innocent bystander to a very messy family drama.
Segment Five: Taiwan Terror (2000)
The anthology wraps up with the cinematic equivalent of a shrug. A woman looks into the mirror, sees her eyeballs falling out in the reflection, and screams. Roll credits.
That’s not a climax—that’s a bad jump scare you’d expect from a haunted house attraction run by high schoolers. It’s like the filmmakers ran out of money, ideas, and patience simultaneously and decided to end things mid-thought.
Performances: Screams, Stares, and Suffering
The cast features big names like Nicholas Tse and Ruby Lin, who must’ve signed their contracts during a moment of weakness. Tse looks embarrassed in every scene, as if he’s reconsidering his career choices in real time. Ruby Lin does her best femme fatale impression, but even she can’t sell dialogue that sounds like it was machine-translated from bad fan fiction. Law Lan, a Hong Kong horror staple, deserves better than to be chopped up for cheap shock value.
Meanwhile, Jack Neo’s turn as James in the third segment is so unintentionally comedic that you half-expect him to wink at the camera and say, “Don’t worry, it’s just a prank, bro.”
The Horror: Mirrors, Murder, and Missed Opportunities
Anthology horror thrives on atmosphere, dread, and irony. The Mirror has none. Each story feels like a rejected episode of Tales from the Crypt, minus the Crypt Keeper’s charm. The scares are predictable, the gore is cheap, and the mirror itself is as threatening as IKEA furniture.
By the third segment, you realize the true horror isn’t the mirror—it’s the pacing. Each story drags like a late-night taxi stuck in Hong Kong traffic. The scariest part is watching your life tick away while waiting for something interesting to happen.
Production Values: Antique Table, Modern Trash
The sets swing wildly between overdesigned (the 1920s mansion looks like it was decorated by Liberace’s ghost) and underfunded (the final segment could’ve been filmed in someone’s bathroom). The special effects peak at “fake blood on linoleum” and nosedive into “eyeball gag that looks like a rejected Halloween mask.”
Even the sound design is laughable: creaky doors, random screams, and a score so generic it sounds ripped from royalty-free horror tracks. If atmosphere were currency, this movie would be bankrupt.
Final Verdict: A Mirror Better Left Broken
The Mirror tries to span centuries and cultures with its cursed-object anthology, but instead of weaving a chilling tapestry, it stitches together five mismatched tablecloths and sets them on fire. It’s neither scary nor clever, relying on lazy tropes, clumsy gore, and actors far too talented for the material.
Verdict: If you want horror anthologies with bite, watch Three… Extremes or Creepshow. If you want to punish yourself with incoherent stories and a mirror that couldn’t frighten a toddler, then by all means, stare into The Mirror. Just don’t expect to like what you see.
