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(Fantasia Fest 2026) UNIDENTIFIED MURDER: Everyone Saw a Different Murder

 

By. Radek Velicka 

Republished with permission. Original article is posted HERE

 

 

 

 

Screening as part of the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival, the Hong Kong genre puzzle UNIDENTIFIED MURDER combines aliens, influencers, and blackmail in a grotesque story that turns itself upside down with every new perspective.

Twenty-five years ago, a young boy disappeared on Tung Tau Hill, with witnesses reportedly seeing a strange beam of light in the sky. The unexplained case gradually became a local legend about an alien abduction. When an influencer couple returns to the same location to shoot a staged video, a prank gone wrong turns into a real crime involving a hired actor, amateur blackmailers and one thoroughly irritated police officer. The film repeatedly revisits the events from the perspectives of different characters, revealing another piece of its absurd puzzle each time.

After the first section, the story rewinds and shows what another character was doing at the same time. It then repeats this approach several more times. The film’s carefully constructed screenplay won Best Screenplay from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society and received Hong Kong Film Awards nominations for its writing, supporting actor and first-time direction.

An Asian Genre Film Without Restraint

I enjoy films in the vein of South Korea’s Save the Green Planet! or Japanese titles such as One Cut of the Dead, Fish Story and Why Don’t You Play in Hell? These are Asian genre films whose plots barely make sense when you try to summarize them, yet work perfectly while you are watching because of the complete conviction with which they combine comedy, thriller, science fiction, crime, melodrama and pure absurdity.

UNIDENTIFIED MURDER belongs firmly in that category. It is wonderfully unhinged and grotesque, always willing to push each situation several steps beyond the limits of plausibility. Beneath the apparent chaos, however, lies a carefully constructed screenplay. Almost every character is filming someone, performing for someone or attempting to control how other people interpret what happened. An influencer prepares a prank for her partner. A hired actor tries to complete a bizarre assignment. A former television host hopes to profit from the supposed return of aliens. Blackmailers work with an incomplete recording that makes the incident look very different from what actually happened. Even the police officer enters a situation in which everyone is hiding something while simultaneously believing somebody else’s lie.

The film therefore offers a subtle satire of the online world. A tragedy can become a prank, a prank can become evidence of murder, and an ordinary scam can become a paranormal event. This never turns into heavy-handed moralizing about social media. The directors primarily use the internet as an engine for the story and a source of absurd humour.

Fantasia has long been a home for filmmakers who can stretch tiny budgets into wildly original genre experiences. Check out our review of DANCE FREAK, another festival standout that turns microbudget limitations into surreal cinematic invention.

Absurd Situations, Completely Serious Performances

Ling Man-lung, Renci Yeung, Ronald Lam, Peter Chan and Kenny Wong approach even the most ridiculous moments with complete seriousness. The filmmakers explained in an interview that they wanted the comedy to emerge from the situations themselves rather than from exaggerated performances. The characters find themselves facing an absurd problem, attempt to solve it in a seemingly logical way and end up creating an even bigger disaster.

Peter Chan benefits most from this approach as Ah Kam, the actor hired to take part in the scheme. His character constantly tries to remain professional, despite having no idea what kind of story he has been dragged into. Every new piece of information forces him to adjust his performance, improvise or remain in character long after any sensible person would have run away. Chan plays his growing desperation completely straight, which is exactly why his scenes are among the funniest in the film. The performance also earned him a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Kenny Wong, probably the most recognizable name in the cast, is also worth mentioning. He never tries to overemphasize the comedy, and his seriousness makes him a natural fit for a film in which the most absurd situations become funnier the more earnestly the characters experience them.

Three Million Dollars, Four Locations and a Group of Friends

The film was made for approximately three million Hong Kong dollars and used only four main locations. Its limited budget is occasionally visible, particularly during the more action-oriented sequences and in its use of handheld camerawork. UNIDENTIFIED MURDER gently mocks its characters while also sharing their energy. The film itself was created by a group of longtime friends who decided to make the most of their limited resources and finally shoot something together. Producer Wong Tak-chun had studied with the directors and fulfilled an old promise that he would one day help them realize their own project.

The directors drew inspiration from a surprisingly varied selection of sources. The original idea partially inverted the premise of Mystic River: what would happen if one of three childhood friends had been taken not by an abductor, but by aliens? While developing the story, they also thought about 20th Century Boys, Fish Story and The Snow White Murder Case—works that combine mystery, multiple timelines or narrative perspectives, and ultimately a surprisingly human resolution.

UNIDENTIFIED MURDER is exactly the kind of wonderfully bizarre and grotesque Asian genre puzzle that manages to be both stupid and clever at the same time. It reminds us that an original film does not necessarily require a huge budget, a famous franchise or a digital army of aliens. Sometimes all you need is a handful of actors, a hill, one urban legend and a screenplay capable of turning the entire story upside down several times.

Fantasia's lineup also includes films that challenge genre expectations in quieter ways. GODHEAD reimagines religious horror through impossible questions of faith, guilt, and belief rather than another exorcism.