Lunar July: the director of White, a RM2.5 million hit, turns to the Hungry Ghost Festival

The Malaysian director whose folk horror White took more than RM2.5 million has made a new film about a festival observed by Chinese communities across East and Southeast Asia. Lunar July, by JeRR PS Rion, is set during the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the Hungry Ghost Festival, and opened on 29 October, Malay Mail reported on 1 November.

Built around a getai stage

The film recreates the festival on a large scale, the paper says, with a towering Da Shi Ye effigy, a grand ceremonial hall and a traditional seventh-month getai stage. TGV's synopsis has a temple committee invite an urban rock band to perform at its festival; the band insults the deity, and the spirits are let loose. GSC's listing puts the turning point in a line: as Tai Su Yeh leaves in fury, the cosmic balance collapses. Malay Mail names the leads as He Jiahao, Mo Peiling and Du Hailun. TGV lists it under its Chinese title, which names Da Shi Ye and the seventh-month getai, and classifies it 18.

It started as a comedy

JeRR told the paper the idea came while he was promoting White, when he went backstage at a Hungry Ghost Festival performance and heard stories about what happens on and off the stage. Lunar July was first conceived as a comedy. After White's box office renewed interest in Malaysian folk horror, he and his team abandoned the comic approach and rewrote the screenplay, drawing on Chinese Malaysian customs and beliefs.

He went looking for the origin of the Da Shi Ye legend among local residents and found no definitive answer, Malay Mail reports, and the team questioned why a deity revered in folk religion appears in some tales taking the lives of infants. He said he hopes audiences will "look at Da Shi Ye from a different perspective". He also wanted to show the values behind the festival, such as respect for wandering spirits, the 'Good Brothers'.

Catch it this week

The film is in its second week and its run is narrowing. This site's listings have 235 sessions today, Wednesday, falling to about 40 a day from Thursday 5 November as the week's new films arrive, at 55 cinemas across six chains, mostly TGV, with 234 of the week's sessions, and GSC, with 213. Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Perak have the most. It is classified 18 and runs 101 minutes, in Mandarin with Malay, Chinese and English subtitles at GSC.

The Lunar July page lists every cinema still showing it, and the showtimes page puts its remaining sessions side by side.