General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

It Remains

It Remains (釀魂; original title Neung wan, also transliterated Niang hun) is a 2023 Hong Kong supernatural horror film directed by Kelvin Shum, in which a group of friends grieving a recent death camp on a remote outlying island and are stalked by visions tied to their guilt and by an ancient evil.¹^•² It stars Anson Lo of the Hong Kong boy band MIRROR in his second film leading role, with Summer Chan, Ng Siu Hin, Tree Kwok, Tommy Chu Pak-hong, David Chiang, and Angela Yuen.³^•⁴

Key fact	Detail
Original title	Neung wan (釀魂; Mandarin alternative transliteration Niang hun)⁵
Director and writer	Kelvin Shum; written by Roman Cheung⁶
Language and length	Cantonese; 100 minutes¹
Release	Hong Kong premiere August 20, 2023; Hong Kong release August 24, 2023; United Kingdom and Taiwan November 3, 2023⁵
Worldwide box office	$1,544,136, all international; Hong Kong $1,298,023, Vietnam $242,996, United Kingdom $3,117⁷
Hong Kong gross	HK$10,346,153 from 135,990 admissions⁸
UK classification	15, for strong injury detail; classified October 11, 2023¹

Spoilers

Plot and premise

Centering on four coworkers at a high-end Japanese restaurant, the film features Finn (Anson Lo), a restaurant employee who arranges the getaway after his longtime girlfriend Ava (Angela Yuen) dies in an automobile collision; Liam (Ng Siu-hin), a server with albinism; Cora (Tree Kwok Tsui-yee), the manager; and Luke (Chu Pak-hong), the conceited head chef. They travel to a remote Hong Kong island for three days of camping and healing, but cannot find lodging and lose phone signal. Ghostly visions begin on their first night, haunting each visitor with hidden regrets, personal shames, and a lack of closure for their traumas. On the second day the island's sole resident, Wah (David Chiang), tries to chase them off before the island's dark past emerges.⁶ Other listings describe the group suffering frightening dreams, finding strange artifacts, and realizing that an ancient devil stalks them at every turn.²

The British Board of Film Classification summarizes the film as a nightmarish and hallucinatory Hong Kong chiller in which themes of grief and guilt resonate as the friends become trapped on an island hiding a terrible and violent secret that threatens their sanity.¹

Cast and characters

The credited roles, as listed by 25thframe, are:⁴

Anson Lo as Finn Cheung Tsz-kit
Summer Chan as Amelia Fong
Pak-Hong Chu as Luke Tam
Siu Hin Ng as Liam Wu
Chui-Yi Kwok as Cora Chan
David Chiang as Owen Fong
Angela Yuen as Ava Ching

Supporting roles include Eelyn Yi Lam Chan as Diner, Jeffery Hok Kan Lai as Doctor, and Yiu-Sing Lam as Burke Tang.⁴ The Kai-Fong review notes a welcome turn by the veteran actor David Chiang Da-wei, known for Vengeance and The Blood Brothers, and praises theater actor Chu for making often ridiculous dialogue sound reasonable.⁶

Release and box office

The film premiered in Hong Kong on August 20, 2023, opened there on August 24, and reached the United Kingdom and Taiwan on November 3, 2023.⁵ Box Office Mojo records a worldwide gross of $1,544,136, entirely international: $1,298,023 in Hong Kong from an opening of $261,520, $242,996 in Vietnam from a January 18, 2024 release, and $3,117 in the United Kingdom.⁷ The Hong Kong Film Services Office reports a Hong Kong gross of HK$10,346,153 from 135,990 admissions, ranking 26th among 2023 Hong Kong films.⁸ In the United Kingdom the film was distributed by Trinity Filmed Entertainment and classified 15 on October 11, 2023.¹ A Hong Kong Blu-ray release followed on December 13, 2023.³

Content advisory

The BBFC's 15 certificate rests on strong injury detail. Its content advice describes bloody stabbings and slashings with blades and improvised weapons, drowning, and attacks with hammers and blunt instruments; threatening visions linked to grief and guilt and a possessing supernatural entity; strongly implied sexual violence; implied suicides, including one in the presence of a young child; and detailed images of blood and bloody wounds. Bad language is very mild ('damn', 'hell').¹

Reception

The Kai-Fong review graded the film C+, calling it Kelvin Shum's second feature but first release and a familiar horror diversion. The reviewer compared its outline and remote-island setting to Leong Po-chih's 1985 Hong Kong horror The Island, while noting the two films share little else, and criticized the screenplay's use of rape as an inciting incident. The same review credited the film with relatable characters, a believable dynamic among the four leads, creepy imagery built from red lighting, negative space, and background figures, and a bleak ending in the tradition of Hong Kong ghost movies.⁶ The South China Morning Post's review framed the film as an acting breakthrough for MIRROR's Anson Lo in a supernatural horror thriller full of atmosphere and spooky imagery.⁹ On IMDb the film holds a rating of 4.6 out of 10.¹⁰

Context in Hong Kong cinema

Director Kelvin Shum made the film as his second feature in as many years; his other film Deliverance, with Simon Yam, was also slated for 2023.⁶ The film was produced by WUCulture (World Universal Culture), the studio also credited on its home video release.²^•³ Its Hong Kong gross of HK$10.3 million placed it among the year's higher-grossing local productions, near To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self (HK$10.27 million) and well above Shadows (殘影空間, HK$969,012) in the same industry dataset.⁸

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Supernatural horror films › 2020s supernatural horror films › Titles symbols to L

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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