Josie Ho

Following the success of “Dream Home” twelve years ago at the foreign film festivals, the new movie “Onpaku” produced by “852 Film Company” has captured the public’s attention with posters. After an inspection, the film was found to be too “extraterritorial” and was banned from international distribution. In one of the posters, Josie is tied up and hanging upside down wearing a red and black kimono with zombie makeup. “The horror came from me,” she says. “If this poster causes everyone’s uneasiness and fear… I would like to say sorry to everyone again. The movie is ten times scarier than the poster. The scariest thing is human nature, especially It’s the family you think is the safest.” She said more loudly: “Humans are scarier than ghosts!”

Shugo Fujii, the new Japanese thriller director, deconstructs the perverted, heavy-duty plot of “Onpaku”. He wants to expose the true and dark side of Japanese society and the mysterious behind-the-scenes of Japanese cults. He also wants to present traditional Japanese aesthetics of wabi-sabi.

“Onpaku” combines blood, bondage, and murder with beatings, pregnancy, and other perversions.

Inspired by the theme of “family”, “Dream Home” tells the tale of a heroine who kills a man to reduce property prices and uses a crazy story to blame the craziness of society; “Onpaku” also uses family at the center of the story to tell the story of Japan’s “deserted houses”. “Some of the craziness in the world comes from the family,” says Shugo, who comes from a complicated family background. “There are so many strange people in the world because of the weird parents!” says the director, accusing the family of social problems. Producer and lead actor, “Josie Ho” comes from a well-to-do family, and has witnessed all the strange things of the upper class. Maybe “onpaku” is a projection of their emotional sympathy in the cruel reality they live in, as it is said, “Humans are more scary than ghosts!”

When Josie Ho started her journey of learning water skiing, creating independent music, and making her debut movie in 2010, it was a big step for her to break away from the mainstream and use her real name. “At first, some magazines were kind enough to use my real name, and I was really happy because I’ve been bullied a lot in the entertainment industry, and suddenly someone called my name.” She found this in movies and music, which is rare for Hong Kong women to do in popular culture and come from such an extraordinary background. She expresses her inner feelings in her work, which are wild and ecstatic. Remember the duet “He Chao” from her film “Dream Home”? The lyrics speak of the harshness of life, all kinds of humanity, and her desire for freedom from the upper class society. She says, “Let me be free and wander around, don’t worry about my rules, don’t explain my experience, don’t turn my unease into despair, chase after blind eyes day by day.”

Josie has a long history of being fascinated by the film and television industries, having been told by some filmmakers that she “looked so cute” and should join the industry when she was young. However, due to family regulations, she had to finish her studies and be 18 before she could join the industry. Ultimately, she was unable to release a record until she was 24 years old. In 1995, she made her debut in the film industry with the role of Tragic Commitment, which was directed by Frankie Chan, and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award at the 36th Hong Kong Golden Horse Film Festival. In 2003, she reprised her role in the movie ‘Naked Ambition’, and was awarded the Best Actress Award for ‘Dream Home’ at the 43rd Film Festival.

In the eyes of outsiders, will the daughter of the He family be one step ahead of others and achieve her ideal? Young man, you are too ignorant. Josie recalled that she had a hard time becoming an artist in order to fight for opportunities. Josie shared with a smile: “Because my family taught me to follow the rules, I don’t know how to play tricks, so after 20 years of trying, I am still not competitive enough.”

Josie Ho reminisced about her struggle to become an artist, noting that she had to fight for opportunities due to her family’s teaching her to follow the rules and not to play tricks, and that after 20 years of striving, she was still not competitive enough. She later went on to establish 852 Film Company, motivated by her desire for films and independence. She questioned when she would ever have the opportunity to become popular when she signed with a company, and when would she ever have the chance to find a good role? “I don’t know, so why not set up my own company and create good movies and roles for myself?” She added, noting that she is too lazy to discuss the world and only does practical things. Despite the fact that she knows she has to work twice or three times harder than others, she invited her family to attend the premiere of “Dream Home”, as it was the first work from her company. For ‘Onpaku’, I might book the theater and invite them to watch it privately!” she said with a smile.

Back in the days before the release of “Dream Home”, Josie recalled that she had asked her seniors for their opinion on the film, and they had all said that it would be a waste of money. One of the seniors had read the script and had commented that she must want to be great, and even Chow Yun-fat had once advised her to “be good and pretty girl”. Despite coming from a gambling business family, Josie had not chosen to make a big-budget commercial film or to portray herself as a goddess; instead, she had chosen to play a murderous villain, and had even directed a film that was aimed at real estate developers. “It takes a lot of courage to mock the upper class, and after that, people would come to me for all the odd films, but not very serious ones,” she said. “The senior was right, I didn’t trust him at the time, but I still didn’t believe him.”

Do you regret it? “No regrets,” Josie said, blinking her big eyes with a cruel yet self-conscious smile.