Hello Ghost

Four ghosts make loneliness feel almost like a blessing in Indra Gunawan’s remake.

You became a ghost just to drive a minibus?

It’s probably something of an understatement to say that suicide is a tricky topic on which to build a comedy. Especially one that deals with the afterlife, loneliness and loss of family. Each of those topics is enough to fill an entire drama by itself, so it will no doubt take something of a deft hand to effectively turn something inherently unfunny into a feel-good heart-warming comedy. To that end, Hello Ghost’s first few minutes aren’t exactly promising. We’re introduced to Kresna (Onadio Leonardo), who has decided his loneliness is too much, and will kill himself.

After waking up in the hospital, following a few failed suicides, Kresna discovers that he can see ghosts. Specifically four very specific ones who just won’t leave him alone. There’s the pretty pervy old man Kuatno (Indro Warkop), silent chain smoker Bima (Tora Sudiro), the always-crying Lita (Hesti Purwadinata) and the tragically young Chika (Ciara Nadine Brosnan). As one might expect from ghosts, they each have some sort of unfinished business that needs taking care of before they can move on to the afterlife, and after a few teething problems, Kresna agrees – choosing it over abject loneliness.

Hello Ghost is one of the seemingly endless number of remakes of the 2010 Korean film of the same name. I’ve not seen the original so I can’t say much about it, and will largely focus on how this version stands on its own. With that in mind, I still can’t help but wonder what the other versions were like in their opening fifteen or twenty minutes. This Hello Ghost seems to favour silliness and ghostly shenanigans over emotional stakes, at least at first, perhaps as a way to keep an audience watching.

While those are fun, the movie’s initial introduction to Kresna and his issues last all of two seconds, as he laments his life and then tries to kill himself. I get that we don’t need to see everything that led up to this moment, it’s not that kind of movie, but the story would be far better served if we took a minute or two to really get into Kresna’s head, before we start carrying ghosts on our back across the street. It’s tricky to ignore initially: first impressions are everything after all.

With that in mind, once things properly start to get going the characters settle in their roles, and the chemistry and bonds between them can shine much more. There’s a halfway decent romance between Linda (Enzy Storia), the nurse who initially takes him to hospital, and Kresna. Her strained relationship with her father is also a minor, but solid highlight that emphasises the movie’s themes. This part of the story even gives Kuatno something to do, as by this point in the story he’s just a gross arse-staring pervert. As things progress, we learn more about the ghosts, crucially just not enough to understand why they still hang around after they’re seemingly tedious last wishes (finding a radio, driving a van) are fulfilled.

That story beat at first feels frustrating, and annoyingly irrelevant, but actually builds up very nicely to a wonderful conclusion. It’s there that the film shines, showing the positive effects that Kresna and the ghosts have on each other’s (un)lives. Especially once Kresna begins to feel the fact that the ghosts aren’t tangible, real friends. They’ll leave, like others in his life. It’s all very touching, but the lack of good context feels like you’re watching the second half of a TV series, one that your friends just won’t shut up about, but that you refuse to watch from the beginning for whatever reason. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see the movie play with the idea of invasive thoughts that prevent you from moving forward, being trapped in the past and the (false) idea that one may be unable to really achieve any real happiness. Hello Ghost is a film you’ll be glad to have seen, and I’ll definitely be seeking out the original.

Verdict: Occasionally tonally messy, Hello Ghost nevertheless does good things with its premise, crucially nails the landing, resulting in a film that’s touching, sweet and sometimes even heartbreaking.

Overall entertainment: 7/10
Violence: 3/10
Sex: 2/10
Suicide: 4, all failures
Internal rules: I feel like there’s no consistency to the corporealness of the ghosts
Linda: Can be very cruel when she wants to
If you want heavenly reward: don’t ask for change

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Hello Ghost (2023)
Indonesian

Director: Indra Gunawan
Writers: Alim Sudio, Kim Young-Tak (based on the film by)

CAST

Onadio Leonardo – Kresna
Enzy Storia – Nurse Linda
Indro Warkop – Kuatno
Tora Sudiro – Bima
Hesti Purwadinata – Lita
Ciara Nadine Brosnan – Chika
Egy Fedly – Linda’s Father