Dream Home (2010)

In Hong Kong, Cheng Lai-sheung (Josie Ho) works two jobs with the hope of earning enough money to buy her own apartment with a view of the Victoria Harbour. In mixed chronological order, we see scenes from Lai-sheung's past. In her childhood, her family and friends are evicted from their low-rent housing so that developers can build expensive flats. Later in life, she vows to buy her mother and father a new apartment, but is unable to fulfill her promise before her mother dies. When her father becomes ill with mesothelioma, she begins searching in earnest for a new place. She has an obsession for the Victoria Bay No. 1 high-rise address, originating in a childhood vow that she would one day buy a flat near the harbor. The vow was aimed at preventing her grandfather from having to walk there and back on a daily basis.

The bank will only give her a 70% mortgage and payments would reach over $15,000. Unfortunately, because of an oversight in declaring her father's medical history, she no longer has insurance to pay for his expensive treatment and has to take a second job. After Lai-sheung does save enough for a down-payment, her father's medical bills become excessive. When she asks her married lover for a loan to cover these, he refuses.

One night her father has trouble breathing. Instead of giving him his oxygen, Lai-sheung allows him to die. The insurance payment now adds enough money to her current savings to purchase her dream flat. On her way to finalize the purchase, there is a hike in the stock market that makes the owners decide to raise the price. This sends Lai-sheung into a frenzy, where she goes to the flats and attacks people who live and work there. She kills them with low-tech, household items. During the course of the final killings, the police arrive at the flat, demanding entry. A struggle ensues during which both officers are killed.

Returning to her day job, Lai-sheung receives a call from her agent saying that the owners of the flat she wishes to buy are willing to sell after all. Lai-sheung suggests that they might want to sell for a lower price, since there were eleven murders in the building the previous evening. That night, Lai-sheung's lover comes around to pick her up, but she turns her back on him and walks away, having decided to end their relationship. The film concludes with Lai-sheung staring out at the harbor as newscasts discuss how America's worsening subprime mortgage crisis is beginning to have global repercussions.