Director: Lester Hsi
Year: 2020
Country: Taiwan
Alternate Titles:
Genre: Ghosts
Plot:
Attempting to investigate an urban legend, a news reporter begins looking into the mysterious disappearance of several students after they were playing a game to invoke the spirit of a ghost who haunts a nearby bridge on campus, and when she discovers that she’s next in line to suffer the ghosts’ wrath must find a way to stop it.
Review:
For the most part, this one offers some enjoyable aspects. One of the film’s best features is the strong background work that gives off a rather fine setup that contains a nice immersion quality. As we’re given a lot of information about the legacy of the stunt and how it turned into a student hazing stunt, the film carries on quite nicely. Starting off in-universe as the typical urban myth about a woman who died on the spot and now haunts the area after being rejected by her boyfriend, the start of the legend is a suitable small-town ghost story that could conceivably grow into a more prominent urban legend. The beginning of the film shows off the historical background and the recreation of the main prank committed by the students completes this in fine fashion.
As well, the atmosphere created here is quite chilling at times. The fabled bridge where the action takes place is a rather creepy area, taking place in a seemingly deserted part of the campus where the cobblestone construction and prominent trees surrounding it leave quite an impression when traveling through at night. That plays a part in the resulting atmosphere featured during the attacks which are quite chilling and creepy at times, from the ambush out at the bridge to the various encounters around the campus including the bathroom scenes and the hallways of the dorm. The intensity and ferocity of the ghostly attacks are quite fun as the being continually moves out of the darkness to attack, creating some stand-out shock scenes in the randomness around the campus where it appears or the creepy setup to it doing so. Featuring a rousing finale with some nice twists and stand-out ghost action, this one is quite enjoyable at times.
This one does have some issues with it. The main problem is the films’ seemingly random and arbitrary jumping back and forth throughout the various timelines as we switch from the original incident involving the students trying the legend for themselves and encountering the ghost and the reporter investigating the incident in the present. As this creates some severe jumping around to figure out what happened, the resulting whiplash trying to keep track of everything is a hurdle to getting into the film even though it settles down considerably as it goes along. Likewise, the film’s over-reliance on standard formulaic ghost antics is a big disservice, bringing nothing new to the table as this one goes for all the expected tropes in a creaky, slimy, scuttling pale figure leaps out of nowhere to grab victims and kills them in ways as to suggest suicide upon later discovery of the body. It’s all been seen before and can come off as wholly cliched for the most part to some viewers.
Overview: ***.5/5
Despite being overly familiar in places and not doing much new with its subject, the film has more than enough moments of genuinely chilling ghost action as well as some solid turns to be a worthwhile enough watch. Those unencumbered by the flaws or Asian ghost movie fans in general will find plenty to like here and have the most fun with it while other viewers who aren’t as tolerant of the clichés might be a little harsher towards this one.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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