In
Mandarin and Japanese with English and Chinese subtitle Genre:
Horror/Thriller Director: Chao-Pin Su Starring: Chang Chen, Yosuke Eguchi, Karena
Lam, Barbie Hsu, Chen Po-Lin RunTime: - Released By: Shaw Rating: PG Official Website:
http://www.silkthemovie.com/
Opening
Day: 12 October 2006
Synopsis
:
Armed
with a newly invented material called the Menger Sponge, a
team of scientists led by Hashimoto captures the energy of
a ghost child.
In
an effort to learn about the ghost's past, they enlist the
help of special agent Ye, a member of the JCCU (Joint Crime
Crackdown Unit) with an extraordinarily gifted eyesight. Reluctant
at first, Ye himself haunted by guilt, struggling from within
on how to let his own dying mother go, accepts the assignment,
perhaps, to seek salvation from what the ghost child may reveal
about life, and life after death. Ye sees a single strand
of silk connected from the ghost to a mysterious power. Tracking
the strand of silk, Ye learns the horrifying truth of the
child's death. Fearing that the ghost child is dangerous,
the team decides to isolate the ghost but in doing so they
unknowingly unleashed the mysterious source on the other end
of the silk strand, a much more powerful and ferocious energy.
Movie
Review:
Most of the recent Asian
supernatural horror films were a dismaying bunch. The only
thing that piped my interest in Silk, the latest supernatural
horror flick from Taiwan, is that actor Chang Chen was in
it. Even though it has made its rounds at the recent Cannes
Festival, it was Chang Chen’s impressive selection in
his filmography that interested me into watching this movie.
In Silk, he played Detective Ye who is blessed
(or many might think, cursed) with the gift of extremely sharp
eyesight and the ability of lip-reading. In the ghost world
created by this movie, the scientists managed to invent a
material called “Menger Sponge” that is able to
trap energy from a ghost but humans are unable to hear what
the ghost is saying. Detective Ye’s abilities are soon
picked out by Hashimoto, the leader of a group of scientists,
as they need to investigate the ghost child’s past and
the reason for it’s existence when hardly any ghost
exists that long after death.
Now is this seemly ghost child vicious? That
is the question that Detective Ye posed to the group of scientists
before taking up the mission and anyone who has watched any
horror movie in recent years would know the answer. This is
one lonely sad child ghost but it does not appreciate disturbances
from the human world and if any human comes too close for
comfort, let’s just say there will be a hefty fine to
pay and not one that can be paid by money.
The fright factors in this movie are a mixed
bag. There are some intense moments where this reviewer’s
pulse raced, often becoming enthralled with the character’s
risky encounters with ghouls. Then, there are some moments
where it just felt too comical: a ghost coming out from a
beef noodle bowl? That scene just doesn’t cut it as
a decent frightful moment at all and felt like a lame spoof
of Ringu (The Ring). It also seems that after the classic
Japanese supernatural horror, Ringu, all victims of Asian
supernatural horrors have to die with the same contorted look
on the face that is just getting tiresome.
The technology of “Menger Sponge”
which is used in this film to trap the ghost child’s
energy is not extremely impressive nor does the film delve
too much into any form of its operation. In ways, it felt
like it’s a homage to the good old days of Hong Kong
Vampire flicks that uses talisman and black dog blood to tell
its spooky tale. For the main purpose of “Menger Sponge”
in Silk, it is to bridge the communication and interaction
between the humans and the netherworld to tell a tale of “what
if?” in heartwarming proportion (that is if your heart
does not cease from operation after all those intense moments)
Besides the emotional tale of the ghouls,
the subplot of Detective Ye, his unconscious mom who is dying
and estranged old love, brews into satisfying fruition of
touching moments between lovers and family members at the
climactic ends. There are times where we wish to communicate
with the departed but there is simply no way of doing it in
reality. Only in movies are we offered a peek of what could
be the last possible message that the recent departed wants
to say.
In the beginning of this year, I caught a
Taiwanese supernatural horror, The Heirloom which bored me
to tears. I had almost written all Asian supernatural horror
off until Chang Chen’s Silk came along and resuscitated
my faith in Taiwanese films. While Silk handlings of fright
moments were uneven at times, the heart of the story and the
way it was delivered kept me engaged through all.
Movie
Rating:
(One of the best Taiwanese supernatural horror movie of recent
years)
