SPLIT OF THE SPIRIT
A film review by Thomas E. Billings
Copyright 1989 Thomas E. Billings
Synopsis: A Chinese ghost story set in present day Hong Kong and Taiwan. A modern dance choreographer is possessed by the ghost of a woman who was murdered. Thus possessed, she stalks and takes vengeance on the murderers. Good film, much better than most films in this genre, but nothing special.
Taiwan (English subtitles), color, 1989, 98 minutes. Director/Writer: Fred Tan
Ghost stories are fairly common in Chinese cinema, and range from low budget kung-fu films to sophisticated melodramas and mysteries. This film, with its large cast, special effects, and large budget, is fairly representative of the better films in this genre. It is very well-made, with high production values.
The plot is relatively simple. A beautiful young woman is brutally murdered by her boyfriend and his accomplices. They trap her in a car, which is then set on fire (so she is burned alive and conscious). The precise reasons for this are not made clear, but black magic rituals are involved.
During the ritual, mistakes are made which allow the murdered woman's soul to escape, as a ghost, into this world. She possesses another young woman, a modern dance choreographer who recently attempted suicide as the result of a failed love affair. After possessing the choreographer, she sets out for brutal vengeance on her former lover and his accomplices.
I won't say anything more about the rest of the movie (to avoid spoilers), other than to say that there is an interesting exorcism scene. The exorcism scene may set a new standard in special effects quality (but not in imagination) for movies of this type.
Unlike many ghost stories, there is very little humor in this film. The humor that is present is mostly satire, of other Chinese ghost films (if you have never seen such a film, you might not appreciate the very subtle humor). It's also very black humor, as the funniest scenes are the murders!
This is the third film by director Fred Tan. Like his first two films (described below), it paints a bleak view of women and their role in society. Women are usually shown as victims in his films, but victims by choice. This outlook has made his films very controversial; some hate his films for this reason, others like them for the same reason. At the least, they are very thought provoking, and worth considering for this reason.
Distribution: Currently in its U.S. theatrical premiere, this film is being screened at a limited number of art houses. It is being shown along with two earlier films by the same director: ROUGE OF THE NORTH (a cold melodrama set in 1910 Shanghai: a young woman accepts an arranged marriage only to learn on her wedding night that her groom is a blind, invalid asthmatic; as time goes on she becomes evil and bitter), and DARK NIGHT (an erotic psychological thriller: a woman trapped in a marriage to a husband that neglects her, seeks out a lover, only to find that her lover is as bad as her husband; thus she ends up being enslaved by two men instead of just one!).
Reviewer: Thomas E. Billings, Department of Statistics University of California, Berkeley Reviewer contact: teb@stat.Berkeley.EDU
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