The Sadness (2021): Horror

A young couple tries to survive the spread of a virus that brings out people’s darkest side.

Brace yourselves!!! The slow-burn first act is the calm before the storm; the everyday life with the everyday problems as we know it. You know it’s gonna go crazy, you just have no idea how much. Once it gets started, the horror introduced with Jim will get you hooked and cut your breath short until you get to experience the introduction again with Kat… tenfold! The train’s claustrophobic sequence is one of the bloodiest and most excruciating cinematic experiences you’ve ever had.

Producer, writer, and director Rob Jabbaz makes sure to shock you to your core in the beginning, but then, somehow, he manages to find a funny side to it, as if he parodies, momentarily, what he started. Once most of the horror has been unleashed and extremely graphically portrayed, Jabbaz seizes the opportunity to politicise it – it was shot throughout the pandemic, after all – slows the pace down, and gives you the time to wonder where it’s heading. And this is where I stop. The rest’s up to you to figure out and decide whether all this violence was justified and how the allusions and metaphors were laid out to you.

The first round of applause goes to Berant Zhu, Regina Lei, Tzu-Chiang Wang, and the rest of the cast who deliver some really disturbing performances. It would be intriguing to ask them how they felt after portraying such characters. The second round goes to the crew that did a fantastic job behind the cameras despite the numerous pandemic restrictions.

Highly recommended for all hardcore horror fans!

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Monga (2010): Action / Crime / Drama

Monga.jpg

Taiwan’s jewel! A critically acclaimed and commercial success that exceeded expectations. Starting as “coming of age” ending up gangster, “Monga” takes you back from “The Outsiders (1983)”, to “Goodfellas (1990)” and “The Departed (2006)”.

Accurate depiction of Taiwan in the ’80s, “Monga” is traveling you through youngsters wanna turn gangsters, the relationship and clash between Mainlanders and Islanders, loyalty, bloody violence, vulgar language, family, betrayal, status quo, rejection… By the end of it, we are left with bitter-sweet feelings that make us reminisce about our own aspirations and dreams, and the harsh reality that faced them.

Fun facts:

  • Banned in China – which made it even more famous.
  • Language: Mandarin (mostly).
  • Certain actors had to learn Taiwanese Hokkien as they grew up from mainland China to the UK and the US.
  • Its undeniable success became a topic for a Ph.D. thesis.

You can find it here: https://amzn.to/350ofDR