‘Dead Talents Society’ Netflix Movie Review - John Hsu’s Horror Comedy is Terrific Entertainment

Humans believe that there is nothing but peace after death. John Hsu's Dead Talents Society (or Gui Cai Zhi Dao) says, "You wish." The afterlife is as hectic as mortal life. The ghosts, like social media influencers, chase fame and credibility. How do ghosts become celebrities? Through urban legends, you dummy. Don't watch that video, or you will die. Don't check into that hotel room because it's haunted by a vengeful spirit. Look in a mirror, say "Bloody Mary" three times, and you will be killed. The phantoms in Dead Talents Society want to be associated with stories like these. The ghost from a movie like The Ring would be seen as a celebrity in the world of Hsu's horror comedy. The director has co-written the script with Vincent Tsai, and it's amazing how simple yet delightfully funny their story is. By bringing the pain and the problems of humans into the world of spirits, the filmmakers end up infusing clichés with fresh life. Dead Talents Society is about the rivalry between a young superstar and a washed-up has-been. It's about a loser who, after getting discovered by the right individual, achieves fame and glory. What do you know, this nobody is mentored by that washed-up has-been! The movie, in other words, crawls along the path of familiarity. But since the situations are transferred into the realm of the dead, the clichés become amusing.

It's impossible not to smile after seeing the Golden Ghost Awards ceremony. Catherine (Sandrine Pinna), during her popular days, was a Golden Ghost winner. Now, she is overshadowed by Jessica (Eleven Yao), her protégé-turned-rival. Jessica scares people through jump scare videos, while Catherine haunts Room 414 at a hotel. The battle between Catherine and Jessica is the battle between two kinds of horror films. The former builds tension through black and white portraits and flickering lights before spooking her victims with her backward crawling skill. Jessica, however, just slowly walks towards the camera and then suddenly delivers the "Boo!" moment. Catherine puts a lot of effort into her scares - she improves her crawls through practice. Jessica, on the other hand, executes jump scares that look cheap, easy, and unimaginative. Is Hsu saying brainless, jump-scare pictures gain more attention than meticulously crafted horror/haunted house affairs? Probably, but the best way to watch Dead Talents Society is to revel in its surface. Subtexts be damned. There is a neat joke near the beginning of the film where a man walking through a park sees a swing and gets scared. The camera quickly reveals Gingle Wang's character innocently using the swing while waiting for Camilla (Bai Bai), her best friend. The implication is that the ghosts don't always move objects to scare humans. Catherine, at one point in the film, rotates a photo frame as she walks down the corridor, feeling sad.

Hsu and Tsai rarely miss an opportunity to crack jokes here (the bitter gaze that Catherine and Jessica throw at each other sends the film to comic heaven). A character, while accepting an award, thanks the people who killed her. Wang's character - let's call her Rookie or Cho Hsiao-lei - is discovered by Makoto (Chen Bolin), who runs a professional haunting agency and has a crush on Catherine. While watching a horror film, Rookie mocks the ghost's levitation and hair-growing skills. What's more, the ghosts in Dead Talents Society need a professional haunting license to exist. Or else they will glitch and, within thirty days, disappear into oblivion (this will only happen when a token — a valuable object cherished by the family of the dead—is discarded or forgotten). Rookie faces this complication, which is why she participates in a contest to get a haunting agency's help. It's here where she meets Makoto for the first time. He assures her that she has talent, even though her performance in the contest elicits chuckles from the ghostly spectators. But Makoto proves that not all ghosts are evil.

The filmmakers clearly have a lot of fun with this material, and their excitement is incredibly infectious. Dead Talents Society expectedly enters an emotional space, but it never becomes a schmaltzy mess. Hsu superbly floats between drama and humor. Some horror scenes are mildly chilling, though I don't think Hsu is very interested in maintaining the horror-comedy balance. He generates a tsunami of pleasure and excitement through moments that expose the logic behind the ghostly mechanisms. You see characters holding the door or manipulating the buttons of an elevator. I enjoyed seeing Jessica's corridor trick, where she uses her body doubles. Dead Talents Society is a lot of fun - it's terrific entertainment, even when it feels a bit repetitive. Bollywood, last year, chased the horror-comedy trend. Most of those films were blockbusters, but none were good, witty, or overly enjoyable. Given the creative bankruptcy that has affected Bollywood, one should not expect a mainstream entertainer like Hsu's film from the Hindi Movie world. Our filmmakers can make a hundred horror comedies, yet I doubt if even one of them would turn out to be as entertaining as Dead Talents Society. They can remake this film, but even the remake would be poor and uninteresting. Hsu wonderfully blends emotions with laughter. Most of the time, our Hindi filmmakers struggle to commit to a single tone, a single vision.

I didn't like Hsu's Detention much. It had great ideas, but emotionally distant characters. With Dead Talents Society, however, Hsu has shown improvement as a filmmaker. I would also like to bring your attention to Gingle Wang. By choosing to act in productions like Detention, Marry My Dead Body, GG Precinct, and The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon, Wang is just proving herself to be an actor of good taste - an actor who likes to do interesting experiments. This reminds me that The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon is also available on Netflix. Perhaps after Dead Talents Society, you could watch Wong Ching-po's black comedy action thriller. And from now on, if you see Wang's name in the cast, just buy the ticket or click on the play button. I think I might be slowly becoming her fan.

Final Score- [7.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times