I have conflicted feelings about Silk. One the one hand, the first hour of the film is easily one of the best, and most original Horror premises to come out of Asia in a while. The only problem with the film is the second half, which degenerates into a Ju-on rip-off with one of the worst death scenes and car crashes in cinema history.
Silk tells the story of paranormal investigation team headed by a crippled man named Hasimoto (Yosuke Eguchi). One day, Hasimoto is able to trap a young ghost boy in a apartment room using a new scientific invention called the Manger Sponge; A material that is able to trap the energy of entities. Hasimoto only has one problem, he needs a man with sharp eyes, who can read the lips of the ghost boy he has trapped. Thus enters, Tung (Chen Cheng) a police sharpshooter, who reluctantly takes the job with Hasimoto. Together the two seek to uncover the secrets of the supernatural.
I don't know what Director Chao-Bin Su was thinking when he made Silk. As mentioned above, the first hour of Silk is a tight and concise supernatural/detective thriller. One of the things that made the film work (in the first hour) was how all the characters could actively see the ghost, forcing the Director to come up with different ways of scaring the audience, without the usual clichés of the randomly appearing ghost. And in the first half of the film, Chao is very successful with his scares. In the last 30 minutes, the film introduces a long-haired woman ghost (think Ju-On) and then the film catapults off the rails.
I really wish the Director would have stuck to the original premise, which was deliciously frightening and creepy, instead of taking the film in the direction he did, which was formulaic and predictable. It's frustrating because Silk should have been another masterpiece of Asian Horror. As it stands now, it's just another copycat with great, but wasted potential. The acting was good, the plot interesting, cinematography and score was nice... it's just the ending that needs a major fix.
In particular, two scenes helped ruin this film for me; The ghost coming from the soup bowl, and the ridiculously bad cg of a car crash depicted towards the end of the film. I actually had to back it up because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Bottom Line- Director Chao-Bin Su could have had a masterpiece. The first hour is a great Supernatural/Detective story, the last 30 minutes is a clichéd, and ridiculous.
My Score: 6/10 (The beginning elevates this film to a slightly better than average ghost story)
Silk tells the story of paranormal investigation team headed by a crippled man named Hasimoto (Yosuke Eguchi). One day, Hasimoto is able to trap a young ghost boy in a apartment room using a new scientific invention called the Manger Sponge; A material that is able to trap the energy of entities. Hasimoto only has one problem, he needs a man with sharp eyes, who can read the lips of the ghost boy he has trapped. Thus enters, Tung (Chen Cheng) a police sharpshooter, who reluctantly takes the job with Hasimoto. Together the two seek to uncover the secrets of the supernatural.
I don't know what Director Chao-Bin Su was thinking when he made Silk. As mentioned above, the first hour of Silk is a tight and concise supernatural/detective thriller. One of the things that made the film work (in the first hour) was how all the characters could actively see the ghost, forcing the Director to come up with different ways of scaring the audience, without the usual clichés of the randomly appearing ghost. And in the first half of the film, Chao is very successful with his scares. In the last 30 minutes, the film introduces a long-haired woman ghost (think Ju-On) and then the film catapults off the rails.
I really wish the Director would have stuck to the original premise, which was deliciously frightening and creepy, instead of taking the film in the direction he did, which was formulaic and predictable. It's frustrating because Silk should have been another masterpiece of Asian Horror. As it stands now, it's just another copycat with great, but wasted potential. The acting was good, the plot interesting, cinematography and score was nice... it's just the ending that needs a major fix.
In particular, two scenes helped ruin this film for me; The ghost coming from the soup bowl, and the ridiculously bad cg of a car crash depicted towards the end of the film. I actually had to back it up because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Bottom Line- Director Chao-Bin Su could have had a masterpiece. The first hour is a great Supernatural/Detective story, the last 30 minutes is a clichéd, and ridiculous.
My Score: 6/10 (The beginning elevates this film to a slightly better than average ghost story)