User Reviews

Maybe something was lost in translation but 23 minutes into the film one of the detectives tells the prosecutor the young wife, who was found laying unconscious next to her dead husband, the murder weapon in her hand, should be released because, "she's about to inherit everything and doesn't have a motive." Where, other than Taiwan I guess, could that statement make any sense.

Yes, the way to get 'her' (the billionaire copied into his young wife's brain) to confess was to replace the billionaire's mind with a copy of the dying prosecutor's mind.

But then why confess? The billionaire is ERASED. He is really dead and gone.

No need to confess. The copy of the dying prosecutor can now live his new life outside of prison as a billionaire widow.

'Confessing' just put an innocent person behind bars for life. Maybe the silly man thought he should be punished for murdering the double murderer (the billionaire killed his young wife and then his original self)? Absurd.

If the movie had been mediocre, I'd have given it a 2 or 3 for that, but I really liked it until that faceplant at the end.

"Part cancer melodrama, part police procedural, part supernatural tosh, THE SOUL has an uneven pace before the seminal reveal of the twisted relationship between Wang, his business partner Dr. Wan (Lee) and Wang's young second wife Li Yan (Sun, who gives a well-calculated accent modulation indicating the identity shift), along with a fantastic notion of curing cancer with extracted RNA powders (who are you kidding?), and the even more incredible practice of soul transmigration (alright, if you say so!). Plus a lavender marriage in which the wife is cozened and goes mental and suicidal. To appease the censorship, the version played in mainland China is heavily expurgated, still, it is a pleasant surprise to see the same-sex relation is not entirely truncated, and THE SOUL espouses a strong sentiment that love transcends gender, but you are damned if you ruin an innocent woman for your convenience. (In fact, there are two such women here, both played by actresses from mainland China, should we read too much into it?)"

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks.

Wow just now i have seen this movie.. but only problem is the "names" hard to remember the character names. The film is almost a gem since the original plot and modified script are so rich; casting is in place, and the cast's performance draws the spectator into the story. Scene design, art, photography, editing, and original sound all deserve Golden Horse nominations since they provide complete immersion. Although the transition from fantasy to science fiction is a little stiff, the overall fault is not obscured, and the surprise is felt. This was such an excellent movie. Highly underrated. The plot is really new and original. There is a lot of twist and turn in this movie. You need to pay attention with the details in order to catch some important clues for everything to make sense. But the overall experience is great!

The script is barely qualified, and the performances of the actors are really excellent, especially Zhang Zhen, who is awe-inspiring. It's the use of people as tools to make people feel bad. As a science fiction film, it barely passed; as a suspense film, it was not passable, mainly because of the poor ability of the director in telling the story. So...where is the pregnant victim's baby?

"The Soul" is a bold adaptation from Chinese author Bo JIANG's science fiction novella from years ago. As a Sci-Fi thriller, the film skillfully turns the core concept of RNA memory gene duplication technology (from the writing piece) into a power engine that changes the fate of two families: One from LIANG Wen-Chao, the murder case's prosecutor unfortunately suffering from cancer, and A-Bao, LIANG's pregnant criminal police wife who is also involved in the investigation; the other from the tragically deceased medical group owner WANG Shi-Cong, his current wife LI Yan, his son and his ex-wife. Though it makes little sense for WANG's desperate ex-wife, a key bio-scientist at the medical group, to have indulged herself in the Oriental/Chinese wizardry as an escape from some unbearable truths of her life and killed herself, the film begins to gain momentum on its Sci-Fi track from about mid point and surprises us with more suspense and reversals till the end. If the intricate story based on the idea of soul-transfer or consciousness-transfer in the whole crime scene is far from being soulful, it at least exhibits how much soul-mates can and will do for each other, in the name of love. Superb ensemble performance (especially CHANG Chen, the main lead) and editing makes this near-future-and-Taipei-set film a heart-throbbing tear-jerker, which is a real breakthrough for the Chinese-language Sci-Fi films.

The premise was quite good: a rich businessman having a sinister past with his longtime friend and business partner. This was interesting enough. The problem was on the execution. Watching it felt like there was a desperate need to prove and overexplain what happened in the past. The flashback scenes were a bit of an eyesore. The editing did not impress me. And I also questioned to a great extent if the technology of transferring a man's soul into another was really doable. Normally, a great sci-fi film would make one ask one of these questions. But it felt ridiculous for me. The extensive use of dark cinematography was a down-side for me as well.

Taiwanese Noir filming give it a unearthly feel as if on the verge of darkness yet the story was about love, redemption and when the time has come to make amends.

Set in the not too distant future 2031 with a corporate exec dying from brain cancer that can use RNA tech to swap his mind into that of another person. At the same time a Prosecutor also dying of brain cancer tries to solve the murder of the exec.

I will not spoil it for you but persons of interest are the dead ex-wife that hopes lore can let her seek revenge against the exec, their crazed child blaming the exec for his mother's death and a business tech partner with ties to the exec other than business.

The Prosecutors wife a policewoman is the last person standing in the corporeal.

I will not spoil this whodunnit other than to suggest you bear in mind the title of this review right up to the very last second of the movie.