By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Winner of five Golden Horse Awards (Taiwan’s Oscars), including Best New Director, the film is coming to U.S. release next month.
Dekanalog releases DETENTION to theaters and virtual cinemas nationwide October 8. Directed by John Hsu from a script by Hsu, Fu Kai-ling and Chien Shih-keng, from the hit Red Candle Games title that also inspired last year’s Netflix series, it stars Gingle Wang, Fu Meng-po, Tseng Jing-hua, Cecilia Choi and Hung Chang Chu. The synopsis: “1962 Taiwan, during the time of the White Terror. Martial law is in full force across the country. In a time of extreme repression, all ideas considered to be dissident are banned, and the culprits are tortured or executed. Tsuihua Secondary School is not an exception from this oppression. Despite close surveillance by the military police, Professor Chang [Fu] runs an underground literary club where he and his students learn about banned books and dream of freedom. One of his club members, Fang [Wang] is madly in love with him. The usually shy teenage girl from an abusive home manages to open up like a book in his presence. But then, Chang disappears… One night, Fang wakes up at her desk, the school around her changed and distorted. As she wanders through the sinister corridors and dilapidated rooms in search of her teacher, she meets Wei [Tseng}. Together, they must confront the ghosts and monsters that have taken over their alma mater in order to find out what has happened there.”
See our review of DETENTION here.
