Silk (2006)

Memorable, crazy movie

Just perfect...

Brilliant and touching

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This seems to be a sci-fi/ghost story mix-up. At the start of the film the plot seems very confused and it is a bit hard to actually understand what is going on and why.However, things improve once the main crew has been set-up properly in the film, and the action can start to take more of a single main track. The main characters are working on a new energy source that will revolutionize the world. This is somehow linked to the existence of a ghost boy in a locked room. Why and the exact role of the ghost is unclear and the main plot is to figure this out.The acting is generally pretty good, while this is plot slowly flows on - you definitely notice this is not an US film from the pace as it all has a kind of philosophical touch to it, contemplating the relation between a mother and her son as the story unfolds.All in all this is well worth watching, even if it isn't the paradigm changing film of the decade.

This movie is about one who traps ghosts in a merger sponge. This movie is unique in various ways. I personally found the opening scene to be probably the scariest scene in the entire show and I have to admit this opening scene was far better and much scarier than the opening scene in ringu(though overall ringu was a better movie.) This movie share similarities with ringu, i.e the people who died had twisted mouths and their mouths were being opened very wide. This movie is unique, it explains the use of the merger sponge. It explains that ghosts does not hold grudges are in peace and vanishes into thin air. Whereas ghosts who holds grudges don't. I am a Singaporean and understand Chinese. So I do not need to look at the subtitles. This movie is acted by a very famous Taiwanese actress, Barbie su, who does a great job in this film. However, the atmosphere of this film was not really scary. I did not like the atmosphere used in this film. I thought more information needs to be given about the boy and his mother as in why they held such a strong grudge. This film gets really complicating towards the end though it was still entertaining. Overall I think this was a really well done movie. If you love this movie, you may also like to try out the Taiwanese horror movie called the heirloom, which was also very well done. Score: 8/10

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)

This is not the best movie that I have ever seen, but it comes very close. In fact, I haven't had the experience of being at the edge of my seat for a long time now, but for this movie, I was constantly at the edge of my seat. And that's saying something.The idea is effectively new, and interestingly captivating. The story itself is cohesive and very sophisticated, something that recent movies lack. The writer uses science to explain supernatural phenomenons like ghosts (no, it is not the Matrix assimilating a program that is doing what it is not supposed to do). And it's no simple science we are talking about here. Although I could understand the story, my friend who is a college IT lecturer couldn't. On top of that, the writer can even anticipates what the audience will ask. Every time I came up with a question, one of the characters on-screen asks that very same question. As can be expected from the writer who wrote Double Vision (although I didn't really understand that movie as a whole - but it was a good story nevertheless). Characters developments were immensely heart-wrenching, although it was only focused on two characters. There was a scene where I actually closed my eyes and turned away from the screen, and I was crying.The editing and plot were superbly done. For a movie that could have bored the audience easily, this movie interlaced long explanation sequences with actions and scare scenes. This is the main reason why I was at the edge of my seat. I kept waiting for the answers but at the same time being caught in the action on-screen. Brilliant! The acting was the next commendable area of the movie. Chang Chen gave a very solid performance as both a cop and a son in distraught. Karena Lam also gave a memorable performance here as a woman who is willing to sacrifice for love. Yosuke Eguchi's performance reminds me of Tadanobu Asano's performance in Ichi The Killer. Although less masochistic, Hashimoto's character gave you the sense of someone who has a strong hold on his own believes, and he is willing to go further than most people to get what he wants. Yosuke Eguchi was brilliant as Hashimoto, being able to bring out that pain and stubbornness within the character. The casting director should get an award for this alone.Art direction was very good. The building of the set was not only believable, but also gave out the correct atmosphere to compliment every aspect of the movie. There are no overkills like those you see in Pulse. The backgrounds were nicely done, and house decorations are kept to a realistic level. No unnecessary marks on the walls, no abundance of abandoned furniture, and definitely no worms squirming on leftover food or unwashed dishes. An abandoned apartment looks like an abandoned apartment. Just look closely on the beginning sequence and you will see what I mean.Camera works were good and innovative, but more importantly, there were effective. The lighting was perfectly done. I got goosebumps just from the atmosphere alone.With those said, let's look at the negative side of the movie. Directing was not very strong here. No fatal mistakes were made by Su Chao-Bin, but there were nothing much to impress either. My only major complain is the scare scenes. They were by far the worst ideas I have ever seen. It was still good in the beginning, but towards the end, they were downright funny and unimaginative. Those who came up with the ideas, and those who approved them, should be shot in the kneecap. This movie can be really scary if only the scenes were done right. What an unfortunately and unnecessary weakness.The music was insignificant. I can't recall really, if there were any background music to accompany the movie. They just don't register. It didn't help the movie, but at least it didn't ruin it. Also, I don't really like the multi-lingual dialogs. More often than not, I find myself switching between listening to the dialogs and reading the subtitles, which in this movie where many explanations were essentials (and often very long), it can be easy to get lost. Why? Because the characters often switch languages right in the middle of a conversation! Also, I don't care much about the politics portrayed in the movie.It could work just as well with only one country being involved in the case. How many Japanese can speak perfect Mandarin, and vice versa? Overall, the movie was good, very good, but it could have been great. Maybe if I directed the movie...