Asian Home Cinema: SILK Attach to the DVD

Silk is a Taiwan horror movie that wants to mix the usual element of Asian horror with some Sci-fi spices. The story began when a Canadian research photographer found death mysteriously. A team of modern day paranormal scientists, led by Japanese Hashimoto (Yosuke Eguchi), investigate the scene. Through the scientific invention of a device called Menger Sponge, which can capture and manipulate raw energy, they discovered a ghost of a 13-year old boy in a rundown Taipei apartment block and trap his energy using the device in a ramshackle apartment building.

As Ye gets closer to solving the riddle of the boy’s past, he doesn’t just find out the horrifying truth of the boy’s death, but sees tiny strands of silk attached between the ghost and the living. But those who become attached to the silk die in a horribly deaths, made all of the research thrown into jeopardy. Fearing that the ghost is dangerous and for his own hidden agenda, Hashimoto decides to isolate him, but in doing so, they unknowingly unleashed the supernatural force in the other end of the silk strand, a much more powerful and ferocious energy to which the boy somehow seems connected.

Hashimoto and his team keep constant watch over him, observing his behavior and pondering why he has remained in this world instead of passing on. But their efforts fall short when they learn that even though its energy can be visibly seen, humans are unable to hear it. Attempting to turn up some clues concerning his identity and what relly happened to him, Hashimoto recruits a special agent from JCCU (Joint Crime Crackdown Unit), Ye Qi Dong (Chang Chen) who has extraordinary gifted eyesight, he can see the colors on the wing of a flying bird, and can read lips. Reluctant at first, Ye himself haunted by guilt, burdened with a mother in a coma and lack of desire to keep on living himself. He accepts the assignment, perhaps, to seek salvation from the ghost child may reveal about life and life after death.

This movie almost successfully combines science fiction, drama and horror, the first hour of the film is easily one of the most original horror premises of Asian cinema in a while. The idea to include the addition of a believable scientific element to a ghost story with well drawn out characters to pull us in, maybe seem as such strong idea. The story that makes all the characters could actively see the ghost, compel the director Chao Bin Su to come up with different way to scare the audience, out of the usual clichés of the randomly appearing ghost, and he really success with his way in the first half of the film. But in the last 30 minutes it seems that Chao loose his direction by letting the plot repeating again the Asian horror cliché tricks especially when the film introduces a long haired woman ghost. Silk’s DVD video transfer to anamorphic widescreen presentation looks fine, though, as usual Tartan Home Cinema Releases it isn’t progressively flagged. The sound in Mandarin DTS also terrific, bass kicks when necessary, sides and rears are used appropriately. Also you can hear all the creaks and whispers in much fuller sound.

Tartan put together some worthwhile special features in this D