THE SADNESS (2021)

Taiwan. Direction: Rob Jabbaz. Production: Jeffrey Huang, Wei-Chun Lu, David Barker / Machi Xcelsior Studios. Screenplay: Rob Jabbaz. Photography: Jie-Li Bai. Music: Tzechar. Edition: Rob Jabbaz. Cast: Regina Lei, Berant Zhu, Ying-Ru Chen, Tzu-Chiang Wang, Lue-Keng Huang. Running time: 99 min.

LANGUAGE: Hokkien, Mandarin / SUBTITLES: Basque

This movie, written in the pandemic spring of 2020, shot in the pandemic summer of 2020 and edited in the pandemic autumn of 2020 by a Canadian guy whose cinematic roots lie in animation and special effects, soon demolishes our idea that cinema from Taiwan is Edward Yang's Yi yi (2000). Indeed it's not. Here we have the first gore, hyper gore, mega gore movie filmed where Ang Lee shot Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). In fact it's so gorishly gore that the magazine Rue Morgue considers it to be the most depraved and violent zombie movie made to date. Storyline? In the beginning they thought the virus was harmless, but it turns out it wasn't... The result? Train to Busan (2016) is kids' stuff by comparison.