#john hsu

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Dead Talents Society. (2024) Taiwanese Great Ghostly Comedy

2024 saw the Taiwanese ghostly comedy Dead Talents Society. This rather twee offering is great stuff. After the, also great, Joseph Mallozzi recommended the film to moi, I checked it out. It feels almost serendipitous that I streamed it the night before Halloween. Tis the season for all things ghostly, after all. Dead Talents Society Story Ghosts do not have things easy. To keep from being…

Dead Talents Society. (2024) Taiwanese Great Ghostly Comedy

[sloshed-cinema]

Dead Talents Society [鬼才之道] (2024)

Life’s a bitch and then you die. Except for the poor saps in the afterlife, the rat-race only continues from there. This horror comedy marries frustration at a system geared to beat down and exploit people to a campily macabre world of spooks, scares, and corporate ghost culture. Ghosts remain in some capacity so long as family members burn offerings to them, but as their memory fades, so does their ectoplasmic form. Want to stick around? Better get a permit to be a professional haunter, creating your own urban legends and making a name for yourself in infamy. If this sounds like a slick and glamorous Hollywood deathstyle, it’s more like a Ponzi scheme: pay a hefty annual fee to retain your license, or disappear at the behest of the showy, sinister Chairman. Some folks can make it big in this system, auditioning followers who are sold a bill of goods about making a name for themselves, but just end up as overworked doubles. The satire here is breezy and light in the touch, but the implications are existentially horrifying: there is literally no release from the shackles of corporate overworking and exploitation. Perform, perform, perform! If you’re passé, you’re dead meat to the higher ups. John Hsu weaves a thread of All About Eve in the rivalry between haughty newcomer Jessica and much lauded old star Catherine. She may be a legend, but Jessica has found a way to diversify her portfolio, using similar moves to the Chairman to make others her pawns in a global market. After a certain point, is it about the art, or is it about generating as much revenue as possible? One thing’s for sure: TikTok has ruined scares for good. How is any ghost supposed to play out the tension if the influencers these days just want to have everything work in 30 second clips?

Pressure comes from without—work, family—but it also has internal echo effects. The emotional core of Dead Talents Society comes in a newly minted pro who is haunted by a past of feeling inadequate in a family who pressured her to be successful in every aspect of her life. Literally killed by her older sister’s ambitions after a trophy shelf lands on top of her, the Rookie (You There) is pulled and pushed into greatness after a clip of her goes viral. But it’s not something that comes easily to her, and not something she really desires. There’s a gentleness to her and a softness that is allowed to expand in a James Gunn style found family of misfits. The old star, the guy who never quite made it in life now finding his footing, the rich friend, and the tech guy. The sight of everyone running in the same outfit, covered in blood and not giving a damn if the haunt is being video taped captures an anarchic refusal to participate in the system. Sure, they’re stuck in it, but they don’t have to give themselves over to it entirely. They’re here for each other, not the relentless climb up the corporate ladder.

THE RULES

SIP

Offerings are mentioned.

A ghost TV broadcast begins.

You There makes a wide-eyed goofy face.

BIG DRINK

A flashback to You There's mortal life begins.

A ghost is disappeared.

Someone gets the upper leg in the dual haunt event.

[stuff-diary]

Dead Talents Society

Movies watched in 2025

Dead Talents Society (2024, Taiwan)

Director: John Hsu

Writers: John Hsu & Tsai Kun Lin

Mini-review:

John Hsu impressed me a lot with his debut, Detention, a supernatural horror film that made great use of its historical setting. I've been looking forward to his second feature, and while this one leans much more towards a comedic tone, it's still a pretty solid effort. What stands out the most is the originality of its plot; these days it's pretty hard to make something so refreshing and creative. It's never as scary as a horror comedy should be, and the pacing could use some polishing, but it does have a lot of funny moments. It certainly helps that the cast is clearly having the time of their lives with these roles. All in all, Dead Talents Society is an entertaining horror comedy with originality to spare.

[dethkrypt]

DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY dir. john hsu (2024)

[dethkrypt]

DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY dir. john hsu (2024)

[screenzealots]

"Dead Talents Society"

An absurdly clever, refreshingly inventive blend of horror, comedy, and heartfelt drama that breathes new life into the ghost story genre.

Co-writer and director John Hsu’s “Dead Talents Society” is a refreshingly inventive blend of horror, comedy, and heartfelt drama that breathes new life into the ghost story genre. With its clever twist on traditional horror tropes and a vibrant exploration of East Asian folklore, the film emerges as a wildly inventive, imaginative, bloody, and fun celebration of both the supernatural and the…

"Dead Talents Society"

[filmonizirani-net]

Gui Cai Zhi Dao (2024)

Godina: 2024 / 鬼才之道 / Dead Talents Society Žanr: Komedija / Horor / Fantazija Režija: John Hsu Glavne uloge: Bo-lin Chen, Sandrine Pinna, Gingle Wang, Ching-i Pai, Soso Tseng, Di-Yang Huang, Lung Lung, Yi Ti Yao, Nina Ye … Radnja filma: Prati duhove koji žele postati najstrašnije urbane legende, i najuspješnije i najpoznatije zvijezde podzemlja kroz svoje taktike zastrašivanja i nastupe među…

Gui Cai Zhi Dao (2024)

[gokaiju]

返校 (Detention) (John Hsu, 2019) Cover for Spectrum Films by Gokaiju