The real-life parallels of this Taiwanese shocker, the feature debut of the Canadian born, Taiwan based Rob Jabbaz, should be readily apparent from the following plot description: Jim and his attractive girlfriend Kat are living in Taiwan in the midst of a pandemic caused by the “Alvin” virus. Alvin’s symptoms are apparently no deadlier than a mild case of the flu, but it has the potential to mutate into something far deadlier—and apparently does, as upon leaving his apartment one morning Jim encounters an old woman splashing a man with boiling grease in a restaurant, and a guy stabbing another to death. Jim runs out, only to be confronted with a person jumping from a tall building and a murderous crowd.
Yes, this is a movie about a contagion that drives people mad. That’s a popular concept in horror fiction (see THE GAS, THE FOG, HATER, etc.), but one that (outside George Romero’s THE CRAZIES and a few others) has been comparatively little utilized in film. THE SADNESS (KU BEI), which was played the festival circuit in 2021, and was acquired the following year for streaming by Shudder, suggests the madness-plague trope is gaining popularity with filmmakers.
Yes, this is a movie about a contagion that drives people mad.
To continue: Kat rides a subway, where she’s harassed by a lecherous old man. It seems he has the Alvin mutation, as do the other passengers, who initiate a gory free-for-all. Kat and a wounded companion escape the subway, but are pursued through a tunnel by the old man. The gals make their way to a nearby hospital, where on a TV monitor they see China’s president go mad, followed by nearly all of the building’s doctors and patients. Then there’s the lecherous man, who’s followed Kat and her friend to the hospital, and continues his pursuit therein. Kat phones Jim and informs him of her location, to which he starts to head. But might he be one of the infected ones? Or, for that matter, might Kat?
…ultimately the film works best as, simply, a (much) gorier-than-average kill-fest
Many contemporary political issues are covered in THE SADNESS: pandemic jitters, sexual harassment, medical malpractice, random murder (“Did I break the record?” asks one character after killing several people), etc., but ultimately the film works best as, simply, a (much) gorier-than-average kill-fest. The bloodletting, which takes place more often than not amid large crowds, is well choreographed and impacting, and punctuated with subtly inserted jump cuts that enhance the kineticism.
Alas, the sense of realism is tempered by the fact that the actors are all ridiculously nonchalant (“Why is he doing this?” a bystander asks the heroine after an especially gruesome stabbing, to which she calmly responds “It’s over now. They caught him”), tending to look put out rather than horrified by all the bad behavior. That may have been intended as yet another political talking point—a critique of societal apathy, perhaps—but can be put down to bad acting. Substandard performances plague the film, with the lead actors Berant Zhu and Regina Lei being among the worst offenders; both are attractive (especially Lei, who spends much of the film in a miniskirt), but neither make for very compelling anchors.
The music by the Taiwanese pop duo Tzechar harkens back to an earlier era in its extremely noisy and aggressive accompaniment. In that sense it complements the work of Rob Jabbaz, who above all else favors excess—and it’s on that level, and that level only, that THE SADNESS works.
Vital Statistics
THE SADNESS (KU BEI)
Machi Xcelsior Studios
Director/Screenplay/Editing: Rob Jabbaz
Producers: Jeffrey Huang, David Barker, Wei-Chun Lu
Cinematography: Jie-Li Bai
Cast: Berant Zhu, Regina Lei, Johnny Wang, Apple Chen, Wei-Hua Lan, Ralf Chiu, Lue-Keng Huang, Emerson Tsai, Ying-Ru Chen, Tzu-Chang Wang, Chi-Min Chou, An-Long Cai, Chang-Han Liou