SilentPanda

Member
Nov 6, 2017
14,280
Earth
"Detention," a school-set thriller-horror sited during Taiwan's martial law or White Terror period, was Sunday named as best narrative feature at the Taipei Film Award, the closing event of the Taipei Film Festival.

The film, adapted from a Red Candle video game, also claimed the best actress, best art design, best visual effects and best sound design awards. The jury called the film "courageous" for making a stand at this time. International and regional political relations are simmering in Asia following the coronavirus outbreak, power grabs by authoritarian leaders, and the introduction of the National Security Law in Hong Kong. The jury described "Detention" as "a significant work to history and film history in Taiwan."

Last year it was the top grossing film of 2019 at the Taiwan box office and scooped five prizes at the Golden Horse Awards. It was been banned in mainland China, both for its political subject matter and because a one of Red Candle's earlier video games contained an in-game poster that appeared to make fun of Chinese president Xi Jinping.

variety.com

‘Detention’ Wins Top Awards at Taipei Film Festival

Politically-sensitive 'Detention' wins top awards at the Taipei Film Festival, which was one of the first to be held with live audiences.

Some of the other film sound interesting too

The Best Documentary award was given to Wu Hui-ling (吳蕙伶) on behalf of her elder sister Wu Yu-ying (吳郁瑩), who directed The Good Daughter (阿紫), a film about the staggering account of a Vietnamese immigrant who faces a dilemma in trying to support her disabled husband and her family in Vietnam.

The film focuses on the marginalized community and records the challenges people at the edge of society face, the jury said.

Lo Chen-wen (羅晨文) accepted the award for Best Short Film for directing the 16-minute In This Land We're Briefly Ghosts (幽魂之境).

Based on a true story, the movie follows 12-year-old soldier Su Su Myat and her mute brother, who are imprisoned after deserting their unit. Denied food and water, Su Su Myat is forced to choose between killing her ill brother or risking dying with him.

www.taipeitimes.com

‘Detention’ wins big at Taipei Film Awards - Taipei Times

Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan
 

Pet

More helpful than the IRS
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,070
SoCal
Have the game and read every single review on the film I could.

It sounds cool, but I'll never watch it as I'm not into horror. That being said, it's nice to see more media covering a period of time in Taiwanese history that sometimes gets whitewashed.
 

Gwenpoolshark

Member
Jan 5, 2018
4,109
The Pool
What's funny is that the game originally was a huge hit in Mainland China because it criticized the KMT's White Terror. It was only after their follow up game that they got trouble with the party.
 

Deleted member 60295

User requested account closure
Banned
Sep 28, 2019
1,489
Wait a minute, I just realized.... is this the first truly great movie adaptation of a video game? Holy shit.
 

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
38,956
Ibis Island
Wonder if this might end up like Parasite if it ever comes to the west, you know when theaters and all that aren't dangerous
 

Messofanego

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,599
UK
Did the Detention game ever resurface to be back for playing? Awesome to hear the adaptation be so well received, would love to see it.
 

Pyccko

"This guy are sick"
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,884
looks dope, if it ever gets a US release I'm down. the game was too scary for me, but movies are easier
 

LiK

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,210
This game was a small lil indie horror game. Surprised it got a movie!
 

Failburger

Banned
Dec 3, 2018
2,455
The game has a console release?! Omg I need to buy it there! Devotion was one of the best game I've played and it got robbed. This studio deserves all the support they can get.
 

Doggg

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Nov 17, 2017
14,640
I just played this on Switch the other day. It's a well made horror game. It does make me want to see the film, although I'd worry that playing the game gives too much of the film away.
 

deepFlaw

Knights of Favonius World Tour '21
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,557
Sorry to bump a somewhat old thread, and maybe this merits a new thread too. But I thought anyone who posted may be interested to learn this - I happened to notice it's included in the New York Asian Film Festival. You can pay to stream it through the 12th, though unfortunately it appears you'll have to watch it through an iOS/Android app; the App Store reviews mention that you can get it onto a TV through the app, but it may be picky about what it'll work with.

...I really liked the game, but may be too much of a wimp to watch horror movies. So hopefully some of you watch and enjoy it for me, hah.

EDIT: Also, looks like it'll be $8 to rent for 24 hours going by NYAFF's site.
 
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Skulldead

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,482
Visualy it look gorgious, not feeling the story from the trailer, thing are less confusing in the real movie ?
 

Officer K

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
413
Sorry to bump a somewhat old thread, and maybe this merits a new thread too. But I thought anyone who posted may be interested to learn this - I happened to notice it's included in the New York Asian Film Festival. You can pay to stream it through the 12th, though unfortunately it appears you'll have to watch it through an iOS/Android app; the App Store reviews mention that you can get it onto a TV through the app, but it may be picky about what it'll work with.

...I really liked the game, but may be too much of a wimp to watch horror movies. So hopefully some of you watch and enjoy it for me, hah.

EDIT: Also, looks like it'll be $8 to rent for 24 hours going by NYAFF's site.
Shame it's US only. Seems like there is no other way to watch this film.
 

deepFlaw

Knights of Favonius World Tour '21
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,557
Shame it's US only. Seems like there is no other way to watch this film.

Hopefully it gets distributed more broadly sometime soon; since it seems this is just a way of handling this year's film festival (usually these would all exclusively be normal in-person screenings in New York City), the legal agreements for streaming the movies are probably a little slapped together? Seems like some of the other films are even only available if you live in NY specifically, so anywhere else in the US is out of luck too for those.

But of course... unfortunately these screenings don't always mean that there'll be official releases coming anyway, even for the US. I saw a screening of the Ace Attorney movie through NYAFF back when that came out, then that never got an official US release at all let alone many other countries. Just Germany and Australia IIRC. Hopefully this isn't like that...
 

Gin & Phonics

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
1,130
Sorry for the bump, but for those who are interested, it looks like this is starting to pop up in some theaters in the US. I'm probably gonna try to catch it at the Laemmele in Los Angeles.