"The Sadness" (2022) a Raven Banner Entertainment release of a Rob Jabbaz film. Starring: Berant Zhu, Regina Lei, Tzu-Chiang Wang, Emerson Tsai, Wei-Hua Lan, Ralf Chiu, Lue-Keng Huang, and
Ying-Ru Chen. Produced by Jeffrey Huang, David Barker, and Wei-Chun Lu. Written and Directed by Rob Jabbaz.
Heralded as a fresh take on the "Zombie" genre, Rob Jabbaz's "The Sadness" hits streaming on online services with a vengeance that seems almost as rabid as the film itself tries to be.
The basic premise is as with most other apocalyptic viral horror films. An outbreak of some virulent virus leads to a complete breakdown of society.
The film opens modestly with an almost boring and complacent relationship between Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lei) preparing for the work day. Their relationship seems comfortable if not really passionate. Jim drives Kat to the Train Station and drops her off, while he goes off to a little cafe.
It is here that the film casually shifts into second gear, and stays in second for the remainder of the film.
On the train, Kat is shyly approached by an older businessman (Tzu-Chiang Wang), who comments on her looks and youth. Kat rebuffs the advances, and feeling slightly embarrassed, moves away from the man.
It is at this moment that another passenger on the train is violently attacked. This escalates as one passenger after another either is attacking someone or being attacked. The violence here is over the top and gratuitous, foregoing the initial shock into becoming almost a parody of itself.
Kat is soon approached again by the Businessman, whose eyes have now gone completely black (a telltale sign of being infected). The businessman attacks Molly (Ying-Ru Chen), who is sitting next to Kat, stabbing her in the eye with his umbrella. As panic ensues, Kat drags Molly off the train and the two of them try to escape the encroaching madness.
All this takes place while Jim is attacked by his neighbor, and unable to reach Kat (who has lost her Cellphone in the mayhem) goes off on his scooter to find and rescue her.
That this film succeeds in being a disturbing and an engrossing display of bravura, it is not without being riff with disturbing misogyny. Those victims of the "plague" are driven to indulge their most based and violent desires. The film simply wallows in depravity and that old chestnut that violence and especially sexual violence are acceptable and a basic human nature. While an interesting idea conceptually, it is handled here as a mere spectacle with no corresponding denouncement or explanation. It simply "is what it is"!
The best performance comes from Tzu-Chiang Wang, as the Businessman. He approaches his performance with a nice nuanced turn of madness, that gradually increases as the film moves along.
That he remains cognizant of his actions and relishes in them, becomes much more frightening than anything else in the film.
There are a few parting bits of character development, but the performance by Berant Zhu and (especially) Regina Lei are so one-shot and bereft of development that they fair less well than the numerous examples of madness on display.
It's easy to make a film that is disturbing. Hell, that's been the case since the beginning of motion pictures, what with such desperate creatives as Dwain Esper, David DeFalco, Harry B. Parkinson, Hershel Gordon Lewis, and J. G. Patterson Jr. To name a few. But that is not a clique I think one should hold as aspirational.
A film can be depraved, disturbing, and yes even abhorrent. But if it carries with it a mirror on society or even a point of view that is worthy of discussion, we can evaluate it honestly.
"The Sadness" unfortunately, has all the insight and societal awareness of professional wrestling.
2 stars (and that's being forgiving).
Heralded as a fresh take on the "Zombie" genre, Rob Jabbaz's "The Sadness" hits streaming on online services with a vengeance that seems almost as rabid as the film itself tries to be.
The basic premise is as with most other apocalyptic viral horror films. An outbreak of some virulent virus leads to a complete breakdown of society.
The film opens modestly with an almost boring and complacent relationship between Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lei) preparing for the work day. Their relationship seems comfortable if not really passionate. Jim drives Kat to the Train Station and drops her off, while he goes off to a little cafe.
It is here that the film casually shifts into second gear, and stays in second for the remainder of the film.
On the train, Kat is shyly approached by an older businessman (Tzu-Chiang Wang), who comments on her looks and youth. Kat rebuffs the advances, and feeling slightly embarrassed, moves away from the man.
It is at this moment that another passenger on the train is violently attacked. This escalates as one passenger after another either is attacking someone or being attacked. The violence here is over the top and gratuitous, foregoing the initial shock into becoming almost a parody of itself.
Kat is soon approached again by the Businessman, whose eyes have now gone completely black (a telltale sign of being infected). The businessman attacks Molly (Ying-Ru Chen), who is sitting next to Kat, stabbing her in the eye with his umbrella. As panic ensues, Kat drags Molly off the train and the two of them try to escape the encroaching madness.
All this takes place while Jim is attacked by his neighbor, and unable to reach Kat (who has lost her Cellphone in the mayhem) goes off on his scooter to find and rescue her.
That this film succeeds in being a disturbing and an engrossing display of bravura, it is not without being riff with disturbing misogyny. Those victims of the "plague" are driven to indulge their most based and violent desires. The film simply wallows in depravity and that old chestnut that violence and especially sexual violence are acceptable and a basic human nature. While an interesting idea conceptually, it is handled here as a mere spectacle with no corresponding denouncement or explanation. It simply "is what it is"!
The best performance comes from Tzu-Chiang Wang, as the Businessman. He approaches his performance with a nice nuanced turn of madness, that gradually increases as the film moves along.
That he remains cognizant of his actions and relishes in them, becomes much more frightening than anything else in the film.
There are a few parting bits of character development, but the performance by Berant Zhu and (especially) Regina Lei are so one-shot and bereft of development that they fair less well than the numerous examples of madness on display.
It's easy to make a film that is disturbing. Hell, that's been the case since the beginning of motion pictures, what with such desperate creatives as Dwain Esper, David DeFalco, Harry B. Parkinson, Hershel Gordon Lewis, and J. G. Patterson Jr. To name a few. But that is not a clique I think one should hold as aspirational.
A film can be depraved, disturbing, and yes even abhorrent. But if it carries with it a mirror on society or even a point of view that is worthy of discussion, we can evaluate it honestly.
"The Sadness" unfortunately, has all the insight and societal awareness of professional wrestling.
2 stars (and that's being forgiving).
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