The Sadness screens as part of the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival. For ticket and further into check out the Fantasia website.
Synopsis
In an alternate version of Taiwan, a rapidly spreading pandemic that the government has largely chosen to ignore suddenly mutates into a rabies-like affliction. The infected find themselves unable to control their id, acting on their every primal impulse. Limbs are torn, faces are peeled, everything becomes a weapon – or an orifice – and anything could happen. Anywhere. Everywhere. In the midst of escalating, city-wide ultra-violence, a young couple on opposite sides of town struggle to re-connect. And that’s all you need to know!
Review
Fantasia Festival has been home to a number of high profile Asian and world horror cinema for the past 25 years. Running the gamut of the genre from creepy fairytales right through to body horror. In my two years at the festival I’ve never seen a film as gory, or as fun, as writer/director Rob Jabbaz’s The Sadness.
Set in an alternate-China, the film finds a virus let loose amongst the populous turning them in to rage-filled zombies. The Sadness has much more in common with 28 Days Later than it does with say Dawn of the Dead. Mixing extreme gore with sharp wit, Jabbaz, has crafted a story which will turn the stomach but keep the viewer glued to the screen.
Before meeting Kat (Regina), our ultimate lead, we’re introduced to her boyfriend Jim (Berant Zhu). His day begins like any other, though eagled-eyed viewers will spot that all is not right. The Sadness cleverly spends enough time giving us an insight in to “normal” life before opening Pandora’s Box. But when the madness begins, it really kicks in to overdrive at an almost bewildering pace.
Throughout the first act The Sadness appears to be a road movie. I was cleverly lulled into a false sense of security and felt I had the rest of the narrative mapped out. We follow Jim as he makes his way towards the city in order to rescue Kat. Along the way he meets a number of obstacles, each more gory than the last. At first it feels like the typical journey of guy goes to rescue girlfriend during apocalyptic crisis. But The Sadness has plenty more tricks up its sleeve.
After a run in with a bunch of young infected on a basketball field the film transitions from Jim and picks up with Kat on her way home from work. It seems the city centre has yet to fall to the virus and so we get to watch chaos descend once again. A sequence on a monorail is the pinnacle of the film’s epic journey through infection. The enclosed space allows for a moment of true terror amongst the sprawling narrative and also serves to create one of the goriest sequences in the film. There’s no telling how many pints of special effects blood were used in the making of the science but it was only the first time that The Sadness left me nauseous.
But in amongst the extreme terror the film continues to provide comedic relief. Before the train outbreak begins Kat is dogged by a passenger who has been watching her from afar. An older man who makes unwanted sexual advances. After the outbreak, The Sadness unexpectedly slaps by amping up the creep factor by having him chase Kat and an injured passenger through the station. Yes, the infected of The Sadness retain much of their personality. Only now it’s amped up to an eleven by rage, murderous intent and apparently extreme arousal.
A threesome between infected patients in a hospital was perhaps the strangest moment I witnessed during any film at this year’s Fantasia. But it also represents Jabbaz’s intent to create something unlike any standard zombie horror. But I digress… The hospital setting brings plenty of unexpected moments as the narrative craziness escalates. The president of China has his head blown up by a grenade on live TV. There are infected babies and a potential explanation for the outbreak. The latter stages of the film are so densely packed with new scenarios that The Sadness (and the viewer) struggles to catch its breath.
An ambiguous, downbeat ending feels like the perfect place to wind up the story. Whilst Kat’s fate remains (quite literally) up in the air there’s a sense that The Sadness was asking bigger questions. Its commentary on the breakdown of society are easily reflective of the pandemic world we find ourselves in. With that in mind perhaps the film lands with even more clout because of it?
Verdict
The Sadness is not for the faint-hearted. The film pushes boundaries more than any other contemporary “zombie” movie. But make no mistake. It does so in order to tell the best story and not purely to turn the stomach of its viewers.
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