TAIWANESE thriller The Abandoned is a beautifully crafted noir with a classic Nouvelle Vague sensibility.
This edgy serial killer mystery is exquisitely shot and owes more to the work of François Truffaut and his unbound, ritualistically inventive approach to French cinema than the masters of Southeast Asian crime films such as Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, and Hou Hsiao-Hsien.
Directed by Ying-Ting Tseng, The Abandoned, new to Netflix, proves a thrilling game of cat and mouse that is not afraid to tackle social issues that deal with the marginalised in Taiwanese society. It particularly deals with the plight of migrant workers, who make up an estimated three per cent of the population of the western Pacific Ocean island, 160km off the coast of southeastern China.
Slow-paced and masterful, each frame is a work of art, and those seeking quick thrills and blood will be sorely disappointed. The Abandoned is a dark thriller with huge emotional intensity, and is more arthouse than bog-standard Hollywood crime caper.
The story opens on New Year’s Eve, during a spectacular display of fireworks, as grieving detective Wu Jie (Janine Chun-Ning Chang) sits alone in her car with a pistol in hand and despairing thoughts on her mind. She is shook abruptly from her dark plans after witnessing a commotion outside that demands her urgent attention.
Wu Jie is struggling day to day following the death by suicide of her husband, but after being lead to a bloated female corpse, which has intruded on her longing for solace in the darkness, she must gather herself and solve the case.
The victim, a migrant worker from Thailand, is missing her ring finger and her heart, confirming that what initially looked like a tragic accident is actually evidence of a gruesome murder.
Distressed detective Wu Jie must put her personal feelings to one side, brace herself, and, together with her rookie cop partner (Chloe Xiang), go after the elusive killer who is specifically targeting young migrant women. As the number of missing women mounts, the pressure rises and the clock ticks down to a torturous yet refreshingly cathartic ending.
(4/5)
