''The Bride'' () is a 2015

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese horror film directed by

Lingo Hsieh Lingo Hsieh (; born 13 June 1985) is a Taiwanese director and screenwriter. She is known for directing the horror film '' The Bride'', as well as the TV series ''Green Door'', starring Jam Hsiao. Career Hsieh directed her first short film in 20 ...

and starring Wu Kang-ren, Nikki Hsieh, Vera Yen, and Chie Tanaka. The film explores the local custom of ghost marriage, and it has been described as having restarted the local horror genre in Taiwan. The film was nominated for best narrative at the 18th

Taipei Film Festival The Taipei Film Festival (TFF; ) is a film festival promoted by the city of Taipei, Taiwan, through the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Taipei City Government. It was first held in 1998, from September 28 to October 5. Currently chaired by ...

in 2016.

Plot

Liu Cheng-Hao (Wu Kang-ren), producer of a supernatural tv show, is successful in both life and love: not only is work going smoothly, but him and his fiancee (Nikki Hsieh) live together happily. After Cheng-Hao picks up a strange

red envelope In East and Southeast Asian cultures, a red envelope, red packet or red pocket () is a monetary gift given during holidays or for special occasions such as a wedding, a graduation, or the birth of a baby. Although the red envelope was populari ...

in the park, however, he begins to have recurrent nightmares about an old house. Senior high school student Yin-Yin (Vera Yen) has had the Yin and Yang eye (); since she was little, she has been able to see things that are not really there. However, recently the monstrosities appearing before her have become increasingly severe. All clues point to the old house deep in the mountains that has been forgotten long ago.

Cast

* Wu Kang-ren as Liu Cheng-Hao (劉承皓) * Nikki Hsieh as Chen Yung-Chieh (陳永潔) * Vera Yen as Lin Yin-Yin (林茵茵) * Chie Tanaka as Wang Yi-Han (王依涵) * Andrew Chen as Chang Kai-Hsiang (張凱翔) * Ching-Hsia Chiang as Hsuan Chen (玄真) * Ikehata Reina as Nana (奈奈) * Iling Kao as Yin-Yin's mother * Lingyuan Kung as Kung Ling-Pao (孔令爆) * Chen-Lin Wang as Wang Chia-Hui (王佳惠) * Ning Chang as female ghost

Release

The film was released in Taiwan on 20 August 2015. It took

TWD The New Taiwan dollar (code: TWD; symbol: NT$, also abbreviated as NT) is the official currency of Taiwan. The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar, at a rate of 40,000 old dollars ...

16 million at the box office, taking over TWD 10 million in its first week.

Critical reception

Chang Che-Ming of ET Today praised the atmosphere of the film, but observed that, "every character's reason for existing seems to be only to move the plot along" thus "all emotional twists are too fleeting and unrealistic." James Mudge of Eastern Kicks gave the film 3.5 of 5 stars, praising Lingo Hsieh's direction and saying that while, "there’s nothing original or terribly creative here, most of the film’s twists and themes having been covered before, meaning that most viewers will spot the ending coming from very early on." He also cited the film's "culturally Taiwanese grounding" as providing a particularly creepy atmosphere.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bride, the 2015 films 2015 horror films Taiwanese horror films Taiwanese ghost films Films set in Taiwan Taiwanese-language films 2010s Mandarin-language films