Movie Review The Bridge Curse (2020)

 

The Bridge Curse (Original title: Nü gui qiao) | 2020 | 1h 28m
Genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller | Country: Chinese/Taiwan
Director: Lester His | Writers: Keng-Ming Chang, Po-Hsiang Hao
Cast: Ning Chang, Joe Hsieh, Cheng Ko, etc.
IMDb: 5.3
My Rate: 7/10

A reporter's investigation into the legendary curse of a bridge at a university, which has claimed the lives of a group of students, unveils a secret that shouldn't be known.

Warning:

Contains scenes of violence and strong language.

 

Synopsis of The Bridge Curse:

A reporter is assigned to cover and investigate a haunted bridge at a university. The bridge has claimed the lives of a group of students who were found dead four years ago. The investigation can only be conducted in that year because it coincides with February 29th, which only happens every four years.

De Chuan Ji (JC Lin) along with five other colleagues (Ru Meng, Hsin Chiao, Yu Ching, Song Guei, and Wen Yao) are tasked with holding a bonding night, like a dare, for the new students at their university. They decide to hold it at the abandoned bridge that has a legendary mystical story at the university. They are trying to make their university's story beat the mystical stories at other universities.

Wen Yao is assigned to be the one who does the dare, while the other colleagues are tasked with streaming and recording all the events. Wen Yao does something that shouldn't be done, which is counting the steps he climbs. If the 14th step, which is the ghostly step, appears, then a ghost will appear behind them. Also, they can't look back after climbing those steps.

What Wen Yao does makes his colleagues panic and try to stop him. However, Wen Yao suddenly disappears, causing everyone to panic. Especially since they also accidentally look back because of a sudden sound. However, they don't really believe in the legend and think it's all just a joke done by Wen Yao. While terror begins to follow them.

In his investigation, the reporter finds strange things and ends up uncovering a dangerous secret. What are they actually experiencing?

 

Review of The Bridge Curse:

This film tells a story inspired by the legend or myth of a haunted bridge at Tunghai University. The story is quite interesting, making this film also adapted into a video game. Adapting a legendary story into a film has its own difficulties because the story is definitely known by many people. So it takes more effort to meet the audience's expectations of the story.

The film opens with a quite mysterious scene. The introduction of the characters and other components in the film is done very uniquely and seems to be part of the film. There is a scene at the beginning that is repeated in the middle of the film. However, there are details that are missed, making it inconsistent.

The story begins with a group of students who stream a video of their activities. The streaming video becomes a sensation and becomes evidence of their disappearance after the incident. However, in the scenes shown on the streaming screen, some details are missing, such as the lack of a sign of the number of viewers, which should be an important thing.

Another detail that is also a concern is when they are streaming and experience a shocking event, Hsin Chiao's phone falls. However, the streaming video is suddenly uploaded and in the next scene at the dorm, Hsin Chiao is already holding the phone. While there is no scene where Hsin Chiao picks up the phone that fell. Maybe this is trivial, but it's considered quite important in the detail of the scene.

The flow used is a backward-forward flow. Viewers need to watch carefully to understand the storyline because there are unexpected twists. The presentation of the story is also quite interesting where in 3/4 of the film, viewers may feel like they already know the storyline and guess the ending. However, the ending turns out to be another unexpected twist that makes viewers have to put together the puzzles from the beginning of the story.

The legend used is about the number of steps that can magically increase. If someone climbs those stairs while counting the number and finds that the number increases, then the ghost is likely to appear. This legend is reminiscent of the film Whispering Coridor: Wishing Stair (2003), which also has the same legend.

The acting of the actors is not very special, but it's not bad either. This film has the potential to be further developed to enhance the horror presented in the film. Overall, this film is still worth watching and interesting. Especially for filmmakers who enjoy films based on mystical legends.

 

Memorable Scene:

Yu Ching and Hsin Chiao, who are staying alone in the dorm, try to escape from the ghost's pursuit and end up on the dorm's rooftop. With mixed emotions, Yu Ching immediately runs to find shelter. Especially after the door to the rooftop suddenly closes. While Hsin Chiao tries to stay calm and find a way out.

In this scene, Chiao Yuan-yuan's acting as Yu Ching is excellent. Out of all the scenes in this film, her expressions, attitude, and dialogue seem very real. The fear and frustration that are raging are conveyed well through the screen.

 

Memorable Dialogue:

"Are you sure you want to live on? It's a high price to pay."

 

Ending:

Shocking Ending

 

Recommendation:

Worth to Watch.

 

(Aluna)