 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: The Sadness (aka Ku bei) • Year: 2021 • Country: Taiwan • Director: Rob Jabbaz • Main cast: Regina Lei, Berant Zhu, Tzu-Chiang Wang, Wei-Hua Lan, Ying-Ru Chen • Runtime: 99 minutes • Production company: Machi Xcelsior Studios • TRAILER
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Many things have been said about The Sadness (2021). It is considered perhaps the most extreme movie of the season, a bloodbath of gore and perversion, and with that, I must agree. But is it one of the most extreme movies out there? No, it is not, not by far.
The premise makes lots of sense in the current moment we are living now, an instant catch. There is a pandemic out there and most of the population won’t take it seriously calling it a simple flu. Does that situation ring a bell? The difference between real life and the happenings in the movie is that their viral pandemic mutates fast and turns the infected ones into savage depraved beings. Close to zombies, but not really. Zombies are empty vessels with the only will to feed, nothing else. In The Sadness (2021), once you get infected, you get rid of any sort of control or social regulation and only breath to satisfy your most instinctive desires, no matter the nature of them. Whoever is a violent person will start murdering everyone who crosses their path, the sexual predators will rape without any remorse, and if you are suicidal… well, then bye-bye.
Canadian filmmaker Rob Jabbaz debuts as the writer and director of a feature film with The Sadness (2021). And he manages to imprint to the movie all the freshness and naïvety of a newcomer, but, at the same time, he delivers a solid work not many filmmakers with a wider experience do. Because the movie might have some continuity mistakes, and some camera moves could have been done better, but, in global terms, the film is very well executed. The story is simple but efficient, plus leaves a few questions unsolved for the audience to make up as they will, and the development of the action has its right pace. First a little characters and situation introduction and once we know all we need the action and gore stars and won’t end until the final credits start to roll.
Well acted, written, photographed, and directed, with attractive practical gore effects and with a frenetic pulse that gives no time for a rest, The Sadness (2021) doesn’t allow any complaint at all. The only reason why it won’t become an instant cult classic is that it doesn’t bring anything new to the scene. But, yet, nobody said this was supposed to be an original film, it is just a blast of bloody entertainment and that is more than accomplished.
With all that said, The Sadness (2021) is dirty and messy, has its moments of brutality, and the gore is abundant, but it the levels of perversion it can’t be compared with other pieces like Tom Six’s The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009) and its sequel The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011), Eli Roth’s Hostel (2005) and its sequel Hostel: Part II (2007), or Srdjan Spasojevic’s A Serbian Film (2010). The first decade of the new century was rich in controversial extreme movies but for some time now the horror scene has become very lame and tame. Perhaps The Sadness (2021) opens again the door for more brutal films to reach our theaters and festivals? I honestly hope so.
So, yes, The Sadness (2021) won’t surprise a true fan of extreme gory cinema, but it is still a solid and enjoyable movie; an hour and a half of entertainment with some outstanding moments that won’t disappoint. Truly enjoyable but it won’t change the history of cinema. Still, probably the goriest title of the year, so that makes it a must-see because sadly there is not much more out there to compare it with. And that is the true sadness for the horror fans.
RATE: 7/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt13872248
