This week ICAF is hosting a Taiwanese Film Festival at Russian Centre of Science and Culture, Chennai.
The first film I saw today was Partners in Crime (2014) aka Gong fan directed by Jung-chi Chang. It is about the depression and loneliness faced by students in Taiwanese schools, told in an engaging thriller format.
One day, “Huang”, a senior school student returning home, notices a young girl “Chia” in a pool of blood, it appears she has fallen from the balcony above. Huang is soon joined by two other boys “Lin” & “Yeh” from the same school. Police arrive soon and handle the rest with the victim’s mother. There is no suspicion on the 3 boys as all of them were unknown to each other and to the dead girl before the incident. The boys are sent to the school’s counsellor who offers little help to the boys who are confused about what has happened and why?. The boys get curious on the case, they start asking around about Chia and soon find themselves inside the apartment of Chia where they see her diary. Huang gets convinced that Chia didn’t commit suicide but there is someone else involved in her death.
The boys get curious on the case, they start asking around about Chia and soon find themselves inside the apartment of Chia where they see her diary. Huang gets convinced that Chia didn’t commit suicide but there is someone else involved in her death. While investigating the case, suddenly Huang dies by drowning when all three of them take a swim in the lake behind their school. Lin and Yeh are now left to solve the mystery and the questioning by Huang’s sister on the reasons for Huang’s accident.
The 3 boys as school students have done their roles finely, aptly cast by the Director. This is not a crime film or a supernatural story yet the Director keeps us engaged throughout, maintaining the suspense pretty well.
