This week ICAF, Chennai (Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation) is hosting a Taiwanese film festival. As part of that, today’s first film screened was The Tenants Downstairs (2016). It was a well-made film, a black thriller, with a few scenes that were repulsive for me – loads of blood, the severing of body parts and the likes.
The story starts with a police investigation of a landlord (Chang Chia-chun) who has rented a few studio apartments to tenants. Leading an uninteresting life with no family, the landlord starts spying with cameras every aspect of the tenants. The tenants are a varied bunch comprising a widower with a young girl, a gym teacher, a gay couple, a crazy student who believes in teleportation and a young lady who happens to be a serial killer. All of them lead a routine life. To spice up, the landlord starts interfering in the tenants’ life without their knowledge and it quickly turns into a blood bath.
Though there are only a few characters and (almost) the entire film happening inside the same building, Director Adam Tsuei has given an engaging film. Check it out if you can digest the gory (though short) visuals.
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