Detention is a film that has garnered a lot of attention. This is mainly due to the fact that it has been banned in Mainland China due to its heavily political subject matter. The story is set in Taiwan during the year 1962, which was at the height of White Terror. This period of martial law lasted for thirty-eight years and fifty-seven days, and saw many Taiwanese citizens imprisoned or executed for their real, or perceived, opposition to the Kuomintang (KMT / Chinese Nationalist Party) government. Detention doesn’t address this conflict on a mass scale, but instead hones in on the year 1962 and focuses on a group of students. Several of them, along with two of their teachers, are running an illegal book club during which they make copies of all the great works of literature that the KMT are seeking to eradicate. One of the students, Wei Chong-Ting (Jing-Hua Tseng), awakens to find himself in school after hours alongside classmate Fang Ray-Shin (Gingle Wang). As they wander the deserted halls, they find themselves terrorised my nightmarish creatures as they try to uncover the truth as to what happened to the rest of Wei’s resistance group.
Given the highly political nature of Detention, it’s surprising to note that it’s actually based on the 2017 horror video game of the same name. Upon discovering this anecdote though, Detention begins to make a lot of sense, as it does at times, feel like watching a video game cut scene. This is especially true of the instances of horror; director John Hsu crafts a lush anxiety-inducing dreamscape for all manner of nightmare fodder to roam. He’s very subtle at working the fantasy world into the real world, almost insidiously infecting each frame, leading to surprise and scares as monstrous things appear out of the dark. This assured handling of the blending the two worlds highlights Hsu as one to watch, and also, should anyone wish to make another Silent Hill film (also based on a video game), Hsu is most definitely the filmmaker of choice. There’s a wonderfully creepy atmosphere created that lingers long into the ‘less scary’ moments.
The ‘less scary’ moments are only less so as they are free from giant monsters. They are still very much scenes to be afraid of however, as the oppression placed upon the people is suffocating, and as is often the case, fact is much more frightening that fiction. We may feel hard done by having been made to stay indoors for a few months in order to keep us all safe from a virus, but here people spent decades of their lives terrified that the slightest little thing, such as having the wrong book in your bag, would single you out as a traitor to the state and that you would then be subjected to all manner of unpleasant things. We often see films that deal with the Nazi occupation of various countries, but it’s rare to see a film that dares to deal with Taiwan’s murky past.
The narrative jumps around the timeline a lot; this serves to heighten the intrigue and keep the story propelling at a reasonable pace. It also offers little respite from all the horrible things happening everywhere. At times though, the to-and-fro does get a little tedious, but for the most part it works. There are many layers to the story, and as each is pulled back, the viewer gets a stronger sense of what is happening. This most certainly stems from the source material, with there being almost definite parts of the film that must coincide with the ending of a gaming section. This method of storytelling potentially plays better in the gaming world as some of the layers aren’t that hard to see through, and therefore some of the big revelations don’t land with quite the impact that they could.
Overall, Detention is an interesting study of a country’s dark past, told through the medium of fantasy horror so as to sweeten the bitter pill of truth hiding within. With such well executed sequences, especially those that take place in the fantasy portion of the film, we cannot wait to see what John Hsu delivers next. Fingers crossed that’s a new Silent Hill film.
Detention was reviewed at Fantasia 2020.
Detention
Summary
The campaign for John Hsu to direct a new Silent Hill film starts here. Wonderfully and creepily crafted horror segments elevate what is, at heart a political drama, to new heights.
