Time to party HARD!
There’s a strange virus outbreak in Taiwan that makes the infected furious and turned on. They want to have some fun and talk dirty while doing it. A couple tries to survive the virus outbreak, but they have to take the journey alone when they are separated. Will they meet each other again and live happily ever after? Or will they get skull-fu?
The Sadness has gotten a lot of praise. It’s a movie that feels like a mix of The Crazies (1973), Hellraiser, 28 Days Later, and a small universe created by John Carpenter.
So why have so many talked about this movie? Well, the concept is that the infected can still talk, and some of the infected in The Sadness have some personality. Not all of them feel the same. Some of them stand out from the rest of the infected. Especially, the old man with the umbrella. He’s the character that will make you smile and laugh.
Do you remember the line from Full Metal Jacket when the sergeant tells one character that he’s going to gouge out his eyeballs and skull-fu him? Well, I have great news for you! The old man does that to a woman with style!
What the movie was missing was a sexually aroused woman character. It would have been cool if a sexually aroused, ugly woman from hell followed the boyfriend. It didn’t feel right that it was just the girlfriend who was getting chased by the old, creepy man. There’s one scene with some men and women having sex, but I think they were all infected. I’m not sure, but the virologist guy says something that the infected just are out to have fun and torture innocent people who aren’t infected. Maybe I missed something, but I didn’t understand that scene completely. It seemed to me that they were all infected and had sex. So that should have turned them off since there’s no resistance? Did the movie break its own rule?
The Sadness has tons of blood and some gory scenes. But I feel and wish it could have offered more gore and energy. The practical effects are good, and I don’t think they used much CGI to replace the practical effects under the gory scenes. So that’s great!
The couple we are supposed to root for isn’t that well-written or interesting. So I never cared about what would happen to them. This is first and foremost a movie that focuses on the atmosphere, tension, and gore. But to use the word tension doesn’t feel quite right. It’s easy to read what will happen next, and which characters will die, for the most part. The ending was harder to read with the girlfriend. But other than that, the plot is predictable from start to finish.
The Sadness is a fun movie to watch. It could have shown more nasty things, but it’s still a fun movie to watch with friends. The Sadness is a fun ride. You will smile and laugh! If you are not laughing while watching this movie, I will give you a red card and skull-fu you! I just need to buy an umbrella first!