A huge hit in its native Taiwan, director John Hsu's
Detention is adapted from a video game, which was itself based
on true events.
Set amid Taiwan's repressive White Terror era of the early 1960s, the film
is set in a secondary school where a rebellious professor teaches his
students about banned works of literature. One day a student wakes to find
her professor has vanished and the school has morphed into a nightmarish
distortion of its previous self.
The film stars Gingle Wang, Fu Meng-po, Tseng Ching-hua, Cecilia Choi and
Hung Chang Chu.
Detention is in US cinemas from October 8th. A UK/ROI
release has yet to be announced.
Check out the trailer and poster below.
The official synopsis reads:
1962 Taiwan, during the time of the White Terror. Martial law is in full force across the country. In a time of extreme repression, all ideas considered to be dissident are banned, and the culprits are tortured or executed.
Tsuihua Secondary School is not an exception from this oppression. Despite close surveillance by the military police, Professor Chang (Fu Meng-Po) runs an underground literary club where he and his students learn about banned books and dream of freedom. One of his club members, Fang (Gingle Wang, in a Golden Horse-nominated performance) is madly in love with him. The usually shy teenage girl from an abusive home manages to open up like a book in his presence.
But then, Chang disappears...
One night, Fang wakes up at her desk, the school around her changed and distorted. As she wanders through the sinister corridors and dilapidated rooms in search of her teacher, she meets Wei (Tse Jing-Hua). Together, they must confront the ghosts and monsters that have taken over their alma mater in order to find out what has happened there.
