Superb ensemble performance and editing makes this near-future-set film a heart-throbbing tear-jerker

actress_tw

"The Soul" is a bold adaptation from Chinese author Bo JIANG's science fiction novella from years ago. As a Sci-Fi thriller, the film skillfully turns the core concept of RNA memory gene duplication technology (from the writing piece) into a power engine that changes the fate of two families: One from LIANG Wen-Chao, the murder case's prosecutor unfortunately suffering from cancer, and A-Bao, LIANG's pregnant criminal police wife who is also involved in the investigation; the other from the tragically deceased medical group owner WANG Shi-Cong, his current wife LI Yan, his son and his ex-wife. Though it makes little sense for WANG's desperate ex-wife, a key bio-scientist at the medical group, to have indulged herself in the Oriental/Chinese wizardry as an escape from some unbearable truths of her life and killed herself, the film begins to gain momentum on its Sci-Fi track from about mid point and surprises us with more suspense and reversals till the end. If the intricate story based on the idea of soul-transfer or consciousness-transfer in the whole crime scene is far from being soulful, it at least exhibits how much soul-mates can and will do for each other, in the name of love. Superb ensemble performance (especially CHANG Chen, the main lead) and editing makes this near-future-and-Taipei-set film a heart-throbbing tear-jerker, which is a real breakthrough for the Chinese-language Sci-Fi films.

score 8/10

actress_tw 31 January 2021

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6548494/