Detention is a 2019 Taiwanese supernaturalpsychological horror film, based on the popular horror video game of same name developed by Red Candle Games from Taiwan. Set in 1962 during Taiwan's White Terror period, a boy and a girl are trapped alone at their hillside high school at midnight. While trying to escape and find their missing teacher, they encounter ghosts and the dark truth of their fate in the times of martial law. The film had been banned in mainland China, but enjoyed strong box office success in Taiwan and Hong Kong; the film was also selected in the official section of the 2020 International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Synopsis
In 1962, during Taiwan's White Terror, a final year middle school student named Fang Ray-shin falls in love with her teacher and counsellor, Chang Ming-Hui. Amid the growing problems she faces at both home and school, he becomes her only escape. The freedom-loving Chang is the organiser of a study group for banned books, along with fellow teacher Yin Tsui-han and second-year student Wei Chong-ting. Though the study group provides a place to breathe in a dangerous environment, its members risk death by participating. One day, Chang disappears without explanation, and only Ray-shin and Chong-ting seem to remember that he ever existed. The two join forces to find their missing teacher but soon find that the school is no longer the familiar world they recall. The building has become an alien land with ghosts and demons, and the two students will be forced to confront the truth of terror.
The film production rights were purchased on 21 June 2017 from Red Candle Games by 1 Production Film Co. The first film trailer was released on 19 June 2019. The film's budget was roughly NT$95 million. The story and game are inspired by true events, specifically the 1947. A portion of the film production took place in Kaohsiung. The film score featured a live orchestra of forty instrumentalists.
Awards and nominations
Reception
A review in the Taipei Times described the film as "likeable...chilling but not downright terrifying." Compared to the video game, Han Cheung opined that the film felt "simplified" and that it overemphasized its White Terror setting without focusing on the political background of the period. Director John Hsu stated that the film drew a younger audience than he expected. A review in Variety described the film as generally absorbing and entertaining, but noted problems with the narrative, pointing to 'a whiff of sexism in the treatment of naive, jealous schoolgirl Fang, while the underlying ickiness of the teacher-student love affair goes largely unmentioned'. Detention made NT$67.7 million three days after its premiere in Taiwan, becoming the third-highest take of first three-day gross for domestic film, behind the two-part film . It is the highest-grossing domestic film of 2019 in Taiwan; it also became one of the top five highest-grossing local films in Taiwan in the last decade. Following a boycott of the 56th Golden Horse Awards by Chinese filmmakers, Detention received twelve award nominations, the most of any film that year. However, due to the sensitive plot of the story, the film is banned in China, and mention of the film is scrubbed from all mainland Chinese websites. The film is referred to as "xx" in Chinese media's Golden Horse nomination reports. In Hong Kong, the release date was pushed back to December in order to avoiding association with the ongoing Hong Kong protests. The film received limited theatrical release on 5 December2019 in Hong Kong; the film grossed more than HK$11 million at Hong Kong box office, which was a very successful result for a limited theatrical release film.
