Famed director Zhu Shilin tries his hand at a horror film! The beginning of The Living Corpse immediately sets the tone with a folk duet clearly inspired by the popular 1956 musical Songs of the Peach Blossom River . The duet, in addition to Zhu’s frequent use of long, empty shots and crisp editing, gives this horror film a traditional poetic charm and a strong folk flavor. Mise-en-scene and sound effects create a terrifying atmosphere, and successfully communicate the ghostliness of a world without ghosts. Gradually, the drug trafficking operation disguised as corpse driving, and the Taoist priest’s sanctimonious and mystifying behavior are exposed as hoaxes. What makes Zhu’s film stand out is its successful blending of sound and image to create an atmosphere both horrifying and folkloric.

*Post-screening talk with Shu Kei, in Cantonese