Dead Talents Society, hilarious supernatural comedy starring Gingle Wang

4/5 stars

Being dead isn’t easy. In Dead Talents Society, a new supernatural comedy from Taiwanese director John Hsu Han-chiang, the afterlife is every bit as competitive and unforgiving as the land of the living.

Spirits must prove themselves worthy of becoming ghosts through a rigorous selection process of auditions and contests, and avoid being condemned to eternal damnation.

For one newly deceased young woman, played by Gingle Wang and known only as The Rookie, this comes as quite a shock and is a far cry from the eternal rest she expected to find on the other side.

Hsu’s film is a supernatural screwball comedy about making a life for yourself in the Great Hereafter. After dying under uncertain circumstances, our heroine finds herself wandering listlessly through the Underworld with her best friend (Bai Bai) when she learns that her place on the ethereal plain is far from secure.

All the other ghosts have worked hard to hone their craft as a spectral menace, developing a nuanced character and terrifying technique while cultivating a formidable urban legend for their manifestation in the land of the living.

Those who fail to establish themselves as a ghost of merit within 30 days are permanently disintegrated.

The Rookie finds herself flung into a punishing audition process, overseen by a formidably unforgiving jury, to secure herself a haunting licence. Laughed off stage, all seems lost, until she is taken in by a compassionate band of misfits who haunt a dilapidated, rarely frequented hotel.

While rarely conjuring any genuine scares, Dead Talents Society is a wildly imaginative, frequently hilarious and shamelessly feel-good tale of teamwork, friendship, self-belief and finding your true purpose, where death is not the be all and end all, but just the first step towards living your best life.