The Bride Who Has Returned from Hell-Genres & Themes-國家電影及視聽文化中心 Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute

地獄新娘
The Bride Who Has Returned from Hell

Directed : 辛奇 HSIN Chi

Opening : 2021-11-22 00:00:00 ~ 2028-12-31 23:55:00

Year : 1965

Color : 黑白

Length : 01:58:13

Production: Taiwan

Introduction

BEI Sui-Mi becomes the new tutor for the WANG family in a bid to secretly investigate the death of Mrs. WANG, her sister. She makes an effort to mend the father-daughter relationship between her niece and Mr. WANG, caring about the girl like a mother. After a series of hauntings occur in the house, Sui-Mi discovers her sister’s diary and comes close to the truth of her death. With the passage of time, Sui-Mi and Mr. WANG fall in love and decide to get married. But on the eve of their wedding, the killer materializes and is intent on seeing Sui-Mi dead.

The film is a localized adaptation of the Gothic romance novel Mistress of Mellyn. It’s aesthetically rich in expressionism, while the creative mise-en-scène showcases the quality of Taiwanese-language productions. Amid modern elements like suspense and murder, the story remains under a feudal construct. Though westernized on the outside, it is conventional on the inside, which creates mild but fascinating contradictions between the portrayal of modern women and the patriarchy which shadows them.

Director's Profile

Born in 1924, HSIN found his love for movies, literature and plays at a young age. After studying theater at Nihon University in Japan, he returned to Taiwan and became active in the theater movement. Though he temporarily left Taiwan following the February 28 Incident, he again returned as Taiwanese-language films were on the rise, during which he began to explore filmmaking. He organized actors’ workshops and became a screenwriter and director interested in experimenting with different subjects, styles and techniques. His most notable Taiwanese-language films include the baseball film Kiss Me (1963), Alias Lover (1965) based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a disaster film, The Night of Jiayi Earthquake (1964), and Back Street Life (1965), a satirical comedy about low lifes. Eight of HSIN’s Taiwanese-language films exist today and are currently preserved in Taiwan Film Institute.