Review | The Invisible Guest Movie Review: Chinese Remake Of Hit Spanish Murder Mystery Is Painfully Incomprehensible
1/5 star
Closed-room murder is a classic of the detective genre practiced by titans of industry such as Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, and Sessie Yokamizu. Everyone is fascinated by the seemingly impossible solution to a crime committed in a confined space with no way out.
Chen's film raises expectations even further by combining locked room settings with the style of The Usual Suspects . But when they do, it becomes so complicated and crowded that it can stifle the audience.
Continuing one of the nastier trends in modern Chinese cinema, The Invisible Stranger is set in an isolated Southeast Asian country beyond the reach of the Chinese justice system.
There, the poor are constantly exploited, the rich are irrevocably corrupt, and the local law enforcement are cunning and clever, but fortunately the main characters can speak fluent Chinese when the narrative demands it.
In the Spanish version, Juana (Jan Chan Chun Ning) has had a gender change: a wealthy young bride into an influential local businessman.
Joanna is charged with murder after police find her with a bloody knife next to the body of her lover Minghao (Yin Zheng) in a locked hotel room.
She claims that the two were attacked by a mysterious assailant, who apparently disappeared from the scene without a trace.
With the police still hours away from writing a report that could incriminate Joan, Detective Cheng Wei (Greg Hsu-Kuan Han) gives her two hours to secretly present her version of events and convince her of her innocence.
Joanna's story, told in several flashbacks, almost immediately plunges Minghao into another murder, before revealing some shocking revelations.
While Paolo's film exhibits an elegant audacity that allows the audience to appreciate the film's comedic plot, even as the characters continue to act unconventionally, Chen asks us to embrace this hybrid of melodramatic techniques wholeheartedly.
The result is a frustrating, incomprehensible dance of absurdity, created by repeated errors that equate narrative incoherence with genuine ambiguity.
