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Never heard of it before. Not a single review on IMDB. Saw that Dread Central gave it 4/5 stars. Gave it a shot. Fast paced, kept my attention, and I'd definitely recommend it. I needed to really pay attention and the movie was good enough that I didn't mind. It's not "Se7en" but it's absolutely worth a watch. While watching it I found that I stopped scrolling on my phone about 5 minutes in and never started up again all the way through. That's usually my personal test on whether I'd recommend a movie or not. If you liked Se7en, Gone Girl, or I Saw the Devil, then you should give this a watch.

The story is interesting and the plot pulls you in even though it's not exactly surprising in terms of who did what, to whom and why. This is, in the end, a pretty standard "whodunnit". Found the actors' portrayal of the characters quite good and ended up researching more of their work precisely because of it. I was a bit annoyed by how incompetent the main character came across at times but thought I'd give her the benefit of the doubt since she was going through emotional trauma and pain. That being said, her boss was way more patient than most would have been. The younger police officer was funny and charming so I enjoyed their adding her to the story for a bit of an edge.

The Abandoned didn't stand out in the list of possibilities. Its premise might call your attention if you are looking for a thriller, mainly because the premise feels serious, and the genre is the classic "who is the killer and why." Struggling to cope with the death of her partner, grieving deputy chief Wu Jie stumbles upon the work of a serial killer. Now she must solve the case before another girl gets killed.

The Abandoned follows classic mystery thriller elements, with some detective work and suspects. The climax is figuring out who is the killer and, of course, why he is the killer. It's your generic "whydunit" that The Abandoned executes well enough, entertaining if you want to watch a serious mystery thriller set on Taiwan.

The theme of dealing with loss of loved ones and betrayal are present throughout the movie. All relevant characters deal with some form of the theme, one believes one is guilty for one's loss, one believes one is right for standing his ground against one's loss, one believes one is right for murdering women that one believes are personifications of one's loss. Although the theme is present and strong during character development, the theme is not the focus; the focus is figuring out the serial killer.

The characters are variations of how one would deal with the theme. Main character Wu Jie is the character that feels she is responsible for her loss. Drama is real and effective as expected, but I felt that Wu Jie just abruptly embraces the case and her new partner Wei-shan. They didn't really share any relevant relationship, and Wu Jie, who in the beginning was reluctant about accepting hew new partner, out of the blue defends her, which feels a bit odd. The rest of her development is fine.

The interactions between the characters are alright. The dialogue feels believable, except for Wu Jie's sudden change from "I don't want to work anymore" to "let me work with Wei-shan and solve this case".

Police procedural is a bit absent in The Abandoned. Most of the investigation development happens in dialogue. Wu jei and Wei-shan figure out pieces of the puzzle and communicate.

The story takes place in suburban Taiwanese district. Nothing stands out in cinematography elements or in soundtrack: regular movie style.

Perhaps the only flaw in The Abandoned is that the list of suspects is small. Honestly, we get only three main suspects, which Wu Jei and Wei-shan dismisses quickly through detective work. When we get to the killer revelation, we feel a bit cheated.

The Abandoned does not reinvent the wheel. The story is purely entertainment.

Overall, The Abandoned is amusing for a quick mystery thriller entertainment. The movie does not raise any new factor or try to be innovative; it tries to tell a story to entertain, and it delivers alright.

A depressed policewoman (she is on the verge of suicide in the first shot of a film) investigates the murder of a young Thai woman whom she meets by chance. Other disappearances will follow. The bodies are mutilated. Is he a serial killer? She leads the investigation and manages to find out: it concerns a girl in an illegal situation in Taiwan; they arrive from Thailand. But some disappear and are found with missing organs.

Everything often takes place at night and often in the rain, in a dark, depressive atmosphere, very successful. Our investigator is not a superhero, and the Taiwanese police don't seem very efficient either. Janine Chun-Ning Chang carries the film and carries out the investigation with difficulty.

The film is a success in its genre. It maintains the viewer's attention until the culprit is identified and his confrontation with the policewoman.

This movie is such a frustrating one to watch. I don't know it's because the screenplay writer lack of real experience of the Taiwanese police systems, or the writer really knew they are poorly trained, just a bunch of incapable morons who always failed and unable to solve any case.

How could these so-called detectives deal with the daily violent and murderous cases in Taiwan, if they are actually so lame?

This movie showing how stupid and incapable of the Taiwanese police force has inevitably make me jump to another question: If these Taiwanese cop armed with weapons are so weak and stupid, how they deal with the CCP when they invade this island and the whole society in panic?

But I have to repeat my irresistable complaint to the general shortcoming and weakness of all the Taiwanese movies. The horrible unnatural dialogue further spoiled by the poor delivery of all the Taiwanese actors or actresses. It seems once they have memorized the dialogue, every word out of their mouth simply felt so fake or even exaggerated. There's actually no realistic feelings or emotions in their dialogue, but awkward, pretentious and unreal. No real people in their daily lives would speak or talk like them. The Taiwanese screenplay writers never know how the real people in Taiwan actually speak or in real conversation. Then further foiled up by the usually poor talented Taiwanese actors and actresses, they just don't know how to talk like real people. This is the major reason why I have to stop watching Taiwanese movies after a short period, simply by losing patience and always felt uncomfortable to sit through. Almost every Taiwanese movie gave me the same feeling and outcome. It seems that Taiwanese actors, like oil and water, who never could put their acting together naturally with their dialogue.

They could have toned down the frequency of those flashbacks, because there were too many and they literally ruined the movie for me, they were so inconsistent and at times unnecessary too breaking the flow of the movie. But yeah you can give this a shot and you might even love this because they have created a good dark atmosphere around the plot which is really captivating and it compliments the story well. You may find the central reason of the plot (as to why the killer is killing) to be too silly but yeah the atmosphere that was created and the acting overshadows it. If you're looking for a decent serial killer mystery this is worth looking into.

I hope Justin Timberlake can forgive - on the other hand, maybe someone else will have done something with this title/phrase by the time you read this - and I do not even have to worry about telling you no pun intended ... until then, let's stay and stick with the thriller at hand. That has the inciting incident .... you guessed it right: at a river.

So if you like crime thrillers this already has some bonus or brownie points (or whatever is more to your liking). I have seen better movies than this of course, but this is at least decent, nominations can be an indicator for that too. Well shot and acted, the movie has a good pace and is well worth a watch - for those interested in a murder (mystery) story, that may be a bit different (though no entirely unpredictable)

I was expecting a decent crime thriller but instead I got me some incompetent and plain stupid police and some rather unlikeable victims' circle type characters. The whole plot rests on people acting stupid and impulsively. And in all honesty in real life they probably would not have caught the guy and got themselves killed one way or another by the way they're carrying on. I do love a vigilante type of cop but that's a whole genre and you gotta do it right. The traumatized cop is also a genre of its own, but this is not it.

Anyway, the killer bothered me too, I did not buy the motivation, his origin story, the reason he became unhinged. It doesn't seem strong enough. He also gets too many lucky breaks, or like I said, the guys in pursuit are just plain dumb exposing themselves like that. It's just unimaginative writing. The visuals are good enough, the acting is decent, we just needed better characters and story. Give this to the Scandinavians, they'll make a masterpiece of noir thriller. I mean they probably already made this movie.

Was looking forward to watch this , especially after the reviews. Very disappointed. 2 female cops who over and over again make rookie mistakes, thin plot line , poor acting and impossible to connect with any of the characters. One of the worst crime movies I have seen this year

Police wherever in the world works by a certain protocol, to see how these 2 females go about a case is for sure incompetent at best , gross misconduct at worse. Just laughable to have in one movie 4 major mess ups caused by these women without consequences. I love Asian movies esp the Korean crime ones but pls skip this one.

Cha wu Ci xin ( The Abandoned) (2022) Taiwan movie review : THE ABANDONED on Netflix is a crime thriller from Taiwan (org. Title: Cha wu ci xin). This movie is a serial killer mystery and it is well made. I had seen it in original language with English subtitles. It is definitely worth to remake in other languages as it is character driven story of a police officer Wu Jie who is about to end her life on the New Year's eve, but is distracted in the last moment when the body of Thai woman is discovered by her with missing ring finger and heart. Wu Jie goes after the serial killer to live another day and thus finding her purpose to live. The movie held my interest from start to finish. Her newly assigned subordinate is a quick learner and does her bit quite well. Wu Jie reminded me my favourite character D. I. Kim Stone from Angela Morsons crime series, I need to get back to reading those books. In the end, one gets all the answers and a feeling of watching a good thriller. Janine Chun-Ning Chang is perfect playing the part of investigating officer who has been through personal trauma and pain, she is well supported by her subordinate Ca Wie-Shan played by bubbly Chloe Xiang. What I liked in end was Wu Jie gets to keep the dog of the bad guy. A dog is a dog, no matter what his owner is or was, right? I ended up liking this I had watched on the New Year's eve. My rating is 10/10. It has nudity as we Wu Jie has to deal with bodies and post morten. Highly recommended.

I am struggling here whether to give this movie a four star rating or five star, I know it maybe some new here in between.

I saw this Netflix last night after reading it was a way above average thriller which unfortunately was not true.

Now don't get me wrong, the film was good and I did enjoy it but the whole movie itself was tense enough for it to be very good.

Some of the scenes came across as comical when they were not meant to be, I think if the pace of the movie had been slower and more tension was out into some scenes then we would be talking about a six or seven star rating.

Overall worth a watch and then forget about it.

Cha wu ci xin (The Abandoned) was one of the movies that I was waiting to watch. I had high expectations from this movie but my expectations did not match after watching the movie's ending. I can tell you that it is a really good movie until the ending of it. Janine Chang is a really good actress and I think that she should appear in TV Series and movies of the West. Nevertheless, I cannot say the same for Chloe Xiang because she is really overacting and it is obvious. The atmosphere of this movie is a bit depressive and if you are suicidal, you should stay away from this movie. I give 5 points out of 10 for this one because of it's ending. It could be much much better if the movie had a different ending and less emphasis on suicidal tendencies.

This Taiwanese police procedural is a dull, lifeless film that simply goes through the motions without reaching any discernible high points.

It begins with the usual hook for this genre: a serial killer makes life hard for a depressed detective, who has to come to terms with herself while chasing the madman with the help of her rookie colleague. That would be fine if the plot presented at least a few fresh ingredients throughout the runtime, but it just settles into a predictable rut and never manages to lift above it.

I can't quite say this is a terrible film since it is competently shot and acted well enough, I guess. But the writing is unexceptional, and even pretty weak at times, given that a few scenes come across as comical when they were obviously meant to be serious. Absolutely no surprises or interesting character work are at store for the viewer, and I believe that won't cut it for many genre fans.

It is available on Netflix for anyone interested, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Wasted my time, I can do better! The film's chars are absolutly bored, and the action scene and char role do not make sence either. I dont event know what am I watching for?

But I also challenge the whole "critics as monolith" convention. Even on an aggregation site like Rotten Tomatoes, critics don't agree. You'd be hard pressed to find a movie as beloved as The Dark Knight, but it only has 94%. It is beloved by audiences, critics, and the industry, but 6% of critics say, "Don't bother! Not worth your time!" John Carter was a failure on every level and it still has 52% of critics saying it's good. Green Lantern was approved by 26% of critics.

Is This Really How Murder Investigations Are Handled in Taiwan?

The movie Cha wu ci xin - The Abandoned on Netflix is frustrating to sit through, mostly because the heroine is one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen. I get that she's supposed to be sad and depressed, but her decisions are so reckless and stupid that it's impossible to feel sorry for her. She constantly ignores protocol, tampers with evidence, and somehow manages to avoid any kind of suspension or investigation-even though her choices harm other people. Is this really how murder investigations are done in Taiwan???

What's even more ridiculous is how she tries to physically tackle suspects when she has absolutely no skills to back it up. She can't fight, she runs like she's in slow motion, and she even loses her gun to a civilian. On top of that, she decides to autopsy a corpse-a key piece of evidence-without anyone holding her accountable. None of this is believable.

If the filmmakers were trying to make her a cool, edgy character, they failed miserably. Instead, she just comes across as a sad, pitiful mess who's impossible to root for. Watching her stumble through one bad decision after another isn't dramatic or interesting-it's just exhausting. Honestly, the whole movie left me more annoyed than entertained.

It's a good start, but the story derails quickly. Just because you have good actors delivering dialogues slowly doesn't make it impactful. There are some twists, but many are easy to predict-especially if you have experience watching movies or reading stories. It's a mixed bag: a few good performances, a lot of overacting, and some moments that are just plain WTF. The film tries to say a lot, but the editing and music are below average. The director tried to tell the story from multiple angles but unfortunately failed to deliver it. This could have been a blockbuster if it were in better hands. If you are below 20 years old, you may like it other than that, just ignore it because you definitely have watched way many good and bad movies and this is not worth your time.

I can see how they were trying to make the rookie police officer be quirky so bad, but the thing is SHES NOT SUPPOSED TO. Why the department even allowing her be involved in an serious serial murder case?!? Whole movie is so not enjoyable. Only enjoyed yu sheng acting, the rest is so bad even the supposed main character.

Everything is so wrong, the standard operating procedures were just not there at all. If this movies were set in real life, she be dead the first time meeting anyone.

Im also so over seeing the random flashbacks of the hole on the car roof, because sometimes its just too much and the story doesnt add much to the storyline. Overall so stupid, wihtout yu sheng they wouldnt catch anyone why even bother make the main character a woman...