Cha wu ci xin

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.

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.

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 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.