IMDb RATING
6.6/10
4.2K
YOUR RATING
In 1962 Taiwan, student Fang and teacher Mr. Chang fall in love amidst the restrictive White Terror period banning sensitive books. Despite this, Mr. Chang secretly organizes a banned book s... Read allIn 1962 Taiwan, student Fang and teacher Mr. Chang fall in love amidst the restrictive White Terror period banning sensitive books. Despite this, Mr. Chang secretly organizes a banned book study group with fellow teacher and student.In 1962 Taiwan, student Fang and teacher Mr. Chang fall in love amidst the restrictive White Terror period banning sensitive books. Despite this, Mr. Chang secretly organizes a banned book study group with fellow teacher and student.
- Awards
- 13 wins & 20 nominations total
Jing-Hua Tseng
- Wei Chong-Ting
- (as Chin-Hua Tseng)
Pen-yu Chang
- Fang's Mother
- (as Jessie Chang)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
It perfactlly illustrated the society in the 60s in Taiwan. Most importantly, the government portraited in the film showed the value of democracy. People gone through all of the painful past only for a better world, the world with freedom. The film is categorized as a horror movie, it doesn't have a lot of jumping or sudden scenes that scares you. However, it's about Taiwanese's inner fear for the era that's full of pain and easily forgotten by people. The era can be known as Taiwan's darkest era, Detention, however, reminds Taiwanese their darkest era, which leads to the greatest fear within the society. The whole film is covered by horror, perhaps it's a little bit confusing, but the director used smart tricks to convey the horror to us. From all the elements above, Detention is an outstanding film, and it should be watched by all Taiwaneses. By the way, people should never forgot the painful history, it showed the greatness of the modern world, and for the people who sacrificed for the democracy nowadays, should be remembered forever.
One of my favorite movies, as a mainlander, this movie showed me a lot about Taiwan. The metaphors are quite impressive. A movie about love, freedom, hunger, fear, resistance, hope and redemption. I cried when the movie finished, the girl next me cried a lot.
It's a very smart try to make it a horror movie which grasp the core of political metaphors. This movie means a lot more than the acting skills or the use of frame, color etc. It's difficult to talk about it in mainland China but it doesn't mean that we don't know it or we don't care. Also if one day we could watch a feature which is more mature, it may be better.
The movie shows what Taiwan was like back when KMT government refused to give citizens the rights of freedom, as a Taiwanese I'm so grateful that Taiwan now is a liberal and democratic country, thank you "Detention" for showing me how precious freedom is.
There is novelty in the film Detention, it tries to be political, tries to be ideological and tries to be romantic. All of these elements are present and works, but the film is also messy and problematic, perhaps due to the film trying to stay loyal to the film. The film explores a fascinating piece of history in Taiwan that is not often talked about, but maybe if the setting could be done in a non-horror film format it would have worked better, because everything else is really good.
Did you know
- TriviaThe film is adapted from a video game by the same name created by Red Candle Games, a Taiwanese game developer. The same company has been involved in a political controversy surrounding alleged sacasm targeting Chinese president Xi Jinping in another horror game it created, /Devotion/ ("Huanyuan"). A proof of such allegation is an inconspicuous reference to Winnie the Pooh ("Xiaoxiong Weini"), an unwelcomed nickname for the Chinese leader, in the game, which is concealed in esoteric seal characters.
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Details
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $1,687,554
- Runtime1 hour 42 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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