"Hospital" (or 杏林醫院 for its Taiwanese title) had a lot of potential in terms of its scares and narrative. It definitely had a creepy antagonist but the disjointed and poorly-developed story and character arcs meant that you'll be dumb-founded more than scared throughout its running time.
An exorcist (Tai Bo) and his son (Austin Lin) leads two women to Xinglin Hospital to contact the dead spirits of their relatives. One of the women wants to seek her husband who died during a failed heart procedure wanting to tell a secret she wasn't able to tell him before his death. The other is seeking her sister's spirit who was a nurse at the hospital and committed suicide due to guilt, depression and stress. But the hospital is one of the most haunted places in Taiwan and when they accidentally contact a powerful evil spirit in the process, their lives are suddenly in serious danger. Can they find a way out of Xinglin Hospital before they are consumed by the evils within its walls?
It might have been a cultural misunderstanding but we just coulnd't get into the lore and mystical elements of "Hospital". It definitely had a unique take on how to contact spirits with the use of Yin and Yang concept but it seemed to be hastily put within its narrative. And that's basically the same sentiments we had for its overall writing. Crucially, everything in the film goes to waste due to its badly-developed story and characters. Certain characters just disappear for huge portions of the film or certain characters are suddenly turned into lead characters without any logical rhyme or reason. There's also this unnecessary inter-connectedness on its past and present story arcs that just didn't jive well togther. It certainly felt like it was put to make the story seem smarter but in fact it was too obvious and made everything even worse. The saving grace for the film was its cinematography and visual effects that turned out to be great. The film was able to make its hospital setting really feel creepy on-screen. The acting was also good but definitely nothing special. And the antagonist was certainly creepy especially the boy doll. But the problems for "Hospital" were just unforgivable and the bits and pieces that were good just don't make up for those huge setbacks.
Rating: 1 and a half reels
Why you should watch it:
- it definitely has that creepy vibe in check especially with the doll
Why you shouldn't watch it:
- the story is not only illogical but the story lacks any smooth progression or development
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