Silk's team of ghostbusters (from left) Chen Po-Lin, Yosuke Eguchi, Chang Chen and Chang Chun Ning (seated).
He captures the vengeful spirit of a 13-year-old boy and hires police officer Zhitong (Chang Chen) and his girlfriend Jiawei (Karena Lam) to communicate with the ghost.
But while studying the spirit, Zhitong and Hashimoto's group of scientists unwittingly unleashes his even more fearsome power.
And when the boy goes on a killing spree, Zhitong has to race against time to stop him.
The juice: The movie is touted as the most expensive film ever made in Taiwan, costing about NT$200 million ($9.8m).
The Taiwanese government is apparently counting on Silk to revive the island's ailing film industry, and has generously pumped in NT$13m to fund director Su Chao Bin's project.
Karena Lam plays Chang Chen's girlfriend in this supernatural thriller.
This allowed him to assemble big names like Silver Berlin Bear winner composer Peter Kam, production designer Yohei Taneda (Kill Bill Vol 1), and make-up effects artists Paul Katte and Nick Nicolaou (The Matrix trilogy) for this ambitious undertaking.
His screenplay also won first prize from Taiwan's Department of Motion Pictures in 2004 for Outstanding Screenplay, and also the Best Professional Screenplay.
Silk premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year, but was screened out of competition.
Unfortunately, despite the money muscle, casting for Silk proved to be a snag in the otherwise smooth production.
The lead role of Zhitong was first turned down by award-winning actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai, then Takeshi Kaneshiro, both citing conflicts with prior filming commitments.
Leon Lai was later confirmed as the lead, but gave it up too because he was more keen on recording his new Mandarin album with music producer Jonathan Li.
He was replaced by Chang Chen.
Even the evergreen Yosuke was only second in line to play Hashimoto - The Last Samurai's Hiroyuki Sanada was said to be the original choice.
According to Epoch Times, Silk's assistant director Chang Han also happens to be the elder brother of Chang Chen.
It is the first time that the two brothers are working together on the same film. - Wendy Teo
SILK
STARRING: Yosuke Eguchi, Chang Chen, Barbie Hsu, Karena Lam
DIRECTOR: Su Chao Bin
RELEASE DATE: 12 Oct
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