History tells us China and Taiwan don’t get along so well. Even those of us who know why this is the case might not know some of the uglier details. Like, for instance, the White Terror, a period in Taiwan between 1947 and 1987 in which even a cat’s plaint better not sound too much like “Mao.” During this time, all free thinking was discouraged to the tune of death. Fascists aren’t very good at subtlety … just ask Capitol workers.
The scene is a Taiwanese high school in 1962. I forget the actual name of the institution, so I’m gonna call it Chiang Kai-shek High (home of the White Terriers!), a fairly average looking high school except for the armed military presence everywhere. Now, quite seriously, at this in Taiwan, any book that even hints at red from The Communist Manifesto to the beanie worn by Where’s Waldo? is a capital offense against a regime that has all the flexibility of Trump doing calisthenics. Naturally, the kids have a book club.
Now I’m just sayin’ here – if you’re gonna get put to death for high school rebellion, let it be for something better than Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, dig?
Fang Ray-shin (Gingle Wang, my favorite adult holiday song) has quite the colorful high school experience – part owner of the sedition book club, affair with a teacher, and I think she’s getting an “A” in Home-Wreck. Staying well into the evening, Fang finds her classmates gone, but the place ain’t empty. First, she’s haunted by visions, then she’s chased by a ten-foot tall faceless rage monster in a military uniform. It was at this point that I realized I wasn’t watching an episode of “Far East Beverly Hills 90210.”
The film has two effective villains. One is the police state the school folk live in; the second is the metaphorical representation of the
police state they live in. Unfortunately, the monster is really scary. And I say “unfortunately, because I think this film wanted to teach me something about subversion and fighting authoritarianism, but once you see the monster, you kinda forget this is a rebellion film.
Detention is a fairly ambitious movie, combining a love story with the very real horror of the White Terror period in Taiwan and a grotesque metaphorical monster representing the same. This film is a fiction based on the atmosphere of 1962 Taiwan, but I think an American remake would find a home as a dystopian look at what four more years of Trump would evolve into. You have a people paranoid about socialism quick to take up arms and –in certain parts of our country- devoted to militarism and fascist ideology. People who have absolutely no problem with putting their perceived opponents to death; yes, that’s exactly where Trump’s America was going. Don’t kid yourselves. And just because Trump lost doesn’t mean we’re done with this mentality … not by a long shot. I liked Detention more than I didn’t, but mostly I’d like to see what the American remake looks like.
Yo Principal, you and I got to talk
This new punishment is one great big crock
I have to stay after class
With Frankenstein on my ass?
It used to be we just cleaned up the chalk
Not Rated [read:R, scary], 102 Minutes
Director: John Hsu
Writer: Shih-Keng Chien Lyra Fu, John Hsu
Genre: Yet another lousy time and place to be a free thinker
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Taiwanese folks who lived through the White Terror
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Taiwanese folks who lived through the White Terror
