Saturday, 1st February 2020

The Ghost Bride
Drama 彼岸之嫁 / The Ghost Bride
Country Taiwan, Malaysia
Director Quek Shiochuan, Ho Yuhang
Writer Kai-yu Wu, Yasmin Yaacob, Dan Hamamura
Released 23rd January 2020
Cast Huang Peijia, Wu Kangjen, Ludi Lin, Kuang Tian
Details 6 episodes
Themes Fantasy, mystery
Links Netflix

A six part series about poor Pan Li Lan who becomes enmeshed with the dead son of a rich family in 1890s Malacca. This dead son Lim Tian Ching from a Chinese Buddhist netherworld interferes in the world of the living, and coerces Pan Li Lan to investigate his murder. She eventually finds herself in the netherworld too, forced to be a ghost bride. Will she able to return to the land of the living?

The setting is very much traditional Chinese beliefs, where mediums can contact the spirit world, where good people get reincarnated and the bad people get judged, where being filial is very important. It is well produced and acted, the relatively short length for a TV drama helps maintain the tension. The costumes are rich, particularly in the netherworld segments. The ending may be a little anachronistic, but acceptable.

Very watchable, and keeps moving.