This is a complex, yet very creative film! It can best described as a combination of Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone and Vincenzo Natali's Haunter...with it's own original angle and a bizarre sci-fi twist.The basic premise centers around a group of international scientists, who are responsible for creating the "Menger Sponge": a sort of cube- made up of smaller cubes, made of human protein- that have the ability to capture and store electromagnetic energy...ultimately providing the user with anti-gravitational abilities (though, this has yet to be fully achieved). As, one must find a source for electromagnetic waves, in order to capture them.The group is led by a crippled Japanese man named Hashimoto- the first person to create a scaled up version of the Menger Sponge. The rest of his team come from various other parts of Asia...and they hire a Canadian photographer to travel around the world to search for ghosts.They do this, because Hashimoto believes that ghosts are made up of electromagnetic energy, and, thus, they can be trapped inside a large scale Menger Sponge and harnessed for anti-gravity uses.They eventually find a ghost in Taipei, and the Canadian photographer manages to "capture" him (using film coated with Menger Sponges)...but he doesn't make it out alive.So, they send for a Taiwanese special forces guy named Tung to be assigned to their case- for he possesses an uncanny ability to read lips and react in tense situations.Hashimoto wants to know who the boy is, how he died, where his body is, and what is the source of his energy- that allows him to kill people if they look directly into his eyes. And, thus, tasks Tung with the job of following the boy and uncovering this information.He successfully manages to achieve this, but it turns out that Hashimoto has some ulterior motives for wanting to know this. Having suffered from birth, he has always wanted to die. Thus, he seeks to understand the nature of ghosts, so that he can haunt when he is dead.But, Tung notices something else as well. A silk-like strand running from the boy to others. Others, who have become marked for death.According to Hashimoto, it is this silk that connects two energies together. Though, his theory as to how this works is mistaken. For, he believes the silk is indicative of the hatred held by the deceased individual.Meanwhile, Tung, is left trying to save himself, and the love of his life- who has become wrapped up in the whole affair- while Hashimoto seeks to trap the boy's ghost in the Menger Cube, for his own ends.Inevitably leading to the film's violent conclusion.When all is said and done, this is a pretty intriguing film that has all sorts of drama, mystery, haunts, and cool science fiction. For the most part, it's style is pretty culty. And the acting is fair. But what the hell is with that CGI...it's so poorly done...especially in that car crash scene- which is completely laughable, and overwhelmingly noticeable.That aside, however...this film has so much originality and creativity...that it just might renew your faith in modern ghost films.Wouldn't be surprised if Hollywood ended up remaking it.Recommended.7.5 out of 10.

This seems to be a sci-fi/ghost story mix-up. At the start of the film the plot seems very confused and it is a bit hard to actually understand what is going on and why.However, things improve once the main crew has been set-up properly in the film, and the action can start to take more of a single main track. The main characters are working on a new energy source that will revolutionize the world. This is somehow linked to the existence of a ghost boy in a locked room. Why and the exact role of the ghost is unclear and the main plot is to figure this out.The acting is generally pretty good, while this is plot slowly flows on - you definitely notice this is not an US film from the pace as it all has a kind of philosophical touch to it, contemplating the relation between a mother and her son as the story unfolds.All in all this is well worth watching, even if it isn't the paradigm changing film of the decade.

In Taipei, the crippled scientist Hashimoto (Yosuke Eguchi) uses his invention of "Menger Sponge" to capture the energy of the spirit of a child in an old building. He invites the specialist in reading lips, Detective Tung (Chen Chang), to join his research team that is studying the phenomenon to understand the movements of the lips of the ghost. Hashimoto is trying to disclose why the energy of the ghost does not dissipate, and Tung discovers the identity and the dramatic story of the boy. He was sick with tumors and was killed by his own mother and buried nearby a nuclear plant. Hashimoto deduces that the rage of the boy for his mother associated to the location where the body was buried were the reason to keep the energy. When the government decides to shutdown the research, Hashimoto becomes insane and takes the spirit with him."Guisi" is an original and dramatic ghost story with characters well developed and great special effects. However, the confused screenplay is weird and flawed in some moments, with an absolute lack of explanation for many situations. For example, how Hashimoto walks in the ceiling of the director's bedroom? Why the ghosts kill when the person looks in their eyes? Why the mother dies exactly when Tung reaches her room? There are many other situations without a satisfactory explanation, but it is worthwhile watching this film. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Silk - O Primeiro Espírito Capturado" ("Silk - The First Captured Spirit")Note: On 04 September 2015, I saw this film again.

Silk is a mishmash of science fiction and horror which doesn't work in either field. Some scientists have captured a ghost boy in a room and want to study it. They bring in a super soldier type guy to help them and he proceeds to investigate the history behind the boy's death. The special effects in the movie start out OK, but get progressively worse as the movie nears the end until eventually it gets more and more ridiculous with each death of another character. The capper is when a ghost lady comes out of a bowl of noodle soup. I find it hard to believe the director could think this scene was going to be scary or effective, what was he thinking. The science is only hinted at and is explained away in a cursory fashion, it would have been more interesting to expand on the strange science theme instead of going for typical cheap scares which is what the movie devolves to in the conclusion. The movie has a lot of unnecessary subplots that take away from the atmosphere which can't decide between horror or science fiction or philosophy and ends up being a confused patchwork that doesn't work or jell together. I thought the lead scientist character (he is on a quest to be a ghost) was played too cheesy and it was hard to take him seriously. Although this movie had some creative ideas it had too many drawbacks to rate it higher.