The Abandoned

Action and drama each require their fair share of time and space in Tsen Ying's classically built thriller that combines well seasoned ingredients from here and there.

Divided in three acts (although announced so discretely that you just acknowledge the fact without thinking much about it), there are echoes from Diao Yinan's noirs "Black Coal, Thin Ice" (2014) and "The Wild Goose Lake" (2019), with much less thirst for blood.

There is generally a strong accent on the emotional suit of the film's protagonists. When the main plot gets interrupted to provide a deeper insight into Wu Jie's life, it delivers an explanation of her depressions caused by a heavy loss, and yet it doesn't slow down the film. There is hardly ever a quiet moment in Tseng's thriller about a madman who takes lives of immigrant women, cutting off their ring fingers and ripping hearts out of their chests.