Spirit World by Eric Khoo

[MOVIE REVIEW] Spirit World (feat. Catherine Deneuve, Yutaka Takenouchi, Masaaki Sakai)

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of souls and the afterlife, which is why I love stories with supernatural themes. So when I heard that the closing film for this year’s Busan International Film Festival was going to be a film by Singaporean director Eric Khoo, titled Spirit World, you can imagine my excitement!

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Despite grieving over her pet dog, world-renowned chanson singer Claire (played by Catherine Deneuve) travels to Tokyo for a concert, where Yuzo (played by Sakai Masaaki), her ardent fan who has never met her in person, is waiting. Unfortunately, he passes away a few days before the long-awaited concert, while listening to Claire’s vinyl at home. His son, Hayato (played by Takenouchi Yutaka), chances upon the concert ticket while sorting out his father’s belongings and decides to attend Claire’s concert in his father’s place. After the concert, however, Claire also suddenly passes away. Contrary to her belief that death was the end, Claire finds herself lingering in this world as a soul, which greatly bewilders her. Serendipitously, she meets Yuzo’s soul soon after, and despite the lingual barrier, they naturally understand and comfort each other. Together, they go on a journey with Hayato as he travels to meet his mother to return her surfboard, fulfilling his father’s last wish.

[WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD] 

I’m not sure how else to describe this movie other than being peaceful and quiet. While watching the film, there was just so much space for my mind to think and reflect on life (sounds strange but that was my experience) as I journeyed with the characters in this strange world. I grieved quietly with Hayato as he tried to wrap up his father’s life, I felt Claire’s confusion as a soul stuck lingering in a world that doesn’t even speak her language, I sat with Yuzo’s sadness and love for his son. I’m making this sound like a sad film but it really wasn’t. There just wasn’t a lot of dialogue in the film (which gave viewers like me a lot of space to think) and whenever there was dialogue, the words felt like a warm hug, filled with so much love.

Early on in the movie, Claire writes in her diary these lines which I loved so much I immediately jotted it down – “If death comes, let it be quick. Let it be so quiet you don’t even hear it coming.” I probably sound morbid, liking quotes about death, but don’t you think it sounds so beautiful? Death will come to us all anyway, but how lovely would it be if we could all just go peacefully. Which is exactly how death is portrayed in the film. Yuzo passes away while drinking and enjoying his idol’s music, and Claire passes away after having a few drinks at the bar… And just like that, their souls left their bodies, quietly.

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But of course death isn’t quiet for us all. While journeying to return the surfboard to Hayato’s mother, there’s a scene at the beach where Claire and Yuzo meets another soul who presumably died by suicide (or murder) because there’s evidence of strangulation on his neck (rope burns?). The soul laments that there seems to be no end, but Claire comforts him. I’ll need to rewatch this scene because I forgot what she said, but the scene reminded me of all the stories I’ve heard growing up (and you’ve probably seen in Asian horror) where if you die by suicide, you are doomed to repeat your death over and over and over again. I’m not sure if it’s the same for this soul and he really wants it to end. But I wonder if it’s actually our own guilt that keeps us stuck in this world as a soul?

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On a similar note, we later on see Hayato attempting to kill himself by walking into the sea, while Claire and Yuzo watch on helpless. I’m not entirely sure why Hayato suddenly decided he was tired of this world and this life. Up to that point, we see that he doesn’t seem to have much inspiration for his next creative work, and I guess he lives a lonely life. I think the reality of his life plus the alcohol just made him snap? Anyway, Claire keeps screaming out to him in desperation, but we see Yuzo just frozen. Then Hayato’s soul leaves his body and Claire hugs him tight and tells him he can’t die, please don’t die. And Yuzo just waves a goodbye to him. All this while, a passerby keeps performing CPR on him and thankfully resuscitated him. Not long after, we see that Claire is now completely by herself. I was a bit confused. So Yuzo has left this world too?

Anyway, those were some of the scenes in the film that left a huge impact on me, but if I were to keep going, I’ll end up narrating the whole film so I’ll stop here. Some of the things I really liked about the film, other than the dreamy imagery, the peaceful vibes, and the heartfelt dialogues, was the fact that Claire and Yuzo’s souls spoke in different languages but they understood each other. It’s like souls have an auto-translator, which was cute and comforting. In a way, I feel like that’s something I love about the Arts. We enjoy films and music in languages we don’t understand sometimes, but the feelings are somehow able to be conveyed to us despite the language barriers. Isn’t that beautiful? The music that was played in the film was in French which I only understood thanks to subtitles but it was so ethereal-sounding.

I hope this movie gets released in theatres so you can go watch it too! It’s a really comforting, peaceful, quiet movie – something I think the industry needs a lot more of. Speaking from the fatigue of watching too many action movies that are full of violence and crime…

This film was screened as the closing film of the 2024 Busan International Film Festival.

Credit for the photos: © L. Champoussin/M.I.Movies/Zhao Wei Films/KnockonWood/Wild Orange/Fourier Films

Check out the first part of our interview with director Eric Khoo and writer Edward Khoo here!

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