Want more spider movies? Want spiders so bad you’ll marry Rachnera Arachnera?
Well, here’s one about a fricking giant water spider from Taiwanese director Joe Chien.
No, it doesn’t involve a crew of on a ship trying to romance off the storm and the aquatic creatures, they just have to survive the weather and these mysterious things that attack them from the water, with the help of Aije, who previously survived a boat disaster where a large shadow in the abyss pulled the entire vessel into the depths….
The opening is actually serious in tone and doesn’t really led you to believe this is a monster movie until the title drops, and still there’s more emphasis on the drama than you would wager, with the protagonist riddled by survivor’s guilt after the accident that took the lives of the rescue team he volentureed into, how his wife had dystocia when giving birth and he was not there, how his life have basically gone to shit… and it’s not bad, per sé, but you start wondering if you are watching a movie called “Mad Spider Sea” or a sea themed crime drama that just happens to be have giant water spider-crabs creatures appearing every now and then.
It’s a strange yet fairly common issue with these film, especially those ailing from China and Chinese-adjacent territory, as they either don’t invest much into the budget for the creature, or – like in this case – they do figured out there needs to be an actual plot to go along with the creature in order to even give a chance or time so the characters can be interesting…. but it’s also a giant spider movie and the creatures kinda need to be the focus of the narration.
Also, even with the extra focus on the characters, there’s nothing too amazing or notable about them, or the unfolding crime drama main sub-plot, and it kinda drags, so yes, i was ultimately wishing for the crab-spider thinghies to intervene a lot more as i’m not really invested in the plot repeating itself and taking time before the continously teased mutinee finally takes place, and no, i do not think this is a spoiler as it becomes very obvious early where things are headed, but for whatever reason we’ll keep circle strafing around it for more than it’s necessary to make the point.
I respect that it tries to use its time to also round out the antagonists and make them more relatable if not sympathetic, even if it doesn’t quite work, but still, it’s clearly not one of those from Mainland China that are basically some sort of Deep Blue Sea clones/knock-offs and are clearly engineered for streaming services, so they tend to be shorter in runtime, as this one is over 100 minutes long and actually released in theathers in its home country of Taiwan, there’s some ambition to it, and the creature effects are fairly good, definitely enought to qualify for a theathrical release.
It’s a decent film that sadly doesn’t quite hit the mark as either a crime drama thriller set at high sea neither as a creature feature flick, as the plot kinda drags on by the end (by the 1 hour mark i was surprised to notice there were still 40 minutes left to the thing, i’m gonna be absolutely frank about this) and the “cribers” themselves are in the film for so little it feels more like a tease than anything, especially as they look quite good, all things considered.
So it comes off as a bit undecisive, enjoyable and okay to kill some time, the acting is decent but it will leave you wishing it committed to either more monster horror action or better, less drawn-out criminal drama. Such is the (almost) inevitable result of compromising or – again – being indecisive about what you want your film to be.
Still worth a punt, since it can be easily seen for free on Youtube’s IQIYI movie channel subtitled.
Wise Cafe (International) 