Chen Bolin
Makoto
Dead Talents Society
“Do you know what the best thing about being dead is?”
2024
1h 50m
Director: John Hsu
Overview
When ghosts must compete to survive in the underworld by haunting the living, one unassuming young woman needs help creating a lasting performance while under the tutelage of a passionate agent and a washed-up diva.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
4 min readGhosts with Resumés
I’ve seen this trick before: a film takes the afterlife and turns it into a workplace comedy. Beetlejuice did it with bureaucracy, Coco with music, and now Dead Talents Society gives us the underworld as a cutthroat talent agency. But here’s the twist—this isn’t just about ghosts trying to scare the living. It’s about ghosts who need to brand themselves, to go viral in the most literal sense, or risk fading into oblivion.
And in 2024, when even the dead can’t escape the algorithm, that feels less like satire and more like prophecy.
John Hsu’s film follows a rookie ghost, played by Gingle Wang, who’s been given a grim ultimatum: become a terrifying urban legend within a set time, or be erased from existence. Her mentors? A washed-up diva (Sandrine Pinna) and a former idol-turned-talent-agent (Chen Bolin), both of whom are as desperate to stay relevant as she is.
The premise is absurd, but the film’s real genius lies in how it uses that absurdity to ask a question that’s uncomfortably familiar: What happens when your worth is tied to how much attention you can command?
Hsu, who previously directed the politically charged horror Detention, has swapped historical trauma for something more contemporary: the existential dread of being forgotten. Dead Talents Society isn’t just a comedy about ghosts; it’s a comedy about the performative nature of modern life, where even death doesn’t free you from the pressure to curate your image. The film’s afterlife is a neon-drenched nightmare of influencer culture, complete with ghostly "haunting licenses," performance reviews, and a leaderboard for the most terrifying specters. It’s The Devil Wears Prada meets Monsters, Inc., if Meryl Streep were a ghost and the monsters were all trying to land a sponsorship deal with a haunted house Airbnb.
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsInside Dead Talents Society: The Taiwanese Horror-Comedy Blending Ghosts and Showbiz
John Hsu’s Dead Talents Society (2024) is already turning heads—not just for its genre-bending mix of horror and comedy, but for its playful twist on the afterlife. The Taiwanese film, which hit theaters in June, reimagines the underworld as a cutthroat entertainment industry where ghosts compete to become the most legendary (and terrifying) urban legends. Think The Devil Wears Prada meets Beetlejuice, latestnetflix.com argues, with a distinctly Taiwanese flair.
A Ghostly Talent Show
The premise is as inventive as it is macabre. According to snippets from IMDb and MyDramaList, Dead Talents Society follows a group of ghosts who linger in the mortal realm by honing their scare tactics and performances 
. Their goal? To climb the ranks of the underworld’s celebrity hierarchy, where fame is measured in screams rather than likes. The film’s Chinese title, 鬼才之道 (Guǐ Cái Zhī Dào, roughly "The Way of Ghostly Talents"), hints at its satirical edge—ghosts as aspiring influencers, but with more poltergeists and fewer sponsorship deals.
Hsu, known for his work on Detention (2019), a critically acclaimed horror-drama, seems to be leaning into a lighter, more comedic tone this time around. The blend of horror and comedy isn’t new to Taiwanese cinema, but Dead Talents Society’s meta approach—ghosts treating haunting like a craft—feels fresh. The film’s runtime clocks in at 1 hour and 50 minutes, a tight window for its supernatural shenanigans .
The Cast: Familiar Faces in Unfamiliar Roles
The ensemble cast reads like a who’s who of Taiwanese talent. Chen Bolin, a veteran of both arthouse and commercial films, leads the pack, though details about his character remain scarce. Sandrine Pinna, a frequent collaborator with Hsu, joins him alongside rising stars like Gingle Wang (The Soul, 2021) and Eleven Yao (The Falls, 2021) .
Notably, the cast includes Bai Jing-yi (credited as Bai Bai in some sources) and Soso Tseng, both of whom have built careers in Taiwanese dramas and films. The inclusion of Lin He-hsuan, Huang Di-yang, Milia Luo, and Peace Yang rounds out the roster, though their roles are still under wraps . Given the film’s premise, it’s safe to assume these actors are playing ghosts with big ambitions—and even bigger egos.
Behind the Scenes: Hsu’s Vision and the Challenges of Horror-Comedy
Horror-comedy is a tricky balance, and Hsu’s previous work suggests he’s up for the challenge. Detention, his 2019 film, was a dark, psychological horror rooted in Taiwan’s White Terror era, earning praise for its atmospheric tension. Dead Talents Society appears to be a tonal departure, embracing camp and satire instead of dread .
The film’s production details are thin, but its release date—June 28, 2024—places it squarely in Taiwan’s summer movie season, a time when local studios often roll out crowd-pleasing genre films. Whether Dead Talents Society will resonate with audiences beyond Taiwan remains to be seen, but its premise has already sparked curiosity among horror fans looking for something offbeat.
**What’s Next for Dead Talents Society?**
As of now, there’s no word on international distribution or streaming plans, but the film’s unique hook could make it a festival darling. If it lands a spot at events like Fantastic Fest or the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, it might find a global audience eager for fresh takes on supernatural storytelling.
For now, Taiwanese moviegoers are the first to experience Hsu’s ghostly talent show. Whether these spirits will haunt the box office—or just the meme pages—is anyone’s guess.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.