“Ghosted”

A Mysterious Lesbian Love Story

Amos Lassen

Filmed in Hamburg and Taipei, “Ghosted” tells the story of Sophie Schmitt (Inga Busch), an artist in Hamburg who is trying to understand the murder of her Taiwanese lover, Ai-ling (Huan-Ru Ke). One of the ways that she uses to get over the murder is to create a video commerative which she takes to Taipei. She takes it to Taipei and while there she meets Mei-li (Ting-Ting Lu), a journalist. Because she is still grieving, she rejects Mei-li’s advances and returns to Germany.

Sophie is attracted to the woman but nor yet ready to get involved with anyone. Surprisingly, Mei-li arrives in Hamburg and Sophie cannot deny the attraction she feels and receives Mei-li but she begins to suspect that there is something strange going on. Mei-li is abusive with Sophie’s trust and this puts Sophie on the defensive and she begins to investigate, She discovers that no one named Mei-li Wang came to Germany and no one by that name worked for a Taiwanese news service.

The film is the work of Monika Treut and this is her first film in ten years that is not a documentary. Her direction is amazing as are the performances of the three women. I found myself totally engrossed in the film from start to finish.

A German-Taiwan co-production about border-crossing artists and lovers, and the border-crossing ghosts they leave behind, Ghosted is a strange little film. It is weirdly fascinating because it presents a Taipei we’ve never seen before. There’s a magical coldness to it that’s very Central or Eastern European. Sophie is haunted by the spirit of a dead Taiwanese lover, and the fact that the film begins and ends with close-ups of local ghost rituals, might suggest that Ghosted sees Taiwan mostly as backward or superstitious.

I must admit that even though the story is a bit far-fetched, I found it interesting and to me this is a visually beautiful film to watch