Ghost Month

For a guy who scoffs at the ghosts revered by so many of his fellow Taiwanese, droll everyman Jing-nan, a night-market food stall manager, ironically finds himself spending much of his time chasing one as he investigates the murder of his childhood sweetheart, Julia Huang, in this darkly comic thriller from Lin (One Red Bastard). Baffled by what the ambitious valedictorian of his Taipei high school class was doing as a skimpily clad “betel-nut beauty” hawking betel nut to truckers on a remote highway, much less by who would want to kill her, Jing-nan keeps asking questions, despite risks to his own safety. As he starts to uncover Julia’s explosive secrets with the help of their spunky former schoolmate, Nancy, Jing-nan finally faces the need to let go of the past in order to build a future, which one hopes will be revealed in a sequel. Agent: Kirby Kim, William Morris. (Aug.)