Much has been made in recent years regarding groundbreaking studies on disassociative identity disorder, or what was more commonly known in the past as multiple personality syndrome. Basically, it's where people are thought to have developed multiple personalities within themselves as a result of a need for survival or just as a result as their own mental capacities. The concept has been transported to films, most notably with M. Night Shyamalan's “Split”, and is now given a technological bent from director Aozaru's Shizo's “Plurality”, which arrives on digital platforms July 19th from Signature Entertainment.
After a bizarre bus accident, Ming Ze (Tony Yo-ming Yang) awakens from a coma to find himself under the care of Detective Wang (Frederick Lee) and Dr. Shen (Sandrine Pinna), workers at a government facility intending to ask him questions about the incident. During the questioning, he discovers that his mind now shares the consciousness of fellow passengers Wang Ting (Gingle Wan), Liao S (Chen Yi-wen) Lin Ziping (Liu Hsiu Fu), and Guang-Xuan (Chen Wei Liao) – all of them dead; all of them suspects in a serial kidnapping and murder case. To prove his own innocence, Ming evades arrest by the police and tries to track down the killer's only surviving victim. But in order to unmask the murderer's true identity, Ming must first fight the monster within himself.
For the most part, ”Plurality” is rather confusing to follow but still maintains enough of interest. The main gist of that is a storyline from writers Benjamin YLin, Tzu Yung Hung, and director Shiao that immediately interjects the viewer into this strange world without much preparation. The whole concept of using a prisoner as a host to upload the consciousness of deceased citizens after an accident in order to retrieve information and evidence that is crucial to their case is quite unique and clever. However, they don't make that concept imminently clear until way too late into the film to give us time to acclimate to this strange situation. Instead, the filmmakers insist on treating this as though it's a common everyday occurrence of involving prisoners as host bodies for these interrogations and completely skip out over the process of acquiring the perfect host, how they get inducted into the setup and what is expected as a result since these are important questions to answer. The only aspect that's clear is that they're needed to answer questions involving a child killer running loose in the city, snatching children with various birth defects which is all we really get out of the setup.
On top of this confusing narrative, “Plurality” is way too focused on other aspects rather than dishing out action, based on its setup. The impressive look of the scenes set within Ming's mind, featuring an elaborate maze of futuristic corridors, doorways, and dazzling color schemes, do nothing to add much to the film's coherency. Instead, they just end up feeling like add-ons from a different kind of film entirely. Rather than depict the struggle within himself to keep the various personalities inside him from taking over his own memories and experiences, they come off like weird arthouse showcase pieces, since he never interacts with anyone else inside. Moreover, rather than feature a sense of urgency at catching a maniacal killer running loose in the city, there's a focus on trying to keep his personality in order and how he's responding to the treatment for far too long before he eventually escapes, making this one feel quite sluggish in the first half as a result.
While “Plurality” might be confusing to think about, when dealing with the action on display, it's quite fun. The stuntwork for the opening bus crash is quite nice and opens the film up quite nicely like the rest of the action scenes. Featuring a tight, intense car chase to conclude his escape from the facility, a brutal hand-to-hand fistfight that has some brutality to add onto everything else, and a multi-layered finale full of revelations and brawling, it packs in some impressive sequences. The series of revelations about who's the actual figure in control of his actions and who was the killer all along, comes off quite surprising once it's all revealed. The last positive to enjoy here is the original turn in the story at the end, where despite several characters meeting a deadly end there's still a happy ending for the survivors. Given that the usual tactic is to offer up somebody losing out on a goal, the fact that this brings a cathartic end to everything is quite commendable.
Despite being confusing at times, sticking with “Plurality” will bring about some enjoyable aspects with the unique storyline containing some likable aspects and tons of action along the way. Give this a watch if you're a fan of the style of Sci/Fi/Action thrillers or intrigued by the setup at play, while only viewers that are turned off by the positives and want more of a straightforward action should heed caution.
