EXCLUSIVE: Methika Jiranorraphat and Rhydian Vaughan have joined the cast of Lester Hsi’s Taiwanese horror Phantom, for which Singapore-based Mokster Films handles world sales.
Methika, also known as Jane Yeh, is a Thailand-born Taiwanese rising star who starred in series Mad Unicorn, which reached fourth place at Netflix’s non-English language TV series global chart. She was also in recent Thai GL series Love Design. Phantom is her first Taiwanese project and first film production outside Thailand.
The film marks the first horror for Taiwan-based Vaughan, last year’s best actor winner in a TV mini-series at the Golden Bell Awards for The Cleaner. His feature film roles include Monga and Girlfriend, Boyfriend.
Drawing on Taoist mysticism for a reimagining of The Invisible Man, the Mandarin-language Phantom focuses on a social worker whose routine home visit spirals into a series of unsettling events as an unseen presence closes in. Director Hsi said, “Unlike other invisibility stories, this isn’t about gaining a superpower. We treat invisibility as an affliction.”
Mokster Films launched the sales campaign at last year’s Cannes and closed the theatrical deals across seven Southeast Asian territories, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. It is one of the titles that the Singapore company will be promoting at the upcoming EFM.
The film’s international creative team sees Hsi also producing alongside Fiona Hu of D-Day Pictures and Nelson Mok of Mokster Films. Korean creative producer Song Jin-Sun serves as script consultant. The cast also includes Hsueh-Feng Lu, Jin Yun and Darren Chiu.
Principal photography began yesterday (January 11) in Taipei and is scheduled to wrap ahead of the lunar new year. It is set for theatrical release in 2027.
Director Hsi’s feature debut The Bridge Curse was a box office hit in 2020, followed by the sequel The Bridge Curse: Ritual and the culinary action drama series Gourmet Affairs.
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