The Menger Sponge is pretty darned handy. It can be used to create anti-gravity fields. It can be sprayed on film and be used for spirit photography (even though it's said in the movie to be an energy source, and how you can spray an energy source on film and not ruin it seems a tough nut to crack). It can apparently be used to augment or replace prosthetics. It's a human protein analog. And it can be used to keep a ghost captive in a crummy, abandoned apartment building.

Hashimoto has assembled an international team of scientists in said crummy, abandoned apartment building to study the anti-gravity capabilities of the Menger Sponge, and to study that captive ghost ... a sullen, creepy kid who sulks in the corner. (Menger Sponge eye drops let you see the spirit world, y'see. Get Visine on the phone!) He pulls strings with the government to have tough and sharp-eyed Taipei cop Tung (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Chen Chang) assigned to his team, because Tung can make out and notice things no one else can, and because he can read lips ... the ghost kid silently mouths things in his corner, and Hashimoto wants to know what he's saying.

But this ghost is no ordinary spook. At times he can get mad. And solid. And homicidal ...

Filmmaking by decoupage

Silk is a movie with as many applications as its MacGuffin anti-gravity, ghost-catching, Swiss army knife Menger Sponge. It's a science-fiction movie. It's a ghost movie. It's a family drama about moms and sons (actually, it's two family dramas about moms and sons, now that I think about it). There's a tight little cop drama in the early part of the movie, when we're introduced to Tung, that Michael Mann would have been proud to shoot. There's a "troubled scientist" subplot. And a little bit of a love story, between Tung and the pretty florist who delivers flowers to his sick mom. Problem is, none of these lumps of movie are put together very well. Chunky Rocky Road is good for ice cream. For movie plots, not so much.

The late, great writer Nigel Kneale, creator of the Quatermass movies, could take demented science fictional and supernatural premises and blend them seamlessly into thrillers that are still mind-blowing half a century after their creation—check out Quatermass and the Pit and The Stone Tape if you don't believe me. Richard Matheson did the same in his Hell House (which shares a lot in common with Silk). The problem with Silk is that writer/director Chao-Bin Su has come up with a bunch of premises, not a unified plot. Silk is filmmaking by decoupage, and the edges are really rough.

What saves Silk from getting a C or even a C- is that fact that some of the imagery dealing with the ghost is really, really freaky and nightmarish. How do you photograph a ghost in a way that hasn't been done before? When that ghost gets mad, and a little solid, Chao-Bin Su unleashes creepiness that looks like something out of surrealist paintings. Picture Magritte or Dali doing Bosch. It's pretty unnerving, as are the glimpses into the spirit world that the Menger Sponge eye drops afford. One of the ghost manifestations in a restaurant is flat-out stupid. But for the most part, the spook imagery is wicked disturbing.

Silk might be worth checking out on a rainy night, for those creepy images alone. Maybe if you use the Menger Sponge eye drops before watching it, the movie will seem a lot better, but I wouldn't bet on it.