Green Door (3/5) – Netflix Series Review

Green Door is a new Netflix Horror Thriller Series from Taiwan. Season 1 is just 6 episodes which makes it a quick binge-watch. If you like Asian horror and thriller movies, then you should give this one a chance as well. Out on Netflix now!

Green Door is a new horror thriller series on Netflix. It’s from Taiwan and was created by Lingo Hsieh who seems destined to be one of the next great Asian horror creators. However, be warned, this series is more of a thriller horror-comedy.

Season 1 is just 6 episodes, so you can watch the entire season very quickly. You may not know any of the actors involved with this if you’re not familiar with Taiwanese movies or TV series. I certainly didn’t.

However, this just meant I had no idea what to expect. 

Like many horror fans, I do also love Japanese horror – even though I prefer the Korean style (both production and storytelling). and the creator of Green Door has started her career by working with the Japanese horror master, Takashige Ichise.

A series from Taiwan? Yes, it’s worth your time!

As a huge fan of Korean horror and thriller productions, I was definitely intrigued by this from just watching the trailer. This new Netflix show is a series from Taiwan, but the style feels familiar to many Korean productions.

Recommended reading: Check out our reviews of Korean movies and TV series here >

For Green Door, the great comparison to those Korean productions, I love, is the quirky humor and realistic fight scenes. From the very beginning, there’s an impressive fight which is every bit as clumsy and ridiculous as many fights seem to be in real life.

Also, the horror in Green Door is mostly related to ghosts and the supernatural. So this is not a horror production like those Japanese or Korean horror movies, you may know. If you expect this, then you’ll be pretty disappointed.

I personally ended up laughing so much that I almost forgot the official genres are horror and thriller. As stated earlier, this has more comedy than anything really scary. Though admittedly, some of the supernatural elements can be a bit creepy.

Two spirits in one body

The reason Green Door has a lot of comedy is because of a gender-bender element. The spirit of a small-time crook is trapped in the body of a woman working in a jewelry store. Or rather, they co-exist in the same body… except, she doesn’t know this at first.

Whenever the woman goes to sleep, the spirit of the man takes over. And he does not waste time having fun. This result in her getting into a lot of trouble but having no recollection of anything happening. Basically, she thinks she’s losing her mind.

Honestly, the reason to watch Green Door is the actress playing the woman who has the male “parasite” spirit. Her name is Ying-Xuan Hsieh and her performance in Green Door reminds me of Ellen Barkin in Switch (1991). One of my old favorite comedies!

Ying-Xuan Hsieh is the perfect comic relief and enough reason to watch this series. The horror elements – in the form of ghosts and supernatural elements – do increase, but nothing that would scare most horror fans.

Watch Green Door on Netflix

All six episodes in Season 1 of Green Door was directed and co-written by Lingo Hsieh. Three other writers also co-wrote the episodes: Wan-Ting Huang, Ting-ya Lee, and Fang-Yun Tsai.

Creator, Lingo Hsieh, was born in Taiwan in 1985 so she’s still a very young director. She wrote and directed two horror short films back in 2014 called The Bride and The Evil Inside. 

For her short film The Bride, she worked on the script with Japanese horror master, Takashige Ichise. He was involved with the making of iconic Japanese horror movies. These include movies such as Ringu (The Ring), Dark Water, Ju-on (The Grudge) and many more. Takashige Ichise worked on these movies as either a producer, writer or both. 

In 2015, Lingo Hsieh released her first feature film Shi yi (The Bride) which was based on elements from her 2014 short film of the same title. Clearly, she’s been focused on horror throughout her career and is definitely our kind of director. Even if Green Door isn’t that focused on horror including gore and scares.

With the Green Door series released on Netflix in 190 countries, Lingo Hsieh is now reaching a much larger audience. Hopefully, we’ll see more hardcore horror from her in the very near future!

Season 1 of Green Door was released on Netflix from March 16, 2019.

Details

Director: Lingo Hsieh
Stars: Jam Hsiao, Beahayden Kuo, Enno Cheng, Ying-Xuan Hsieh, Hsieh Ying-xuan, Jason King, Shen Hai Jung, Ruby Zhan, Lan Wei-Hua, Blue Lan

Plot

A troubled psychologist returns from the U.S. and sets up a clinic in Taiwan, where mysterious patients and uncanny events shed light on his murky past.