Joan Chen to Lead New Thriller Film THE EVIL INSIDE

Joan Chen (Twin Peaks, The Last Emperor) is set to star in the gripping psychological thriller The Evil Inside, co-written and directed by Lingo Hseih. Production is currently underway with the producers set to introduce the film to buyers at the upcoming Marché du Film at Cannes. The Evil Inside marks Chen’s first collaboration with a Taiwanese film crew. 

Once a showbiz icon in Taiwan, HO JEN-JEN (Chen), better known as GOLDEN PHOENIX, vanished after RECKLESS gambling left her drowning in debt. She abandoned her young daughter, severing all ties. Years later, she collapses during a police raid and wakes up in a sinister nursing home. Beneath its eerie calm lurks “Death Bet,” a twisted game where terminal patients’ lifespans are gambled away. Desperate to escape and find her daughter, she soon realizes the true horror has yet to unfold, and the most harrowing secret is still waiting to be revealed.

The film is rooted in chilling real-life events that once shocked Taiwan. The film exposes a sinister operation in which the lives—and deaths—of terminally ill patients were used as stakes in an illegal gambling scheme, under the guise of compassion.

Award-winning Asian American actress and director Joan Chen, whose illustrious career spans both Asia and Hollywood, rose to international fame with her role as Empress Wanrong in The Last Emperor. She won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress for her performance in Red Rose, White Rose (1995) and The Home Song Stories (2007) and remains the only artist in the award’s history to have received honors for Best Actress, Best Scriptwriter and Best Director. Most recently, Chen was seen in Didi and The Wedding Banquet.  She will next be seen in Remarkably Bright Creatures for Netflix and Canadian film Montreal, Ma Belle distributed by Filmoption International.

Director Lingo Hsieh is a Taiwanese filmmaker known for her work in genre cinema. Her short film “The Evil Inside” was selected for the 2015 Cannes Short Film Corner and won Best Picture at Taiwan’s Golden Harvest Awards. Her feature debut, The Bride (2016), established her as a rising star in Taiwanese genre filmmaking. In 2019, she co-wrote and directed the Netflix original series Green Door, released globally in 190 countries.

The Evil Inside is produced by DaSun Pictures, a company committed to bridging Southeast Asian and North American markets through a strong international network of co-productions and investments. With a focus on elevating Taiwanese content on the global stage, DaSun continues to drive cross-border collaborations and position Taiwan’s creative industry for international growth.