The Rope Curse 3 is a Taiwanese Netflix original film that follows the story of a man named Kuan-Yu who is struggling to figure out his identity as a parkour artist while being the son of a family of exorcists. With a runtime of 109 minutes, the film definitely comes across as a little bit boring and runs on quite a bit. The film takes place in the 7th month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, or “Ghost Month.” At the Meihuang Hotel, a sinister being is trying to take advantage of this month of the damned, and Kuan-Yu may be the only person who can save the day.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Film?
A man hangs himself at the Meihuang Hotel after his wife killed herself (in the same manner) and his baby died too. It appears as if he’s being haunted by some sort of evil spirit. On the other hand, in the 7th Lunar Month, a ritual is performed by some men who dress up as the savior Zhong Kui in order to keep the ghosts out in this volatile month. Kuan-Yu’s father is one such man, and he doesn’t want his son to be chosen for the same job. When Kuan-Yu was young and his father was performing the ritual, Kuan-Yu was supposed to look after his sister. She accidentally drowned when Kuan-Yu was distracted because he was trying to follow his father’s moves in the ritual. Kuan-Yu and his father both regret that day deeply, each blaming themselves. Kuan-Yu’s father is especially worried because Kuan-Yu chooses to perform the ritual with a modern twist and takes a video of it too in an attempt to become a famous parkour artist. This makes his father upset because if the spirits realize it’s not actually Zhong Kui performing the ritual, then they kill the actor. Kuan-Yu is the kind of person who doesn’t quite take these things seriously, though. Even the protection amulet his father tries to give him holds no value to him.
What Happens In The Meihuang Hotel?
Hostess Wan-Hua is shocked when she finds a man hanging from the ceiling of one of her rooms. When her friend visits, she’s terrified by the accident occurring in the ghost month, so she asks Kuan-Yu’s cameraman, her nephew, to come by to help her perform some purification rituals, and Kuan-Yu gets dragged along. It turns out that Wan-Hua had a son named Jiu-Jiu who accidentally died in a car accident. To make things worse, Wan-Hua was drunk driving, which led to her son’s death. Riddled with grief, Wan-Hua asked Jiu-Jiu’s godmother, a woman of black magic, to perform a ritual to bring her son’s spirit back to her. The godmother agrees, but gives Wan-Hua some rules to follow. Additionally, Jiu-Jiu would never be able to reincarnate if they went through with the ritual. Despite the consequences, Wan-Hua agrees because she’s so guilty for what she did to her son. Her son’s spirit then possesses Kuman Thong, a little baby idol that Wan-Hua started to worship. The idol starts to accept Wan-Hua’s offerings after a certain point, meaning Jiu-Jiu did answer her prayers. At a certain point, though, during the ghost month, a Thai evil spirit possessed Kuman Thong, replacing Jiu-Jiu. By this time, Wan-Hua has already acquainted herself with the thought of her son being in the idol of the deity, and when things take an eerie turn, she’s blind to it.
The Thai spirit demands meat, something that the godmother had warned Wan-Hua against giving Jiu-Jiu. This is when things start to get bad. The Thai ghost needs to kill seven people in order to fully descend to Earth, and it decides to use Wan-Hua and her hotel to do so. Wan-Hua started to kill people, and even when the hallucinations of her son started to show signs of something being terribly wrong, she didn’t stop following his commands. The man who hanged himself in the hotel was the first of the seven deaths. When Kuan-Yu performs the purification ritual, he breaks some of the rules that are meant to be followed during the 7th lunar month.
Kuan-Yu’s carelessness eventually leads to his father’s arrival at the hotel. Trying to protect his son, the man comes dressed as Zhong Kui. By this time, more people have died, including Kuan-Yu’s friend and cameraman, another thing he blames himself for (to be fair, it is his fault). His father offered Kuan-Yu some solace by telling him that his sister’s death was not Kuan-Yu’s fault but his father’s. They both realize they’re blaming themselves for an accident from a long time ago, leading to a strained relationship between them for the rest of their lives. Kuan-Yu starts to believe at this point, and his father gives him the protective amulet. Kuan-Yu calls out his father’s name in the middle of the performance, giving the evil spirits the idea that he’s not really Zhong Kui. Eventually, Kuan-Yu’s father too becomes one of the seven people the Thai spirit kills (yikes), leaving Kuan-Yu to defend himself.
The Thai spirit does attempt to kill Kuan-Yu too, but he’s saved by the amulet. The spirit lays out a vision for him where he can save his sister as an adult. Once he saves her, she tells him to “run away” because it’s the Thai spirit that’s made him feel like he’s saved her in order to distract him. We can imagine it’s the amulet protecting him, or since it’s the lunar month, it could actually be his sister telling him the truth, so he knows she doesn’t blame him. In the meantime, Wan-Hua notices Jiu-Jiu feeling unwell because of Kuan-Yu’s father’s rituals; she decides to take him to the godmother, who is killed by the evil spirit too.
How Does Kuan-Yu Win Against The Thai Spirit?
Eventually, Jia-Min, an avid believer and ritualist, shows up to help Kuan-Yu. Together, they find the six bodies and Jiu-Jiu. Wan-Hua tells them that she will do anything to keep her son alive, and she kills herself by putting a dagger through her own heart. She becomes the 7th death; the others include Kuan-Yu’s friend and father too, leaving him absolutely devastated. Kuan-Yu tries to destroy the Kuman Thong idol in order to end the suffering. Kuan-Yu’s father pays him a visit and shows him that he has the strength to defeat the demon by embodying Zhong Kui himself. With his blood, Kuan-Yu’s father paints his face in the same manner that they do in the dancing ritual. Kuan-Yu is sent into a different realm, where the strong demon takes a tangible form for Kuan-Yu to fight. He loses the amulet in the middle of the fighting, but his father’s strength and Jia-Min are with him. He follows the steps of the rituals and, with Jia-Min’s help, defeats the demon, using his parkour moves too (that was quite funny).
At the end of The Rope Curse 3, Kuan-Yu finds the balance between his traditional ways and his contemporary ideas. He figures out a way in which he can have a mix of both and still believe in everything his father taught him. Before he performs his new style of ritual, he gets a vision of his father and sister, making him realize that he’s going to be okay now and that they’re doing fine. He’s left with no guilt anymore, only the strength to do better. The Rope Curse 3 shows how tradition and modernity can be one when someone truly understands what they’re here for. Kuan-Yu was probably ashamed of being the “chosen one” because of his sister’s death. When he embraced his “gift,” he became a changed person and decided to take matters into his own hands.
What Is The Meaning Of The End-Credit Scene?
It looks like another one of these is on its way. The Rope Curse 3 has an end-credit scene that takes place in a small breakfast spot in Taiwan. A woman comes into work and finds her boss hanging in a similar manner to the first death in this film. There’s a spirit dressed in what looks like bridal attire waiting to attack her. The Rope Curse may return with a fourth part soon.
