Hungry Ghosts cast on the TV milestone for Asian-Australians: ‘It’s almost like an alternate reality’
- New Australian TV series Hungry Ghosts marries themes of war and trauma with the East Asian festival of the same name
- Cast members Catherine Van-Davies, Jillian Nguyen and Hoa Xuande – three of the series’ more than 350 Asian-Australian actors – talk about their experience
When the clock struck midnight on August 19, the gates of hell opened for the first time in a year, according to an East Asian tradition. It’s at this time, during the seventh month of the lunar calendar, that restless spirits are said to be given a month-long pass to roam the Earth, sometimes haunting the living and seeking vengeance for any wrongdoings they suffered in life.
“Not all ghosts want revenge; some just want us to see them, to hear them, to remember them,” reads the narrator in the first episode of Hungry Ghosts, a new television series centred on the tradition which is observed in places including Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam and Japan.
Hungry Ghosts, a four-part television drama set in modern-day Melbourne, has been released in observance of this year’s festival and the 45th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Premiering on August 24, it is a supernatural-themed series spanning three generations of Vietnamese-Australians affected by war and trauma.
Backed by Screen Australia in association with Film Victoria, and produced by Matchbox Pictures, the show is now streaming on Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), and international distribution channels are being sought.
