Hellbound Village (Tết Ở Làng Địa Ngục) - First Season

ALL STORYLINES AND IMAGES IN THIS WORK ARE FICTITIOUS.

ANY SIMILARITIES ARE COINCIDENTAL.

Do you know who I am?

ADAPTED FROM THE PERIOD HORROR NOVEL BY THAO TRANG

IN THE LAST EPISODE

Don't leave me, my darling!

- Calm down, Mr. Tam! - I must kill him!

- Mr. Tam. - You scum.

These past few days, my skin has grown red.

It's prickly all day, unbearably so.

Wait up, I'll be back now.

The dead aren't scary.

The living are.

What's all the fucking staring for?

Because...

What the hell else should my eyes do?

Day in day out, you are drunk.

Then you come home to beat me up.

You torture me.

It's not like my staring could do a damn thing!

If you...

know that...

then why the fuck are you ranting?

Why do I rant?

Because I'm at my fucking limit!

You look...

My belly already sticks out past my face.

And yet everything in this house,

I'm still the only one tending to it!

As for you?

You only sell a few pigs.

And then go get wasted, get silly with your friends.

Who, by the way, are losers and assholes!

Shut up!

What my friends are like

is their damn business.

Speak one more word,

I'll smack your teeth out.

No need to roar at this bitch.

It's already a daily thing that you hurt or abuse me.

Your threats...

Keep them coming, I'm not afraid.

You slut!

Today...

I'll kill you!

Do it if you think you can.

Go ahead. Kill your kid too.

Here, your kid. Stab right here!

You. You're daring me?

- Everyone, help! - You!

- Tu... My husband is killing me! - Stop now!

Where are you off to?

- Tu! Tu is killing me! - I will kill you! Screw you.

Help! Save me!

I will kill you!

Everyone! Congee Tu killed a person!

Everyone!

Oh, good god!

He's horrifying!

- Tu just committed murder! - Murder!

Do the officials know yet?

Poor Mrs. Tu.

Two lives at once.

Was he drunk or something?

- How could he be so evil? - She was expecting.

- Killed his own wife. - Yes.

His own wife. So scary!

Unacceptable.

Prison for life for sure.

- So horrific! - His own wife and child.

- Look at his face. - Absolutely unacceptable.

A man like him turns out to be killer.

Not a single emotion! Scary.

Have you ever heard of...

something called Skull Wine?

What...

What did you say?

Skull Wine.

It is no ordinary wine.

It is actually...

dark magic.

Skull Wine is

a thing you'll hear about and wish to have.

But then most refuse to practice it.

If you can brew this supernatural spirit,

you can almost do whatever you want.

Converse with the dead.

Command a hell squad.

Or even...

Claim the life of another.

Helper ghouls. Spirit tigers.

Even they are afraid of this magic.

I said that most refuse to practice this because...

this liquor, it becomes more potent when there are more skulls.

Especially the skulls of the living,

or the recently deceased.

The liquor must be brewed in clay with dark energies,

some hundred miles away from the Capital,

that of late is almost gone.

But then...

But what?

To brew Skull Wine,

is to bargain with the demon that guards it.

The practitioner

must keep their body clean.

As in...

they must not marry and make a family.

The most crucial thing is to not commit adultery.

If they do, if they violate the bargain,

they will pay the price with their lives.

Oh, Tu!

Aboard!

This Skull Wine thing...

how the fuck does it involve my wife and Congee Tu?

Does Mr. Tam not see

that Congee Tu was lonely,

and collected fresh blood daily?

But Congee Tu

was a man of means.

He also had no wife or kids.

How could the liquor serve his needs here?

I know why.

Congee Tu

wanted to conjure his wife.

Conjure?

Despite the severe murder charge,

thanks to bribery,

Congee Tu's time in prison was short.

Once freed,

he returned to Dau Village.

Only the residents' disdain awaited him.

But he vowed to cling to this place,

for there was a thing he couldn't let go.

Since the day he returned to that cursed house,

no one would dare to come visit.

Only I, out of curiosity,

passed by.

That day,

Congee Tu's aura was so odd.

Mr. Tu?

Mr. Tam!

Did you know...?

That bitch wife of mine,

remains a bitch even in death?

What do you mean?

She thought I was dumb.

When she was still around,

I knew she had gold.

Hidden from me.

Sneaking around this bit of the garden.

Now that I'm out,

I've been searching everywhere.

I've turned up the whole garden, but nothing.

But I will...

I will find it.

Even if I have to conjure her.

Uproot her resting place.

I will find her hidden gold at any cost.

From then on...

I saw he'd always search for fortune tellers

to conjure Mrs. Tu.

I've always known

Congee Tu was a brute, a menace.

But I had no idea

he had collected such bad karma.

Mr. Tam!

Mr. Tam!

So then,

what does my wife have to do with Congee Tu,

to also be hanged on the lilac tree like him?

So you have no idea

your wife was fooling around with Tu.

Why did you go to the market?

You speak lies.

Don't make things up to accuse my wife.

I know that forging stories about the dead is sinful.

But then I saw it with my own two eyes.

Plenty of times,

Tu would lead your wife into his stall on late nights.

I didn't want to believe it either.

But there is an immutable rule.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery."

But Mr. Tu here

broke that very rule.

And so,

to pay with his life, was an inevitable thing.

But here's what I don't get.

If the two of them,

committed to their affair at the same time.

Why did Mrs. Tam die much later?

Tu was gone many years ago.

That's also something I'm wondering about.

But perhaps...

Congee Tu made Skull Wine

with skulls that were still fresh.

And so,

the accrued anger...

could sustain the guardian demons for some years.

But since it ran low recently,

they were hungry for one more life.