Dead Talents Society (2024)

Catherine, a renowned underworld diva known for haunting a hotel, is betrayed by her protégé, Jessica, who surpasses her at the Golden Ghost Awards with a series of jump scare videos on the internet, leading to a decline in Catherine's popularity.

Four years later, an unnamed rookie ghost discovers that her body is disintegrating, as her childhood 'certificate of hard work', the token which bears the value of her existence the most, has been accidentally discarded by her sister while moving away from the house. Realizing that the loss of the token would result in her perishing within 30 days, Rookie enlists the help of her ghost friend Camilla and joins the entry contest of the Dead Talents Society, where ghosts can receive a working pass to stay in the living world if signed by a haunting agency. Although Rookie's performance is awful, it moves Makoto, the agent of washed-up Catherine, who then invites Rookie to become her new protégé. Before Rookie and Camilla can get acquainted with Catherine and the agency's technician, Kouji, a new guest arrives at the hotel. Rookie and Camilla fail to scare the guest, much to Catherine's dissatisfaction, prompting her to intervene and haunt the guest herself. Enraged, Catherine demands that Makoto dismiss the two newcomers. However, Makoto informs her about the lack of use of their old tricks and the decline in their KPI, and convinces her that Rookie's apparent uselessness could prevent Catherine from being betrayed again. After 20 days of training, Rookie shows little improvement, but during the stay of a young couple, she inadvertently leaps off the building, gets stabbed through the hotel's signboard, and triggers a short circuit, which the couple captures on video and goes viral on the internet.

In the world of the living, a ghost-hunting social media influencer, Non-Believer, announces plans to produce a vlog by watching Jessica's jump scare videos in Rookie's haunted hotel, to see what would happen when the two urban legends are triggered simultaneously. This draws great attention from the underworld; even the Chairghost of the Society expresses interest in how both divas might react. Jessica, now an international star after haunting an American influencer to death, agrees to return to Taiwan and do a crossover haunting show with Rookie, attempting to destroy Catherine's protégé. She publicly humiliates Rookie on a talk show, and when Catherine blames Rookie for not defending herself, the fragile-ego Rookie quits the agency in rage. Makoto finds Rookie at her old house, where she reveals that the piano 'certificate of hard work' was actually forged by her father to encourage her in childhood. Following this, she sets up numerous goals to achieve throughout her life. She accomplishes none of them. Once she withdrew from university and effectively surrendered her second to last goal, the only thing left on her list was to be a good daughter. She ultimately fails it as she is crushed to death by her family's trophy case while trying to secure the certificate in an earthquake. Knowing her story, Makoto encourages Rookie to be herself instead of living up to what others expect.

Meanwhile, the crossover show between Catherine and Jessica commences, with the two sabotaging each other's performances, failing to scare the ghost-hunting influencers. Enraged, Jessica assaults Catherine, causing collateral damage that destroys the influencers' camera, which means the show would not be seen by anyone in the real world, and the Chairghost leaves prematurely before the show's end in dissatisfaction. Touched by Catherine's actions, Rookie shows up at the last second and performs another leap, which manages to scare the influencers, and she chases them away alongside Catherine, Makoto, Camilla, and Kouji.

Although Rookie and Catherine's group loses at the Golden Ghost Awards, their scare of the influencers results in a car crash and the subsequent large exorcising ceremony receives public attention, which satisfies the Chairghost whom ultimately grants renewals of Catherine, Rookie, and Jessica's working passes. In the end, Rookie visits her sister's newborn child and tells him that it is not necessary to be talented, but to simply be himself.