KING NARESUAN - PART 1 (2007) a true epic

KING NARESUAN - PART 1

(2007, Thailand)

KING NARESUAN - Part 1

'Hostage of Hongsawadi' (180 mins)

War is usually declared when diplomacy breaks down. This is the case with the story of King Naresuan. Part 1 is all about diplomacy, it’s not until Part 2 that the fighting really begins. The viewer has a choice. If you want to know what’s going on in the all-action Part 2, you have to see Part 1. Also, bear in mind that despite the title, Naresuan doesn’t become King in the first two films…

Part 1 premiered in Thailand on January 18th and at three hours duration, it’s quite a history lesson. It has to introduce a tangle of players and future players in the palaces of enemy Kings - in Siam (now Thailand) and neighbouring Burma (now Myanmar).

While the story of the consolidation of Siam is mainly of interest to the Thai people, this is also a sumptuous recreation of a 16th century far east, quite different to the Chinese and Japanese cultures. It looks very different in terms of clothing and architecture, and the tropical climate provides a very different backdrop than previous oriental epics. For anyone who’s visited the country, there are familiar temples, elephants, even tattoos, and the fire-jugglers still seen on the country’s beaches.

Another flyer, showing the young Prince (Pratcha Sananwatananont)

and Head Monk (Sorapong Chatree)

The story centres on the young Prince Naresuan as he is taken hostage away from his family, to the Burmese capital of Hongsawardee, by King Bayinnaung (Sampob Benjatikul) who pretty much adopts him and raises him as a new hope. Despite keeping him prisoner, he still respects the Prince as royalty and has him tutored by the Head Buddhist Monk, who is extremely wise (to an almost Jedi standard) and an expert in the art of fighting - Mahathera Kanchong is one of the few familiar faces in the cast, and is played by Sorapong Chatree.

Bunthing, Manechan and Naresuan as they appear in Part 1

Now a monk himself, the prince befriends two orphans, Manechan and Bunthing, who are also to become important to the story. Manechan lives at the temple, but doesn’t know how important she really is, and Bunthing, despite being a renegade thief rather than a noble, is also learning to be a great warrior as the Prince’s sparring partner.

But with three children as the central characters, the story alternates between infantile hi-jinks and the high-powered diplomacy unfolding around them, as the Burmese King attempts to peacefully manipulate the local kingdoms together. He knows that his country cannot make any progress if they are at war. The King fears that his son and heir will make a better warrior than a King and that the fragile peace will only last as long as he stays alive...

To boil the history and all the legends about historical characters down to a more manageable size, obviously some of the events and characters. Part 1 maybe easy for the people of Thailand who already know something about Naresuan, it was a little hard for me to follow all the long character names and who they were. Not to mention the geography of the area as it was 400 years ago. For instance Thailand was then called Siam, Burma (now Myanmar) was then Hongsa, or Hongsawardee.

Also Thailand is probably keen to see the exploits of the young hero brought to life, but for the rest of us, it’s just a historical drama. If you can follow it, the hours of diplomatic strategy are intriguing, particularly the work of King Bayinnaung, but they only becomes relevant when you’re watching Part 2. I could argue that the director could have spiced it up more to make it more of an entertainment, but it’s difficult in a country that respects its royalty so much. I believe the director is actually a Prince himself!

Director Pratcha Sananwatananont on the set of the King of Hongsa

The film has an epic feel, due to the complete recreation of the Burmese capital as it was in the late 16th century - a huge outdoor set that was built full-size from scratch (see my later entry about the 'making-of' documentary). The palace sets are lushly recreated, the streets are full of people and most of the simple dialogue scenes are in front of windows that display action stretching into the distance. As an evocation of past events, the film succeeds completely.

The temptation might be to start with Part 2, then watch Part 1 as a huge flashback. But it worked for me in sequence, particularly watching them on consecutive days. Treat Parts 1 and 2 as one huge film, then the action in Part 2 will compensate for the long build-up in Part 1.

Do you want to know more?

ThaiCinemaOrg has a good selection of photos of the main cast.

Bangkok Post has a lengthy interview with the director.

See also my posts on King Naresuan Part 2 and the making of the trilogy.


UPDATE June 2007 - released on DVD and blu-ray in the US.

The biggest movies in Thailand at the moment are the first two parts of an epic trilogy. The story of the King who fought to unite and defend the nation of Siam. The director even sought advice from Peter Jackson in planning such a large scale project and started production over three years ago. Like Lord of the Rings, the running time of all three films should approach a total of nine hours.

They are all directed by Chatrichalerm Yukol, who made the epic Legend of Suriyothai (2001), the events of which also lead into the story of King Naresuan.

The huge advertising hoardings, posters and trailers, cannily work for both of the first two films, using the image of adult King, even though he doesn’t appear until the second film. Released within weeks of each other, Part 1 and Part 2 complement each other. The third film won’t be released until December 5th 2007, in order to coincide with the present King of Thailand’s 80th birthday.

To mark the event, there’s been a merchandising and publicity blitz across the country. Movie props adorn the major cinemas – we saw a larger-than-life prop statue of Buddha, costumes and weapons from the film, in the Paragon Cineplex atop the Siam Centre in Bangkok, where we saw the films. Thankfully, there were plenty of screenings subtitled in English.

Every 7/11 store in the country has a King Naresuan stand, selling t-shirts, caps, keyrings, postcards and storybooks, with magazines and a VCD on the making of the film. In Bangkok we even saw a King Naresuan action figure and a large 'making of' book. I'll showcase the merchandise and the VCD is a later entry. But first the film...

BEAUTIFUL BOXER (2003) serious transsexual kickboxing

BEAUTIFUL BOXER (2003, Thailand)
Hong Kong region 3 NTSC special edition (Panasia)

Based on a true story...

The spectacular sport of kickboxing is usually elevated to all-action plots like Tony Jaa in Ong Bak or even the Jean-Claude Van Damme series, but it could easily be the basis of a more serious study. Beautiful Boxer is certainly serious, but highlights the plight of Thai transsexuals more than the sport.

With an American character leading us into the story, and English narration throughout, this seemed to be aimed at an international market, with an admirable budget to match.

A reporter tracks down 'Nong Toom' in Bangkok, who proceeds to tell us the story of her life. In a movie-length flashback, we see how the young boy is attracted to cross-dressing, to the annoyance of his father, and despite a period as a Buddhist monk, finds that his kickboxing skills could support his poverty-stricken family and maybe even finance a sex-change operation...

This is a lavish production, with locations all over Thailand and even a trip to Tokyo, where kickboxing is also popular.

The story is a straightforward one, making Nong Toom's journey look rather easy - he seems to get lucky in every situation: his priest is supportive, his trainer is supportive, his family, his promoter - there never seem to be any major barriers. We rarely see him getting bullied, even at kickboxing school, where he begins wearing make-up publicly. He also seems to have little problem winning his fights and gaining national recognition.

It's a rather earnest film, hoping to earn sympathy from the audience through an emotional plea, rather than explaining his case. Despite the apparent paradox of his character, we crucially don't see him transform from his fey everyday persona into the aggressive fighting machine. The movie also dodges the controversial issue of who he is sexually attracted to, making this suitable for a family audience.

The kickboxing bouts are brief and often bloody - the sport is all the more dangerous because, despite the gloves, contact can be made with knees, feet and, deadliest of all, elbows. I was more impressed with the 'Muay Thai' side of the movie. Certainly it demonstrates how transvestites and transsexuals can positively channel their oppression! I'd still love to see a dramatic movie that concentrates on kickboxing itself, maybe Rocky-style. But this is an excellent introduction to the sport and the country.

There are better gay movies from Thailand, for instance Formula 17 confronts and celebrates the gay lifestyle in a relaxed and humorous way, certainly much better than the recent downbeat and simplistic Boys Love that's just come out in Japan.

There are of course many other 'ladyboy' movies from Thailand, mostly comedies, but while none are as well made as Beautiful Boxer, some are more fun. The Iron Ladies with its similar true-life story of a transvestite volleyball team was very low-budget, very frivolous, but fun. (There was also a pretty bad sequel). The zero-budget Miss Ladyboy, about the national cross-dressing competition is definitely worth a miss. Saving Private Tootsie starts funny but gets serious, and I'll watch it soon.

The Hong Kong DVD special edition of Beautiful Boxer has good subtitles on the main feature, but has a slightly soft picture throughout. There's a DTS soundtrack option.

The real Nong Toom together with actor Asanee Suwan

The disc of extras are mostly translated and give a fascinating look at the story of the actual 'Nong Toom', a nickname for Parinya Charoenphol, who advised and publicised the film. To play her, the director found Asanee Suwan, an actual kickboxer and veteran of over a hundred bouts, to bravely accept the challenging role. Suwan had also been born in Chiang Mai and met the real Nong Toom at one of his matches. The young kickboxer then had to learn how to walk convincingly like a woman, sing, dance and of course act! It's an impressive performance.

The film is also available in region 1 NTSC, and region 2 PAL editions.

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News: DORM and SHUTTER rights bought by US

News from Screen International, confirmed on Kaiju Shakedown, is that my two favourite Thai horror films have had their rights picked up in the US, by Tartan Video.

Creepy ghost-photography shock horror film Shutter is also currently being remade, but it's good news that the original film will get a release in America too.

Beautifully made, school ghost story Dorm will hopefully get a Region 3 DVD soon, but again it well deserves a wide release in the west too.

Do you want to know more?
Kaiji Shakedown has details on these and other interesting Tartan acquisitions, as well as daily Asian fantasy/horror cinema news and reviews.

Links here for my Dorm Thai DVD special edition guide and my full review on TwitchFilm.

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VENGEANCE (2006) Thai cursed jungle horror

VENGEANCE (2006, Thailand)
Thai All-region PAL DVD (from Premium Digital Entertainment)

After a confusing first few minutes, Vengeance settles down to become a half-decent thriller as a team of Thai policemen sets off into the jungle in pursuit of a gang of escaped convicts. The locations reminded me of the lush rainforest atmosphere of Lost World: Jurassic Park 2, but with temples. Both sides start to take casualties in the crossfire and then the forest starts to claim victims of its own.

The first hostile creatures they encounter are a nasty swarm of 'tiger wasps' (according to the subtitles), who deliver more interesting action than ever appeared in disastrous seventies movie The Swarm.

The next creatures are rather more mystical and live in the 'ladyfruit' tree… Some marvellous little crocodile/gekko creatures are next - the CGI effects are beautifully composited into the action.

As the two sides bump into a group of forest-dwellers, we also meet a giant snake, that's when the CGI fails to convince, the modelling and animation is far from convincing and kicks off the effects-heavy part of the film which the budget can’t really endure.

If the producers had stuck with the subtler effects of the mid-section of the film and kept up with the three-handed game of police/convicts/forest people, it could have played as a tight thriller.

Unfortunately, the FX get over-ambitious and so does the plot – there's lots of action, little reason, and it ends with a rushed, botched finale.

So please don't think you're getting a giant snake movie, (which the posters might lead you to believe) you’ll be disappointed. The snake actually lets it down as the dodgiest effect in the film. The benchmark for snake FX has been set by the Anaconda sequels – we’re talking straight-to-video – if you can’t match the quality of those, stay out of the jungle!

I'd lazily call Vengeance a cop thriller, jungle adventure, fantasy horror.

The acting is convincing, not something you can say about many horror films from Thialand. There's a sexy cast, plenty of action, plot twists, a little gore, and some glimpses of creatures you haven’t seen before… But I just wanted it to make more sense.

If you want a fuller plot synopsis (with spoilers) hike on over to Wise Kwai’s marvellous Thai movie site, part of the Rotten Tomatoes gang.

My enjoyment of the film was slightly hampered by this Thai DVD release (pictured), which is annoyingly censored – adults smoking, knives held to the throat and guns pointing at people’s heads were all blurred out (see below). I also thought I spotted some jumpy edits dring some of the fights – I suspect there’s a stronger cut somewhere out there.

Worse still, the framing of the film felt like the 16:9 image had been cropped down from 2.35, leaving characters leaning out of the sides of the frame or even speaking off screen.

The main plus point is that there are decent english subtitles. The other plus is that official Thai DVD releases are exceedingly cheap. For instance eThaiCD supply this title, if you’re interested.

Lastly, Vengeance has an English side to its website. Check it out for stuff like the wallpapers and a better look at the creatures...

Mark H

DORM - Special Edition DVD - out now but no subs

DORM 

(2006, Thailand, Dek Hor /"My School")

A reasonably-priced deluxe region 3, 2-disc DVD boxset (pictured) has just been released in Thailand. This is my favourite Thai film so far and I've raved about it here . Problem is that there's no English subtitles. Doh! So I'll just tell you what else is in this set - if it does get released in the west, it probably won't have all these extras.

There's a beautifully produced booklet and an extra DVD full of, um, extras. There's a dozen deleted or expanded scenes, a thorough making-of documentary, featurettes on the special FX, photo galleries, trailers, and the original soundtrack (that doesn't appear to have been released on CD). There's also TV coverage of what looks like a cast-and-crew preview with lots of interviews happening while the film clips play in the background - how disrespectful! "Here's my new film, let's talk through it".

I'd love to hear just how much of the film is based on actual events in writer/director Songyos Sugmakanan's (pictured on the left) own schooldays, but of course everyone's talking in Thai.
Best of the extras is the uncut six-minute pastiche of Mr Vampire. A specially-filmed homage that plays during the schoolboys' 'movie night' scene. It uses lookalike actors and recreates footage of the best gags from Ricky Lau's superb 1985 Hong Kong comedy horror.

Child star Charlie Trairat even has a pop video, though he doesn't seem to be too comfortable singing.

I got mine from eThaiCD.com.

UPDATE APRIL 9th 2007:Dorm is now out region 3 Hong Kong with a no-frills release but with anamorphic widescreen, 5.1 audio and decent English subtitles. It's coming soon for a region 1 USA release at the end of May 2007.

HELL (2005) Thai horror out on DVD in the UK

HELL (Thailand, 2005, aka Narok)

Out now on region 2 PAL DVD in the UK, from Anchor Bay, with DTS sound and english subtitles. Hell is one of the better Thai horrors and has reached our shores very quickly.

A reminder that I reviewed this Thai movie and the original Japanese Jigoku films back in March. The review was of the movie and the Thai DVD.

ZEE-OUI (2004) - Thai DVD horror review

ZEE-OUI (Thailand, 2004, aka THE MAN EATER)
Region 3 PAL Thai DVD

A famous serial-murder case gets a bloody re-telling

Li Hui, a Chinese farmer, arrives in Thailand in 1946 and gets renamed 'Zee-Oui' by a short-tempered immigration official. His uncle finds him a job, but the new name has to stick because it matches his work visa. Zee-Oui soon discovers that being a foreigner means getting bullied by everyone, even children. He works hard, but suffers poor health - a constant cough that he thinks is asthma. After much bad luck with his jobs, and as we learn more of his harrowing life in China, he takes to murder.

The subject matter here is problematic to say the least - a serial child-murderer who eats the hearts of his victims! It's especially tricky for western audiences to enter the fray with this particular version of an infamous true-life murder case. It's apparently been portrayed many times before in Thailand, but this time we're getting a revisionist version of the events, showing the murderer in a more sympathetic light.

Zee Oui, you see, is apparently a boogey man in Thailand - his trademark cough and cannibalistic traits make him a monstrous figure to threaten naughty kids with. It's also a justification for xenophobes to fear foreigners. Presumably, the two directors were trying to redress the balance.

As a viewer completely unfamiliar with the case, the film's opening scene gives away the conclusion to the story, before telling the whole tale in flashback. Without a good grasp of local history (the war between China and Thailand) and Thai geography, I was at a disadvantage in following the fractured timeline of the plot - not always realising when the story had shifted backwards in time. But this is something that other films manage successfully, despite cultural differences (I'm thinking of the backwards-and-forwards structure of the Japanese JU-ON films, for example).

Crucially, a brilliant scene where bullies cause Zee-Oui to visibly 'crack' is positioned after we've already seen murder victims. Whether I misunderstood the order of events, or whether the directors were saying that he was being blamed for murders he did not commit, I'm still not certain.

Another handicap to the structure of the story is the inclusion of several scenes interspersed among the end credits, that crucially fill us in with more details of Li Hui's upbringing. To introduce this information, after the film has finished, further hampers our understanding of the film's message.

Lead actor, Long Duan, almost succeeds in an impossible role, to make us sympathise for this man, but we're obviously constantly distanced from him by the brutality of his onscreen crimes. The directors intend for us to better understand his motivations - but besides listing the possible causes of his serial killings, many other political points are clumsily made about racism, sexism and government cover-ups. Overall, the naive script and convoluted timeline undermine most points they wanted to make.

While this may be award-winning material in Thailand, it's a difficult film to recommend to an international audience. The tone veers between over-the-top depictions of child murder and simplistic drama. The performances are sincere enough, but are undermined by sloppy plotting. Shortcuts taken by the script keep the story moving by using unbelievable coincidences. Moving the detective story along a little slower could have made for more intrigue and suspense, which are lacking.

So, without a strong story, and with glimpses of gore at the murder scenes, this can only be placed in horror film section. Presumably on a shelf with the other real-life murder cases that were turned into crass horror films.

Even so, despite the sensationalist subject, I didn't find the film nearly as shocking as it should have been. The crimes in The Untold Story (Hong Kong, 1993) also managed to produce sympathy for a cannibalistic child-murderer, but were far more effectively portrayed, and with a much lower budget. I guess, though, that Thai audiences may be more horrified by the desecration of holy sites and even a Buddhist shrine.

Technically, the film looks very good, with a large scale that convinces us of the many locations and periods depicted. If anything, the film looks too good - for instance Li Hui's early job slaughtering chickens takes place in a beautifully lit, colourful backyard, sending out mixed messages about what's occurring - is he in a good or a bad place? If it's such a nasty job, why does the place look so picturesque?

The Thai DVD (pictured above) has a sharp anamorphic transfer that shows off the film's crisp and colourful cinematography. There's a solid 5.1 audio track in the original Thai language, with optional English subtitles (that are well-translated and only occasionally misspelled).

There are some brief extras, a trailer, a teaser and two short 'Scoop' items (presumably prepared for TV publicity) - these include extra shots that aren't in the film, and some grainy, but grisly real-life photos of the original case. However this material is all untranslated.

Zee-Oui is an interesting film, entertaining even, it's certainly not dull. Technically it's one of the best movies I've seen from Thailand, and certainly isn't aiming for an obvious 'horror film' formula like many other Thai films. But it doesn't succeed as a drama or a reliable version of what really happened. I'd hesitate to recommend it to fans of Asian cinema or Asian horror - it's too gory to be taken seriously, but not horrific enough to be frightening.

Mark H

DINOCROC and THE BRUTAL RIVER - A couple of huge crocs!

DINOCROC (2005, USA)
and
THE BRUTAL RIVER (2005, Thailand)

2 recent films with monster CGI crocodiles on the loose

I enjoy monster movies, and I want more than anything to tell you about two exciting, action-packed movies with marvellous monsters in them - movies that deliver what their promotional artwork promises...

Instead, this is yet another warning to the curious...



DINOCROC

Evil scientists mucking around with accelerated growth drugs and inadequate containment procedures, loose DINOCROC on the world. It's a monster crocodile spliced with a two-legged dinosaur. It swims, it runs, it kills a few people. In between meals we get a turgid love story and some inept scientists trying to work out what the evil scientists are up to.

It's a rip on the plot of PIRANHA, but fails to rip the wit, the gore and the suspense of that 1978 classic, which was itself a Roger Corman produced Jaws-rip, directed with gusto by Joe Dante and written by John Sayles.

Nowadays the name, Roger Corman, above the title is alas not a seal of quality. But still DINOCROC suckered me in - if only the monster looked as good on the DVD cover as it did in the film. Admittedly, it's sort of convincing in the many night-time scenes, but it's back legs look a little too weedy to support its monster body. The attack scenes are mildly engaging, but never convincingly gory.

To be fair, DINOCROC has serviceable direction, a mixed ability cast, and a reasonable soundtrack, but I can't see this will ever be remembered for anything more than the snappy name (ouch). With PIRANHA, Corman attracted a talented team and created something special on a low budget.

Occasional moments of tongue-in-cheek black humour break up the lack of action in the first half of the film. The low-rent action races the second half to a logical if unexciting finale. There's a couple of rule-breaking plot twists, a little satire, but nothing to raise this above the level of an afternoon cable channel time-killer.

I watched the Thai DVD (pictured above) - which is a cheap way to watch a cheap film - but it's only a 4:3 pan-and-scan release. You'll have to get the Region 1 US DVD to see DINOCROC in 16:9 widescreen.


THE BRUTAL RIVER (or KHOHT PHETCHAKHAAT)

Meanwhile, in Thailand, they're still trying to rip off JAWS. New Asian film news website 24FRAMESPERSECOND alerted me to this one. This new movie supposedly tells the story of a monster croc that went on a killing spree in the sixties. First picking on a few isolated villagers deep in the rainforest, the croc went on to defy the best efforts of both holy men and the police force.

Great posters, but... It may be a good idea to make a low-budget monster movie to cut your movie-making teeth on - just don't let anybody see it until you've got something good. This is nicely shot, but completely lacking in suspense or excitement. Even during the 'action' scenes, there's a feeling that the story is treading water. For example, a man gets bitten by the croc - he thrashes around, people look horrified, he thrashes some more, no-one does anything, he keeps thrashing... The scene doesn't develop. Cross-cutting between victim and croc isn't telling a story, it's more like watching ping pong.

Also, the characters and story are really basic (how to establish a love story? - let's have a love song!). The actors only need to look scared, look horrified, or scream in agony (at something offscreen). Okay, there's a little gore, lots of dodgy computer generated monster croc, and no plot twists. I dare anyone to watch this without skipping forwards.

If anything, this is an excellent lesson in how not to make a monster movie. A few shots swiped from JAWS only reminded me that I really should watch JAWS again.

So please, if you think you'll like either of these 'crocs', please watch JAWS, JAWS 2, GRIZZLY, ALLIGATOR and PIRANHA first. If you want to see good CGI monsters, watch any JURASSIC PARK 1, 2 or 3, or even GODZILLA (1998). Then and only then, watch DINOCROC or BRUTAL RIVER.

Mark H

The DAUGHTER - a Thailand DVD horror

THE DAUGHTER (Thailand, aka Phee thuay kaew)
Thai PAL all-region DVD

Low budget Thai video-movie rips THE EXORCIST the cheapest way possible

This is a warning to the curious - I'm not recommending this movie, just letting you know a bit more about it. If you flick through the DVDs online looking for new Thai horrors, you might be taken in, like me. I bought this on the cover art alone, hoping for a headless ghost at least. Turns out it's the head of a ghost superimposed into the upturned shot glass used for the seance, and not a huge jar with a floating head in it!

Story-wise, a young office-worker is fired after sleeping with her boss. Pregnant and out of work, she wonders what the future will hold. Her friend suggests a seance, but they unfortunately pick a rundown witch's shack to hold it in. During the seance, something happens to her unborn baby... 7 years later, the child starts behaving abnormally and no-one can get in her way.

Shot on video, this looks more like Thai TV than 'v-cinema'. The acting is good enough, but the budget lets down the special effects and the scale of the story. The scares are mishandled. The witch/ghost is simply an old woman with uplighting. There's even an attempt to make her glide (or judder) across the floor (how old is that?). The make-up makes the evil child look as if she's got flu, rather than supernatural problems. The child actor never looks more than angry, when she should be demonic (if you want to see a really demonic-looking child, check out the Korean horror film PHONE). Any murder scenes are implied with blood splattering up the walls, rather than onscreen violence - not much blood either. If you want to be disappointed and non-plussed by a film, then THE DAUGHTER is for you.

The DVD (pictured above) has good english subtitles on it, but is only referred to as THE DAUGHTER on the trailer. It's available online at ThaiCDexpress, who list it as PHEE THUAY KAEW. The DVD comes in a shorter than average size case, not to be confused with the VideoCD release.
thaicdexpress.com

Max

JIGOKU - Visions of bloody HELL

Cinematic depictions of Hell - a starter guide

I've always been fascinated with visions of the afterlife. Having seen some mysterious and spectacular stills, I first sought out the Hollywood versions of Dante's Inferno. Both the 1924 silent movie and the 1935 Spencer Tracy vehicle included tours of the seven levels of Hell according to Dante, visually lead by the intricate engravings of Gustav Dore (whose engravings lent themselves perfectly to black and white cinematic recreation). The 1935 version is worth seeking out for the five minute descent into hell - envisioned using large sets, cavernous models, matte paintings and dozens of half-naked extras.
Incidentally, a new Hollywood remake of Dante's Inferno is about to be unleashed - but this time it's a comedy... It stars Dermot Mulroney as Dante and James Cromwell as his guide, Virgil.

I've searched for films which attempt to depict a different kind of Hell... this time according to Buddha. Three of them Japanese, called Jigoku, only 2 of which I've seen, and a recent Thai remake, called Narok, which also translates literally as Hell...

JIGOKU (1960, Japan)

This is a classic Japanese drama that is practically an arthouse classic, due to its expressionistic underworld sets and earnest acting talent. The first hour sets up a dozen sinners in a rural town, specifically a young man being lead into temptation by an old school friend.

The second hour demonstrates how each sin will be punished in the afterlife - a guided tour is provided by the ruler, Lord Enma. The various areas of Hell are depicted by large apparently wall-less sets (the edges disappear into darkness) and dozens of extras playing the doomed. The strictest of punishments involve being sawn in half while laying face down, or worse still, being flayed alive all the way down to the bone. These bloody make-up effects would have been very strong stuff for 1960, especially since they're in colour.

One scene shows dozens of people buried up to their necks, leaving only a garden of heads visible - this reminded me very much of a similar Hell tableau in What Dreams May Come. I'd highly recommend this 1994 Vincent Ward film for its strong story, as well as it's spectacular visions of Hell, and rare visions of Heaven too.

The 1960 Jigoku is interesting for seeing the differences and similarities in cultures, but is less compelling as a dramatic storyline. Despite its excesses, Hell here is merely stressful rather than frightening.

UPDATE 3rd March 2007 - SciFiJapan has an extensive review, posters and screengrabs from the 2006 Criterion Collection DVD release of this version of Jigoku.

JIGOKU (1999, Japan)

I've not seen the 1979 Japanese remake, but I suspect that the 1960 one was the best, and had the biggest budget. The 1999 Jigoku verges on trashy. Directed by the late Teruo Ishii (Horror of Malformed Men, 1969), it primarily deals with the perpetrators of the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. We see the cultists plotting and executing the attack, then suffering for their deeds by various punishments, including the customary flaying.

The film is held together by Lord Enma (here played by an actress) approaching a young cultist in Shinjuku and warning her of what could happen to her. Unlike in 1960, we quickly move to Hell early in the film - but it's a tiny set with painted walls, a handful of extras, and only a few demons with inexpressive masks on - the monsters look more like 1960's Ultraman cast-offs. Also the gore looks unconvincing and home-made. The film seems more preoccupied in showing topless girls and unconvincing sex scenes. It also looks like a sly way of restaging and exploiting the sarin gas attack story without identifying the film as such.

For me, it didn't feel like Hell at all, and if you want to learn more about the gas attack, there was a good Channel 5 documentary on recently whose reconstructions were far more convincing - they also talked to survivors of the incident and related why and how it happened.

HELL (2005, Thailand, titled Narok) - Thai Region 3 PAL DVD

Thankfully, the story has been taken more seriously by a new film from Thailand (a remake of the Japanese Jigoku) and is out now on DVD. Obviously it's an ambitious project and no budget can do Hell full justice, but it's certainly closer to depicting somewhere you really don't want to go - and that, I thought, was the whole point.

Here, a minibus crash sends a group of friends into the afterlife. Through flashbacks we see what sins they've committed, then we see how they are to be punished. Again, Thailand is a sincerely Buddhist nation, so off we go again to Buddhist Hell...

This initially looks like a wasteland of torture - endless bodies being physically set upon by barbaric demons armed with a variety of simple weapons. Again there's the sawing in half, but here the flaying looks almost real... people being bludgeoned with large wooden mallets, stabbed with spears... the punishments seem to be everywhere. Is there no escape?

Instead of sets, outdoor locations are used, but with digitally altered skies to notify that we're seeing a different world. This is a less subterranean vision than the other films, but it's still claustrophobic, because the pain is everywhere - even when the group try to escape they only encounter other tortures.

The demons who police the suffering are almost-human barbarians. They look convincing and obviously enjoy their work. The special make up effects are successfully gory and mostly work, except for a couple of digital dismemberments. Other SFX like the "dimension gates" - huge tornadoes that carry people from one plane of existence to the next - look digital and fakey, but are spectacularly imagined.

All in all, I found this Thai Hell the most compelling. The tone was consistently grim (reminding me somewhat of Cannibal Holocaust - there too, the characters were documentary makers) until a little unwelcome comedy relief breaks the mood halfway through the film. The ending feels a little rushed and, obviously, some of the sins don't seem to warrant the outrageous tortures meted out later. But this film fits nicely into the new wave of slasher films from Thailand (like Scared and Art of the Devil) as well as the new brutality of Hollywood horrors like Saw, Wrong Turn and The Hills Have Eyes.

At present the film is only available on DVD and VCD from Thailand, but without english subtitles. The 16:9 anamorphic widescreen picture is a slightly cramped representation of the original 1.85 cinema aspect. This PAL region 3 DVD (pictured) has a trailer and a brief behind the scenes package included, as well as poster and design art. But, I'm sure the online publicity photographs alone will get this film a wider release soon.

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ART OF THE DEVIL (2004) Thailand horror movie DVD

ART OF THE DEVIL (2004, Thailand, titled "Khon len khong")
Thailand PAL DVD

Another horror film from Thailand not living up to its poster art. But gorehounds may be amused.

Again, spectacular poster artwork interested me in this one, and Art of the Devil is getting a certain reputation for its level of gore. Like Scared, the film doesn't live up to the posters promise of 'gothic nightmare', and the scenes depicted in the artwork (like the poster below) don't quite appear in the film. But it certainly is bloody...

The story concerns a young woman used and abused by her rich boyfriend - he pays her off but refuses to leave his family for her. After she is gang-raped by his friends, she takes her revenge on him and his family, by using a Thai black magic ritual called 'the art of the devil'. It looks a lot like voodoo, involving straw mannikins and corpses... The family members start dying by vomiting up sharp objects that spontaneously appear inside them...

The film is efficiently made, but lacks the edge needed to generate suspense or any real shocks. The ingredients are all there - a story with this many murders and ghosts of the undead should have been far more creepy. It certainly manages to be repulsive in several sequences, and there is a unique scene with the heroine flailing about in a roomful of eels. A lot of eels. In fact in the making-of programme, we see some behind-the-scenes shots and, pity the actress, there's no CGI (like in the similar scene in The Craft), just bucketloads of large eels. After the filming, she's clearly not happy, in fact, very upset. But the result is very successful.

So, it's memorable, in places - the cast, locations, budget, FX are all amply sufficient, but the film doesn't quite work for me. I applaud any country's film industry that's so committed to a flourishing output of horror films, I'm just having trouble finding any of the same high calibre as Shutter.

The PAL Thai DVD (pictured top left) has no english subtitles on it, but includes the trailer and a half-hour Thai programme (Scoop) which interviews the director and leading actresses and shows some good behind the scenes footage.

There are english subtitles on the Region 1 NTSC DVD currently out in the USA.

A sequel, Art of the Devil 2 has just appeared at the Bangkok International Film Festival. It's been heralded with more fantastic promotional posters - already they're beckoning me to investigate if the sequel surpasses the original...

Max

SCARED (2005) Thai slasher movie DVD review

SCARED

(2005, Thailand)

Thailand all-region PAL DVD release

 

Cross Friday the 13th with a Battle Royale body count and you get the Thailand horror film Scared

A busload of impossibly pretty schoolkids on a school trip deep in a Thai rainforest. Stranded by an accident, the survivors are picked off one by one in increasingly gruesome ways. But who is murdering them and why?

 

There are so many teenagers on the bus, that there is never really a chance to work out the relationships between any of the kids or even enough who the characters are. Just when you think you are getting to know them a little, they’re dead!


After some feeble initial 'shocks', the death scenes get more unexpected - the variable special effects are rather gory and occasionally digitally aided. Just like Friday the 13th, the death scenes are the most entertaining thing in this film - the same murder weapon is never used twice, there's a lot of kids on the bus, and there's some neat new agricultural implements we haven't seen before...

But there’s very little plot and the music (usually the backbone of atmosphere and suspense) is thin, inconsistent and uninvolving. I was disappointed to notice a boom microphone ducking into the image a couple of times in an early scene - haven't seen that sort of error for a while - Shutter this isn't. Not is it Scream. The staging of much of the action makes the characters seem stupid, as they ignore many of the basic Scream rules of horror films. If only they’d all calmed down and stuck together…

But I don't want to be too hard on Scared. As the film opens, you get a unique look at some of the end of year Thai school festivities and there's a beautifully staged scene in the school hall, which promises a film of Thai traditions. But instead it soon descends into a rip of western slasher films – no logic, lots of blood and screaming and a rather high body count.

German DVD release

The main disappointment is that the film doesn’t look nearly as moody as the fantastic posters, nor do any of the events in the posters accurately appear in the film.

It's entertaining though. The photography is nicely done, on what looks like high definition video cameras almost looking as good as film. The locations are unusual, particularly the early rainforest scenes, making it vaguely reminiscent of Cannibal Holocaust, especially with loads of stakes sticking out of the ground.

This is certainly a spirited effort that may please gorehounds and collectors of horror cliches, but not fans of originality and clever plotting.
The Thai DVD has no English subtitles, but once the film gets going, there's not a lot of dialogue anyway. In the extras, there's a trailer, TV spots, a brief behind-the-scenes segment, some wallpapers and a commentary in Thai. The image is 16:9 anamorphic, the audio is a clear 5.1 mix, and even legitimate Thailand DVDs are very reasonably priced.

Again, great posters...

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DORM (2006) A new ghost story from Thailand

DORM (Thailand, 2006)
A movie review all the way from Bangkok

This was released in February in Thailand and also played at the Bangkok Film Festival. It's been a box office hit there and I'm sure it will travel well internationally, if marketed carefully.

Because of the poster and the initial premise, I was prepared for a full-on horror film, but Dorm is a well-rounded ghost story that's almost family fare in Thailand. However, it contains elements that may not be considered suitable for younger viewers everywhere.

I've been disappointed by several horror films from Thailand in recent years, the amateurish acting in Snaker, 999-9999 and Garuda had made me very wary of films that were made there. Then along came Shutter, a slick, creepy horror film loaded with shock moments - finally a Thai movie that I could whole-heartedly recommend. But I needed proof that Shutter wan't a one-off fluke.

I was recently on holiday in Thailand and wanted to go to a cinema in Bangkok. I was pleasantly surprised to find a film that I wanted to see had just opened, and that half of the performances had english subtitles! Thailand (and Thai DVD for that matter) is quite easy for those who speak English. I'd say that about half of the DVD releases there have english subtitles on them. Travelling around Thailand, many signs and menus were in English, and many people spoke a little English, enough to accommodate tourists needing taxis, food, shopping etc.

In the cinema, before the film started, I was caught out by the audience all suddenly standing up for the National Anthem and a montage of photographs of their beloved King playing on the big screen. We don't do that in England! But back to Dorm...

The film opens with a young boy being sent far away from home, to a boarding school in the country. He's very angry at his father, and his life is made more miserable because he's joining the school halfway through a term. All the boys sleep in one huge dormitory. A gang of four misfits decide to pick on the new kid by telling him ghost stories on his first night, giving him as much to worry about his new surroundings as possible. They tell him that the school, the dorm, the teacher that's looking after him, even the very bed he's sleeping in all have a strange history. The boy, Chatree (played by Charlie Trairat), gets very scared and wets the bed. But during the weeks that follow, he discovers that some of the ghost stories might actually be true, and even linked together...

Dorm is half family drama, half supernatural drama, but despite the young lead, the shocks and scares may be too effective for an audience as young as the central character - but maybe I'm being over-protective. I'll also warn you that there's a lot of urinating in the film! Close ups of kids wetting themselves, boys peeing in bushes, lots of scenes in toilets - you don't get this in Harry Potter. In terms of tone, the best comparison I can think of is the marvellous Stand By Me.

Dorm is beautifully shot, with fantastic performances, and it's a film that works on all levels. It's scary, but also funny, dramatic, sad... just all-round entertaining. I wish it every success all over the world!

Now I've got to trawl through Thailand's other recent horror films to make sure I'm not missing any other gems...

GARUDA - a Thailand monster movie on DVD

GARUDA (Thailand, 2004)
Thai all-region DVD Review

In Thailand, a Garuda is a half-human bird god. It's also a monster movie... a prehistoric cave is found during the excavations for a new underground train tunnel. 3 scientists and a special services army squad discover the remains of a petrified forest and encounter a fierce and fast creature still living there. The rather cocky soldiers soon discover that guns and grenades won't protect them...

Always curious to see how other countries (besides Japan) portray their monsters, and attracted by the beautifully rendered poster art, I took a plunge and got GARUDA on DVD. I soon realised it was not quite a GODZILLA, more like a YONGGARY.

YONGGARY, (or REPTILIAN in the U.S.), was a Korean movie trying to piggyback on the success of the American GODZILLA with its own CGI giant monster. Like GARUDA it was high budget for its country, and tried to appeal to an international market. Both films therefore used leading actors who would appeal more to Western audiences. This is partly GARUDA's undoing. Unfortunately, the weakest members of the cast appear to be the two non-Thai leads. The professor, the soldiers, even the comedy relief Station Master appear more professional. Seeing as Asian movies are breaking through internationally at the moment anyway, there's less risk in not having any Westerners to identify with. To be fair, the leads are asked to do some pretty stupid scenes, like the one where the scientist manages to stumble into the middle of a sea of trip-wires without setting any of them off.

The soldiers who here specialise in 'killing gods' are way too confident, and are portrayed as being ultra-cool, smoking like chimneys and wasting bullets like there's no tomorrow. One fancy fight routine is enhanced with some belated Matrix-style effects.

The CGI monster is well-designed and looks good in close-up (which is just as well, because whenever there's a dull moment we get a shot of the monster's face in close up). It's movements are a little lightweight but looks excellent when flying. The film-makers bravely place it in white corridors in some scenes and, while we know it's CG, the compositing into the action is flawless. But the action scenes rarely pick up momentum and the narrative is constantly hard to follow - there's one moment in the subway when I thought there were two monsters, the editing was so misleading. A simple story, badly told.

One last tip, if you're going to set a monster movie in a big city, at least show off some of the sites. We only ever see Bangkok at night and the skyscrapers could be from anywhere. A few establishing shots and the trashing of some local landmarks could have given GARUDA more of a sense of location.

This Thai DVD (sleeve pictured above) is all-region PAL, with 5.1 and DTS audio. The picture aspect is 16:9 anamorphic, but the sides seem to be cropped from a wider 2.35 aspect. Much of the detail in the shadows seems to be crushed to black, but this could just be the result of the stylised graded look of the film. In addition, there's a poor trailer but also a good look behind the scenes. The movie has well-translated, easy-to-read english subtitles, but not on the extras.

Max