Review of Bangkok Haunted

Introduction

Do you see dead people? They`re everywhere, in these stories at least, and are hell-bent on interfering in peoples` lives.

Legend of the Drum (dir: Pisuth Prasaengaim)
An old drum is mistakenly delivered to an antiques dealer who proceeds to find out about its origins. Little does she know that connected with this drum is an eerie tale of obsession and unrequited love, which comes to haunt her.

Black Magic Woman (dir: Pisuth Prasaengaim)
"Ply Essence" is just what the love doctor ordered. Take a small dose and touch your intended to make him/her fall deliriously in love with you. What no one bothers to mention however are the side effects.

Revenge (dir: Oxide Pang-Shun)
The mysterious suicide of a young woman on a building site doesn`t look right to the cop on the scene and he takes it upon himself to find out why she was murdered.

Video

The 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer looks soft throughout, but I`m not sure if this is intentional for the ghost story theme on offer. Apart from this, there`s some dirt but not too much. Colours are well produced, where there are day scenes but for the most part there are lots of dark shots. This does give off a dark moody feeling with interiors to match. Visually, the second and third stories give a better feel for the unknown due partly to the night shooting and partly to the scripts being better.

Audio

The Thai Dolby Digital 2.0 serves well enough for the onscreen action. There`s subtle use of surround speakers, which feels like a missed opportunity for ghost stories. Dialogue and music are solid throughout and I couldn`t hear any problems with the sound. Incidentally, the R3 version sports a Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS soundtrack.

Features

Stylish and easy to navigate menus with a few extras:

• Making of Bangkok Haunted (24:35) - This comprises of interviews with the director`s and cast. It`s interesting to know more about the background to the anthology and what the cast thought about the concept of death and afterlife. I would have preferred more on the directors and less with the actors however as they prove to be more interesting. Not a bad extra, but a bit too short.

• Promotional Art Gallery - Five interesting pieces of artwork for the film.

• Filmographies - These cover director`s Oxide Pang and Pisuth Prasaengaim.

• Justin Bowyer Film Notes - Six static pages of text looking at Bangkok Haunted and its origin.

• Asia Extreme Trailer Reel - A selection of trailers for other Tartan Asia Extreme titles including Bangkok Dangerous and The Eye).

• Original Trailer (1:58) - Quite a good trailer as it brings in images and clips from all three films without revealing too much.

It`s an average collection of extras with little in the way of insight into the films apart from the Making of. The optional English subtitles here are easy to read and understand. Bangkok Haunted comes packaged in a plastic keep case.

Conclusion

While the concept of melding three separate stories together with a common theme is not a new one, it`s not a technique much used nowadays. The linking of the ghost stories here take place in a bar where we have three young attractive women relating stories to each other; much like telling ghost stories around a campfire. Each film is about 45-minutes long.

I see three problems in this idea of the three stories. One is the lack of consistency in the writing; secondly unless each story is explored fully in 45 minutes, there can be an anticlimactic feeling where the stories never deliver enough satisfaction in its conclusion. Thirdly, the pace of the overall film should be consistent across all stories.

These issues are very apparent in the first film, Legend of the Drum, directed by Pisuth Prasaengaim. I felt the flashbacks to the past were disorienting and would take me a few seconds to remember where I was in the story. There is also a sense of some confusion because characters looked the same (or are the same when they play roles from the haunting past). The story also seems unfinished and remains vague by the end. It moves along far too slowly too, which is a shame since it`s the first story that`s supposed to bring you further into things.

The second film, Black Magic Woman, also directed by Prasaengaim doesn`t deal with a historical haunting and concentrates instead on obsession. A young woman just looking for love is told about an exotic essence, "Ply Essence" that can help her get any man she so desires. We see the origin of this `essence` and it`s clear that there`s something very wrong going on when she uses it. The film is a little vague by the end, which leads one to conclude the nature of obsession. This was a story that was much easier to contain in 45 minutes and is a marked improvement over the first film.

The final part, Revenge, is directed by Oxide Pang-Shun (Bangkok Dangerous, The Eye) and is easily the best of the trio. The way it slowly unravels to its end without giving too much away is very well done. I enjoyed the dark visual style of this police procedural film as it didn`t have anything superfluous acting as dead weight. I think however that more light should have been shed on the detective`s past relationships for motivation since this has some relevance. Perhaps five more minutes could have made this a bit better.

The only problem I have with this Bangkok Haunted is the pace and inconsistent writing. There are some good ideas here in Black Magic Woman and Revenge but 45 minutes isn`t long enough to explore them in any depth.

Simply put, Bangkok Haunted is not something worth buying.