Friday, July 25, 2008

Vengeance


I don't get a chance to review many films from Thailand. Now that I think about it, I haven't actually seen all that many productions from the country, to tell you the truth. In fact if my memory serves me well, the only other Thai movie I've sat through was titled "Sick Nurses," and with a name like that I guess I should state for the record that no, it isn't a porno.

My second encounter with Thai movie-making is the Blu-ray version of "Vengeance," a bizarre film directed by Preaw Sirisuwan that doesn't really fill any niche by cramming in practically every theme under the sun. We have elements of mystery, action, horror, fantasy, drama, romance, and even a little bit of sci-fi, but none really emerge as the solid backbone for the script. This mishmash approach usually doesn't work and tends to turn viewers off, yet somehow I was thoroughly entertained with this film. I'll even go as far as saying that my enjoyment had absolutely nothing to do with the kinky sex scene with forest nymphs, either, although you wouldn't catch me putting my hand on a Bible for that one.

The picture opens with a haunting prologue taking place roughly twenty years ago somewhere in one of the exotic jungles close to Burma. Two men, one who also has his young boy in tow, are trudging through the bush desperately trying to escape from something that has them spooked. The trio eventually reaches the outskirts of the forest, and once the boy's father has escorted his son to safety, he turns around and dashes back into the trees. The other man runs in after him, and not wanting to be left alone, so does the boy. By the time the boy finds them, though, he witnesses a tragic scene of horror. Standing over his father's lifeless body is the other man, now holding a set of peculiar artifacts with a "this isn't what it looks like" expression on his face. If you're a bit confused, so was I at first to be perfectly honest. The key things here to remember are the boy, the strange sense of foreboding brought on by the jungle, and the ancient artifacts that are of significant importance to the story.

Flashing forward to the present, an urban gunfight erupts between law enforcement officials and a small group of thieves, murderers, and other vile criminals that have recently busted out of prison. Most of the convicts disappear without a trace, except for one that ends up wounded in the crossfire. Captain Wut (Andy Tungkaprasert), the rookie commander of the police task force, interrogates the prisoner to learn that their goal is to secure their freedom by crossing over into Myanmar. Wut and his team track the lowlifes down to a small village near the Payamek Mountains.

It turns out that that the young boy from the beginning of the movie grew up to be the leader of the escaped convicts named Naso (Chalad Na Songkhla). It also turns out that a monk living in the village is a link that somehow connects the lives of Naso with Wut. In their own way, both men are fueled by revenge, with Naso being put on the darker path from what happened to his father and Wut wants nothing more than to bring these evildoers to justice.

Naso and his crew trail off into the jungle, and the police continue after them, unaware that there is a terrible curse on the place. This is where things really pick up as we see the jungle come alive with a host of mythical creatures that became terrifying legends to the locals. There's a killer colony of tiger wasps, but don't bother with the epi-pen as they'll just shred meat from bone within an instant. Fruit tree maidens sing under the moonlight to seduce men into having sex with them, only the catch is that they use intercourse as a means to literally suck the life out of their horny victims. Then there are swarms of man-eating gecko-gators, a giant serpent, and a few other nasty surprises.

I don't get a chance to review many films from Thailand. Now that I think about it, I haven't actually seen all that many productions from the country, to tell you the truth. In fact if my memory serves me well, the only other Thai movie I've sat through was titled "Sick Nurses," and with a name like that I guess I should state for the record that no, it isn't a porno.

My second encounter with Thai movie-making is the Blu-ray version of "Vengeance," a bizarre film directed by Preaw Sirisuwan that doesn't really fill any niche by cramming in practically every theme under the sun. We have elements of mystery, action, horror, fantasy, drama, romance, and even a little bit of sci-fi, but none really emerge as the solid backbone for the script. This mishmash approach usually doesn't work and tends to turn viewers off, yet somehow I was thoroughly entertained with this film. I'll even go as far as saying that my enjoyment had absolutely nothing to do with the kinky sex scene with forest nymphs, either, although you wouldn't catch me putting my hand on a Bible for that one.

The picture opens with a haunting prologue taking place roughly twenty years ago somewhere in one of the exotic jungles close to Burma. Two men, one who also has his young boy in tow, are trudging through the bush desperately trying to escape from something that has them spooked. The trio eventually reaches the outskirts of the forest, and once the boy's father has escorted his son to safety, he turns around and dashes back into the trees. The other man runs in after him, and not wanting to be left alone, so does the boy. By the time the boy finds them, though, he witnesses a tragic scene of horror. Standing over his father's lifeless body is the other man, now holding a set of peculiar artifacts with a "this isn't what it looks like" expression on his face. If you're a bit confused, so was I at first to be perfectly honest. The key things here to remember are the boy, the strange sense of foreboding brought on by the jungle, and the ancient artifacts that are of significant importance to the story.

Flashing forward to the present, an urban gunfight erupts between law enforcement officials and a small group of thieves, murderers, and other vile criminals that have recently busted out of prison. Most of the convicts disappear without a trace, except for one that ends up wounded in the crossfire. Captain Wut (Andy Tungkaprasert), the rookie commander of the police task force, interrogates the prisoner to learn that their goal is to secure their freedom by crossing over into Myanmar. Wut and his team track the lowlifes down to a small village near the Payamek Mountains.

It turns out that that the young boy from the beginning of the movie grew up to be the leader of the escaped convicts named Naso (Chalad Na Songkhla). It also turns out that a monk living in the village is a link that somehow connects the lives of Naso with Wut. In their own way, both men are fueled by revenge, with Naso being put on the darker path from what happened to his father and Wut wants nothing more than to bring these evildoers to justice.

Naso and his crew trail off into the jungle, and the police continue after them, unaware that there is a terrible curse on the place. This is where things really pick up as we see the jungle come alive with a host of mythical creatures that became terrifying legends to the locals. There's a killer colony of tiger wasps, but don't bother with the epi-pen as they'll just shred meat from bone within an instant. Fruit tree maidens sing under the moonlight to seduce men into having sex with them, only the catch is that they use intercourse as a means to literally suck the life out of their horny victims. Then there are swarms of man-eating gecko-gators, a giant serpent, and a few other nasty surprises.

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