Starring: Pimpan Chalayanacupt, Witthaya Wasukraisparn, Kunteera Suttabongoch
Director: Patchanon Thumjira
Rating: NC-16 (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Year Made: 2006
SYNOPSIS:
Pongpob and Praeploy gets married when Praeploy is unexpectedly pregnant. After the wedding, Pongpob brings Praeploy to his mother's house to settle down. The night before Praeploy delivers the child, the house next to theirs catches on fire. When the baby is delivered, he often screams and cries with no reason. The doctor considers it a case of colic ailment and tells the couple that the ailment will disappear when the baby turns 3 to 6 months old. Several months later, the baby still hasn't stopped crying...while the family's members encounter to mysterious and unexplained experiences.
MOVIE REVIEW
For those who have been following this reviewer’s writeups, it is quite obvious that he is not exactly a fan of the horror genre. Call him stuck-up or uptight if you want, but he only subscribes to what he snobbishly terms as “intelligent horror”.
For the sake of good karma, this review shall start off commending on the intelligent Mandarin translation of this Thai horror flick. Chinese readers who understand the language would agree that the Mandarin title is a smart word pun on the word “baby”, which creates a double meaning of the supernatural ability of the eye to see ghosts.
How apt, because the storyline does concentrate on a baby who cries non-stop. Is the poor infant seeing things he shouldn’t be seeing? Or is it a mere medical condition that causes babies to cry continuously for hours? His baffled parents are as puzzled as we are, especially there have also been unexplained and bizarre incidents happening as well.
To its credit, the 104-minute Thai movie does explore the supernatural world from a unique angle compared to other movies from the country. But the plot sadly gets muddled up trying to find its balance between creating an eerie atmosphere and anchoring a scientific justification for everything that has happened.
There are a few creepily executed scenes which will make you sit up, especially the one at the special disability centre where patients go berserk. The production value is also considerably high for a Thai horror production. Points go to the filmmakers who put in effort to employ some nice use of cinematography, music underscore and sound design.
The adult cast Witthaya Wasukraipaisarn and Pimpan Chalayanacupt succeed in looking constantly concerned and worried for their newborn child. If we were them, we’d be anxious and vexed too – you’d have to endure the crying for the entire movie yourself to experience how it can get on your nerves.
This Patchanon Thumjira-directed movie will please the ordinary Asian horror fan with its above-average aspects. But it’d take a whole lot more to make this self-important reviewer happy.
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