Phii khon pen (2006) Reviews

• Messy Screenplay With Unexpected Plot Point

  claudio_carvalho2008-06-21

  In Thailand, the aspirant actress Ting (Pitchanart Sakakorn) is invited by Lieutenant Te (Kiradej Ketakinta) to work for the police simulating murders to help the investigations. Her talent becomes recognized and she is invited to participate many cases and also in a soap-opera. Ting feels a great attraction for the brutal murder of the former Miss Thailand Meen (Apasiri Nitibhon), whose body had not been found, only parts of her tissue, and is invited to perform the case where the former husband of Meen, Dr. Jarun (Pitchanart Sakakorn), is the prime-suspect. Ting feels connected to the spirit of Meen, who helps her to solve the mystery and find the real killer, the lesbian plastic surgeon Fai (Penpak Sirikul) that was obsessed for Meen. However, in the world of cinema, fantasy and reality are entwined in another ghost story. "Phil Khon Pen" is an original scary ghost story, with an unexpected plot point with another ghost story; unfortunately the messy screenplay is very confused and in the end I did not clearly understand who the killer in the real world was and the motives of the fiend. The creepy atmosphere in the first half is great; however, the plot in the second part with May, Shane, Joke and Kak is very difficult to be followed and understood. Maybe watching this movie a second time the story becomes clearer. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "A Vítima" ("The Victim")

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• The Victim: Pretty weak Thai horror

  Platypuschow2017-10-29

  Myself and Thai cinema have had a mostly good relationship over the years, though I've usually expected not to I've often enjoyed their works. This horror effort is heavily influenced by the likes of The Ring (1998) and The Grudge (2002) but unlike them it doesn't come close to delivering. Telling the story of an aspiring actress who finds fame through crime reenactments but becomes obsessed with one of the victims as a haunting/possession begins. The movie does have its tense moments but they are handled so poorly that the impact is lost. Interesting story, not the worst performances but the people behind the camera should perhaps go back to film school as those are the folk responsible for this lackluster mess. The Good: Some nice ideas The Bad: Deaths are ripped straight from The Ring (1998) Badly directed/produced/edited Things I Learnt From This Movie: Someone couldn't be bothered to come up with an original concept and just decided to remix several bits of Asian cinema

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• Better Than Expected Entry Into Thai Horror.

  massaster7602007-09-17

  After watching multiple horror flicks from Thailand, I was very skeptical of Monthon Arayangkoon's The Victim. The success of Thailand's The Shutter has bred a list of copycats trying to imitate the success of that Asian horror classic. Some with good results, some with terrible outcomes (Ghost Game comes to mind). The Victim is neither a great film nor a bad film... but is entertaining and original enough to be a worthy use of 100+ minutes of your time. The story centers on Ting, a wanna-bee actress, who one day inadvertently secures a job with the local police working as a actor in crime scene re-enactments. After successfully completing a few jobs, Ting is asked by police departments countrywide to assist with their re-enactments. Ting becomes well-known and is also looking at television acting, until a famous crime rips through the headlines. A woman named Meen, who is also Thailands runner-up for Miss Universe, is missing and presumed dead. After an short investigation the husband is accused of the crime. Ting knows that this high profile case will either make or break her as an actress and decides to study the life of Meen throughly and intimately. Unfortunately, she becomes too involved as strange occurrences start to pile up, Ting soon finds out she may be more connected to Meen than she ever thought possible. One of the greatest selling points of The Victim is that the film was actually shot on location using real crime scenes and the reenactments are also based on true crimes. This helps give the film a bit more creepiness and scores major points in the originality factor(although the film itself does surrender to a few prevalent Asian horror cliché's). Also of note, is that the film's credits feature actual ghost sightings caught by the camera's during the filming. Another strong-point of The Victim is in it's disturbing imagery. The film elects to take the road of the creepy atmospheric visuals, which are very indicative of Asian horror. There are a few "scary" moments in the film but those pale in comparison with the bloodily beautiful imagery in (for instance) the bathtub scene or the hallway scene (those who have seen this will know what I'm talking about). Monthon's direction in this aspect is spot on and this is one of the major reasons that I can recommend this film. My major complaint about The Victim is how it seems to want to be too many things at once. A detective story, a romantic love triangle story, and a horror film. There's also a complete change in the film fifty minutes in which results in a MAJOR plot twist that will leave the viewer asking, "...What!?". The plot twist is so unexpected that it almost brings the film to a crashing halt. After which it sputters and coughs like an old engine until the last third of the film where it picks up again and finishes strongly (but also predictably). Bottom Line- Asian Horror fans should dig this. Clichéd and disorganized, but plot wise it's different enough to be entertaining. It's also accessible to the average viewer, but this ones really for the fans.

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• Beautiful!

  symeon_chiam2007-04-27

  Spirit of the Victim focuses on a lady, May (or Ting) - played by Pitchanart Sakakorn - which has an inborn skills in acting. The initial scene portrays an enthusiastic May in an acting class which unknowingly will take her to altogether a new dimension of life. While fooling around with her skills and showing it off to her uncle (who mans a local coffee shop), her talents were noted by a police officer - Lieutenant Te, played by Kiradej Ketakinta - who offered her a job to re-enact the events leading to death of victims whereby perpetrators and suspects denied allegations towards their crime. She acted with such randomness and talent that her inborn desire to play in each scenes were well-recognized by various police officers from different regions around Thailand. She was soon publicized in newspapers after reaping in a successful reenactment which allowed the police officers to catch the killer. From one scene to another, her task gets more and more complicated as well as recognized. She literally enjoyed her role as she portrays the anguished spirits who were killed mercilessly. Though initially unwilling to be part of such role-plays, she became convinced when the lieutenant explained to her that it would bring more help rather than a portrayal of mocking the dead victims and their spirits. Part of all the objectives of this movie is the same as other horror stories, that is the depiction of hatred and anger of the deceased when their earthly body could not be recovered. Their spirit lies restlessly in the world tormenting those who venture deep enough to disturb them, or sometimes at all, play a part in their misery. As May became more popular, it became obvious that any roleplay, no matter how difficult or complicated it would be, that she will be the first to be called up. It was not until the recent Miss Thailand (in this movie) and former 2nd runner up of Miss Universe, Meen (played by Apasiri Nitibhon) was found murdered in an inhumane and brutal manner and left to rot. Her body was not found, but part of her skin tissue was discovered - lodged in the longbath filter cover with prints all around her room that resembles that of Dr. Jarun (Meen's lover). As all the evidence pointed to Dr.Jarun (played by Chokchai Charoensuk), it was definite that he would be put to death but not without first being allowed a given trial and a reenactment as he denied the allegations. The actress who was supposed to play the role of Meen was a female police officer, and of course surprising enough to the viewers that it should have been May. May was called up by the lieutenant and was told that she was not the person chosen to be part of the roleplay. Frustrated, May prayed to Meen that if she were to allow her to be part of the acting, that she would act it out with all her heart's desire to reveal the guilty individual who killed her. The female police officer was found dead mysteriously the next day following the prayer and May was called up for the act. As overjoyed as she is, she kept to her promise and sought out all forms of resources about Meen, ranging from her video footage of her dancing the Leika (traditional Thai dance) to her behavior - she put all her efforts into playing it to perfection. To sharpen her instincts to act just like Meen, she paid a visit to the death scene and was treated to a mystical horror dream when she fell into a deep sleep. She was given the heads up by Meen's spirit that her lover was not the killer, but it was someone else in which it was not revealed. Having the repetitive disturbance, she took matters into her own hands and found out about Fai (played by Penpak Sirikul), Meen's best friend (even before she took to the fame) and also a plastic surgeon. While retreiving information from Fai, the spookiness evoked further from the scene when Fai revealed to May the true story and demanded May to fulfill one of her desires as a return for the information. Having fast-forward further, Fai was revealed as a lesbian who is obsessed over Meen and now, May (which resembles Meen upon heavy make-up). Out of jealousy for Dr. Jarun and anger over Meen who chose Dr. Jarun as her lover and not her, she unleashed an evil beyond description to murder Meen. Attempting to murder May also, she was saved by the lieutenant who bust into the house just in time to fire a shot on Fai. What seemingly became a tensed atmosphere was relieved immediately when the build up storyline turned out to be just an act to reenact the murder scene as Fai was deemed as one of the proper suspect of Meen's death. The movie was well crafted with an inch of a smart thriller inserted into the genre to bring about a lively spark of curiosity about the storyline. Viewers would find themselves heavily confused over the true nature of the story in the beginning and even towards the end. The movie is made in such a way that whenever the mystery begins to unravel itself, it proves to be false and that the venturing into more complicated method in solving the crime yields more scenario to allow the director to insert more craftiness and ingenuity in scaring his viewers. I would recommend this movie to those who are interested in a handful of scary detective movie. After all, the settings and the location of the film were real and the events reenacted in this movie of the death scenes are based on the local true happenings and not on legends.

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• Inside. Inside. Inside.

  gothic-fiction2014-10-04

  If it wasn't for the never ending end, I would have graded this a lot higher. But they actually got to irritate me, well, the audience, because it never seems to finish and they keep adding and adding and...enough already!! If you do have a good idea you want to use, show the world what you created, wouldn't you like to make the most of it? Why drown in a sea of mediocre executions, that got lost in their own work. They had the idea, good actors, good acting, good development throughout the movie, why such a obvious wall? Either do something great and be remembered, or just postpone it till you're sure that your movie will be better than most's! Something that will be recommended by others, will get hinted between viewers, will have something to say! But no, I wanted to like it, but it made sure I won't. Up to you if you want to give it a try, I was deeply disappointed tho. Cheers!

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