Tai hong (2010) Reviews

• Still: Nonsense by definition

  Platypuschow2019-03-15

  I've not had the best luck with Thai cinema and sadly Still has done little to change that. A 4 part anthology tale, the films stories are all based on high profile Thai news stories including the infamous Bangkok night club fire and corpse in the water tower. Of course the stories are highly dramatized and given a supernatural element. The film clearly had a budget and looks fantastic, on top of that the cast are some of the best I've seen from a Thai movie. So why the low rating? The issue is the writing, the stories simply aren't very good. They suffer from common problems that can be found in Asian ghost cinema, as well as many confusing tropes that left me struggling to find the film likeable. Again to its credit the film looks great and I was very much impressed with the visual effects and the cinematography, but with stories like that it really didn't stand much of a chance. The Good: Looks the part Above par cast The Bad: The stories are a mess

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• Familiar Stories

  ShawnInNJ2010-08-15

  The premise of Tai hong is based on actual headlines from Thailand. However, with the exception of "Flame," the other stories are fairly generic Asian folklore. "Flame" is also the best of the 4 stories with excellent production quality and a twisty plot. The story that followed, "Imprison" is the least developed, almost like an afterthought. It is exactly what you would expect and it played out as predictably. "Revenge" is the familiar body in the water tank story. The demonic red-eyes SFX is extremely distracting and certainly below par compared to the "Flame." There are some gross-out moments, but everything else was the same story you read/heard/was told about. Haunting Motel" is set with a gay man-straight friend and a prostitute. It didn't really fit with the first 3 stories, but it was somewhat funny with a humorous take on the Grudge crawling female ghost. However, it was too over the top slapstick and felt misplaced. Overall it is not that bad but it felt like the film really wanted to do one movie but ended up with 3 others.

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• Half boring, half not Horror

  nitzanhavoc2018-12-29

  While the description on Netflix might be misleading, Still is not an anthology. It's more like a somewhat anachronistic series of events which can be roughly divided into four different plots, half-conjoined during certain interactions. A nice and impressive feature is the way the ending of each plot leads to the beginning of the next one. Acting is also pretty decent. The rest is simply too comic to be scary and too weird to be a comedy. I can honestly find no more to say about it, other than there are more boring parts than interesting ones, the latter being mostly sentimental scenes. That about sums it up. Would not recoomed. One of the only times you'd find a Horror with an IMDB overall rating that's actually fair.

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• Lacks sparkle.

  BA_Harrison2018-11-14

  Thai horror anthology Still features four supernatural stories, each based on true stories from Thai newspapers. The first story, 'Flame', sees Arm (Akara Amarttayakul) haunted by the ghost of his girlfriend Pang (Pimolrat Pisalayabuth), who died in a nightclub fire on New Year's Eve. Wouldn't you just know it, but he's a ghost as well, having also died in the blaze. Best moment: a falling illuminated cross knocks a bloke's head off. Tale number two, 'Imprison' is baffling. A man in a cell is menaced by the ghost of the previous occupant, who committed suicide by hanging himself. To be honest, I didn't really understand this one, so let's skip to story number three, 'Revenge'... ...which is Dark Water, Thai style. You know the score: dead body in the water tank; drip, drip, dripping; hair in the taps - yadda, yadda, yadda. It's only scary if you have a phobia of hair or water, and I have neither. The final chapter, 'Haunting Motel', is the worst, its ghostly happenings played for laughs, but failing to amuse this particular viewer. Two youths pick up a skanky ho and take her to a motel for some sexy time, unaware that the room is haunted. Lots of overacting and a twist that isn't much of a surprise make this a dud. Overall, barring the nightclub decapitation and lovely Supakson Chaimongkol as the dead girl in the water tank, there's really not much worth seeing here. 3/10.

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• Rooting for the characters to die

  nina-364-8075932018-10-14

  This is absolutely the worst horror film I have ever seen. I actively rooted for the various characters to die. Its astonishing that acting can be this terrible. I dont know who paid to make this film, but they should be punished for it. Despite there being 4 stories, each one feels hours long. The effects are pathetic, the sets are garbage, and again, the acting is so terrible there almost aren't words. This isn't even "b movie" bad. It's not enjoyable in its awfulness. I will say, of the 4 short stories, the worst was the last one. The over acting was irritating. The female lead was disgusting, like some sort of thai trailer trash. Add in what seemed to be some sort of transphobia or homophobia to that storyline. Just pathetic garbage. If this is what Thailand has to offer for movies then they should be banned from making them.

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