Customer Reviews

The Victim

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having sat through--and mostly enjoyed--a wide variety of Asian horror films recently, this one stands out: it's a horror film that happens to come out of Thailand, but it would be scary in any language.

The first 40 minutes are typical Asian horror fare; Ting is a goofy ingenue, an actress wannabe with a bad Bai Ling haircut who's hired by the local police department to help them reenact crimes. She quickly gains a modicum of fame, and a following...including the ghosts of every dead woman she portrays. Her big chance comes when the police find evidence of the death of international beauty queen Meen. Let me reenact your death, prays Ting, and I'll help find out what happened to you. Meen hears her, and her prayers are answered as the ghost starts haunting Ting.

To this point, the movie has every Asian horror cliche known to man--unintentional levity, ridiculous plot, stringy-haired ghosts in obvious greyish makeup, and hideously bad overacting by the girl playing Ting--but about halfway through the entire premise changes and it gets a LOT better; the cliches are revealed to be a joke on the viewer and swept away, and the story shifts to streamlined horror. Lots of horror. No spoilers, but it was creepy enough that I had to summon the dog to sit with me on the couch and keep me company.

There is a lot of CGI, but I thought it was done well, and the sound effects are excellent (I don't normally comment on sound effects but the ghost is announced by a tinkling ankle bell and by the last scene you'll dread the noise). There's no existential navel-gazing or long exposition--when the ghost comes out to play, the results are extremely effective.

Another nice touch from a director who clearly enjoys inside jokes: as the closing credits run, clips from the movie where images of the ghost were hidden are shown in tandem. Most of them are subtle, almost subliminal, but it makes for interesting viewing.

The Victim (Monthon Arayangkoon, 2006)

Thai director Monthon Arayangkoon is probably better known on this side of the pacific as a producer (for the wonderful, underrated thriller Pizza and the biopic Indiana Joai: Elephant Cemetery), but he's directed three movies; Garuda is notable for being the first Thai film completely shot on digital, but is otherwise unremarkable, and The House is well-received, though shallow. The Victim, which came in the middle, shares a number of the weaknesses of the other two movies, but is nonetheless watchable, as long as you're willing to overlook one major problem. (Unfortunately, because of the film's structure, I can't go too far into that problem, but I'll do my best to address it without major spoilers.)

The film centers on Ting (Black Night's Pitchanart Sakakorn), who as the film opens has recently finished an acting class (with one of the most terrifying acting instructors you'll ever see on a screen). While she's demonstrating how to laugh to her father in a crowded cafe, she's approached by Lieutenant Te (Bangkok Loco's Kiradej Ketakinta), who's looking for an actress for a very specialized role: she'll be playing in crime reconstructions. We get a montage of humorous scenes as she and her usual co-star get used to the work, but then the real plot begins: the police assign her to the murder of Meen (The Bullet's Apasiri Nitibhon), whose body has never been found. When Ting goes to the murder site to get some perspective, she has a vision that's well outside the kind of stuff she's used to, and begins to feel that Meen's spirit is directing her to the real killer.

All well and good, and as a straight supernatural murder mystery, it's not bad, if minor and somewhat forgettable. Then we get halfway through the movie, and Arayangkoon (who also wrote the screenplay) decides to go all Fellini on us. Done correctly, to be sure, the big twist would have elevated this well out of the genre and possibly sent it on its way to becoming a horror classic. And to be fair to the movie, the actual revelation of the big plot twist is handled well; no way did I ever see that coming. Problem is, we then have half the film as a denouement. It worked pretty well in The End of the Affair. It doesn't here. Arayangkoon obviously wants to carry the story from the first half over into the second, but when that doesn't work, stuff starts getting tacked on, and the second half of this film is an unforgivable mess. Still, you have to admire what Arayangkoon was trying to do, and the first half is still watchable. ** ½

This film is easily one of my favorite "j-horror" films (it's thai). It's best to do a bit of research though before watching, otherwise it can be a bit confusing. My advice, google "katoy." As with most Asian horror the movie requires a bit of acceptance when it comes to the story, I've found that it's best to just accept the twist/ending/motive in most Asian horror because once you start to look deep into the plot the story itself can fall apart in a matter of seconds. Definitely not a bad film though and for someone who rarely gets scared during horror films this one actually scared me quite a bit. Enjoy!

An aspiring young actress begins working with the police to help solve murder cases by posing for a series of reenactments, but in doing so, she entices the ghosts of the victims, who begin appearing to her in hopes that she will avenge their souls. Unlike so many other RINGU and JU-ON imitators out of Asian in the past decade, THE VICTIM draws much more influence from American films like STIR OF ECHOES or THE SIXTH SENSE, while introducing a unique ghost tale of its own. Monthon Arayangkoon creates a number of spine-tingling moments using striking visuals, creepy set pieces, and a haunting score, each of which heighten the scares when the spirits spring out to startle the audience. The main problem with the film lies in the obstructive reveal that occurs midway through the picture, which forces a restart for all of the characters and results in a muddled, confused mess in the second half of the script. Arayangkoon immediately loses all forward momentum as well as the audience's attention in doing so, even though the acting and production remain on par with the first segment. It is unfortunate that the film takes such a devastating turn, since it showed a great deal of promise in its initial build. Regardless, THE VICTIM begins strong and offers many chilling moments that make it worth seeking out.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

This film suffers from a lack of everything: interesting characters, good-looking scenery, and most conspiciously missing is the scares. The story goes on and on and really doesn't do much at the end. The final scenes feel a bit tacked on. Another thing that really gets me is the over-reliance on CGI. Sorry, but computerized ghosts are just not very frightening. Yes there are some extremely hot (but totally and completely clothed all of the time) Thai women, and there are a couple of gory scenes, but this is does not to Thai horror justice. There are much better movies to see. The Victim is just cashing in on the success of its older, bigger and better siblings - The Eye, Shutter, and soon-to-be-released Alone. Now those are Thai horror movies worth your time and money.

this movie was really good.... when I saw the title thought ..just like the rest..but not so ...very creepy, and suspensful...this movie was exceptional.. I highly recomend it to any Asian horror fan...to me it was the best Asian horror II have seen...a lil confusing in the middle.. but deff delievers the chills...

This is the first movie I think I've ever watched that decided to derail itself from the track. The only other movie I can think of that went from "great!" to "what is this?" is the Suicide Club. Although the twist in this movie isn't all that bad it just turns into a completely different movie. It's almost like the filmakers ran out of their shooting budget and decided to just make the second hour of the movie about themselves and try to salvage the first hour into it somehow.

What's bad about the twist in this movie is that it ruins what was really a great movie. It just starts to turn into "The Ring" all of a sudden. The first half was so originally and so much fun to watch then it's like they pull that movie out the player and put in a different movie with the same actors.

Not to say that the second half is bad it just becomes a different movie altogether. After spending the first hour enjoying one story you come to enjoy the flavor of it. It's like drinking a bottle of soda half way then by accident you pick up the wrong bottle and take a sip and realize it's not the soda you had but instead it's milk. It's just not what your taste buds where expecting so of course you reject it.

It's pretty much the same thing with this movie.

The plot is scary enough to be a good horror...Interesting scares, the main character is cute, and the music is erie. It's worth checking out but you might not fall in love with it.

I'm a fan of Asian Horror Movies (especially Thai). Prior to watching this piece of crap, I saw SILK. While SILK was easily my favorite horror movies, I took a huge step down when I popped this movie into my DVD player and starting watching this. I love a good storyline that makes you think and gets you involved but with movie, it looked as if the director was just filming scenes and pasting them together to make a movie. None of the scenes made any sense. I like the basic premise of the film. A women reenacts the deaths of murder victims and strange things start to happen. Yeah, strange things start to happen, but instead of happening in the movie, they were happening to me as I was having trouble staying awake even after drinking 3 coffees during this moving trying to stay awake. My brain felt like it was exploding by trying to figure out what was happening in the movie most of the time. Furthermore, the CGI ghosts were not scary at all. The only thing scary was that I actually paid 5 bucks to buy this piece of junk. The characters in this movie never fully developed. You have a police captain who is investigating the crimes but just disappears halfway through the movie. You have the lead female character whom you don't know if her name is Ting, May, or whatever. This piece of junk makes Epic Movie look like a masterpiece. Bottom line: If you want to watch a great horror movie with a great story and great character watch SILK instead. If you want to be bored out of your mind and have 100 minutes of life to waste, go watch Epic Movie instead. Whatever you do don't watch this piece of crap.