A young actress without much talent goes to work for the police, impersonating the female victim during the official reconstruction of serious crimes. Her screams and struggles are so heart-felt, that some of the murder suspects collapse on the spot. The actress, who is not an unkind soul, always prays for the deceased she was supposed to represent. Still, the border between the living and the dead is getting dangerously porous...
"Phii khon pen", I'll give it that, tries to do something original and interesting in the play-within-a-play department. It's an admirable ambition but the execution falls short, mainly as a result of massive screenplay failure. The movie suffers, and suffers deeply, from structural problems. This becomes especially clear near the end, where the resolution drags and wanders and meanders.
If these problems could have been fixed, this could have been a good or even a very good horror movie. To begin with, the movie has a wicked sense of humour. (Watch the scene where the victim about to meet her doom praises the quality of her washing : "Smells so fresh, so clean !" It's a ferocious spoof of traditional ads for washing products.) Moreover, some of the images and concepts are genuinely beautiful or frightening. The idea of a cursed dance crown is especially unsettling... Finally it needs to be said that actress Pitchanart Sakakorn is particularly charming as Ting / May.
Viewers interested in a similar subject matter can take a look at "Je fais le mort", a mix of mystery thriller and comedy. In "Je fais le mort" a male actor with a good opinion of himself begins to comment on the investigation he's participating in. (Wrote a small review there too.)
"Phii khon pen", I'll give it that, tries to do something original and interesting in the play-within-a-play department. It's an admirable ambition but the execution falls short, mainly as a result of massive screenplay failure. The movie suffers, and suffers deeply, from structural problems. This becomes especially clear near the end, where the resolution drags and wanders and meanders.
If these problems could have been fixed, this could have been a good or even a very good horror movie. To begin with, the movie has a wicked sense of humour. (Watch the scene where the victim about to meet her doom praises the quality of her washing : "Smells so fresh, so clean !" It's a ferocious spoof of traditional ads for washing products.) Moreover, some of the images and concepts are genuinely beautiful or frightening. The idea of a cursed dance crown is especially unsettling... Finally it needs to be said that actress Pitchanart Sakakorn is particularly charming as Ting / May.
Viewers interested in a similar subject matter can take a look at "Je fais le mort", a mix of mystery thriller and comedy. In "Je fais le mort" a male actor with a good opinion of himself begins to comment on the investigation he's participating in. (Wrote a small review there too.)