Trailer: 13: Game of Death (Thai, 2006)

Review: 13: Game of Death (Thailand, 2006)

13: Game of Death aka 13 Beloved (13 เกมสยอง) is a psychological thriller with elements of black comedy. The story revolves around a young man; Phuchit (Krissada Terrence), who is at rock bottom after losing his job, his girlfriend and his car.

Phuchit then gets a mysterious phone call, the voice on the other end of the phone tells him he has a chance to win 100 million baht, all he has to do is 13 tasks. Phuchit is apprehensive at first, but eventually takes on the tasks one by one, instructed by the voice on the telephone. The tasks start out simple enough but as time goes on they get more brutal. Some tasks are funny (Task 3), some are kind of gross (Task 5) and some are a mixture of both (Task 7).

As the tasks go on Phuchit has to face up to aspects of his past and make moral decisions that will affect his future. The films manages to hold the viewers suspense throughout and you are forever wondering what the next task will bring. The film also demonstrates the lengths that people will go due to their greed and love of money.

This is by far one of the best films I have seen from Thailand yet.

Director: Chookiat Sakveerakul
Year: 2006

Review: The Host (South Korea, 2006)

The Host (괴물) bills itself as a monster movie, when in fact it’s so much more, with terrific elements of black comedy and a political undertone that is evident throughout, director Bong Joon-ho has put together a superb film.

The film is based around a mutated creature living in Han River that kidnaps a young schoolgirl; Hyun-seo (played by Ko Ah-seong), it is then up to her family to try and rescue her. Each family member has their own little quirk or personal obstacles to over come, for example the aunt Nam-joo (played by Bae Doona) has a tendency to hesitate under pressure.

As the film progresses it becomes harder for the family to attempt to save Hyun-seo because of government intervention and an overwhelming American presence around Han River. After a fear over a outbreak of a deadly virus, that started with the creature and passed on to Park Gang-du (played by Song Kang-ho); Hyun-seo’s father, the family become wanted fugitives and the pressure mounts on them as the continue to find the monsters nest to save Hyun-seo.

What was I found good about this particular picture was the monster itself, unlike typical monster movies I’ve seen before, we actually get to see a good view of this particular monster form early on. The monster itself is quite bizarre; it does have a look of a mutation (or what I would imagine a mutation to look like). The film also has some quite funny moments and I like the political aspect included about the American involvement too.

I highly recommend this film to anyone, I’m not a massive fan of monster movies, but I found this film a delight to watch.

Director: Bong Joon-ho
Year: 2006

Introduction

Welcome to a new Blog, as an avid Blogger I decided to make a Blog dedicated to Asian Cinema, in which I can post reviews, trailers etc on forth coming films I recommend.

I’ve had a liking for Asian films for a couple of years now, starting with the first time I saw Ringu. Although recently my taste has been reignited in Asian Cinema, mainly due to the fact I love most aspects of the films I’ve seen and I’ve become increasingly bored of Hollywood films.

So this is my little homage to brilliant films coming out of Asia, although the title of the Blog is Asian Horror Flicks, I will not simply stick to films falling in the J-Horror or K-Horror genres and will look at a wide aspect of films coming from such countries as Korea, Japan, Thailand, China and so on.