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SYNOPSIS:
Pim and her husband Vee travel back to her hometown in Thailand
to be with her sick mother. The moment Pim arrives in Thailand,
she experiences vivid flashbacks that conjure up a sense of
innate warmth. As her memories slowly returns, the pieces
of puzzle begin to fall into place. Pim eventually recognizes
just what that innate sense of warmth is… It is the
feeling of being attached to another person by an organ that
bonds two lives in such a way that she could never be free...
MOVIE REVIEW
I was
terribly impressed when I watched Banjong Pisanthanakun and
Parkpoom Wongpoom’s surprise horror hit Shutter (2004).
Without giving too much spoilers away, let’s just say
that I would think twice about the severity of the problem
if I ever have a backache again. And because the concept and
the twist of this film is so brilliant, I was expecting something
that will make me go “wow” with the duo’s
second collaboration. And yes, with high expectations comes
quite a fair bit of disappointment.
To be
fair, the plot is rather exciting to begin with: Bearing the
guilt of a dead conjoined twin, a Thai girl lives in Korea
with her boyfriend. Upon receiving news of her dying mother,
she returns to Thailand and faces the haunting consequences
of something horrifying which happened years ago.
How’s
that for not spoiling the ending of this 95-minute horror
flick for you?
Thailand
is increasingly becoming renowned for its high production
values, and it is evident here for its appealingly apt shots
and fancy editing.
The film
also sets itself up nicely initially, with a lingering sense
of brood that perpetually threatens to catch the viewer off
guard. The female protagonist played by Masha Wattanapanich
portrays her troubled character well, with her constantly
bothered and anxious expressions. If we had hallucinations
of blood pouring out from our stomachs or an extra set of
footsteps following us on the beach, we’d be worried
sick too. These individual scenes work well and manage to
creep me out quite a bit, but somehow when looking at the
movie as a whole; they seem kind of insignificantly inconsequential.
So comes
this anticipation that everything will culminate in a spectacular
twist that is similar to Shutter, but alas, some two-thirds
into the movie, I boldly made a prediction what the twist
was (it wasn’t a very imaginative one, mind you) and
it began slowly taking shape.
And
when the picture started its stocky finale of burning a perfectly
well-built house down, you know the filmmakers were probably
out of ideas. You know what they say, if you can’t shock
them with your innovative ideas, awe them with the big budget
you have – thrown in fires, crashes and stunts. That
will probably keep their attention, and they are right, I
was suitably entertained throughout the movie.
SPECIAL
FEATURES :
The Code 3 DVD includes two “Trailers”,
three “Scoops” (interviews with
the public and doctors about what they think of Siamese twins)
and four “TV Spots”, with a total
runtime of 10 minutes.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
visual transfer is surprisingly clear for an understated movie
like this, and the film is presented in its original Thai
audio track.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
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