Spider Lilies (Taiwanese) 2007, Plot / Synopsis and Trailer

Synopsis / Plot

Takeko keeps a framed design of the spider lily flower on the wall of her tattoo parlor. The design was literally cut from the flesh of her father, after he was crushed to death in an earthquake.

The image of the spider lily tattoo is the last cohesive memory of Takeko’s traumatized brother, Ching, who is no longer able to recognize anyone, including his sister.

Takeko has the same tattoo of the poisonous flower on her body in the hope of helping Ching remember and bridging the gap between them. Webcam girl Jade visits Takeko’s tattoo parlor, looking for sexy decoration to excite her clientele.

Entranced by the tattoo of the spider lily on the wall, Jade gives Takeko her business card and invites her to visit her on her website where she professes her love for the tattoo artist.

Finally, jade asks takeko to give her the same spider lily tattoo to bring her closer to the object of her desire.

Aka: Ci qing
Year: 2007
Directed: Zero Chou
Genre: Drama/Romance
Runtime: 94 mins
Country: Taiwan Read more …

Seventh Moon (2009) Poster, Synopsis, Raw Review and Trailer

SEVENTH MOON SYNOPSIS A romantic trip to China turns into a lunar nightmare for a pair of happy newlyweds when their taxi driver ditches them in a remote village, and the locals offer them up as sacrifices for the menacing moon creatures that return to Earth annually to replenish their ranks. According to Chinese legend, the dead return to Earth on the seventh month of the lunar year, when the moon glows full in the night sky. America-born Yul (Tim Chiou) and his new wife Melissa (Amy Smart) had just arrived in China to meet Yul’s family when their idyllic getaway takes a sudden turn for the worse. When night falls and their tour guide leaves them stranded in a darkened, boarded-up village, Yul and Amy quickly realize that this wasn’t a planned stop. Once a year, the lunar creatures return to Earth in search of a sacrifice. Yul and Amy have just been offered up, and now in order to avoid being assimilated into the collective that pursues them through the darkened forest, they will have to survive until the morning light casts the frightful beasts back to the moon for another year.

RAW REVIEW OF REVIEWER

One Sentence: Shaky blurry moon demons chase Amy Smart through rural China.

Ok, lets put a white girl, a Chinese American, in Rural China at night and shake the camera a bunch and make it so you can’t see much of anything for an hour and a half. This is Seventh Moon. A new American horror movie based in China that is not like all those other Asian horror movies. Well not really, there is still some old traditional scary monster thingy chasing an American girl.

I was excited about this one, I like Amy Smart, and I am more of the main stream type of horror guy and this movie felt like one of those. Which I still think it is probably more of that mainstream horror, the movie still has to be good and well Seventh Moon was all right at best. The story was forced, the people in the movie were not too likeable, or you really didn’t care about them, and you were not too sure what was going on at first. You eventaully got what was going on, but the time leading up to that, didn’t really scare or impress, and by the time we got there, I didn’t care too much anymore.

The other problem with this movie was it was blurry, shakey cam, hard to see through a bunch of grass or super low light and so most of the movie relies on this thing of not being able to see and not an actual scary movie to scare you. There were some scary jumpy parts that made me jump and they wored, but it was few and far between and not really that well executed, more like cheap thrills compared to quality fear. In the end one of the movies I was most excited about at Fantastic Fest, I didn’t think was that great, and I really would not reccomend it for rental or theater viewing.

SEVENTH MOON 2009 TRAILER

The Coffin (Thai) 2008, two Poster, Plot, Synopsis and Trailer The Coffin (2008) Korean

Aka : The Coffin
Year : 2008
Country : Thailand
Language : Thai
Subtitle(s) : English
Film Genre : Horror/Thriller
IMDB : The Coffin

Director : Ekachai Uekrongtham
Cast : Ananda Everingham, Florence Faivre, Andrew Lin, Karen Mok, Napakpapha Nakprasitte, Suchao Pongwilai, Tassawan Seneewongse, Aki Shibuya

Plot/Synopsis

Inspired by a true Thai ritual of lying in coffins to get rid of bad luck and prolong life, THE COFFIN is a supernatural thriller about a young man and a young woman who decide to go through the ritual in Thailand.

Chris, a claustrophobic architect does it in the hope of saving his fiance whos dying of terminal cancer. Sue, a nutritionist visiting Thailand from Hong Kong does it to save her own life after being diagnosed with a lethal brain tumor - one week before her wedding.

After the ritual, Chris and Sue experience what appear to be miracles in their respective lives. But soon, they find themselves confronted by a series of bizarre and terrifying incidents. With the help of a professor specializing in paranormal cases associated with the ritual, they set out to exorcise the ghosts that haunt them, and attempt to reverse the wheel of karma. Read more …

DVD Collection Reviews Part 13 - Asian Horror / J-Horror Movies

A review of the asian horror/j-horror films in my collection. Pentagram ratings are out of five and summarised below: (thanks to topercat for both the idea and gore score ratings in brackets Read more …

Game of Death (Thai) 2006 720p BluRay, Ploster, Pot, Cast and Trailer

Aka: 13 Beloved | 13 GAME SAYAWNG
Year: 2006
Directed: Chukiat Sakveerakul
Genre: Thriller/Horror
Runtime: 108MiN
Country: Thailand
Language: Thai
Subtitles: English

Cast: Krissada Terrence || Achita Wuthinounsurasit || Sarunyu Wongkrachang || Nattapong Arunnate

Plot: 13 is a new and very secret competition offering a grand prize of 100 million Baht. The contestants are chosen from those most afflicted with problems involving work, money, family and love. Read more …

THEM (2006) - French horror filmed in Romania, Poster and Trailer

THEM (2007, France, aka ‘ILS’)

On region 3 PAL DVD from Thailand (PMEG)

There haven’t been many French horror films until recently. This is one of the ‘new wave’ of hard-hitting and effective genre movies from France, like Switchblade Romance (aka Haute Tension), The Ordeal (Calvaire) and even Brotherhood of the Wolf. It’s received quite a decent release worldwide, considering it’s a low-budget movie shot on video, and has been reviewed extensively, but I’d like to add the following…

A French couple have settled down in a large remote house on the outskirts of Bucharest, while teaching French in a Romanian high school. Little do they know, there’s been a mysterious murder nearby, and at night it’s their turn to be victimised, frightened, then hunted…

The opening scene, of a car breaking down on a forest road, builds nicely to a somewhat cliched climax. Read more …

The Doll Master (2004) - Mainstream Korean Horror, Poster and Trailer

The Doll Master (2004, South Korea, IMDB: Inhyeongsa)

Not all Korean horrors are gloomy, extreme, perplexing and non-linear. This is a good-looking mainstream horror full of good-looking actors. My only reservation is that while it doesn’t pull its punches, it should have been much, much creepier…

Plotwise, if Stuart Gordon had made Dolls (1987) in South East Asia, he’d probably have ended up with something very similar to this.

It’s also surprising that nothing similar has been made in Japan, where doll mania is regularly the rage. Life-size adult dolls with full wardrobes are on sale as companionship surrogates, highly sophisticated sex dolls can also be tailor-made, girls dress like dolls, people collect dolls, and then there’s the nation’s obsession with lifelike robots… Read more …