Disappointing film from the Mo brothers , one of which Timo Tjahjanto made two of the monstrously transgressive horror films of the last couple of years (his L is for Libido segment from the ABCs of Death and the Safe Haven segment of VHS2 push every button in the right way)
Here we have a Japanese executive who moon lights as a serial killer. He puts videos of his kills on line. Meanwhile in Thailand a reporter in trouble with a local power broker finds the exec's videos and it awakens his darkside and he becomes a serial killer but with a cause. Through the magic of the internet the pair become linked
A kind of artsy blood bath cum Japanese version of American Psycho via Thailand this film is full of blood splatter and classical music. Trying so hard to push the boundaries of good taste as it pushes the buttons of the audience this is a film you're either going to fall madly in love with or hate with a passion. Count me among the haters since for me there is nothing new to see here even if the packaging seems new.
Lets be real boys and girls this film is a classic exploitation film dressed up for a black tie dance, unfortunately the beast in the tux can't hide its low rent nature. I'm sorry if that offends but this film really isn't that good I've been down the serial killer route way too many times before and making it dual killers, adding classical music and stretching the running time to 137 minutes does not a serious film make.
This is from the same guy who fucked us up with ABCs and VHS2? Really? Those two films took ideas that seemed to have been done to death and amped them up and turned them into something that rattled my cage. in those short films he created worlds where some sick shit could happen. Unfortunately here the film is operating in what amounts to the real world and nothing makes any sense- I mean how the hell didn't anyone notice what they were doing-never mind the uploading of video, rather the people who disappear- no one notices?
Oh yea right the police are non-entities...so why worry.
I was lost from the instant that I realized that this was pure fantasy dropped into a "realistic world". I could never suspend disbelief so the story made no sense.
And for me stripped of a world to operate in the film reduced it self down to just the killings- which, to be honest weren't anything special. Worse being disconnected I started to watch the shot choices and how the directors put things together so those caught up would be carried along.
However watching the machinery grew boring after a while and I waited for some sort of catharsis or at least the ending, and when it came some two plus hours later I was ready to walk away and never watch the film again. (And please tell me that you didn't see the ending coming two hours before it happened- nor the kid with the camera when all the kids showed up)
Give the film points for trying to be more than the torture porn it ultimately is, but take more away for being incredibly dull and being a case of been there and done that.
Personally I call this a perfect example of why you should always be skeptical of what a director puts out since a great film yesterday doesn't mean a great one today.
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