Tai hong

I happened to stumble upon the 2010 Thai horror anthology "Still" (aka "Tai hong") in 2020. Needless to say that I hadn't even heard about it prior to getting a chance to sit down and watch it. And with my interest in Asian horror, of course I needed no persuasion to spend time watching this movie.

The anthology is comprised of four different stories, which were all actually nicely interwoven with each other, which made for a very fulfilling storytelling. However, the movie just suffered terribly from having less than mediocre plotlines and not having the most convincing of acting performances or special effects.

Of all the four segments - Flame, Revenge, Imprison and Haunting Motel - I personally enjoyed Haunting Motel the most. That was because it had the most interesting story and the most memorable acting performance. And the director, Poj Arnon, of Haunting Motel was actually managing to make the anthology bearable to watch.

Now, for a horror anthology, then "Still" felt very flaccid and mundane, truth be told. There wasn't much of anything scary to be had in these stories, so for a seasoned horror veteran such as myself this wasn't particularly outstanding.

My rating of "Still" sadly lands on a mere three out of ten stars. I wanted to like the anthology, but it was just mostly a swing and a miss.

Around the World in 196 Films Country 2: Thailand Film: Still (Die a Violent Death) Director: Poj Arnon; Tanwarin Sukkhapiait; Manussa Vorasingha & Chartchai Ketnust Rating: 1/5 (2/10)

Die a Violent Death is a Thai horror film following four stories that were based off of four main headlines from the country. With four directors bringing something different to each segment, you'd think at least one of these would be good.

I was sorely mistaken. I don't want to go on a rant, so I'll keep it short.

This fil's CGI and special effects were absolutely tragic. The acting was poor at best by most of the actors. You couldn't feel any form of emotion from the directors - no form of love, or care, for their segments. The last segment portrays trans people as sexual predators. The ghosts weren't even believable as ghosts. 2 stars only for the nightclub segment and the prison segment was half decent.

I will not be watching anything from these directors willingly; I will not be looking forward to seeing these actors in anything else - and after watching this, I'm taking a long break from Thai horror because damn did this suck massively.

This film could have been good, funny, more comedic, but they tried too hard to be serious with a horrendous budget. Not a good look for Thai horror or for anyone involved with the film.

The premise of Tai hong is based on actual headlines from Thailand. However, with the exception of "Flame," the other stories are fairly generic Asian folklore. "Flame" is also the best of the 4 stories with excellent production quality and a twisty plot. The story that followed, "Imprison" is the least developed, almost like an afterthought. It is exactly what you would expect and it played out as predictably. "Revenge" is the familiar body in the water tank story. The demonic red-eyes SFX is extremely distracting and certainly below par compared to the "Flame." There are some gross-out moments, but everything else was the same story you read/heard/was told about. Haunting Motel" is set with a gay man-straight friend and a prostitute. It didn't really fit with the first 3 stories, but it was somewhat funny with a humorous take on the Grudge crawling female ghost. However, it was too over the top slapstick and felt misplaced.

Overall it is not that bad but it felt like the film really wanted to do one movie but ended up with 3 others.

Thai films are fun for horror fans. Start with a sense of real, add a dose of the supernatural & ghosts, & bring on the extreme gore. You'll see 4 stories leading into the next, each with its own quality. Flame is reminiscent of the Twilight Zone & must be experienced to the end. Imprison has some poor soul put in a bad jail cell. Revenge has a murder & a haunting that works with the gross & fun characters. Haunting Hotel is flat out fun with a prostitute, two guys, & a ghost. Still may not be high quality but fun to watch.

I've not had the best luck with Thai cinema and sadly Still has done little to change that.

A 4 part anthology tale, the films stories are all based on high profile Thai news stories including the infamous Bangkok night club fire and corpse in the water tower. Of course the stories are highly dramatized and given a supernatural element.

The film clearly had a budget and looks fantastic, on top of that the cast are some of the best I've seen from a Thai movie. So why the low rating?

The issue is the writing, the stories simply aren't very good. They suffer from common problems that can be found in Asian ghost cinema, as well as many confusing tropes that left me struggling to find the film likeable.

Again to its credit the film looks great and I was very much impressed with the visual effects and the cinematography, but with stories like that it really didn't stand much of a chance.

The Good:

Looks the part

Above par cast

The Bad:

The stories are a mess