Now, I am not familiar with the Thai legend of the Sming, but that didn't really prove to be a problem in order to enjoy the 2014 movie based on said legend.¨
As luck would have it, I happened to get a chance to sit down and watch the 2014 movie "Sming" from writer and director Pan Visitsak here in 2020. And given my fascination with the Asian cinema, of course I found the time to do so. However, I must say that I wasn't particularly much a fan of the movie's cover/poster, because it was just too far out there.
Turns out that writer and director Pan Visitsak actually managed to conjure up an enjoyable and entertaining movie here. I will say that I was genuinely entertained with the storyline and the events that transpired on the screen.
The characters in the movie were interesting, and they had a good ensemble of casted actors and actresses to portray the various roles and characters. I can't really claim to be familiar with anyone on the cast; which is actually something I enjoy in a movie. It is always nice to watch new talents and faces on the screen.
"Sming" is a movie that was relying heavily on the use of CGI in order to bring the shape-shifting Sming to life on the screen. And most of the time it worked out quite well, because the CGI team managed to animate the tiger in a realistic enough manner. But at times the tiger was just painstakingly CGI animated, and when the half-man and half-tiger creatures were on the screen, it just shifted to something atrocious that looked like something out of a 1990s PC game. That was some questionable and dubious CGI work at best.
However, I was entertained from the beginning and right up to the end. And I liked the twist to the storyline that writer and director Pan Visitsak threw in towards the end.
My rating of "Sming" is a well-deserved six out of ten stars.
