Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Phra Rot-Meri (1981)

I really don't know what to write here, but I've just seen two hours weirdorama directed by Sir Confusalot himself, Sompote Sands. Phra Rot-Meri is probably a film-version of some old bizarre legend/fairy tale from Thailand, and it shows. What makes it even harder is that I saw this without subtitles! Anyway, a bunch of small girls is living in a ruin. A giant is walking around eating elephants so the blood spurts out of his mouth... The girls is being kidnapped, maybe, by a beautiful witch/princess/whatever and her two henchmen with big teeth and filled of family-fun slapstick. 

Family-fun slapstick... until the day that one of the henchmen is giving the girls "something" so they grow up very fast, get pregnant, get their eyes torn out, get babies and becomes cannibals, graphically ripping one of the babies apart! One of the henchmen saves a baby, grows breast very fast and forces the baby, and after a while a little boy, to suck on his tits to get some milk. Lovely. The boy grows up to be a hunky young man, somehow get's involved in the politics and finally the giant black woman with mega-breasts shows up and crushing their beautiful city to pieces... That's it.

I guess it would be a bit more coherent if they dvd had subtitles? I'm not sure about that! Sompote Sands has created something that is far from a masterpiece, but the wicked feeling of the whole production makes it more interesting that it probably deserves. It has a lot of comedy, which ranges from giants beating each other in the head with clubs to little girls taking a shit on the temple wall. But when it get's mean it get's mean. The baby-ripping and eye-tearing is quite graphic, but with very primitive gore-effects, and the breast-sucking is disturbing. It's a pity that people tend to talk inbetween all these fun scenes though.

Two hours is a little bit much even for me. Some good miniature works, some cheesy gore, some silly slapstick plus a lot of talking, talking and talking. Take away 30-40 minutes of this movie and it could almost be a demented indonesian cousin, but now it was way to long.

1 comment:

Scumbalina said...

Hi, I'm new to your blog and I gotta say, I'm pretty enamoured by it. I came across it while looking for info on Hanuman and the 5 Kamen Riders. Your review is great! It actually aided me in the decision to get it (via trade with another collector). You've also made me really curious about Sompote Sands other work. If you don't mind giving away your secrets, where cam I find stuff like that?! I've always relied on sites like Ioffer and other traders, I don't know much about ordering over seas. You seem to have it down! I checked ethaicd and thaicdexpress but no luck with this weirdo stuff. I'd be forever greatful for some direction!