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Effective 15 March 2010
U - General viewing for all ages
PG13 - Parental guidance is advisable for children below 13 years old
18 - For 18+ with elements for mature audiences (violence, horror, sex, politics, religion, counter-culture)
Before 14 March 2010
U - General viewing for all ages
PG13 - Parental guidance is advisable for children below 13 years old
18SG - For 18+ with non-excessive violent/ horrifying scenes
18SX - For 18+ with non-excessive sex scenes
18PA - For 18+ with political/ religious/ counter-culture elements
18PL - For 18+ with a combination of two or more elements
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| 9 Temples (Thai) "9 Temples" is a story about one man's journey to make amends in order to correct his bad karma by visiting 9 temples in 7 days. The journey leads him and his companion into series of unexpected and horrific revelations. Upon his mother's request, Nat, a young architect unwillingly takes a journey to visit 9 temples in order to change back his karma. Accompanied by Poon, his beautiful columnist girlfriend and Sujitto, a young novice monk, the three characters have different purposes through the journey. They later realise that they were ordained to make this trip collectively and one person's fate can affect the other, and the horrendous acts of their previous lives begin to reveal themselves one by one. Classification: 18
Genre: Thriller / Horror
General Release Date: 01 Jul 2010
Running Time: 1 Hour 45 Minutes,
Distributor: Ram Entertainment
Cast: Siraphan Wattanajinda, James Mackie, Penpak Sirikul, Paradorn Sirakowit
Director: Saranyoo Jiralak
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[Reviews]
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by Lai Swee Wei
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Watch this if you liked: “Soul’s Code”
Karma plays a major role in "9 Temples" (especially bad karma) - What goes around comes around even if it's a sin committed in your past life. Don't expect the usual Thai horror fanfare, where scares lurk at every corner. Instead, this artsy fartsy first-time feature director Saranyoo Jiralak delivers more of a Buddist-themed thriller that boasts good cinematography and visuals than of the scare-factor.
Besides the well-planned but peculiar opening scene, nothing much happens horror-wise for the first half of the movie aside from brief hallucinations inserts. Driving up to Chiang Mai to meet some friends, Visual designer Nat (half-Thai actor James Alexander Mackie) and his 1-year girlfriend Poon (Siraphan Wattanajinda, a blonde with a punk-ish attitude) stop over in Uthai to visit Nat's mother (Penpak Sirikul). A devout Buddhist, she urges Nat to ward off what she senses is impending bad luck by the traditional method of visiting nine temples in seven days. Nat takes the advice lightly but later bumps into childhood friend Sujitto (Pradorn Sirakovit), now a monk, to whom he offers a lift to Bo Kleu village in Nan province, where Sujitto says he is to begin a pilgrimage. As they travel on within the country side, Nat and Poon's hallucinations get worse and Sujitto says the answers will lie at the end of their journey together.
Generally, most of the action hits at the end of the film with a twist (as with most Thai thrillers) filled with darkness, flashbacks and ultimately the unearthing of party girl Poon's depressing past life. A young charred boy is the main haunting spirit in the film, appearing at random areas following Poon. Actress Siraphan Wattanajinda should be praised for the ability to shed buckets of tears as her character is toyed with the most emotionally, especially when it involved a road kill. Meanwhile Sujitto, the mysterious monk, spends most of the movie being deliberately esoteric or exchanging meaningful glances with Nat.
The pacing within the first half can be a tad draggy, however audiences can rest assure that there's hardly any unexpected jolts of in-your-face scares like in "4bia" or "Coming Soon". The film also carries an energetic rock and electronic score during road trip scenes to balance out the tense music during those thrilling moments.
As a road movie, "9 Temples" succeeds better visually than as a drama of three people on a journey of self-discovery.Cinema Online, 29 July 2010 |
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