After the success of Ring-derived ghost stories like The Eye and Shutter, horror films from Thailand are getting more international attention. More often than not, their poster art is more grisly and better produced than the films themselves - like Art of the Devil, where the poor acting and lacklustre cliches are less likely to impress a western audience.
The country obviously has an up-and-coming movie industry, so I keep checking out interesting looking films hoping for hits rather than misses. Zee Oui has got a DVD release under the title The Man Eater and it's professionally enough made, but the subject matter is difficult to enjoy. Thai horror films are currently trying hard to compete by literally out-grossing American ones.
Li Hui, a Chinese farmer, arrives in Thailand in 1946 and gets renamed 'Zee-Oui' by a short-tempered immigration official. His uncle finds him a job, but the new name has to stick because it matches his work visa. Zee Oui soon discovers that being a foreigner means getting bullied by everyone, even children. He works hard, but suffers poor health - a constant cough that he thinks is asthma. After much bad luck with his jobs, and as we learn more of his harrowing life in China, he resorts to murder.
The subject of the story here is problematic to say the least - a serial child-murderer who eats the hearts of his victims! It's especially tricky for western audiences to enter the fray with this particular filmed version of an infamous true-life murder case. It's apparently been portrayed many times before in Thailand, but this version is a more revisionist version of events, showing the murderer in a more sympathetic light.
Zee Oui, you see, is apparently a boogey man in Thailand - his trademark cough and cannibalistic traits make him a monstrous figure to threaten naughty kids with. His case is also used as a justification for xenophobes to fear foreigners. Presumably, the two directors of this film were trying to redress the balance.
Article comments
1 - Maximillian
This review shouldn't be linking to the 'Scared Scared' DVD. Instead, it should be the DVD 'The Man Eater', which is Amazon ASIN number B000HC2LQW.