P
Director: Paul Spurrier
Year: 2005
Rating: 6.5
Country:
Thailand
Simply P. But
in Thai, P is actually Pee or Phi. Ghost or evil spirit. These come in all
shapes and sizes in Thailand. In the case of this film, it is Phi Pob, a
spirit that possesses a woman and eats the organs of others. Belief in ghosts
and spirits is fully ingrained into Thai culture. You can spot Spirit Houses
all over Bangkok with offerings to appease the spirits. If a person dies
in a house or apartment, the value of that place will drop considerably.
Last year when I wasn't doing so well physically, my landlady jokingly (I
think) said if I were to die, please do so in the hospital. I said I would
do my best. Ghosts are the subject of many Thai films, both horror and comedy,
but the other aspect of this film is not. It is one Thais shy away from bringing
attention to.
The seamy side of Thailand. The sex trade.
Sex for money. In particular, that section which targets farangs (foreigners).
The gogos in which women dance tirelessly in bikinis as men look on with
an appraising eye. A market place matching desires with commerce. The reason
this could be made in Thailand is that the director is an Englishman, Paul
Spurrier. The film is all in Thai. Spurrier is an ex-pat living here. He
owns or owned a bar that showed movies upstairs. I went there a few times
hoping to meet him, but he was never there nor was a movie playing. I don't
know if the bar survived the Covid shutdown or not. I doubt that this film
ever played in Thailand. Again, it is an aspect of Thailand that most Thais
ignore. And killing farangs is not good for the tourist trade.
Aaw is a young sweet girl living up north
in rural Siseket and stays with her elderly grandmother in a one room hut.
She is bullied by the other children, partly because she is Khmer and partly
because they think the grandmother is a witch. They are right about both.
The grandmother is a witch and tells Aaw that Khmers know special incantations
to protect themselves. She teaches her a few along with the do's and don'ts
of using them. The main don't is not to use them often or evil will take
over. When Aaw is a little older, they have no money and she is enticed to
go to Bangkok to work. In a gogo bar. The experience is horrific both because
of the customers and the other girls. It turns out that Aaw is not so sweet
after all and she lets the darkness in and goes on a murderous bloody rampage
of incantations and hunger.
It is a peculiar mix of revealing the tragic
sordid lives of these girls and the creepy farangs, but at the same time
clearly being exploitive of the sexual nature of the girls and the gogos.
The final scene that plays during the closing credits of Aaw, now the Star
of the gogo, dancing provocatively on stage felt a step too far in that regard.
I felt sorry for the actress. It had to be a hard role for the actress Fern
to do. In an echo of her character, she wanted the role to take care of her
sick mother. This seems to be her only acting credit and she went on to university.
It is an intriguing film both for the horror that is steeped in Thai mythology,
but also for the interplay between the girls. I liked the scene where two
girls are sitting with a customer in the gogo soothing his ego in broken
English and in Thai making fun of him. Probably happens all the time.
