Lub Lae

Title: Lub Lae
Rating: 2/5
Genre: “Horror,” (Crime/Romance)
Starring: Jutharat Uttakorn, Nattanun Khunwat, Anchisa Liewpairoj
Language: Thailand

This film is a Thai horror. This is all I needed to know before going in – though the woman on the front certainly helped persuade me – hoping for a hot fun filled horror romp. Except it isn't. In fact, if you excluded the final moments its altogether pretty genre-less, perhaps best suited to a sort of Romantic film involving criminals, but despite this apparent lack of direction the result is rather impressive. The small budget clearly making itself apparent in the use of effects which fortunately were kept to an absolute minimum, and the moments that feel off the wall only occur very briefly, and are adequately explained by the films conclusion.

The entire film starts rather abruptly; no introductory sequence or on my copy, even production credits, kicking off with four nameless men fleeing through the forest from the authorities only to be greeted by a brilliant blaze of light, and in an instant are sucked through the portal to a foreign land. Awaking with no knowledge of where they are, they soon stumble upon the find of their lives; a village populated almost entirely by hot women (there were a couple that looked like Gammorrean guards and a couple of elders, but otherwise were all good) desperate for their seed, but all is not as it seems.

A brief detour into the past reveals how they became caught up in a murder case, resolving to steal the van from Chart's (the lead character) work at the local bank. With further murder charges quickly racking up as their plan runs across problems, they make off with the ten million and head for Cambodia. With this knowledge, the seductive village residents 'accidentally' show the thieves their stockpiles of gold, luring them into the trap of attempting to steal their wealth to justify their own violent retribution against them, only Chart refusing to take part, leaving his newly found love Chiba (?) the task of convincing the man-hating tribe that this one isn't actually that bad. With the village sleeping with the gang of four until they pass out from exhaustion (think “Snoo Snoo” from Futurama), they set to work crafting their weapons in preparation for the final showdown.

If there was one place – excluding the amusing effects like something from the 70s – where the budget showed its limitations it was with the frustrating music; often played loudly and with only a few tracks available to them, it felt more of a hindrance than anything else, particularly seeing as I have no idea how a native Thai speaker would pick up half the drowned out dialogue. Sadly my job of understanding the subtitles was not always the easiest of tasks, exemplified by the picture shown, though more often than not despite nuances in grammar and spelling it was understandable.

This makes the acting of the cast all the more impressive, working against the inherent limitations to demonstrate their meaning without actually relying on the dialogue, and for a team consisting entirely of unknowns they succeeded in using their physicality remarkably well. The cinematography also holds its weight, even against the relatively stiff competition from other Thai films – I've yet to see a Thai film where the camera work felt inherently poor – with a sublimely picturesque location reminiscent of 'Nang Nak,' if not quite living up to its predecessor. For what it tries to achieve, it doesn't make a bad job of it and instead my main complaint comes from the 'horror' description; five minutes of gore simply doesn't satisfy any urges in that department.