4bia (2008)

[Gerald Weiß]

Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom: We always discuss everything before we start shooting and do everything together as a team. Whether it is acting, location scouting, sets, etc., we talk to each other before we talk to anyone else.

Youngyooth Thongkonthun: Banjong and Parkpoom have the same alma mater. Bangjong worked with Parkpoom at a production house called Phenomena films as assistant directors for commercial productions. And then they won a spot to direct a feature film. And then Phenomena came to talk with me at my production company GBH. That was the start of Shutter and after that they decided to do Alone together and continued to work together on 4bia.

Offscreen: Are they open to the genre films at the University, because at our University where we teach film is in the fine art faculty and students are less likely to produce genre films. They are more likely to make art films, personal films, documentary films.

Offscreen: There have been a few recent Asian omnibus horror films, like Three Extremes, Three, Scary True Stories, but not many. The first Three (2002) even had a Thai director, Nonzee Nimitbur, who did Nang Nak (1999), that played here in 1999. A very good film. How did the idea of doing a film with four multiple stories and directors come about?

Youngyooth: There have been several Asian horror films with many stories but they have not been very successful because it often is a mixture of different Asian countries and they usually do it separately and then put the film together; whereas we worked together so that each story complemented each other. And we also were sure to make each story work as a short story.

Youngyooth: We came up with the four stories and then put them in different sequences and we had focus groups with the different edits and it seemed that in every case the last story was the one that people liked the least. We figured that maybe by the last story people were becoming tired or less interested! But then we decided on this particular sequence and it received the best reception from the focus groups. And this was the sequence that we had envisioned from the start anyway.

Offscreen: I just want to ask about another thing that I found very interesting about 4bia that made it different from other Asian horror and ghost story films. In the majority of Asian horror films and ghost stories the ghosts are female and that is bound up in tradition, culture and folklore, and has now become a cinematic convention. In 4bia three of the four ghosts are male, so I was wondering if that was just a coincidence that was arrived at individually or were you conscious of changing that up, because as a viewer it feels a little strange to see a male ghost. I think we are conditioned to it being a woman, preferably with long dark hair. In 90% of Asian ghost films the ghost is female. This is the case also in your two feature films Shutter and Alone. But not in 4Bia, where three of the four stories feature male ghosts. Was this a conscious choice to make it different, or just a coincidence?

Offscreen: I have a general question on Alone about the Siamese twins because when I [Peter Rist] was a child in England I remember this famous story of Chang and Eng Bunker and so I wondered how important the whole history of that story was in Thailand? And the fact that they are called Chang and Eng does this mean they were Chinese from Thailand? Were the original Siamese twins ethnically Chinese?

Youngyooth: Yes it is a pretty big part of our culture and there is even a big monument to them in their home town. There are stories and plays about them and even a documentary about them so it is a big part of their culture, and they are half Chinese.

Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom: Yes we did extensive work on the color. For each part, Korea, Bangkok, the past, the present we did a lot of color testing with the film. For the period sections we used something called a chocolate filter.

Youngyooth: We did tests before we even started. For example we would bring a piece of clothing and place it next to a wall and take a picture and then we would go through the bleach bypass process to see how the colors would come out. So it was all planned out.

Offscreen: I find it hard to explain but I think the film looks fantastic and has a very consistent look. There is something about the way it is dark even during the day scenes, and the subtle lighting you have with colors that are muted but still strong, like the brown is very strong so when you see red it is very strong also. I find it fascinating because right from the first Thai film I saw I was struck by how this was a completely different look from Hong Kong film, Chinese film, and Japanese film. And I see it in this film also and it seems to work especially well with horror and ghost stories because of this faint light.

Offscreen: The other thing about the visual look which is also important is the use of reflections and seeing extra images, which goes back to Shutter, a film with a photographer as its main protagonist. Can you talk about how you incorporate the use of reflections, doubles, and the use of photographs at the script level as part of the visual element, which is all very important?

Youngyooth: No she has made many films especially when she was younger. Then she stopped her acting career for about 10 years to pursue a career in singing. And then she worked on television and this was her first feature film after her television work.

Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom: It was difficult to cast them. We did it through the internet, newspapers and radio but we still could not find the actresses and then we looked at pictures of actresses who had come to do some commercials and that is how we found them.

Offscreen: Is there any meaning to the names of the Siamese twins, Ploy and Pim, because I know that Pen-Ek Ratanaruang made a film called Ploy (2007), but because ploy also means something in English. In English the word means to plot something, or is a way of doing something deviously, like killing someone, which is what the Ploy/Pim character does. But Pim does not mean anything except maybe a cocktail.

Offscreen: Because there is a bit of that ambiguity in Alone as well at least for a while, because you have a psychiatrist and the rational world and the supernatural, but then at some point the ghost becomes very real.

Offscreen: Since we could not interview you before with Shutter, there was an interesting statement made after the film today about the story of a woman who imagined having a baby on her shoulder and had an abortion. Can you tell us a little bit about that story and how it might have influenced Shutter?

Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom: Well, the story about the baby on the shoulder is like an urban legend that exists in many other countries, including Thailand. When you have drinks together and trade horror stories that is one that comes up quite a bit. In fact Shutter did not start from that image it just started as a story and it turned out that we could put that in at the end, because it is a very good image to use.

Offscreen: By now the Asian horror cinema has set up a staple of devices that occur again and again: the elevated sound, the quick edit, the use of technology as a medium, the natural world vs. supernatural world, the long black haired vengeful female ghost, the floating ghost, the use of technological media, such as the photograph, cell phone, telephone, television, computer, etc. as a transporter of the traditional evil into modernity, etc. I am just curious as to how you feel about the state of the genre now. Do you feel it needs to move on, or that there has to be something new happening? Would you like to continue making horror films?

Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom: Yes we have hit a bit of an oversaturated point now with horror, but when we get a good idea we still want to do it. We do see a lot of horror movies from Asia and other countries and a lot of them are getting pretty stale, but once in a while you get something that is very good. So we have reached a point where we are little bored with it but we are still hopeful that we can find an interesting story out of the genre. We also find it a challenge to try to find a story that people will get excited about again.

Offscreen: Is it right in saying that the ghost story is a big part of Thai culture, rather than the more Western kind of monster? I know in Hong Kong it is like that when we think of horror in the West it is very different. So maybe you can talk a little bit about the cultural tradition of the ghost in Thailand.

Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom: Yes definitely it has something to do with Buddhism and animism. Even if you think of a big tree we might think there is a spiritual or guardian angel inside it. And in a more general sense there are more Thai people that believe in ghosts than here.

Offscreen: Yes I have read certain reviews of films like Shutter which make a claim, and sometimes it comes across as a negative one regarding the narrative believability, that the characters accept the ghost right away, but from your perspective it is very natural to assume the ghost is real. The character does not have to go through a whole set of facts and evidence before they except the ghost is real.

Donato Totaro has been the editor of the online film journal Offscreen since its inception in 1997. Totaro received his PhD in Film & Television from the University of Warwick (UK), is a part-time professor in Film Studies at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) and a longstanding member of AQCC (Association qubcoise des critiques de cinma).

Whether youre talking about the original EC Comics like Tales from the Crypt and The Haunt of Fear or cinematic re-imaginings like Creepshow (1982) or the more recent Trick r Treat (2008), horror anthologies are usually inconsistent. Even well-received Pan-Asian horror omnibuses like Three and ThreeExtremes boast at least one weak link amongst their assortment of twisted tales. With that genre truism in mind, its no surprise that 4BIA the 2008 Thai horror anthology featuring four stories helmed by four different directors isnt exactly consistent. Even so, at least two of these tales are strong enough to warrant a viewing by any fans of the horror genre. The anthology gets off to a great start with the first segment, "Happiness." Written and directed by Yongyoot Thongkongtoon (The Iron Ladies), this chilling tale centers on a young woman named Pin (Maneerat Kham-uan) whos become a veritable shut-in thanks to a broken leg. While recovering from her injury, she starts receiving text messages from an unknown sender. Bored by her now-sedentary lifestyle and intrigued by the prospect of a secret admirer, she begins a text message flirtation with her anonymous suitor. The guy seems friendly at first, but the situation takes a dramatic turn when the two of them decide to exchange photos. To say anything more about the plot would spoil all the fun. Lets just say that a vibrating cell phone has never sounded more terrifying.Of the four films in this anthology, "Happiness" is the creepiest and, by far, the most effective. The way in which Thongkongtoon creates intense, almost suffocating suspense with nothing but a woman, a cell phone, and a single apartment location is absolutely masterful. Dont be surprised if you find yourself hiding your eyes when Thongkongtoon lingers a bit too long on a particular scene. Also, while films like the One Missed Call franchise have tried to exploit the cell phone as an object of terror, Id argue that none of those films have done it as effectively as this one. And one cant ignore the films zinger of an ending, which ties everything together nicely (Well, maybe not "nicely"), making "Happiness" the standout piece in the entire anthology.Sadly, 4BIA takes a significant downturn in "Tit For Tat", a supernatural revenge story from Paween Purikitpanya (Body) about a gang of bullies who take their schoolyard taunting too far and end up paying the ultimate price. Whereas "Happiness" transcended its budgetary constraints to create a suspenseful horror film, "Tit for Tat" falls flat, despite an interesting visual style. Worse, the plotting seems a bit haphazard, the gore doesnt really register, and the overblown, slightly amateurish CGI is a bit too cartoonish to be scary. Its probably not fair to slam "Tit for Tat" for its use of not-so photo-real computer graphics, but really, the film wouldve been better served by the use of some practical special effects work (i.e., men in suits), especially during the finale. But even ignoring the overreliance on CGI in the climax, "Tit for Tat" isnt exactly a strong film.If "Tit for Tat" dips the film to its absolute lowest point, then its the next episode, "In the Middle," that skyrockets the whole affair back to the top. Directed by Shutter co-director Banjong Pisanthanakun, "In the Middle" centers on four friends who head to the jungle for a whitewater rafting trip. When camp is set up, they cant resist telling ghost stories and scaring each other half to death. Things turn serious, however, when one of their friends disappears after being thrown from the raft. However, the missing friend mysteriously returns, causing his friends to wonder if their old pal isnt quite himself anymore. If not for the creeping dread that pervades "Happiness," Pisanthanakuns "In the Middle" would be the best film of the anthology. The plot or the scares aren't all that revolutionary, but part of the fun resides in the fact that the characters are self-aware jokesters who act and react like many people would in a scary situation. The camaraderie amongst the actors is palpable, and the groups propensity to spoil the endings for horror movies like Shutter, The Sixth Sense, The Others, and even non-horror films like Titanic is hilarious, if not strangely endearing. As much a commentary on modern Asian horror movie clichs as it is an uproarious horror comedy, "In the Middle" is by far the most amusing film of the lot. The final film in this quartet of terror comes from the other Shutter co-director Parkpoom Wongpoom. The narrative of "Last Fright" revolves around Pim (Laila Bonyasak), a stewardess handpicked by a princess to serve on her exclusive flight crew. It seems that Pim and the princess share a connection, which "Last Fright" explores at length. Unfortunately for the princess, however, she soon kicks the bucket when she succumbs to a fatal food allergy. When the princesss body is set to be returned to her native country for proper funeral rites, Pim finds herself serving the princess once more, as her body is transported back on the same plane as before. Pim is a little creeped out, but figures thisll be the easiest flight of her life. Of course, shes dead wrong.One might expect an anthology film like 4BIA to "save the best for last," but unfortunately, Last Fright, turns out to be somewhat of a disappointment. To be fair, its not terrible the film is well-made and the "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" plot comes straight from those fun, old Tales from the Crypt comics. The main problem is that it just isnt scary enough. Further, the unique setting isnt exploited to its full potential, nor is the secret history shared by the two main characters. Instead of turning the banality of an airplane into a place of eerie doom, director Parkpoom Wongpoom relies on clichd horror movie lighting to convey fear, even though it seems ridiculous that that the inside of an airplane would ever look like that. It also seems to be a stretch that the princesss body would be transported in the cabin, but I wont quibble about minutiae. In the real world, a fifty percent success rate means a failing grade, but in the context of this film, the two stronger narratives are able to make this a horror movie worth recommending. Ranking the films, I would say that "Happiness" and "In the Middle" soar, "Last Fright" is somewhat average, and "Tit for Tat" could use a lot of polish. If youre looking for some Asian horror thats much different from the various Ring rip-offs of the past decade, you could do a lot worse than Thailands 4BIA. Without a doubt, "Happiness" and "In the Middle" are loads more fun than a plenty of full-length, bigger budgeted horror movies released in theaters today.(Calvin McMillin, 2009)

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