Slice (2009)

I don't understand how this film passed me without me knowing about it in 2009. I guess the first problem is that the film's title has been used in countless films and TV shows that it would be easy to miss. Nonetheless I finally discovered it and I am glad I did. This film is raw, intense, nefariously debauched and very tough to watch. Filmed beautifully and yet weird at the same time, Slice is a film that demands your attention no matter how squeamish you may be. I found the film very sad as well which I thought added a different dimension to the macabre at hand. One of the better Asian horror films of recent memory. Watch slice if you can handle it because there are images on screen that will carve you out indelibly.

Thailand always likes to advertise itself like a country of 'great sexual freedom', an image that unfortunately many people buy. However, after having watched quite a big amount of their so-called 'films', I think that their mentality is in fact exactly the opposite, and that in this respect, they are no better than the West: I would even say that, by trying to imitate it, they're sometimes even worse: for what affects 'Slice, this 'film' is essentially disgusting, like the country it comes from: those Thais are so obsessed with homophobia, that they feel compelled to insert it in all of their so-called 'films': in this one, for instance, the director obviously films with great delight the homophobic scenes(mainly in the scenes when the main protagonist recalls his childhood) And in a countless number of their 'films', an observation I made after having seen many of them, they ALWAYS portray gays as ridiculous or degenerate beings. NEVER in a Thai film ('Bangkok Love Story' being the notable and UNIQUE exception)would you see a normal gay man.In 'Slice', this dirty mentality reaches a peak: although the director used a so-called 'gentle' and 'understanding' approach to show the extreme effects that strong abuse during childhood may produce, the FACT is that nevertheless, the gay character here is portrayed as a vicious and completely perverted serial killer who even turns out to be the main protagonist's 'girlfriend'!!! And , of course, he/she has to die in a completely over-sentimental and ridiculous final scene. So the cycle here is complete: they have come to the ultimate cliché, which was in fact the real goal of the director: gay= vicious and perverted assassin. For what affects me, I am definitely done with Thailand, and my suggestion to them would be, the majority of their films being polluted with pervasive homophobia, just to stop making them: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

This is the type of movie that is most difficult to give a full review and also cannot say why this movie is good or satisfying. It will become a spoiler for the smart audience. In fact, I find both reviews before me being a spoiler !!With so many Thai thrillers and horrors recently, I doubt there will be any more new ideas or surprises. I went to see this movie simply out of curiosity; to find out what is the "suprise" this time.Throughout most of the movie, although I find the camera work and colour scheme quite annoying, it's good enough to make me carry on without any other complains. When the movie come to the end, I am very SATISFIED. Sorry, I cannot use any other words to describe it or tell you why in order not to spoil your fun. Just watch it. You will not regret.

The draw of this film personally is the involvement of Thai filmmaker Wisit Sasanatieng, who has of late been working on his Red Eagle film (am eagerly anticipating of course), but had managed to find time to pen down the story for Slice, a gory investigative thriller directed by Konkiat Komesiri who also wrote the screenplay from Wisit's story. From his past filmography in Muay Thai Chaiya and Art of the Devil 2, Konkiat successfully blends his experience from the two, and his Slice has clear influences from his horror and action background, more so the former when dealing with the gorier bits in the film.The film opens with a pedophile in a hotel room being given his retribution, where a figure cloaked in a red hood begins to systematically stab and eventually slice off the offender's genitals, before shoving it up the backside and having the mangled body disposed off into the river in a big red suitcase. This seems to be the modus operandi of the serial killer, and it baffles the police, led by corrupt cop Papa Chin (Chatchai Plengpanich). His only lead is Tai (Arak Amornsupasiri), serving time in jail and doing Chin's dirty work while inside, who has a 20 year old dream of the same situation of a cloaked figure and a red suitcase, and gets temporary reprieve by Chin to perform some investigations outside for 15 days, a deadline given by a Minister whose son had fallen victim to Mr Slice.The narrative though has surprisingly placed very little focus on the investigative drama it had set out to be. Instead, substantial time got devoted to the background and flashback to the past of the characters, dealing more with the friendship between Tai (the younger version played by Sikarin Polyong) and Nut (Artthapan Poolsawad), an outcast whom his peers deem fresh meat to be bullied, and encourages Tai to do the same. So on one hand, Tai can be Nut's best friend when they're alone, but when faced with peer pressure, do things that a true friend will possible not perform. And as if his life is already not miserable enough, Nut is also a sexually abused kid. So one can wonder what kind of effect such duality in friendship, and abuse would do to a person when growing up during the formative years.Like most Thai thrillers, this one comes with the token twist, though one should already see it coming with the numerous clues that Konkiat drops along the way, and adopts in certain terms like the Hong Kon thriller Confession of Pain, the identity of the killer is actually a non-issue and gets dealt with in a matter of fact manner. I will liken the style of the story to be much like the 20th Century Boys trilogy, where the young ones are given a lot more airtime, and the solution to today's problems as faced by the characters, can be found in their past childhood. You'll feel a little pang of pain especially when all anyone wants, is to be a friend of somebody since no man is an island, but it is this outreach of wanting to belong, when being abused, will bring about some heavy heart.The violence and gore here is graphic, bloody and brutal, though sometimes Konkiat had left things to the imagination to connect the final dots, with the mind after all being more sinister in conjuring up even more frightful imagery. Makeup is excellent, and in particular the part with a man struggling to hold up a terribly broken jaw. There are no good or bad characters here in the film as they all come with a shade of gray, and as mentioned while it offers little surprise, the revelation does leave one feeling a little icky, though the emotional resonance will likely ring through based on the usual horrific elements similar to how ghouls just refuse to leave their chosen someone alone.