Dorm

It was 25 years ago and Adrian Cronauer had a thing for Trinh. The movie was, of course, Good Morning Vietnam. Here she is, much older. Who would have guessed they cast a Thai in the role of a Vietnamese woman. At least Chintara Sukapatana has the opportunity to be more than eye candy this time.

Some may have grabbed this film expecting a horror film or, at the very least a ghost story. You will be disappointed, as it is more of a coming- of-age tale.

The young cast is very good, and Chintara Sukapatana is brilliant as the teacher.

While it has been generally well-received over the years, Dorm has never gained the stature that other Asian horror movies like The Eye, Ringu, and Ju-On have, even though it is well deserving of more widespread attention. It is a beautifully written, well-acted and directed coming-of-age ghost story drama, with some genuinely creepy and classical ghost story elements.

The first 1/3 or 1/2 develops as an effective ghost story in the contemporary Thai / Asian horror tradition. It then incorporates a surprisingly sensitive story about friendship, loyalty, and empathy for the emotional suffering of others. Dorm is therefore more thematically developed than most horror movies. At the same time, due to the excellent script and the consistently good judgment of the filmmakers, it manages to maintain effective ghost story elements while not giving way to maudlin or melodramatic storytelling. Highly recommended.

It was quite uncanny, a group of us were discussing making a movie about ghost stories told in schools. Sure, every school has its fair share of ghouls and goblins, and we'd thought it was interesting to have it done on film. Heck, we were actually in the premises of a school when we started to talk about it at night too. So imagine our surprise that Thailand actually made it first, and screened in local theatres no more than a month after we discussed.

Dorm refers to the dormitory of an all boys boarding school. Chatree (Charlie Trairattana) gets sent to the school by his parents, against his wishes. I believe almost everyone would be familiar with the feeling of being uprooted from one school to go to another (be it upon graduation or otherwise), where there's a sense of loss somewhat, especially with friends.

As with all new schools, the new kid on the block gets treated with suspicion, and he finds it extremely difficult to integrate into the school. It doesn't help that his initial gang of friends harbours thoughts of going all out to scare Chatree with many ghosts stories about the school (I could've sworn the toilet one was familiar territory, because I encountered something similar before), and making matters worst, the teacher (Jintara Sukphat) also becomes a key character in one of these stories, hence making Chatree wary.

Despite being the social outcast, and a recluse, Chatree befriends another pupil, Wichien (Sirarath Jianthaworn). They become fast friends, but Wichien has a deep dark secret come 6pm everyday, when he disappears. By now, you would've guessed what would happen.

Along the way, this movie somehow forgotten that it was supposed to be a horror movie. That, or the marketing folks have gotten it all wrong in promoting this flick. The horror genre is undoubtedly an extremely popular genre in Asia, one that will put folks into cinema seats, and riding on the wave of Shutter's success, it's easy to get caught up in what essential are the few and far between sense of fright that's packed into the trailer. Be warned, halfway through the movie, the horrifying moments get thrown out the window, and Dorm becomes more of a standard fare mystery. Quite a plain one actually, as the narrative gets stuck in cruise control throughout. You'll be able to guess the ending, and plot devices are thrown in only to help the movie proceed to the following scene.

But there's a fun element thrown in, which I thought was quite neat. Fans of Hong Kong horror cinema would clearly identify the "Mr Vampire" remake in Dorm, where the students congregate for one of their night movie screenings. It's a deliberate cheesy remake, but I felt this was one of the more powerful scenes that snuck up on you, incorporating the twist revelation so well, I give it the thumbs up. And yes, the twist is revealed midway through the movie in this scene, and thereafter, "horror" gets forgotten.

How's the horrifying content earlier in the movie you ask? It's not all that frightening, again relying on cheap tricks like musical crescendos to make you jump. You don't get to see much, except for shadows, sudden movements and closeups (hey, if I can survive this, so can you!). If I had a gripe, it would be with Chatree's hair continuity problem. Unless there's a barber in the school who cuts hair as good as he restores them, you'll probably get perturbed by the changes in Chatree's hair length. In the same scene. Talking to the same person. You get the drift. It's rather sloppy film-making, and the continuity person ought to get shot. The special effects department though, gets my thumbs up for its imaginary swimming pool effects. Really cool stuff there.

Horror aside, this film essentially similar to like M Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, though it doesn't dwell as deep into the psyche of Chatree and the spirit. It works on another level, along the themes of friendship, sacrifice, forgiveness and closure. I'd recommend it, not as a horror movie, but a coming of age one.

P.S. the version shown here rated PG, is the censored version. Not because of anything frightening, but for a sex scene, which I thought was quite pivotal to identify who it was Chatree's father was humping. Edited away, it comes across as "so what's the big deal?"

Sorry. I love suspenseful intriguing ghost stories, but this film did not contain a single chilling moment. I kept waiting for the film to become worthy of its higher ratings on this site. The sexist portrayals of females only as nurturers of boys or sex objects for males did nothing to change my mind about the quality of the film. We have Mama and the school mistress to nurture the boys, while all the other females in the film are just male sexual fantasy fodder without personalities. The music sounds like a lame video game soundtrack. The only good things I can say about this film is that the plot was mildly interesting and the acting surprisingly good. But not good enough to recommend to others, except perhaps preadolescents with liberal parents who don't mind some tame female breast exposure.

I would've given this a 10 if the unnecessary sex scenes were cut out. Afterall, as you can see from the movie poster, this movie is about a bunch of kids in a dorm, nudity is uncalled for. I really like the hilarious parts of the movie where they integrate some mixed feelings of horror and comedy. I would say the Thai are pioneers in terms of putting funny elements in a scary movie - especially in those specific parts. The two little actors did great. They really depicted their short-lived friendship so dramatically without too much exaggeration. I especially liked the kid who starred as Vicien, he did an exceptional job portraying the solitude and benignancy yet he still managed to send chills down the spine at some parts.