Bor Mi Vanh Chark

Technically this is a ghost story and has been marketed as such (I saw it on Shudder), but that does not give the whole picture at all. If I had to pick one sub-genre to classify this film I would have to say it's a time-travel movie and even that is woefully inadequate. Empirically you might also call it a Serial Killer movie, but again that would be technically true but missing the point entirely.

This is a very mediative film that deals with the consequences of grief and how 'helping' other people (or spirits) is often simple selfishness. It depicts a cycle of behaviour that can be difficult to break and it's debatable whether the action in the movie has actually broken that cycle.

To me this is Nacho Vigalondo's 'Timecrimes' mixed with Ray Bradbury's 'A Sound Of Thunder' mixed with Buddhist philosophy telling a tale about the selfishness of grief.

I think this is excellent.

Since he was a small boy, a ghost of a woman killed in a road accident has visited the now elderly, isolated and, it turns out, sinister Laotian hermit living somewhat out of his depth in the technically advanced future. The ghost can take him back to his youth, where he meets his young self so that he can tutor the boy to help his mother relieve her suffering due to a painful terminally illness.

Beautifully photographed, definitely slow burn and frankly a bit tricky, this is an intriguing, very different ghost story with shades of science fiction which moves seamlessly between time periods avoiding a linear telling of the tale. This type of creative storytelling can be irritating and clunky, but here it works well in raising the tension to see how things will be resolved. It is from time to time also quite grisly and occasionally very moving. It does not though neatly tie everything together as much as perhaps some would like at the end, but it is a haunting experience and a film you won't forget.

This film is more than a simple ghost story transcending time and space, it's a story of love and past regret that refuse to die and move on. Well done.

I recently watched the Laos movie 🇱🇦 The Long Walk (2019) on Shudder. The storyline follows a little boy as he discovers that he has a unique gift to see dead people who help him in life and he also helps them in the afterlife. We also see the boy 50 years in the future who has now mastered his powers. He uses his skills to return back in time to when his mother passed away that changed his life forever.

This picture is directed by Mattie Do (My Dearest Sister) and stars Yannawoutthi Chanthalungsy (Love Beyond Death), Vilouna Phetmany (The Signal), Por Silatsa, Noutnapha Soydara and Chanthamone Inoudome (Dearest Sister).

This movie is so well put together with fantastic character development, subplots and a methodically but perceptive fly executed storyline. This is a slow burn, which is the perfect way to team a story like this. The characters and their meaning within the overall premise is fascinating. This had a Sixth Sende vibe in a lot of ways without it being a secret in anyway...you just wait to see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Everything is obviously going to be sad, but you're still dying to know what happened and what's going to happen. The ending of this movie is so good.

In conclusion, Long Walk is a wonderful paranormal story about life, death, dedication triumph and peace...I really loved this movie. I would score this an 8.5/10 and strongly recommend it.

First time watch a Laos movie. The topic is quite interesting with the spirit and time travel. The most important it's quite scary and lots of questioning what actually is happening during the movie.