P

It's hard to know what to expect when going into a movie simply called P! Based on it's appearance and my history with Thai cinema I assumed it would be yet another bland ghost story but I was mistaken.

The movie tells the story of a young girl living out in rural Thailand who struggling to make ends meet because of her sick grandmother. She is sent through to Bangkok for work but finds herself exploited within a seedy strip club. Becoming increasingly stressed she sets about using the magic taught to her by her grandmother, but things get gradually out of control.

I found myself interested early on, the film looks great and the performances are stronger than you'd expect for a Thai film. I was engaged in this poor girls plight and curious which direction it was going to go in.

When things kicked into gear I was met with both marvel and disappointment. The ideas were there, some of the visual effects were there, sadly the writing badly let it down.

When the credits rolled I was sad that once again a potentially good film had been squandered by a poor ending. It's not THAT bad, but to keep up with the rest of the film it needed to be something special and it simply wasn't.

Regardless P is an enjoyable enough Thai horror with great ideas, competence both in front of and behind the camera just bit of a weak finale.

The Good:

Decent looking antagonist

Solid story

The Bad:

Cutaway deaths

Disappointing ending

A young girl leaves her home in rural Thailand for a new start in the city of Bangkok. But not before an encounter leaves her possessed by an evil spirit. And when things start to go south in Bangkok, the girl and the spirit react.

P, I've only seen in Thai, with no subtitles, and I understand zero Thai. But I stll enjoyed it. It's a slow burn but well made and looks good. And is eerie in tone.

'P' is a film that explores the misuse of magic and when it can backfire and the need to resort to it to gain an upper hand over rivals or people who have hurt you. This is a strange film to have a horror theme but that is not to say it doesn't work - it works quite well in the surroundings the film has set up.

The film tells the story of Dau, a poor girl living in rural Thailand whose grandmother has taught her the arts of witchcraft. There are three rules apparently that can make a spell backfire on the person if they break them:

1. Never cross under a clothes line 2. Never eat raw meat 3. You can share the knowledge of the spells but do not accept any form of payment

Dau goes to work in a brothel in Bangkok in order to make money to send to her sick grandmother and ends up being in the usual competition with the other girls. So she decides to put some of her useful magic knowledge to good (or bad depending on how you want to look at it) use to gain an upperhand on some of them.

The performances in the film are pretty decent with the leading actress being very convincing in terms of the cute girl trapped in a world she doesn't really want to be in. The film also gives light social commentary on the lives of these girls who work in such places - they are in it for the money and it also shows how foreigners (mainly white guys) come in simply just to be entertained and to have sexual acts with them. In fact, the bar the girls work in is a bar for foreigners.

Out of the three rules, the first one doesn't really make sense to me - the other two made more sense as the film progressed but I don't see how going under a clothes line will cause any harm - but if it is the rules it is the rules.

The film perhaps gets less scary once you know what is going to happen with Dau once the supernatural elements kick in and it sort of goes into slasher territory but it is part of the fun. In fact, the first 40 mins or so feels more like the film is a story about a sex worker than a horror film but it spends time developing the context of its story so that was pretty well done.

It is a good film if you're a horror fan and it is weird to see this combined with elements of prostitution in its story - some parts don't work as well but overall it is pretty solid.

This is not exactly a horror movie, it's more a sad story about a farmer girl who goes to the big town (Bangkok) and loses her way. This young girl is a nice person with a warm heart, the reason she leaves the camp is because her grandmother is ill and to move to the city is the only chance for getting a job. But she is cheated and must be a sexy dancer in a club for foreigners, so she will know the worst of the urban life very soon. The worst of the urban life and the worst of the rural life (the poor and wrong education she has received from her grandmother, mainly based on superstition and black magic) will destroy her innocence and a terrible monster will grow up inside her. Yes, you can call it monster, spirit, ghost... but for me it's a symbol of her lost innocence. You will find scary moments (this "ghost" looks terrible in some concrete moments) but I insist the film is more a drama than a horror movie in a strict sense, and maybe this is the reason some public can feel disappointed. In my opinion the first half is excellent but the second half is not so good although it still keeps the interest until the end. Sad, nice and with a great soundtrack. It's not perfect but I recommend it.

"P" or Possessed is beautiful, and raw movie about the life of a young Thai prostitute, and the horrific creature she ends up harboring due to black magic.

The visuals in this movie is very delicate and beautiful. All the girl actors puts in top notch performance that makes this movie one fantastic horror film to watch. There's vivid quality to each scene, and the scenery of Thailand is beautiful in this movie. It makes you feel as if you are "there".

It's difficult to describe the uniqueness of this movie. Not so well known in the west, but this is one of the best movie to come out of Thailand.

If you are a horror or Asian movie fan, you owe it to yourself to see this.