Kuon puos keng kang

This is one of my favorite horror movies of the year. On of the first movies to be filmed entirely in Cambodia and in Vietnamese in many years. THe Snake Hair that the heroine wears looks so real..............know why? Because it is really is real live snakes. The director had trouble finding something that looked realistic enough with the budget they had so opted to glue/tape/tie real snakes to a head piece. Lets hope PETA doesn't find out about it. Nonetheless memorable, with excellent camera work.

This film is an attempt to revive the once-thriving Cambodian movie-making industry that was decimated by the Khmer Rouge government. Co-produced with Thailand, THE SNAKE KING'S CHILD is based on a folk tale about the child of a peasant woman and a snake god.

For westerners, the film's main attractions are visual. The cinematography is often striking, with atmospheric use of colour and shadow. All the characters wear eye-catching costumes. Actual Cambodian locations were used for many of the beautiful settings. Most memorable of all is Pich Chan Barmey's fabulous snake-hair effect, which easily outstrips any of the unconvincing attempts in western movies to portray gorgons.

Whether THE SNAKE KING'S CHILD will succeed in resurrecting Cambodian movie-making remains to be seen, but it certainly constitutes a promising start.

A letterboxed DVD, with rather eccentric English subtitles, has been released by Hong Kong's Winson Entertainment.

The poster / DVD cover of this Thai / Cambodian co-production looks quite cool, however, the actual movie fails to deliver. We get lots of glimpses of the hair made of snakes (the image on the cover), but that's about all that's fascinating about this film. It lacks suspense, it lacks action, well it actually lacks everything. Some nice visuals don't make up for those lacks.

I haven't seen that many Thai movies (yet) but those I have seen (among them the brilliant "Tears of the Black Tiger", the impressive "Nang Nak", the sensual "Jan Dara" and the entertaining "303 Fear Faith Revenge") made me curious for more. "Snaker" is the first disappointment in the territory. It's not completely bad, it's just not doing anything for me.

Rating: 4/10 (and I'm being rather generous)

I found this movie somewhat by mistake and am glad that I did. While it may not be the best movie ever made, but may will be one of the most important films of the decade. The film is one of the first full features made in Cambodia since the 1970's when the Khmer Rougue Regime took over. In 1975 films and other cultural activities were ordered to cease, and subsequently many actors, writers, and directors were executed. Eventually the Khmer Rougue fell, and Cambodia started to rebuild there film industry. What make this movie even more remarkable is the fact that it was made without any many of the essentials one needs to make a film, or even movie theatres in which to show it. Not to mention the complete lack of acess to such things as "digital effects" that Hollywood is all to reliant on these days. Yet some how they were ale to pull it off. The movie features some beautifully shot scenery, and may be worth the price of admission for the Ankor Wat(sp?) scene alone. Although there are some problems with the visual aspects of the movie, remember the resources the filmakers were dealing with, the color is very good. Pich Chanboramey does an excellant job as Soraya (the lead), as well as the other actors in the film. This film is a must see, and is hopefully a indication of a new renaissance of Cambodian film making. In case you were wondering why that Snake hair looks so real? Well.........it's really live snakes glued and tied to a headset