Terra Terra
Mar
14
2007

Haunting Me - Tubby Thai Tranny Terror

Posted by Peter Nelhaus at 12:00am.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Comedy, Horror, Asia.

hauntingme.jpg

Imagine the stupidest Thai horror-comedy combined with with outtakes from

Wigstock. That pretty much describes

Haunting Me, the English title for Hortaewtak. I’m not going to expect every film starring guys in drag to be as good as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Even Vegas in Space had inspired moments. Even if by Thai standards there aren’t the apirations of Beautiful Boxer or even Iron Ladies, I would have hoped to be even slightly amused. Obviously there is a culture gap as I was surrounded by an audience that couldn’t stop laughing at the sight of four middle aged cross dressers simply sitting in a room, shrieking as loud as possible. The film is my introduction to Poj Arnon, a guy who admittedly knows how to please Thai filmgoers.

The film takes place in an apartment building haunted by two ghosts. One of the ghosts is a chubby would-be ladyboy who accidentally has killed herself falling on a bar of soap, knocking her head against a toilet bowl. The other ghost is of a young woman who was murdered by a group of male students in the apartment, following her gang rape. The film follows the four mature ladyboys in their attempts to fight against ghosts and various evil spirits.

Parts ofHaunting Me are parodies of Thai movie cliches - the lonely ghost, the ghost seeking revenge, the one guy who can vanquish many foes with his martial arts skills, and the evil sorcerer. The spoof of Brokeback Mountain must have seemed like a real howler in the writing stage - the two sheep herders actually have goats, and engage in a threesome with the chubby ghost, seen as shadows inside the pup tent. One of the “women” actually mentions Brokeback Mountain just to make sure the audience gets the joke. For those who care, the scene is the first of at least two Thai Brokeback parodies this year.

As a comedy about guys with female identities, Haunting Me is neither divine nor Divine. The funniest part of the film was the pre-credit advisement that the film was made for entertainment purposes, and that the offensive language used by the characters should not be used by the audience. Otherwise, to coin an expected cliche here, as a film about guys in drag, Haunting Me is a . . . well I’m sure you’ve figured it out

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Reader Comments

  1. Caterpillar 03/14/2007 @ 12:16am

    ...OK.

  2. Ard Vijn 03/14/2007 @ 4:37am

    Hi Peter,
    Must indeed be something cultural, a friend of mine visited Thailand and commented the same thing: crossdressing is the biggest laugh in Thai cinemas and keeps getting used in every comedy.
    This specific movie sounds so off-putting to me tha’t I’m almost becoming curious. Do they play the gang-rape murder ghostfor laughs too?

    BTW: I added a “review” tag to your review. If you don’t want it, just take it off.

  3. Peter Nellhaus 03/14/2007 @ 7:57am

    Hey Ardvark: I’ll put it this way, the gang-rape and murder were treated superficially from my point of view.

  4. orien 03/15/2007 @ 10:40am

    for me, some of the funniest comedies in Asia are from Thailand. they can be pretty over the top. some of the most hilarious scenes are those that would be considered very offensive or shocking in other parts of the world. that’s what i like about thai comedies. they’re not afraid to be politically incorrect. and they’re not afraid to utilize violence for belly-aching laughs
    -----

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