Dorm (DTS Version) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3
Charlie Trairat (Actor)
| Songyos Sugmakanan (Director)
Our Price:
US$10.99
Related promotions:
Important information about purchasing this product:
- This product is accepted for return under certain conditions. For more details, please refer to our return policy.
Customer Review of "Dorm (DTS Version) (Hong Kong Version)"
Average Customer Rating for this Edition:
(2)
Page:
1
numinair
See all my reviews
September 25, 2007
See all my reviews
September 25, 2007
2 people found the following helpful
By the Dorm's Early Fright!
By the Dorm's Early Fright!
|
Although this film shifts from the horror/ghost boundary into social awarenesses, it becomes embellished for it in this case, as additional social elements about child education and friendships, are more befitting and rewarding in "Dorm" at the conclusion, than if this movie had been a straight forward horror. So, in essence, although this is a very haunting and dark dreamlike experience, its also a very human heartfelt story, too. At the beginning, you straight away feel you are going to watch an interesting plot line, as the boy Chatree (played excellently by Chalee Trairat) is sent to a foreboding dormitory within his school semester period, to facilitate his stern father's wishes to further educate him, due to his poor school records and preferred TV viewing. This emotional and intricately filmed introduction of Chatree's parents preparing to take him to the dorm, with Chatree under a polite form of duress, anticipates the foreboding scenes to come and immediately grabs your attention. When the family eventually drive and reach the dorm itself, you then anticipate all the dread Chatree would have, as he enters the bleak, haunting looking blue-gray exterior and the regimented interior of the sleep room, producing all the isolated feelings he would endure there. Chatree, though, eventually meets up with a group of boys, who try to scare him at night in the large sleep room, with ghost tales about previous dorm inhabitants; a girl who had committed suicide and walks the halls at night, sounds of howling dogs within the toilets - and a boy who had mysteriously died in a swimming pool incident, all told and reflected by the sudden jumps, howls, mood music and eeriness of the night filled dorm. And this film deliveries with the haunting visuals - this institutionalized edifice could easily be found in the life vacant griminess of a Silent Hill, and the dark hued atmosphere here is near the ambiance of that titular horror game/movie (I could well imagine a Dorm Map in the game now). But this isn't an 'evil' ghost story, but more an emotionally structured, and sympathetically endearing social tale, of forced isolation and neglect. Chatree is thrust into this cold cloistered setting and robbed of the school friends he wished to be with, by his harsh and supposedly well meaning father, who only wants his son to study harder. But this is also about a trapped ghost within the dorm that only Chatree can communicate with, and of the ghost's own death relating to an incident at the dorm. (I don't want to say much about the ghost, but the young actor who plays him, looks a lot like a young Robbie Williams who was once in boy band Take That). The group of boys Chatree meets are also quite a set of characters. Initially, they try to scare him with ghost tales and seem like emotional bullies, but a loose sort of bond ship emerges as they all become closer by familiarity, amidst their daily circumstances. It has an endearing humor as well, like when Chatree shows the ghost boy his video game hand held, near to where the boys are playing a game of soccer, for them to stop and wonder (as only Chatree can see the ghost) if he is talking to himself - only for one of the more subdued of the bunch to reply drolefully "I always talk to myself , too" with the boys turning their gazes onto him. The actress, too, who pays the oppressed headmistress (Jintara Sukapat) is another crucial acting feature in this. The cinematography is one of the best features here, and by the cold and dank colour hues of the dorm, add vividly the peculiarity of isolation and fear the dorm reflects (being alone in an alien environment away from friends and family) giving a visual feeling of dreamlike haunting, rarely captured in ghost movies of this type. The boy actor who plays Chatree performs convincingly, too, by the plight of his troubled loneliness (until he meets the ghost that is), reflecting the feelings we can all have, when placed in such alien environments with nobody you know. Human beings are by nature communicative creatures, but become inverted in such controlling places as the dorm. The haunting, though, in this is more down to earth and away from the fantasy horror of the usual type, and by its nature can get more under the skin than if it was just a 'jump out of your seat' ghost girl on the prowl vengeance horror. The fact that it is also set in Thailand with its own haunted past consciousness, also underscores its themes. Like the Korean movie "The Forgotten Child: Shin Sung Il is Lost" it touches the theme of stricture towards children by the essence of the forced education here, like parallel in the religious forced theme in the Korean movie. This is a very rewarding film, as its main end game is about love and friendship, that are the two most important things a human being can have, and as a human story, this is far more rewarding than merely a dark screamer about 'wicked ghosts'. Highly recommended. |
Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
(Report This)
Threefolddado
See all my reviews
July 11, 2007
See all my reviews
July 11, 2007
1 people found the following helpful
Not Your Typical Ghost Story
Not Your Typical Ghost Story
|
This is a rare hybrid of horror and teen fantasy. A boy attends a dorm with weird goings on. At first he is running scared, but then he becomes involved with helping one of the ghostly residents. In parts scary, moving and all in all, well done. |
Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
(Report This)
Page:
1
