From Asia Pacific Arts Magazine (Sep 5th, 2008 issue)
Published by: UCLA Asia Institute, USA
http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/080905/article.asp?parentID=96759
The Coffin exemplifies the beauty of horror Supernatural horror film Long Dtor Dtai (The Coffin) premiered on August 21 in Bangkok and immediately topped the box office, beating Jason Statham's Death Race which opened in Thailand on the same day. Its theme song "Yeu / Free You" by the band Potato, which combines church organ music and upbeat emo rock music, has also been rocking the local charts.
Director Ekachai Uekrongtham, also the director of the Beautiful Boxer, collaborates with actor Ananda Everingham and actress Karen Mok to tell a story inspired by a true Thai ritual. A Thai architect and a Hong Kong dietician decide to go through the Thai ritual of lying in coffins in order to get rid of bad luck and to prolong life. However, after partaking in the ritual, they face a series of strange and terrifying incidents.
The Coffin has won critical acclaim due its delicate use of the most beautiful cinematic effects to convey horror, and the frightened audiences rave about scenes showing the symmetry of hundreds of coffins, arranged in concentric circles around a giant sitting Buddha. A cross-boundary production between Thailand, HK, and Singapore, The Coffin's cast also has cross-cultural tint to it: Mok of Shaolin Soccer is a Hong Kong-based actress of Persian-German-Chinese descent, and Everingham is a Thailand-based actor of Australian-Laotian descent. This English-language, cross-national product will be in theatres cross Asia in the upcoming months.
--Cathryn Chen
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