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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Not just 'Thai lesbians fighting monsters'!, 29 June 2005
10/10
Author: scarequeen from United States

For the distributor to hype this film as 'Thai lesbians fighting monsters' was just plain stupid. They may think that it will get the guys to come see it. But those just looking for T & A will be disappointed. And what about the female audience? Can't women like horror films too?

The central relationship between the two girls in this film is very sensitively portrayed and is a big part of what elevates the film above being just a piece of exploitation.

What was portrayed in the film was a deep friendship, a synergy, and an affection. It was easy to see that in that kind of place you might start to lose respect for men and build close connections with other women, and that such a relationship might even become physical.

For me this was a very touching aspect to the film, and it really did have something to say about close female relationships.

It was rare to see a film directed by a man that could actually deal with this subject without thinking that having a close female relationship means your a dyke, and that lesbianism is something that exists only on porn videos for male masturbatory fantasies.

I'm not a lesbian. I went to see it with my boyfriend, and he was virtually salivating at the main actress, pervert that he is!

And surely that says something.

This film succeeds in covering a subject where 'Showgirls' totally fails. And it seems to me that one of the main reasons is that this film is real and sexy not just explicit. Sexy can be interesting for 90 minutes. Even men get bored with just the totally explicit. This film is about real girls with real lives working in an exotic club. It's not just an excuse for nudity and explicit sex.

And as for the monsters, well it seemed to me that this film was really about the monster within - about the evil inside all of us - rather than about special effect monsters.

So, yes, don't see this film if you want to just see CG monsters.

As the previous critic said, if you're looking for an ADULT film, don't go see this. If you're looking for a sexy, sensitive, intelligent, and sometimes truly scary film that your girlfriend will also enjoy, I would strongly recommend it.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A great experience in horror, 1 May 2005
10/10
Author: cannibalpinhead from Germany

I saw this movie at the "Weekend of Fear" Festival in Erlangen, Germany. I expected nothing from the unknown movie from Thailand. But what I saw was the best movie of the year! The movie tells a story about a young girl in Thailand who wants earn money for her sick grandma. In Bankog she's involved in child-prostitution in some nightclub. The became more and more the star of this nightclub, but the other girls are very jealously about her beauty. Durin using some old magic she learned from her grandmother, something is going wrong and she turned step by step into a deamon.

This movie reminds me a lot of the Japanese horror-cinema like "Ringu" aka "The Ring" but this one is much better! It visual effect are great and the demonic girl is very scary! You never know what is coming next and its suspense till the end! Watch this movie! Its really a masterpiece in horror!!! 10/10

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Surprisingly beautiful film, not just your typical horror flick. The lead is great!, 27 March 2005
9/10
Author: Boris-57 (bonzothegod@hotmail.com) from Brussels, Belgium

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

*** first & last paragraphs are without spoilers ***

At first sight the story's your pretty basic demon possession thing (P is the transliteration of the Thai word for Ghost). What made the film stand out however was the setting. The whole thing is seen from the perspective of an innocent girl forced to leave the countryside to look for money in Bangkok, where she loses touch with her past as she gets caught up in the Thai sex industry - and goes downhill (some have suggested a metaphor for drugs, but I think there are various paths leading downhill in the Thai sex industry). She refuses to accept her fate however, but her energy flows to her dark side, which soon darkens just a deeper shade of red...

More specific (***massive spoilers down here*** - for a summary go to the final paragraph) :

The opening scenes in rural Thailand where Aaw grows up in all innocence learning witchcraft from her grandmother are really full of supernatural promise in the nature of the place itself. It also sets the main character well - she's considered a freak by her peers, but fails to really rise above it, which makes her vulnerable to herself - shown by the fact that she's angry when pushed in the mud, after which a demon tries to grab her in the water; or that, when older, she scares three small kids spying on her (nicely mirroring what's about to follow). In order to pay for her sick grandmother, she has to move to Bangkok before she manages to complete her witchcraft skills. In other words, the classic - all power, but no strong enough will yet.

The action moves to the P Bar in Bangkok, where some of the most painful scenes take place, as Aaw gradually loses her old self - she is given a new name, Dau; she loses her virginity. Awkward to see, where Paul Spurrier plays the virgin loving sex industry white (very convincingly). The scene is brought so tenderly and subdued that it is all the more hurting. Very well done too (helped by the soundtrack) is the first floor show in the bar, which Spurrier manages to film in an entirely non-erotic way, but instead making the dancing poles look like a jail in which the women are meat. In fact, the whole film at this point could well be a social commentary thing with some very good cinematography.

Things for Dau then take a turn for the worse as she starts to use her magic on whoever hurts her, starting with Spurrier who gets punishment in a very fitting way. Next however is her rival at the club. Her "accident" is really great. Some good gore though very little is shown. But Dau fails to respect three sacred rules to obey when one uses black magic, thus opening her heart to... evil! - thereby gradually losing her final bit of self. The fact that her first error occurs when she acknowledges her feelings for her roommate Pookie (also a very good actress), is rather dubious I think.

Then the film loses a bit of the atmosphere that set it out from your usual ghost flick, as Dau turns into a straight vampire (actually a phii borb - a classic organ-eating Thai ghost) and goes butchering white sex tourists and whoever stands in her way - some nice gore at times, and organ-diving might become a national sport. The beginning of it, where it's still unclear whether it's real or not, is well done, but towards the end, while the film never loses momentum, the story seems a bit lost. Especially the final solution reminded me of the original Exorcist, i.e. the exorcist dies himself, and the real salvation is brought by someone letting the demon go inside and then killing herself.

The end is rather depressing - she's alive, but without demon all her rebellion against her situation is gone and the final scene shows her doing a genuinely erotic but soulless floor show - Aaw gone forever and Dau to live the miserable life of meat for sale. What I found a bit disturbing is (though this certainly couldn't have been Spurrier's intention) that the whole film can be seen as "try to resist the fate the Thai sex industry has installed for you just causes a real mess, so you'd better keep that demon calm and accept your karma and swing around that pole". It depends on whether you look at the Barb possession as being Aaw's rebellion or rather her path downhill.

*** End of spoilers ***

But don't be mistaken, this is a very good film (despite being maybe a bit less imaginative towards the end) with some exquisite acting by unknown actors. Especially the lead, Suangporn Jaturaphut (in her first role!) is simply a revelation. It's definitely worth your theater visit, with its well-told straightforward story and beautiful images - and if that's not enough, just go to check out Suangporn.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Showgirls meets Hammer Horror?, 18 August 2005
6/10
Author: Chris Docker (eyeforfilm) from Scotland, United Kingdom

Showgirls meets Hammer Horror? There would be many ways to dismiss this British Thai movie, set in a seedy Bangkok go-go bar, and whose heroine turns into a nasty flesh-eating monster. Mainstream it's not, but for lovers of trashy independents it offers something of a curious mix that is almost a collector's item.

(The title of the film translates apparently as 'Ghost'; as a pun to fun-loving Thai viewers, P-Bar sounds like the Thai word for 'loony'.) Aaw is a nice pubescent girl in rural Thailand, doing her best to look after ailing grandmom. Granny is a white witch and passes on her magic to Aaw just in case it ever comes in handy. The rural photography is beautiful, especially when we consider the film was made on a budget of £180,000. The familiar tale of young girl hoodwinked into moving to the big city to support her elderly relative is part of Thailand's cultural malaise. She gets roped into prostitution of course, and it isn't long before she starts using the 'special powers' Grandma taught her.

Up to this point there is no serious suggestion of any horror elements. Ordinary Thai people tend to believe in magic as a day to day fact, even if they are devout Buddhists, and all we have seen is a pastoral tale, embellished with well-researched superstition and embroidered with lingering detail of initiation into the girlie bar trade.

Director Paul Spurrier spent five years working on the story to ensure that the seemingly trite details were authentic - research that apparently included not only looking into magic traditions but plenty of time interviewing sex workers to understand how they operate (he even cameos in the film as a bar owner). Some of the tales he told me after the film's Edinburgh Film Festival UK Premiere were both sad in their simplicity and amusing in their unexpectedness. A girl had told him how her clients had increased from 4 in a month to 30 the next month after she had gone back home to consult the shamen. The actual witchdoctor in the film was based on a character he met in N.E. Thailand; after answering many, many questions, the witchdoctor grabbed Paul's arm, pulling him ominously into the jungle, saying, "I have done something for you, now you must do something for me!" As the barefooted film director stumbled to keep up, the gravely stones underneath biting into his feet, the shamen looked up in surprised glee - "I always wanted to know that! I had been told that Westerners' feet are soft, and hurt when they walk barefoot in the forest! Now I know!" At one point in the making of the film, the director made himself unpopular with the local madam after asking one of the girls (who was about to go on a recruiting expedition) why she was happily misleading people in the way that she, years earlier, had been misled. Some critics have dwelt on the morality of the film, saying it is both exploitative and lukewarm in its condemnation. While that might be true, the madam answered, "You only hear from girls who think they've been tricked. You don't hear from the hundreds of girls who find rich western husbands working here and go on abroad to marry. I don't hear them complaining." Then there was the go-go girl who asked for a copy of the movie "to send back home to mom, as I don't have any nice pictures to show her where I work." Spurrier was ambivalent when questioned. He thought it was sad that girls were drawn into such a life, but that it was a fact of life for many, just like the magic traditions. It is also a backdrop for the story rather than a moral axe to grind, whether in protest or condoning.

The strange part is the sudden shift of genre into horror. There is no extensive use of CGIs - it tries, if anything, to remain true to the country's tradition (Thailand has about ten new ghost story films a year). It's simplicity recalls not only many other Asian attempts at horror but also early British films where we know the blood is not very real but choose to overlook such facts. That the abrupt change works quite well is a credit to the movie, reminding us more of the masterly film Audition than say the overladen From Dusk Till Dawn. Something evil has been growing inside of Aaw, because she has ignored the rules her grandmother taught her and she is becoming a puppet of the black magic she uses too readily. The transition from nightmares and drug-induced paranoia to the manifestation of evil is understated. Just as the sex-trade is accompanied by typical Thai modesty (no bare bosoms), the horror is shocking but not too shocking, almost as if it is meant to be 'entertaining' rather than genuinely upsetting.

The shortfalls are the derivative story lines, the overlong details of how to work in a go-go bar (especially when all the women look and sound almost identical) and the fact that this Thai-style, British-made movie is not well aimed at any easily identifiable western market (other, perhaps, than DVD). The light-hearted humour (girls exchanging insulting comments about a customer in Thai whilst giving the unsuspecting customer adoring glances and tones, or the giggly exchanges of how to butter-up a Westerner), and the fact that it is the first Thai horror film made by a British director, may endear it to all lovers of light-hearted gore. Most films seek either great artistic acclaim or the hugest profits possible; Spurrick may simply be someone who wants to earn a living as a filmmaker in Thailand. P won't make him a fortune, but it might make him enough to fund the next episode in what could even become a cult niche.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Great horror flick but a bit exploitative of Thai women, 20 July 2005
7/10
Author: Rocco3000 from Montreal, Quebec, Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

P (which means ghost in the Thai language - although there aren't really any ghosts in this movie) is the story of a girl who becomes a prostitute, and then a flesh-eating demon who hunts people at night. Great acting and excellent presentation, especially from an English director, who has created a very authentic Thai looking film. But at the same time the movie, especially the first hour, has the feel of Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls (young girls being taken advantage of by a system; this is how it is, however unfortunate, so let's just enjoy it).

The film starts off simply enough where we are introduced to a 12 year old girl who is the granddaugther of a witch. People from her small village are naturally afraid of them. But we drift away from this setup quickly as we watch our 12 year old strip down to her white undies, and goes for a swim, at which point the undies become see-through and...well the theme for the rest of the first hour is disturbingly set.

Fast forward 5 years, our heroine is now 17, and heads to bangkok to make some money to pay for food and medicines for her ailing grandmother. The powers that be manipulate her into becoming a "go-go" dancer and prostitute. At first she is tortured by her first "time" (rape?) with a customer (who was actually the director!), but in the next scene is hungry for more as she competes with the other girls in the bar for men and dances. Thus plays out the first hour of the movie, much more like a drama, completely forgetting the scary, mystical beginnings of the movie and the reason for her trip to Bangkok (her grandmother!), as we see scene after scene of, albeit beautiful, scantily clad Thai women dancing, and all of the intricacies of prostitution in Thailand.

Finally the second hour begins as her witch powers are brought back into it, and she begins to turn into some sort flesh-eating demon. All very well done and scary, saving the movie from becoming another Showgirls.

Although the long exotic dance scenes seem exploitative to me (another during the end credits?! Oh come on!), I would still very much recommend this movie. Especially if you love Asian women, because this one has some of the best looking ones I've seen in a long time!

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
A very good look at Bar Girl life with a ghost Story to boot. (Great Lead Actress!), 9 August 2007
8/10
Author: DrStranglove from USA

For what has to be their first real acting jobs, the lead and supporting lead in this film are a shear joy to watch. I was consistently stunned in the way they handled themselves before the lens and the way I thought they bonded in their characters. They may hate each other in real life for all I know, but they sure seemed good friends in the film.

Back to the film itself. I thought "P" a rather good story with a clever insight in to the Bar Girl life in the Land of Smiles. Though perhaps too clean, the setting and the mannerisms of the locals and their foreign western tourists was spot on. The Director has been criticized for making a dumb or amateurish film and this is unfair. This film, made with a low budget, is excellent in its use of the Thai language and customs that is not often seen in films with much larger budgets. (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason comes to mind.) Personally I liked it. And what the Director may have lacked in a budget or a shooting schedule, he made up for with expert actresses and wonderful performances. 8 out of 10

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
A young Thai girl moves to save her grandmother, 11 April 2005
8/10
Author: Eren Sener from Australia

I'm a definite horror movie fan, and this rendition doesn't disappoint. I had the honor of sitting in with Paul Spurrier during the sound mixing of the film in Sydney, and his vision in not only what transpired to the screen, but sonically, was incredible. If you like the classic 'innocent' girl turned corrupt narrative, this film turns it into a horrific experience. Some fantastic graphic editing (obviously a credit to pre-visualisation and storyboarding) not to mention superb first time acting. It's always great to see the director appearing in a cameo role, and Paul plays the role of the 'seeking' white man to what we can all thoroughly believe. So, make sure you all give this film a go, and enjoy!

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Not perfect but still good, 21 July 2006
7/10
Author: josemg2003 from Spain

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.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Boring ghost story almost saved by its dark, sensual elements, 25 August 2007
7/10
Author: fertilecelluloid from Mountains of Madness

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"P" means ghost in Thai, so this is a story about ghostly occurrences.

Dau (Suangporn Jaturaphut), a beautiful, young Khmer girl, travels to Bangkok to work as a prostitute so she can earn money to look after her grandmother. Her grandmother is a superstitious type who may or may not be a witch. She warns Dau to never trade magical secrets, never eat raw meat, and never walk under a clothesline. Of course, Dau does all these things and creates a demonic, murderous doppelganger who kills while she sleeps and causes havoc at P, the club where she works.

The first half hour of this movie is close to perfection. Dau's situation is presented with great visual panache and we are led into the dark world of prostitution in Bangkok. Unfortunately, once the ghost story is introduced, the film loses its seductive, sensual power. Although there is a strong focus on friendships between the women, the trashy, horror set pieces pop up at predictable intervals and dilute the dramatic tension. The film has a "Nightmare On Elm Street" feel at times mixed with "The Exorcist", but it is never scarier than an episode of "Goosebumps".

Strangely schizophrenic, "P" softly condemns the exploitation of Thai women by foreigners, but goes out of its way to be an erotic poem to the incredible beauty and sensuality of the women. Sequences in which the women dance and parade their gorgeous bodies are highly arousing and beautifully shot by Rich B. Moore, Jr., who does a knock-up job all 'round. The young lead, who doesn't look too much older than thirteen, is a revelation here, turning in an extraordinary performance and conveying both a naive awareness of her erotic power and a complex sense of her loss of innocence.

It's sad to say, but "P" is ultimately capsized by its predictable, boring horror elements and almost saved by its dark, sensual, more intimate aspects. What a shame. It could have been so good.

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6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
A really good Asian horror from British Director\Writer Spurrier. Scary, funny and quite creepy., 26 August 2005
7/10
Author: Richard Brunton (imdb-update@brunton.org.uk) from Edinburgh, Scotland

From the opening I found myself transfixed by the settings and location. From the countryside setting of the opening I was fascinated by how beautiful the country looked. Gorgeous settings and some beautifully chosen locations. I found myself looking closely at many of the smaller details, from the tree carved and varnished into a seat in the village scene to the bus that arrives to take Aaw (Dau, the main character) to the City.

The title sequence struck me as interesting, and I have yet to find out if this was intentional or not, but it plays out like a series of comic book panels, or storyboard scenes. Perhaps there was some reasoning behind this, or perhaps it was just the way it turned out. However it does give a nice feel and a representation of broken moments while Aaw learns from her Grandmother.

This lush setting was then broken by the images of the city, a good transition scene showing the building confusion of Aaw as she gets lost in the sights and sounds of the City. At first the camera shows shots of new office blocks against old slums, street vendors and passing taxis, then the pace picks up and the roadside begins to blur. You pick out frozen moments at the roadside, a Louis Vitton shop, and then the senses are overrun and there's just a stream of passing light and noise.

Then the movie is taken over by the story of the City and the story turns to the plight of the girls of the go-go bar. What struck me throughout these scenes of the girls is how delicately they are portrayed. The girls themselves are never shown as being sleazy themselves, more manipulative. Apart from Aaw, now christened Dau for her new job, who has come to this world with her eyes firmly shut. They are actually shown in a good light, good in the sense of bleakness and the repeated idea that this is the end of the line, and there's nowhere else to go. It's interesting that the speeches that some of the girls give about the life they're in all show that they've accepted this life as the norm, it's only Dau that seems to have a problem with it.

The scenes at the beginning of the movie with Dau being "initiated" into this way of life are quite uncomfortable, and make you feel as sleazy watching them as the men with them. That should be almost, as Paul plays an excellently nasty person, and the scene he holds with Dau is steeped in a feeling of you're seeing too much, knowing this is just so wrong. It's that kind of emotive response from the audience that really makes a good scene, and that certainly delivers.

The girls are very good actresses, something I was surprised at was how natural they all seemed. In particular the relationship between Dau, played by Suangporn Jaturaphut, and Pookie played by Opal. They both are really strong together on screen and you really do believe that these two girls care for each other.

The story is written well and the ending very satisfying, although perhaps it is cut a little too harshly before the final sequence. You feel that there could have been a few scenes restored that were originally removed (in fact thirty minutes have been cut from the movie).

I was surprised at some of the special effects in the movie, the look of the spirit herself is supremely creepy, and in keeping with other creatures of Asian horror that may be more familiar. Also the scenes where the spirit enters the body and begins to eat from the inside are very well done and look to have been created with quite a budget behind them. Then there's a car crash scene which by no means seems small either in budget or in physical size on location.

There are some truly scary and creepy moments that I would definitely class as alongside more famous Asian horrors, I did jump once or twice, and carried an image or two to my bed that night, a superb affect for a movie to have. Some of the scare moments are excellently shot to provide just enough scare factor. Indeed the quality of the camera work throughout the movie is very good.

Let's not forget the comedy in the movie as well, there are a couple of pretty funny lines. For instance the Desk Clerk asks the Security Guard to visit a room as someone has complained about a Westerner "moaning loudly" in the room. "A westerner moaning loudly in a hotel room? That's unusual!". The subtitles are in perfect English and carry through the humour very well.

Something I wasn't so sure about was the comic element during some of the horror scenes. I'm not entirely convinced it was intended in some parts, although without a doubt the scene with Paul was funny and uncomfortable at the same time, yet others I was unsure whether to laugh. This is particularly true of a scene where a Westerner dies on a bed and blood shoots out from his ears, a few of the audience laughed and I was unsure if this was the desired reaction. It really did feel like a Hammer House moment.

Although the story did seem to leap through a few key moments in Dau's power misuse, and also just prior to the ending, I enjoyed the movie, even with the comic horror moments which I felt let it down slightly. There were some very scary and uneasy moments throughout, and the girls were very well acted and were portrayed with an unusual sensitivity for a Westerner. Combined with some amazing locations early on, this makes for an enjoyable movie, just don't watch it too late.

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