Saam Gaang

Saw Saam Gaang, known better as 3 Extremes II (the film confusingly precedes its better-known sequel "Three... Extremes". The cause of this naming stupidity is the usual culprit: the sequel was released to American audiences first, so the anglicized names are now backward.) It was a trilogy of three mini-horror films. I'll review them individually:

Memories:
A man and his wife are both suffering from amnesia. He's talking to a psychiatrist but his wife has woken up in the road, seemingly haven fallen or something. Both slowly remember the creepy course of actions which brought them to this point. The film starts with some generic creepiness: a doll, a lank-haired woman rocking back and forth. Later we graduate to more sophisticated stuff (I loved the inventive storytelling that happens in the bathroom scene, for example,) but the opening is the wrong kind of ominous. The film is set in a brand new development neighborhood. Its lack of history mirrors the protagonists' lack of memory. The banner over the town reads "where all of your dreams come true!" Very ominous considering the recurring nightmares of the husband. By the end of the film, the banner is hanging in tatters, proclaiming a newness which is ancient. The imagery is not logical but it is evocative and poetic. Several times this film stops short of a full explanation and is stronger for it. My common pet peeve with horror films is unnecessary over-explanation and this avoids that. The film lacks a firm grounding in prosaic, real fears, relying instead on the central amnesia gimmick. This leaves it feeling a bit meaningless and fluffy.

The Wheel:
This one had a very traditional feel to it. The plot followed the greedy manager of a theater troupe. They come upon some puppets which are their ticket to the good life (puppeteers being more highly paid than dancers I guess.) The puppets are cursed but, what the heck, free puppets, right? I think I would have understood more if I were more familiar with the characters in traditional Thai puppetry. There's a few scenes where it's obvious characters are acting out scenes from the play (to disastrous effect) or taking on the persona of some puppet. The film is not a traditional horror in that fear and pain are not the focus so much as righteous vengeance is. It has the feel of a morality fable, full of nastiness which is almost gleefully fun. It was not very scary (there was not a single jump-scare, no gore to speak of, and no tension whatsoever. Very tame.) but fairly morbid. A very interesting short but more for reasons of cultural tourism. Interesting.

Going Home:
The longest of the three, this one follows a policeman who moves in, with his son, to a soon-to-be-demolished and therefore almost-entirely-empty apartment building. The only other people are this deeply creepy family whose apartment is always full of steam and whose little daughter is always watching the son. Again, this is not really horrifying. It's morbid and sad but not scary in a modern sense. This one was very classy and restrained. Although dead bodies and ghosts are involved, it was more interested in getting to know a lunatic. I didn't identify any themes or anything in this one. There's inexplicable stuff which is explained alter but it's not really thematic or symbolic or anything.

So, all in all, not very scary stuff. This is a relief to me of course, but also perversely disappointing. Then again, I've noticed directors don't really give their all in these omnibus films. These seem more like interesting small ideas which were tossed off to clear out some space for better ones. They're all interesting in their own ways, but nothing really amazing. I don't know what I was anticipating, but this was a lot drier than I expected.