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THE
COFFIN
DVD. Breaking Glass Pictures.
 There
is, apparently, a ritual in Thailand where people line up to lie
in coffins and take part in mock burials, while wishing for some
problem – be it medical or emotional – in their life
to be fixed. It’s this essentially harmless tradition that
inspires The Coffin, as two people find that
while their wishes are granted, there is a price to pay.
Chris (Ananda Everingham) has a girlfriend in a coma, suffering
with an incurable brain disease, while Sue (Karen Mok) is suffering
from lung cancer and has fled from Hong Kong – where she
is due to marry – to Thailand. Both take part in the ritual
(in an opening shot that is truly breathtaking, as hundreds of
coffins are arranged in circles around massive Buddha statues)
out of desperation, but both find their requests have been granted
– Chris’ girlfriend is cured and Sue’s cancer
is nowhere to be found. But both are plagued with hallucinations
– Chris starts to see typically Asian ghostly figures (white
dress, long black hair) while Sue is visited by her husband to
be – only to receive a call telling her that he has been
killed. It soon transpires that in exchange for the lives that
have been saved, someone else has had to die…
The Coffin is a lovely looking film, with remarkable,
atmospheric imagery that director Ekachai Uekrongtham presents
at a sedate pace, allowing the story to unfold slowly… a
little too slowly, unfortunately. By all accounts, this
film started out as a non-supernatural story about death and acceptance,
and then had the horror elements grafted on when financing became
impossible to obtain. And unfortunately, it feels very much like
two ideas slammed together. The slow melodrama would be a solid
tale in its own right, but it doesn’t really work in the
context of a ghost story – and the horror scenes feel rather
out of place, with jump-shock moments thrown in at random just
to keep the viewer awake and to remind them that this is
a horror film. It’s not awful – the horror scenes
by themselves are effective, but the clash of styles – and
the overly familiar supernatural scenes – don’t really
help the film hold your attention.
 Those
of you who hate subtitles (there must be some out there) will
be glad to hear that most of this film is in English – which
is actually quite disconcerting for some reason, and clearly a
sop to the international market. This does allow for the appearance
of a remarkably wooden (and thankfully quickly forgotten) English
character, but it seems weird in a film based so closely around
a tradition that will be entirely alien to most Western audiences.
As a horror film, The Coffin is strictly second
division in the Asian Ghost Story world; as a look at our fear
of death (and the Final Destination-like premise
that Death cannot be cheated), it’s more successful, though
the horror scenes invariably unbalance it. Not by any means disinteresting,
the film is a decent failure – but you may well find your
attention wandering as it plays out its schizophrenic story.
The DVD apparently contains deleted and alternative scenes, alongside
behind-the-scenes footage that might all throw new light on things,
but these were missing from the screener, so I can’t comment..
DAVID
FLINT
BUY
IT NOW (USA)
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