Shutter (Thai film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Shutter | |
|---|---|
 The Thai movie poster. |
|
| Directed by | Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom |
| Produced by | Yodphet Sudsawad |
| Written by | Banjong Pisanthanakun, Sopon Sukdapisit, Parkpoom Wongpoom |
| Starring | Ananda Everingham, Natthaweeranuch Thongmee, Achita Sikamana |
| Music by | Chartchai Pongprapapan |
| Cinematography | Niramon Ross |
| Editing by | Manop Boonvipat, Lee Chatametikool |
| Distributed by | GMM |
| Release date(s) | September 9, 2004 |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Country | Thailand |
| Language | Thai |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Shutter (Thai: ชัตเตอร์ กดติดวิญญาณ) is a 2004 horror film from Thailand starring Ananda Everingham, Natthaweeranuch Thongmee, and Achita Sikamana. It focuses on mysterious images seen in developed pictures. It was directed by Banjong Pisonthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
While driving home one night after a gathering with friends, Tun (Everingham) and Jane (Thongmee) accidentally hit a woman who is crossing the street. Shocked, Jane wants to see if the woman is alright, but Tun insists they flee the scene.
Sometime later, while taking pictures of a graduating class, Tun notices a horrible-looking face standing between the graduates. When he has the pictures developed, he notices the faint profile of a face in one picture. While looking closer, the face turns in a flash, revealing a haunted face with a fierce gaze.
Tun continues to have strange experiences and eerie encounters with the entity from the pictures. He has a persistent neck-ache since the accident, but a doctor finds no physical cause. Tun also has a bizarre encounter with his friend Tonn, who sneaks into Tun's apartment and claims that he needs the photos Tun has hidden away or else "she" will kill him.
Jane, who's been sensing strange things as well, decides to investigate the school where the ghostly images were taken. She soon discovers a photo of the girl in Tun's pictures, and looking in a yearbook, discovers a picture of her with Tun.
Meanwhile, Tun checks on Tonn at his apartment, but finds the place a wreck, and the table is covered with pictures which show ghostly blurs like those in many of Tun's pictures. At that point he turns to see Tonn jumping off the balconey to his death. He then learns from Tonn's wife that his other two close friends have also committed suicide.
Jane finds out that the girl on the photos was Tun's ex-girlfriend, Natre (Sikamana). Tun says that his friends used to think Natre was strange, so he kept his relationship with her a secret. When Tun broke-up with Natre, he says that she threated to kill herself, so his friends said they would take care of the situation for him, after which time he never heard from her again. They decide to pay a visit to Natre's hometown to see what became of her.
On the trip Tun sees Natre standing behind them on the road in the rear-view mirror, so he speeds away from the intersection at 120 km/h, but Natre appears outside the passenger window, then on the trunk of the car, which causes Tun to swerve off the road. When they arrive at Natre's mother's house, they notice a foul stench, and they soon find Natre's decaying body in a bedroom upstairs. Tun and Jane persuade Natre's mother to have her remains cremated so her spirit can finally rest. They discover that she committed suicide by jumping off a hospital roof after a failed attempt to overdose on pills.
That night in their hotel room, Tun is haunted by Natre, who chases him down the staircase and then out onto the fire escape. She causes him to fall off and he wakes up in hospital the next day. Jane tells him that Natre is to be cremated that day and that their troubles are over.
However, when Jane has her vacation photos developed, an extra roll of film (which shot itself prior to their leaving to go to Natre's house) has also been developed, and in the photos she sees a visage crawling across their living room floor. Jane orders the pictures sequentially and sees that the visage is slowy crawling towards the bookshelf.
In the bookshelf she finds negatives which she develops, and discovers that Natre was raped by Tun's friends, while Tun himself took pictures and refused to help her. In disgust, Jane leaves Tun, who then begins burning all of the pictures in which Natre's ghost has appeared.
Tun calls upon Natre and asks if she really loves him and if her love is really everlasting. He begins taking pictures of the apartment to find out where she is, but can't find any trace of her so he throws the camera down in anger. However, the Polaroid takes a snapshot automatically while pointed at him and Tun looks at the image as it develops. To his horror, he sees that Natre was actually with him all the time: on his shoulders. This explains his neck pain, his sudden weight gain on a scale and other events in the movie.
Natre covers his eyes, blinding him, and Tun backs up and falls out the window of his apartment, but luckily he survives. Jane visits him at the hospital where a reflection on the glass on the door to his room reveals Natre still sitting on Tun's shoulders, showing that so long as he lives, Natre will never leave him alone.
[edit] Unresolved Issues
There are several points of the plot which are unresolved in the end. This allows for fans to speculate about the answers and form their own conclusions. A partial list is:
- Who is the woman that is hit at the beginning of the movie? Is it Natre's ghost? If so, does that mean that she had only recently committed suicide? Assuming that this is correct, it would explain why Tun and the others started being haunted after the accident as well as there being no reports of anyone being admitted to the hospital that night. However, assuming that it was a ghost, then how come the car was damaged and the windscreen shattered?
- What is the timeline of the movie? Do the events happen in rapid succession, or are there periods of time between them? For example, how much time has passed since the accident to when they visit Natre's house? (The film actually suggests that some days at least elapsed in the meantime, but exactly how long?)
- Does Natre plan on driving Tun to commit suicide like she did with his friends, or does she haunt him because she really loves him? And does she hold him responsible for the actions of his friends since he didn't help her?
- Is Tun's Nikon camera the same that Natre gave him for his birthday? Is this gift camera the same he used to take photos of her half-undressed?
- Is Natre acting on purpose or blindly? Is she moved by revenge or desperation?
- Why doesn't Natre haunt Jane? Why doesn't a ghost who might (see above) deeply love Tun want to eliminate Jane from the relationship? Is this because she feels some kind of bond with her or wants to save her from Tun? Or because she wants Jane to learn the truth? Or is there another reason, such as she only haunts those against who she wishes to extract revenge?
- Why did Tun keep the negatives of the rape photos if this, apparently, hurt him? Why did not he burn it?
- Did Tun actually love Natre ?
[edit] Reception
The film has received a 7.6 and 100% "Fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes, while IMDB scores it at 7.1. One user at IMDB even went so far as to say that "[it] isn't just one of the most frightening Asian horror films I've seen, but one of the most frightening horror films I've seen full stop."
The film was nominated for the 2005 Golden Kinnaree Award for best film at the Bangkok International Film Festival and has won various awards at smaller festivals around the world. The movie was especially well-received in Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and Brazil.
[edit] Remake
A remake is planned for release in 2008, directed by Masayuki Ochiai and starring Rachael Taylor.[1]
[edit] Trivia
- The pictures with ghostly images that were used to promote the film were actual photos borrowed from people who claimed they were photos of ghosts.
- During the shooting, the directors claimed that there was actually a ghost in the scene in which Natre crossing the street where Tun and Jane accidentally hit her. The story behind the incident was that there was a drunk man who was ironically killed in a car crash.
- During the accident scene the windscreen is shattered, but later the car is shown still damaged but with the windscreen intact. This appears to be a filming inconsistency.
[edit] References
- ^ "Shutter" role is Taylor made, Reuters/Hollywood Reporter, January 19, 2007.
