I bought a DVD of Vinyan (Dir.Fabrice Du Wetz 2008) in the market the other day and watched it last night, because there is nothing like a good horror film to cheer oneself up. An escape from the real horror of everyday life and the Stoke on Trent pay claim form.
Cathars Sis.
Vinyan is not a run of the mill lastgirlstanding sort of horror but an existential and psychological horror like Don't Look Now. Set in Thailand and Burma it also has lashings of Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now in it.
It was the portrayal of South East Asia that interested me. The vinyan of the title is a kind of vengeful ghost and at first I thought it might have been based on a Thai story. Disappointingly most of the usual orientalist film cliches were there, ruined temple, hostile jungle, the sinister locals and the gradual moral decline of the white protagonists.To name a few.
The cinematography was often beautiful and atmospheric and the plot had potential but few Western directors working in South East Asia seem to come up with original ideas. Watch the real thing instead. As you know from reading this blog there are plenty of brilliant film coming out of South East Asia. Watch Vinyan if you ever want to write or think about Western attitudes to SEA.