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The movie Strange Gay Twins: good for laugh but not much else

via CAAI

Wednesday, 08 September 2010 15:01 Hong Channpheaktra

Now that movies are on TV and available at DVD shops, some people say there is no need to go to the theatres. But you can’t giggle with your friends or cuddle with your songsa watching a movie alone at home. In spite of those naysayers, who feel that cinema is dead, I went out last weekend to check out Strange Gay Twins, the newest flick from Classic Productions currently showing at Cinema Sorya and Cinema Lux.

The movie revolves around a group of models, photographers and supporting crew on a photo shoot in a forest called Ghost Village. Shockingly, the name of the locale turns out to prophetic when the crew begins to hear strange sounds as shooting wraps on day one of their production and evening settles in. That night, the assembled artists gather around a bonfire as their trip leader, John (played by Cha Rithy), regales them with a tale of ill-intentioned gay twins. Little did he know this ghoulish duo was hiding behind a nearby tree listening to his tale; and for the rest of the film the group has to deal with the demons that come out of the twin’s bodies.

One of the perks of watching a movie with a crowd of people is that laughter becomes infectious, and at times during the movie I found my stomach began to hurt from all of my giggling. The movie kicked off with two rather absurd-looking make-up designers arguing over nonsense and that set the tone for the rest of the film. One of the funniest scenes came when Lisa (played by Alisa) slapped a ghost’s face when it suddenly appeared right in front of her group. They began to argue and the ghost had to endure another smack in the mouth before the group escaped. Some surprisingly relevant pop-culture references, such as a ghost humming the “Tren Tren Tren” jingle from recent Cell Card commercials, added to the humour of the movie.

While some of the scenes were funny, the movie generally followed the well-trodden path of poorly-produced Khmer cinema. The forest was fairly well-lit and failed to give anyone in the audience the sense of strangeness that I suspect the director had hoped for.

The voices were dubbed over the original film and the noticeably out of sync speaking undermined what was already underwhelming acting from the cast.

I won’t give away the end because I honestly have no idea what happened. The director seemed to switch to another narrative altogether; if you can make sense of it please let me know what was going on.

Some hearty laughter – along with the notion that I could probably make a better movie than Strange Gay Twins – helped relieve my stress from the work week. I would recommend this film to anyone looking to have a fun couple of hours with family and friends, but don’t expect anything artistic. This film, like most Khmer cinema these days, had some funny jokes but was, in almost every other way, predictably poor.