The New York Asian Film Festival takes place between June 29 and July 15 in Manhattan. For more information about upcoming films and events, click here.
All NYAFF had to say was “horror/comedy about a karaoke-crazed ghost out for vengeance” and I was in for Premika, the directorial debut by Siwakorn Jarupongpa. Hailing from Thailand and having its North American premiere at the festival, the film is a hilariously gory romp about a group of musicians stuck in a haunted resort forced to sing for their lives. Filled with cartoonish over the top deaths, raunchy humor, and an anime-inspired color palette, Premika will surely be the most fun you’ll have at NYAFF this year.
To be honest, the depth of the story at the core of Premika really caught me off guard. After the mutilated remains of a young woman are discovered by police, the illegal immigrant’s murder is thought to be a product of the town’s seedy karaoke bar sub-culture. What we as an audience know, that those in the film don’t, is the dead woman, who had a love for karaoke, had her heart sealed in a karaoke machine. A few months pass by, and an old resort is about to be reopened. To drum up interest, they’ve invited a group of musicians to spend some time there to promote it. With the police still investigating the murder, the guests begin to witness odd happenings at the hotel centering around an odd broken karaoke machine. Pretty soon Premika appears dressed as Japanese school girl and challenging the guests to “Premika-raoke!” with the following rules: “1. Don’t sing you die; 2. Sing off key, you die; 3. Score lower than 80, you die; 4. The song is randomized.”
It’s up to the musicians, who all seemingly have their own skeletons in their closet, to beat Premika at her own game and hopefully learn something about themselves in the process. This all plays out as the detectives slowly unravel the mystery behind the unidentified woman’s murder. My only regret watching the film is I don’t speak Thai at all. See, when the film breaks into these karaoke battles between Premika and her prey, the challenger is usually transported into the type of cheesy video you would see on Video Karaoke, complete with lyrics running at the bottom of the screen. These sequences play with the different genres and personality of the victim being challenged. I think if I could sing along that would have added a completely new dimension to the film’s re-watchability. Since this is a comedy that talks quite a bit about Thai pop-culture, don’t worry if some of the specific cultural humor and references pass you by, since there is plenty of broader humor to go around.
Featuring Gena De Souza as the namesake ghost, the film is great because it never takes itself too seriously. Even the grisly murders Premika commits with her giant axe are played more for laughs, with the garish violence feeling more cartoonish than you’d expect. It’s a style that by exaggerating the violence embraces some of the film’s humbler production values. While the film is indeed a comedy, it does manage to touch on some pretty dark themes that still retain their weight in this narrative. It’s a dynamic that works to the film’s benefit and gives the film some real teeth when it comes down to a final act that managed to really resonate with me, when we find out how Premika ended up trapped in the karaoke machine. It’s rare feat that this strange mix of genres executes as effortlessly as it does thanks to a great comedic ensemble cast that are willing to do almost anything, no matter how silly or dark, to tell Premika’s story.