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Someone is killing all sorts of sexworkers and - what's worse for the
police - their rich clients as well, and just one man seems to know who the
killer might be, Tai (Arak Amornsupasiri). Thing is, Tai is a convicted
and incarcerated brutal hitman, and in order to track down the killer, the
police has to release him. So cop Chin (Chatchai Plengpanich) strikes a
deal with Tai, he will release him and let him work on his own, but while
he keeps his girlfriend Noi (Jessica Pasaphan) under police custody to guarantee his return. The search for the killer is a trip down memory lane for
Tai, to his childhood days in the country when he (played in the flashbacks by
Sikarin Polyong) was best friends with Nut (Artthapan Poolsawad) - and for
some reason, Nut was the victim of sexual abuse by pretty much everybody,
which pretty much drove the boy to breaking point ... until he killed one
of those who tried to rape him. Tai and Nut ran away and tried to fend
for themselves in the city, but a gang of wannabe-pimps soon tried to turn
Nut
into a toyboy to rent out to rich customers, and when Nut refused they
locked him inside a suitcase they dragged off to God-knows-where - which
is the last Tai has ever seen of Nut, and when the first victim of the
serialkiller at hand was found in a suitcase just like the one Nut was
dragged away in, that triggered Tai's memory ... Doing some more
research on the wherabouts of Nut, Tai eventually learns that he might
have had a sex change later in life and considerable plastic surgery, and
now he looks like ... like of all people Tai's girlfriend Noi. Tai rushes
to the place Noi is held by the police to avoid disaster, but is
ultimately stopped by the cops watching the place while inside, officer
Chin tries to rape her - and is brutally murdered as a thank you for his
efforts, as well as everybody else in Noi's way as she's shooting her way
to freedom. Eventually, Tai tracks down Noi to one of the places of
their childhood, with the police hot on his trail, and when she hears the
sirens, she begs him to shoot her dead - which he ultimately does under tears
... A film that is daring in its topic, targeting the (illegal)
Thai sex industry and all sorts of sexual abuse that come with it. On an
aesthetic level, the film is pretty stylish, but not in an attempt to gloss
over its rather dirty subject matter but to keep the dynamics of the film
alive, and thus many of the murder scenes are reminiscent of the best
giallos of the 1970's. But as ambitious as the film is on some levels,
it's let down a bit by it's story, which is pretty much a collection of
genre clichés carried by rather flat characters, and several of the
plottwists including the film's ultimate resolution are a bit too
far-fetched to remain believable (another parallel with classic giallo
cinema, actually). Still, while not living up to its ambitions on the
whole, this is a pretty solid genre movie that will at least keep you
entertained throughout.
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find Slice at adultvideouniverse.com
