Slice

When the quirky director Wisit Sasanatieng made his first horror film The Unseeable, Kongkiat Komesiri (Art Of Devil, Muay Thai Chaiya) helped him pen the script. In turn, Wisit helped his fellow director originate the story for Slice, which unsurprisingly became one of the best Thai films in 2009, and one of the best Thai thrillers in a decade.
Slice starts with a man dancing hilariously, pulling a big red suitcase, along a hotel corridor. He stops in front of a room, which is opened by a smiling Caucasian man. A few minutes later, the man is staring at a boy who is swallowing his meal with hunger. Suddenly, a mysterious man in red raincoat appears. In slow motion, he is dancing towards the room. A few minutes later, the Caucasian man is slain, red???everywhere. Nearby, the almost-naked boy is shaking with fear. But he is strangely safe from the cut by the red raincoat man, who coldheartedly slices with disturbing calmness, and nice waltz music. The story just begins.
A series of murders follows - by the same red raincoat man - all involving red suitcases. Everytime it ends up with brutal, ugly bodies. Perhaps you have to close your eyes to follow these scenes. The cops fail notice how all these seemingly unrelated cases are linked: sex sex and sex. The Caucasian man has sex with a young boy, the teacher with his student, and the young gay man in an orgy party.
A young prisoner Tai is brought in. Tai is a loyal man to his mentor police Lt. Chin. He recently has the same dreams and tells it to a psychiatrist police. She sees the connection with the serial murders. Then Tai is the only one who can help solve the case, when a powerful politician's son is disgustingly murdered. All the cases look familiar and bring him to his childhood town. But the closer he gets the investigation, the more people around him are involved. Finally, the killer is someone he has known for a long time.
Director Kongkiat proves himself to be the king of blood with beauty. He knows how to mix the two opposite chemistries together into an artistic film. Along with shocking and stunning scenes, Slice is filled with good elements - production design is tense in the prison room, free and fresh in the countryside, tight in the killing sonata -, all compact and responsive with the cinematography. Kongkiat is a good controller of every mise-en-scène. His name is also listed as a director of photography. Music is so extreme - waltz, jazz, and ballad, which don’t normally fit in thrillers. Everything is well off in conjunction with the tight and round script. Everything happens in the movie is all supportive to one another leading up to the end. And the paces are in good rhythm and perfect. In another word, Kongkiat plays a big role as the director of the film.
The paradox in the final sequence may be a bit too extreme. And some make-up looks unrealistic. But the rest is so perfect that one should not miss this film. Two young actors who play the childhood part of the leads have a long future in the reel world. It might not be an overstatement to say that Slice is Kongkiat’s best film so far.