Kong Tao Review: Ambitious Southeast Asian Horror Movie Ends Up A Messy Rojak Of Ideas

Kong Tao (NC16)

Starring Kao Supassara, Philip Keung, Bront Palarae, Glenn Yong, Mayiduo, Yumi Wong, Mark Lee

Directed by Yong Choon Lin, Goh Pei Chiek

This multi-national horror flick, Kong Tao, looks like it's been hit by a kong tao (black magic curse) itself too.

We’re talking Thai, Malaysian, Singaporean and even Hong Kong input by way of Philip Keung, the go-to HK dude in our neighbourhood, who’s streets ahead of everybody in acting skills right here. Give the man a Tiger beer. He deserves it as he plays Meng, a sullen, shifty chanting Thai shaman. He extracts doom-casting “corpse oil” from dead bodies in sinister, badly-lit hideouts.

One dab of the wicked potion on a chick’s neck and she’s yours for the taking as though it's Epstein Island.

Okay, we’re expecting exotic, endemic, maybe even philosophical supernatural scares due to Kong Tao’s —  great title, by the way — curious and investigative set-up ala Korea’s culturally and religiously frightening The Wailing.

Instead, it’s The Bailing when all the good work is undone by a prolonged, silly, CGI-nutty Thai-sorcerer-vs-Malaysian-bomoh showdown. Flaming arrows, little demons and occult mumbo-jumbo zip over the Thai-Mal border without discernible passport control. Man, it makes those Liang Po Po vs Ah Beng antics across the Causeway look like normal neighbourly exchanges.

Nothing’s really scary here, helmed by Malaysian co-directors Yong Choon Lin and Goh Pei Chiek (The Locksmith), who can shoot a dark can’t-see-properly chiller, but lack the rigour to truly seal the deal. You’re more spooked by how local influencer Mayiduo shows up in movies spouting jarring TV-standard ah beng-ness as though he’s in his own personal film festival.

Anyway, initially, things seem passable as this spellbound tale — or is it tales since characters keep popping up — leads us on some mysterious two-pronged excursion into our inter-linked black magic practices in Southeast Asia.

A Thai reporter, Fon (Kao Supassara), is hellbent on finding out what happened at a sudden mass massacre of kids in a Thai school near the Malaysian border. Meanwhile, a foreign bunch of “adventurous YouTubers” goes voodoo hunting in rural, superstitious Thailand to drive up online viewership. Played by Singaporean Glenn Yong, said Mayiduo, and Malaysians Yumi Wong and Eric Lay as a womanising slimeball fated for bloody karmic payback.

Their paths converge to pinpoint a snooty jiuhu developer, Mr Song (Mark Lee), channelling a rich bastard scrubbed for a Bond-villain audition. “Why you young people still believe in witchcraft or magic?” the baddie, grabbing land on both sides of the border, asks with a smile.

FYI, the filmmakers apparently spent almost two years to turn this pic into a “visual encyclopedia” of kong tao folk culture. But it’s hard to tell since, apart from its corpse-oil scenes, the temples, idol figurines, scorpions, black puke and icky stuff pulled out of Hottie Yumi’s rotting face here look pretty standard horror fare.

Which means we get a motley collection of regional acting styles, accents and languages here that looks like a gathering of unnecessarily diverse actors who aren't quite sure how to propel a horror movie.

This jumbled pic needs a clearer focus, cut its characters, speak with a distinct native voice and go deep into one singular place of kong tao ritualism. Instead of being a rojak mix to please a myriad crowd with gossipy ideas scripted in a kopitiam.

Quick aside. Wanna catch an effectively zeroed-in black magic gore-fest? Try the upcoming Panor 2 that’s wholly from Thailand.

Now, someone here explains that “kong tao” translates as “tame head”.

Actually, think it really means, “lame head”. (2.5/5 stars) in cinemas now

Photo: GV Pictures