The only drawback is the last act, where both logic and acting goes a little overboard as the family performs an elaborate ritual. The combination of beautifully-rendered visuals (as dreary as they are) and admirable performances from the cast also sets The Medium in a calibre on its own. The development here is superb, given how it realistically unpacks the full story. And as the story unravels, Na’s script pushes us further with dark back stories that threaten to turn the situation on its head. It manifests this through the different characters with opposing views (Nim’s sister, Noi for example, deludes herself to the symptoms until it becomes to late), and also entangles a complex circumstance of family guilt into the mix. And coming from a Southeast Asian country, the imagery here is particularly disturbing, given the strings, rituals and trances.īut what The Medium does best, is in unwrapping the story of spiritual inheritance. From raw scenes of gore to story arcs touching on animal cruelty, incest and self-harm, The Medium is tough to stomach, especially at the speed in which it whips through these without pause. The scenes that follow are not for those easily triggered. The catch is that, when one doesn’t perform the initiation, these symptoms may become uncontrollable in nature and destroy the person in the process. You see, Nim inherited her capabilities through her mother, and only became the chosen one after her elder sister, who was first picked, rejected the goddess and turned to Christianity. It starts with jitters but escalates into bouts of uncharacteristic anger, which concerns the shaman. The plot thickens when Nim’s niece, Mink (Narilya Gulmongkolpech), starts to act oddly after her father’s passing. Some of the best moments are of her performing annual rites at a small grotto, where a huge stone effigy of Ba Yan presides over her devotees. The humble woman has a day-job as a seamstress, but when not bent over the machine, Nim is sitting in front of her expansive altar, filled with trinkets and items to empower her work. The Medium indulges us with lush scenes of her practice. Taking place in the northerly region of Thailand, the featured priestess is Nim (Sawanee Utoomma), who acts as the resident medium known for calling upon guidance and remedies from Ba Yan – a local ancient goddess. The film follows a production crew who is documenting the topic of Isan animism through a local shaman. This shows up too with the mockumentary The Medium. The two veterans are strong in their compelling narratives – both enjoy layering their characters with the burden of a strained human psyche, and winding up tension for the payoff in the last act. The promise of a collaboration between Shutter-famous Banjong Pisanthanakun, directing a new horror title produced by The Wailing Na Hong-jin, is enough to make any pundit in the genre sit up and take notice.
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