Saam gaang (2002)

English titles: Three Extremes II; Three.
Synopsis (spoilers): Segment 1: A man starts having visions about his missing wife; meanwhile, said wife wakes up in the street and tries to get back home. It turns out she is dead and doesn't know it, thus nobody can see or hear her. The ending is ambiguous, as we see images that imply the man killed his wife (because she was leaving him?), followed by a scene that suggests that she actually left him. Segment 2: A puppeteer dies in mysterious circumstances; before he goes he orders that his puppets are destroyed; a former subordinate of his disobeys him; the puppets are said to be cursed and weird things start to happen. Segment 3: A man moves with his infant son to a semi-deserted condominium; the only other people living there are a man, his paraplegic wife and their infant daughter. One evening, the little boy goes out to play with the little girl and doesn't come back. His father goes to the neighbors' apartment to ask about his son; the husband answers the door and says that he didn't see the boy, doesn't have a daughter and doesn't like to be disturbed. The boy's father gets curious and enter the neighbors' apartment without being seen; in there he finds the wife submerged in the bathtub, looking dead. Then her husband returns and explains that she is being kept in that state as part of a therapy and that she will be revived after she has been in that state for three years; this is due to happen in three days, and during that period he will keep the neighbor there as a prisoner. After some time the police comes searching for the boy's father (and for the boy?) and the guy tells them that he went to Macao to gamble. Then the day of the wife's expected reanimation arrives and, just as her husband senses that her body is warming up, he says he will release the prisoner. At this exact moment, the police reappears, and finds the wife and the boy's father; they arrest the husband. Outside the building, he sees his wife being taken in a coffin and in an act of despair he breaks free and runs after the vehicle she is being transported; in the process he is run over by a car and dies. Later, the boy's father talks to a doctor who reveals that he had attended to the dead couple in the past; the wife had liver cancer and was advised by him to have an abortion; the husband said he didn't trust western medicine, so he would not consent to the abortion and would treat his wife with Chinese medicine. The doctor also reveals that the husband had been diagnosed with the same disease three years prior to his wife, and had cured himself with Chinese medicine. Then the boy's father goes back to the dead man's apartment and watches a tape that reveals that he had been through the same process of induced death and reanimation that his wife went through later. Finally, we see the little boy leaving the house to where he had been taken by the little girl; it's a photographer's shop, and we see the owner taking a picture of the dead family: husband, wife and daughter.
Appraisal: Segment 1: Interesting but lacking; its overuse of cheap sound shocks is a minus; the director seems to have some talent though, and the film has some interesting visual elements. Segment 2: Of little interest; crudely directed; the notion of cursed artifacts is antiquated and of little impact nowadays; the use of Thailandese culture as background is a plus. Segment 3: In terms of plot, I actually prefer the first one; this one's is fairly convoluted and at first caused some revolt in me because of its preposterously fantastic depiction of Chinese medicine; a few days after viewing it, however, I decided I was being too realism-biased and acknowledged that in terms of effectiveness this is the best of the three. I still find it lacking though.
Rating: Segment 1: 43; Segment 2: 25; Segment 3: 50.
Average Rating: 39