Koma (2004)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

best movie i've ever seen.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The first must-see film of the year.

Traditionally, Asian films have been sticking more to the classic horror styles and elements. What I'm saying is that in general, they are deeper, more frightening, and overall much better than American horror films. But I found something odd about "Koma." It seemed to be a combination of a slasher film, a psychological horror film, and a family drama. True, this has worked before, in much better films such as "The Silence of the Lambs", but there is something different about "Koma." It almost seems as if the filmmakers wanted to make an "American slasher flick" rather than an "Asian horror film", and to be blunt, they found something in-between.It is hard not to notice some American influence in the film. There are several shots ripped straight out of "Fight Club" and "The Evil Dead", and the musical score is taken directly from M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" (Though it is a computerized version of the music, not the original studio recording), with only minimal original music.But still, it manages to tell a rather absorbing (If not genre-confused) story about friendship, betrayal, and redemption, all revolving around the idea of kidney-theft. (Yum!) Unfortunately, the movie is only 88 minutes long, and all of the interesting ideas are condensed into lesser versions of what they could be. Perhaps if the movie was longer, and took more time to explore it's characters and stories, it would have been better. Hey, it might have even become a modern classic... But because of uneven direction (Zooming cameras and quick cutting in the beginning become long, steady shots as the movie progresses) and a compressed story, what we get is marginal.Sure it is memorable, but that is only because of it's odd vagueness in what it wants to be, transforming it into a mish-mash "referential" horror film. Overall, even though it is only "pretty good", and there are much better films out there, but be sure to at least give this one a shot, you might like it.

This Hong Kong production takes the old urban legend of a person waking up in a bathtub of ice with their kidney removed and spins it into a pretty solid and very well photographed thriller. Angelica (The Eye) Lee stars as a frail woman who gets caught up in the situation when she witnesses Karena Lam in the vicinity of a kidney theft that occurs at a hotel where she was attending a wedding. Several interesting (but predictable) plot twists are thrown in quite frequently. The musical score by Chan Kwong-Wing is very strong and most of the time punctuates the jumps well. The sound design helped to give "Koma" several scenes of creepiness. The photography was very strong with a lot of wonderfully lit scenes. The script is a step above what you usually see for a slasher type film with acting being a very strong component of the film.

"Koma" is a wonderful thriller that is as intense as they come.The two leading ladies are not only stunningly beautiful,but extremely talented as well.Karena Lam of "Inner Senses" fame stars as Ling,a young woman who may be the kidney thief.Angelica Lee plays Ching,a frail woman who suffers from renal failure.She becomes a witness of kidney stealing and Ling may be involved into it.It quickly turns out that Ling had an affair with Wai,Ching's boyfriend.Ling gets cleared of the kidney thefts by the police and she starts to harass Ling."Koma" is filled with enough surprising twists to satisfy fans of suspenseful mysteries.The direction by Law Chi-Leung is flawless,the cinematography is astounding and the script is fresh and original.The film is stylish and offers plenty of mood and nail-biting tension,so I wasn't disappointed.Give it a look.10 out of 10.

SpoilersTwo years ago, Karena Lam Kar-Yan and Angelica Lee Sin-je established themselves as credible thriller actresses in Inner Senses (Yee Do Hung Gaan) and The Eye (Jian Gui) respectively. The former is a psychological thriller, and the latter a ghost story. Their talents are not limited to thrillers, as they have convincingly demonstrated in their many other works, particularly in the case of Lam. It is interesting though to see them brought together, in another thriller.Koma is not a ghost story, and not even a psychological yarn to the extent that Inner Senses is. It is a variation of the familiar rich girl/poor girl tale set in the traditional mystery thriller genre. Lam is the poor girl, bitter, manipulating, reckless. Lee is the rich girl, whose good fortune is marred by health problems. The story revolves around these two girls, the relationship that develops between them, and the eternal triangle they are entangled in.While the plot is far from being flawless and generally predictable, it's reasonably coherent. The script is decent, well paced between story telling and tension building. A strange thought I had however is on a message that I'm sure is absolutely unintentional: don't report a crime to a police but instead be a beneficiary, and you'll probably live happily ever after.The highlight of the movie has to be the two young ladies, who take this movie a notch above what it would have otherwise been. In a radio interview, they talked about how they, knowing each other only by fame but not in person before, had to quickly develop a rapport during the filming of this tension-filled movie. These two are unquestionably the best Cantonese speaking (they're actually even better in Mandarin) actresses among their peers. To watch their acting individually is a treat. To watch them act together, one truly appreciates the synergy.One last thought. In recent years, Hollywood seems to like buying Asian scripts for adaptation. The Ring is the best example, an adaptation from box office smashing Japanese horror Ringu. I believe they have also bought Korea's My Sassy Girl and Hong Kong's Infernal Affair. Would they consider this one? If they do, casting will be interesting. I would venture to suggest Christina Ricci and Alison Lohman, for Lee's and Lam's roles respectively.