Ru-Tar Rotar directed this hyper weird Thai horror/adventure in 1989. This film belongs to the category "you have to see it in order to believe it." The story tells about a little child who tries to get help for his dying mother by some wood demon called Ginseng King. The film is set in some forest/jungle in Thailand and there are many monsters and wizards on their way. The wood demon itself is very kind and friendly, and looks like a little child who has been masked as a tree with a bug eyes. The eyes are very big and reminded me of fly's eyes. The most outstanding character is, however, a zombie, who screams "Heil Hitler!" everytime he collides somewhere i.e. collides with tree etc. Also, that zombie is frightened when he sees the swastika and that's how our protagonists realize how to protect themselves from that zombie. Sounds amazing, huh!
This Thai freak-of-a-movie is occasionally slow moving and very uninteresting, but fortunately it has plenty of these outrageous elements and becomes one of the most enjoyable pieces of camp cinema ever. For example, what in the earth is that Hitler thing all about in a Thai horror/adventure movie like this!? The other monsters are also interesting as there are cavemen and huge giants, and the whole film is a pure fairy tale with many "Tolkien-like" elements and strange goings-on.
The action/fight scenes are also okay and interesting and after all, I cannot say any other negative things about this film than its slow moments and scenes that are unnecessarily too dead. Otherwise, this is the most amazing Far-East piece of ultra weird cinema I've seen recently, and this film is not likely to be forgotten once it's been seen. It is sad these are so rare films and almost impossible to find anywhere, and it is very likely that film like Ginseng King will never get any official release mostly because of the fact that no one knows anything about this, or its director who, according to IMDb, hasn't directed anything since/before this film. Wonder has this film been shown in the theatres anywhere?
8/10
This Thai freak-of-a-movie is occasionally slow moving and very uninteresting, but fortunately it has plenty of these outrageous elements and becomes one of the most enjoyable pieces of camp cinema ever. For example, what in the earth is that Hitler thing all about in a Thai horror/adventure movie like this!? The other monsters are also interesting as there are cavemen and huge giants, and the whole film is a pure fairy tale with many "Tolkien-like" elements and strange goings-on.
The action/fight scenes are also okay and interesting and after all, I cannot say any other negative things about this film than its slow moments and scenes that are unnecessarily too dead. Otherwise, this is the most amazing Far-East piece of ultra weird cinema I've seen recently, and this film is not likely to be forgotten once it's been seen. It is sad these are so rare films and almost impossible to find anywhere, and it is very likely that film like Ginseng King will never get any official release mostly because of the fact that no one knows anything about this, or its director who, according to IMDb, hasn't directed anything since/before this film. Wonder has this film been shown in the theatres anywhere?
8/10