Dearest Sister

Dearest Sister (Nong Hak) (2016)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: Mattie Do

Starring: A bunch of Laotians with very long names

From: Companies from Laos, France, and... Estonia

This month so far... I haven't felt like too many movies, although I hope for things to change starting tonight: 

One positive aspect of March Around the World is that for me, once or twice each year during that month I'll see a film from a country whose cinema I had never experienced beforehand. Last night, it was a movie from Laos, the landlocked Southeast Asia country that not even I know too much about. This horror movie was on Shudder so I gave it a shot. If only this would have been more enjoyable...

A poor woman needs to earn money for her family in a rural area so she is forced to work for her blind woman, who experiences supernatural events. Only, it revolves around... lottery numbers?! Actually, from online sleuthing I understand there is a belief among several Asian cultures where people that pass on are able to tell lottery numbers to the living. Actually, much of this movie surrounds the old chestnuts that most people across the world experience: inequality due to wealth disparity and the haves vs. the have nots.

I was interested in looking at the country and it was appreciated by me; the culture, the landscape, the customs, society, etc. Unfortunately, Dearest Sister was something that was not pleasant for me to watch. Too many of the characters were just loathsome and not ones I wanted to spend much time around. It started off with the poor woman being treated like crap nonstop and that set a sour note for me. As the movie progressed, more irritating events occurred and overall, I will say this unexpected horror movie is just average in general.

Then again, plenty of others liked this more than me and I do have to give credit towards director Mattie Do; in the brief history of Laotian cinema, she is the only female director and I know she has two other movies out there, which perhaps would be more my style.