For those who never managed to catch the first film, Inhuman Kiss is essentially the cinematically lush answer to a role reversed Beauty And The Beast where a supernatural creature and a human fall in love despite the rather obvious physical differences that come into play when one of the players has the ability of transforming into a floating head at inopportune moments. I discovered it completely by accident, buried so deep within Netflix’s algorithm I’m surprised I didn’t strike oil when I found it, but when all was said and done, Sitisiri Mongkolsiri’s dark Thai fairy tale proved to be a memorable find as it blended local folklore and doomed romance in a way that didn’t skimp on the monster action either.
Well, now there’s a sequel named Inhuman Kiss 2: The Last Breath that hopes to capitalise on the original; does it have an equally dependable head detaching from its shoulders or is this one monstrous love story that deserves to end in a break up?
Twenty years after the events of the first film, Noi is living as a single parent with his daughter, Sao who, like Sai before her, has become a Krasue, a parasitic demon spirit who can manifest itself by detaching its host’s head at night and floating around, terrorising anything in its path. However, as he’s a dutiful father, he’s found a way to suppress the urge to detach her bonce by giving her medication created from a rare herb by a local priest, Augustin.
Also in Augustin’s care is Anan, a young man about to embark on training to become a doctor, and Cloud, a withdrawn albino child who has a secret every bit as fantastical as Sao as he has the ability to heal virtually every wound simply by touching it and concentrating.
When Sao starts to get immune to her medication and has a worrying supernatural wobble, Noi brings his daughter to Augustin to adjust her dose and she ends up meeting Cloud and there’s an unsurprising spark between them as both live very secluded lives, but both have unsurprisingly large hearts despite both their tragic circumstances. However, when Noi and Sao have to return back home, both the children feel the loss intensely – but after twelve years pass, the Krasue parts of Sao start acting up again, causing the demon part of her zoom her cranium off into the woods to hunt the local wildlife with its stabbing tendrils.
While this proves to be rather stressful for Noi, an extra strain in introduced when Pan, a local hunter, is hired by a collector to investigate these monster sightings and catch him one alive. However, at this point, Noi and Sao return to Augustin’s to discuss the return of her demonic, nocturnal activities and she and Cloud not only resume their childhood friendship, but they fall in love to no one’s surprise. However, monster hunter Pan also has something of a demonic secret up his sleeve, something that could spell disaster for Sao in particular.
So while the first Inhuman Kiss was a flawed but fascinating look into another culture exploring their own myths by conjuring up a dark fable, the second effort, directed by Paphangkorn Punchantarak is pretty much more of the same but opts to take more of a drawn out route when spinning out a supernatural romance. For those not familiar with the rather out-there notion of the Krasue, it’s a tragic beast of myth that is essentially a fanged floating head that stalks the forests at night with its internal organs still dangling out of the stump of her neck. While this version of the legend doesn’t go quite as far with it’s interpretation (the internal organs are more like tentacles than trailing innards), the sequel still manages to keep the same, lush visual style as the first movie while deploying some smartly sparce, but surprisingly effective visual effects when realising it’s otherworldly denizens.
In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that the first third of Inhuman Kiss 2 is essentially a supernatural version of My Girl as the infant versions of the more confident Sao and the shy Cloud bond in a rustic setting. Visually speaking, the movie matches well with its predecessor and the sight of Sao in her Krasue form as she emanates a soft red glow being comforted by the pale Cloud dressed in a white shirt is an undeniably string image – its just a damn shame that it’s so damn slow. Maybe it this movie was the first one, it’s sedate pace might have played better, but as the original film had already set up the whole notion of what a Krasue is, you’d think that Punchantarak might want to shift things up a notch, but instead the director is content to let things dictate it’s own speed, even if it’s own speed suggests that the movie might be better off being at least twenty minutes shorter.
In fact, there’s times where the film seems to forget that it’s female lead has such a crazy alter ego that you wonder film the filmmakers actually begrudge the fact that they are ostensibly making a monster movie. However, once the characters become older, the movie picks up the pace a bit as it starts steering the players firmly toward their potentially doomed romance. To be fair, the central romance ends up being the film’s strongest asset, but onIy because the script frustratingly insists on pumping the braked on the monster stuff far more than the first movie did and at times seems unsure about how to present it.
While the introduction of a male version of the Krasue, the Krahang (no, not Kerrang!; that’s a metal magazine), the first film managed to guide it’s story to a satisfying monster mash that occurred organically thanks to Thai lore, but in The Last Breath, the fact that Pan is revealed to be a monster hunter who just so happens to be a monster himself is staged quite clumsily, which is odd considering how much time the movie spends on its central romance.
Ultimately, while the film strives to make its love story play differently than its predecessor, Inhuman Kiss 2 can’t stop the more horror themed aspects of its script from being more than a mere retread of what has come before and even though the actors, cinematographer and visual FX guys do a good job, those not used to the more crazier creatures of a foreign culture may just find that the Krasue just reminds them of a cross-dressing Tony Harrison from The Mighty Boosh.
Still utterly delicious to digest with the eyeballs, Inhuman Kiss 2 nevertheless weirdly stumbles on a few key points such as balancing the romance and the fantasy stuff in a way that services both. However a tangible atmosphere and the immersion into the mythology of a foreign culture keeps the film watchable even when it’s taking its sweet time setting up the two, mutant, love birds. Ah yes… the timeless story of floating head meets albino – how many times have we seen that story….?
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