This is the second review of Rahtree to appear on ScreenAnarchy. You can check Mark Mann's impressions of the film here.
Though Thai director Yuthlert Sippapak drew international notice with his debut film, the action comedy Killer Tattoo, it is the genre mashing Rahtree: Flower of the Night (AKA Buppah Rahtree, AKA Scent of the Night Flower) that made him a major player in Thailand. With its utterly unique – even by Thai standards – blend of horror, tragedy, romance and comedy there is nothing out there quite like it. The film was a major box office success in its native land, effectively ending Sippapak's days as a low budget film maker, and drew positive responses on the international festival circuit. And now, after numerous delays stalling out the long rumored UK release, there is finally a legitimate English friendly release thanks to the new DVD release from Hong Kong.
Buppah Rahtree is an isolated, self contained girl. She's at the top of her class in medical school but has no friends and carries a secret, tragic past with her. She does, however, have an admirer in Ake, a wealthy young man who was drawn to her when she turned down the advances of his best friend and who has followed her from a distance for a month. Rahtree eventually opens up to Ake but what should have been a happy ending for her turns progressively more tragic. Ake turns out to be an entirely amoral cad and Rahtree, pregnant from their lone weekend together, is pressured into an abortion and abandoned in her run down apartment where things turn septic, she dies and is undiscovered for at least a month. And this is just the set up which, I'm sure you will agree, is rather unusually tragic for a film most commonly billed as a horror comedy.
Things really get rolling after Rahtree's corpse is discovered. The police arrive and she is shrouded according to local custom but when they try to remove the corpse it simply refuses to go, twitching wildly until the police drop it and run screaming from the room. Rahtree's body may be dead but her spirit is very much alive, very angry, and it will not leave without a fight. The film then tracks a succession of unsuccessful exorcists run through the building at the behest of the apartment manager desperate to stop her remaining tenants from fleeing the obviously haunted building, that succession further complicated by the return of the guilt stricken Ake who turns up on the scene desperate to make amends and completely unaware that Rahtree has died.
Of the many elements Sippapak fuses together here – he has shown a consistent desire to experiment and push genre boundaries in his films – it is the horror and tragic elements that work best. Though the blood comes in bursts rather than waves Sippapak clearly knows what he's doing with all of his key imagery hitting home powerfully, particularly Rahtree's ghostly flashback to the night of her death. The tragic element is also strong with both Rahtree and Ake standing as intriguingly – and realistically – flawed characters. They are both very well written and performed, giving the film a degree of character depth uncommon in genre film.
On the negative side the film's limited budget is apparent on a few occasions, though not distractingly so. What will be more of an issue for most are the comic elements. For those unfamiliar with Thai comedy what you need to know is that it is very broad, very loud, and very culturally specific. For those unfamiliar with Thai culture it can take some getting used to and many, quite frankly, never will. As a consequence, even though Rahtree is rather restrained by Thai comic standards, many will find the shifts in tone jarring more than funny.
The DVD release is a bit of a mixed bag. Presented in anamorphic widescreen the transfer is clear of dirt or damage but seems a bit murky at times, the subtitles are clear enough but are better described as workmanlike than nuanced, and the disc is entirely bare bones with no special features to speak of. Still, the film has earned its reputation and will be of great interest to many cult film fans and the disc does a competent job of getting it out there.