Blackbirds at Bangpleng

(KAWAO TEE BANGPLENG) ((THAI))

A Kantana Motion Picture Co. production. (International sales: Kantana, Bangkok.) Produced by Surang Prempree, Jareuk Kanjareuk. Directed by Niratisai Kanjareuk. Screenplay, Wanit Jaroonggitanum, from the novel by M.R. Kukrit Pramoj.

"Close Encounters" meets "Village of the Damned" in the wildly entertaining "Blackbirds at Bangpleng," a Thai sci-fier that goes way off the scale and stays there for two hours. Reportedly the Thai industry's biggest budgeter to date, and a hit on home turf, this often eye-popping curio well deserves latenight slots in fantasy events and broad-minded fests.

Based on a novel by a major-general and former Thai prime minister, pic starts out quietly like a regular East Asian rural saga, with a bunch of villagers celebrating the November moon festival of Loi Krathong, complete with Buddhist priests. Fifteen minutes in, the night skies open and a mother ship to bring tears to the eyes of Spielberg & Co. zooms into sight, zapping every femme in the community with impregnating rays.

Flash forward and 212 women all give birth on the same day to children who rapidly grow up with abnormal intelligence, Spock-like ears and a habit of marching around the village in military formation. In between offing their enemies with hypnotic stares, they also develop a taste for raw meat, to the detriment of the local livestock population.

Turns out the mother ship was from a planet whose women can't conceive and whose population is dying. Relations between the alienspawn and their parents get progressively worse, until the former simply start to run out of energy and are forced to accept the inevitability of life and death. Buddhist values triumph, the kids learn how to cry and say words like "mother" and "father" and, the mission having failed, the mother ship returns to take them home.

Technically, the movie swings from the impressive to the tacky, with striking effects like the arrival of the mother ship undercut by dime-store pointed ears for the kids. Though the story is familiar '50s sci-fi pulp, the pic's attraction lies in its successful transplant to an East Asian setting and the sheer try-anything bravura of the direction. Often elaborate crane and tracking shots, plus a wondrous symphonic score (complete with soft choir), give the movie a genuine sense of scope, repping an impressive feature debut by TV director Niratisai Kanjareuk.

Performances are standard, matching the human characters' stories. Shooting around the ancient capital of Sukhothai in northern Thailand is highly photogenic.

Camera (color), Tanit Poosara; editor, Niratisai; music, Jaran Manopet; production design, Narumon Kanjareuk; in Ultra-Stereo. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 10, 1995. Running time: 132 MIN.

With: Ruj Ronnapop, Hattaya Gatesung, Passawut Maytanee, Surattana Khongtrakul, Saranyu Wonggrajang.

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