Prae and Pong are a seemingly perfect couple. Young and beautiful the pair make a good living in careers they love: she a graphic artist, he a commercial director. The pair have an easy, seemingly carefree life until one day Prae collapses at work, a faint brought on by an unexpected and undetected pregnancy. What are they to do? Believing that Pong is not ready to settle down Prae is packing to leave when he surprises her with a marriage proposal and the two settle into Pong's family home to raise their child together.

But all is not well. Prae has to quit her job and quickly becomes bored. Pong works far too much, out at all hours of day and night, and receives calls from unknown women at home. And their baby, young Pan, cries constantly for no apparent reason. Worn down by lack of sleep, their nerves shot from the constant tension, both chafing against this new life neither particularly wanted, they take Pan to the hospital where they are told it is a simple case of colic, they'll have to weather the storm for somewhere between three and six months and then life should get back to normal. But it doesn't. The crying goes on and on without stop, without reason. And though Pong isn't home nearly enough to notice it, Prae begins to notice that strange things happen when the crying is at its strongest and becomes convinced that something darker and supernatural is at work. Is Pan the source of some sort of evil? Or, worse, is he being threatened by something only he can see?

It doesn't take long to realize that Colic is one of those films cursed by lazy marketers who have packed all the bits of blood and gore into the trailers to try and lure the easy teenage dollars into the theater despite the fact that the film isn't all that interested in blood in the first place. Yes, there is some in there and when it comes it tends to be of the shocking and grisly variety - see above comment regarding dismembered babies on posters - but Colic, at its core, is actually a character study. It is the story not so much of a haunting but of two young people trying to find their way through one of the most difficult transitions of their lives. Beautifully shot with a very deliberate pace it uses its gore as exclamation points on an otherwise moody think piece built around two very strong performances by Witthaya Wasukraipaisarn and Pimpan Chalayanacupt. Though the script is a touch slender, Pong and Prae a bit under written, the two leads are completely believable and director Thumjira shows a remarkable ability to set mood, tone and character with a minimum of dialogue, which makes the soft script much less of an issue than it would have been in lesser hands.

Despite the beautiful look of the film and the strong leads Colic is not without some serious issues. The ending, for example, builds to a thrilling climax that fails to thrill - when the opening gore shot is significantly gorier and more shocking than the closing there is a significant problem. And, like most Thai horror films, Colic is built entirely around notions of karma that may very well resonate strongly with audiences in Thailand and other countries with similar takes on Buddhist belief but generally fail to translate with the same oomph to other cultures. A slightly underwritten script and a soft ending result in a film that likely will not travel particularly far but it certainly marks Thumjira as a director to watch. He has obvious skill behind the camera - lighting, framing and editing are all impeccable from start to finish and he handles his actors exceptionally well - and a refreshing willingness to try and reframe typical Asian horror motifs to create something new rather than resting upon past formulas and successes. Watch for great things from Thumjira, he very well might have a minor classic in him somewhere down the line.

The Singapore DVD release is simply excellent. This is the first title I've imported from Singapore and if it is any indicator of the quality of release from that country it will certainly prove to be the source of choice for many Asian film fans looking to import obscure titles. The transfer is very strong, anamorphic and very clear with excellent contrasts, true blacks - very important in this film - and high enough resolution that you can make out the grain of the film stock throughout. Very nice. Audio comes in 2.0 and 5.1 options and the English subtitles - though they do contain the occassional spelling error - are well translated and very easy to follow with a lot of the character's personality coming through in the text. Special features include a director's commentary, a behind the scenes reel, trailers and an alternate opening. Sadly none of the special features include subtitles.