Thailand, Hong Kong and South Korea teaming up to do a horror movie trilogy, what a brilliant idea. Asian horror is still on its peak and is always pushing the bar further for scaring the hell out of you. Three is not a regular movie but three separated average length movies with no common element between them, except for the theme of horror and spirits. All very well made, the shorts are very interesting for anyone who enjoys the new wave of asian horror movies, who instead of focusing on the gore/blood factor, focus more on the general atmosphere and tension of the movie.

Story wise all the three movies are excellent and manage to put out a story that is interesting all along the way and make you really wonder how it will conclude. The best of the three is without a doubt the Hong Kong story directed by Peter Chan (producer of The Eye) and featuring the cinematography of Christopher Doyle. They really manage to pull out an excellent story with an incredible and beautiful ending. But even if Going Home has the best story, it was also the most confusing, because some details are just not very clear but since the movie is now also available on it’s own in a longer version on DVD, this version is probably more complete. The Wheel from Thailand, set in the old time, is also very interesting but is probably the one that his the closest one to its cultural roots. The traditional puppet theater is something that most norths Americans are not familiar with, which makes it a bit hard for us to fully appreciate. But this aspect doesn’t make the movie any less enjoyable and on the other side it is also a very interesting way to learn about this tradition. As for Memories from South Korea, it was a good short but I think that I had too much expectation for it. Directed by Kim Jee-Woon (Quiet Family, Foul King), Memories starts with a very unclear story and gradually had some key elements to it until it’s big finale. The movie features a lot of interesting elements, especially on the visual side, but the fact that the character motivations are a bit hard to follow, make the movie a bit confusing.

All movies were very well acted and you will recognize a lot of familiar faces in all of them. The most shining performance is from Eric Tsang, in the HK movie Going Home. His performance was simple but so true and natural that makes his character very sympathetic and appreciated. The main kid was also surprisingly good in the movie and really helped to make the atmosphere even scarier. The Korean one, Memories, also featured a good cast but because of the missing development of the characters, it makes them less likable. The main cast consisted of a husband and his wife, but since the spectators spend most of their time thinking about what is going on, it gives less time to think about the intention of the characters. I’m not very familiar yet with movies from Thailand so except the young man from Tears Of The Black Tigers, I don’t remember seeing these actors before but most of them were interesting to follow and had decent acting skill too.

One good thing about Three is that it is not necessary to watch all of them to really understand their story but on the other side it would have been great to have a small or very subtle connection between all of them. But still, Three is a good movie package and even if in the end all three movies are not very scary, it is something that those who like psychological horror can appreciate. It’s still strange that the country producing the best horror movie right now, Japan, was excluded from this production. Maybe next time…