Review | Homestay film review: Thai supernatural drama rides on charm of its stars, falls on its clumsy script
- Bad Genius star Teeradon Supapunpinyo and idol pop group BNK48’s Cherprang Areekul lead fantastical mystery that morphs into hackneyed melodrama
- Story of a spirit that inhabits body of a recently deceased teen has eye-catching visual effects
2.5/5 stars
Presented as a fantastical mystery with stand-out visual effects, Homestay is at its heart more a conventional drama about the struggles of adolescence.
The supernatural presence in Thai filmmaker Parkpoom Wongpoom’s movie, in which a spirit wins the opportunity to return to Earth in the body of a recently deceased teenager, is a vehicle to examine teen suicide, romance, school pressures and family dysfunction from a mildly fresh perspective.
As a result, the early promise of the film’s spectacular, gravity-defying opening diffuses quickly, and the increasingly clichéd melodrama that follows are much less impressive.
An unidentified spirit awakes in a morgue, inhabiting the body of Min (Teeradon ‘James’ Supapunpinyo, Bad Genius ), a 17-year-old who recently committed suicide. He is greeted by a body-swapping celestial called The Guardian, who informs him that this “homestay” could become permanent, if the truth behind Min’s suicide is determined within 100 days.