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Nieng Arp
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Wikipedia article
'Nieng Arp' , with an international title of 'Lady Vampire' and also known as 'Vampire' and ' Bodyless', is a 2004 Cambodian horror film. The film is based on Khmer folklore beliefs about 'Arp' or 'Ap', a mythical popular demon which is found in Southeast Asia. The film is directed by Kam Chanthy, a Cambodian-born director who was trained in Thailand.
Plot
In the middle of a long night, a young woman and her boyfriend are confronted by a group of gangsters on their way home. The girl is violently raped and her lover is killed by gangsters. While unconsciousness she is possessed by an old witch, immediately making her part of the next generation of 'Ahp' ghosts. After becoming an 'Ahp', she takes vengeance on the gang that raped her.
16 years later, a group of students on a field trip to Battambang arrive at the van and pray to a battabang guardian. Then they see a group of people looking at a corpse. They find a house whose owner is the Ahp ghost. They ask permission to stay there for their field trip and she says yes.
Critical reception
The website 'The Fright' said the film is in the throat-ripping tradition of Mystics in Bali and Demonic Beauty. The review strongly praised the camera work and lighting. They criticized the low quality of special effects, however, as not able to match expectations for special effects in modern film production.
Box office
This film is considered to be the first successful Khmer horror film in recent years, having grossed over $100,000 solely from the six movie theatres in Phnom Penh.
In the DVD version, the film consists of two discs with no special features or scene selection. English subtitles were included on a DVD release for foreign audiences.
Special effects
Special effects are primarily not computer generated. In one scene, a doll's head filled with pig intestines was used to make the 'Ap's head.
Origins
In the Khmer ghost legends 'Ap's were a people who were able to remove their heads at night to fly across the rice fields in search of sustenance, usually blood. Stomach, heart and intestines trail from their necks.
This nocturnal female ghost with a floating head is part of popular Southeast Asian mythology, namely the folklore of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand. In Laos this ghost is called 'Pi-Kasu' while in Thailand it is known as 'Krasue' and in Malaysia 'Penanggalan'.
References
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