By That Title Alone You Can Guarantee There Will Be Zombies
Quite possibly tanks, but only a slim chance of atom bombs, because yes Vulnavia, you can have too much of a good thing.
So! Conrad was wondering what that Thai film about zombies running amok* in a hospital was called. Art!
No CGI used for the blood and gore effects
The title is a play on the old name for Thailand: 'Siam', with the 'Z' now replacing the initial 'S'. It's pretty good, set in a dystopian future reminiscent of 'Interstellar', where food is scarce - that concept right there is a nightmare horror scenario for Conrad - and desperate measures are ta
ANYWAY okay, that urgent question now answered, we can move onto the hot button topic of the moment: 'Zomvivor'. This is another Thai zombie thriller, set in a university rather than a high school (sorry if you were expecting 'All Of Us Are Dead' 2.0'), with long flashbacks concerning the lead characters and their life pre-crisis. Thus they are rendered people you know something about instead of mere ciphers. Art!
My camera's idiosyncratic picture of the credits; please forgive the burned-out LEDs and the way it applies a blue gloss on white highlights. The theme song, 'Still Alive', is very catchy and has a distinct Adele vibe circa 'Skyfall'. One thing you notice in the credits is how looooong Thai surnames are - 'Meebangyang' is pretty concise; 'Phomphhadungcheep' is more typical.
ANYWAY AGAIN the credits are in stark white 3D, with the odd zombie lurching around, until a tidal wave of blood as shown above sweeps in, PERHAPS SLIGHTLY FORESHADOWING, swamping everything at ground level. Art!
The plot and characters restage a few of the clichiést clichés that ever clichéd, that picture above being one of them. Here is one the minor characters with a badly sprained ankle, who can barely hobble, and she's being helped by only one other person? It would make more sense to have two carrying her but I suppose you need a victim who will reanimate and turn up later on to cause one of her mates to freeze at an inappropriate moment (guessing there). Art!
This is one of the university's medical lecturers, pondering about a syringeful of Something, watching over Ning's comatose mum, who pretends to be a delivery driver but whom is mixed up with secret medical experiments. Definitely dodgy doings. Art!
Said syringeful of something sinister. After all, why keep it separate from all the other medical kit? It'll all end in tears, if not blood. Art!
One of a pair of survivors who have ventured outside at daylight, separate from the 14 other survivors hiding in the library. As you can tell, there has been a fair bit of chaos and the cleaning lady hasn't gotten around to mopping blood off cars, mostly because she's now a zombie too. Art!
Our two heroes in the cab of a truck with the keys still in the ignition. Both are armed, one with a pistol and the other with a hatchet, which is a plus mark for the scriptwriters, even if Hatchet Guy proves to be staggeringly inept with his chopper. Also, what's wrong with this picture? THEY LEFT THE DOORS OPEN. Minus mark for the scriptwriters. This comes back to bite them on the glutes after a zombie begins to take an interest in them, after it appears, from nowhere of course - not sure if this is a minus mark for the scriptwriters or if they're just 'paying homage' to every other zombie flick ever made. I mean, a zombie in a convenience store refrigerator? Yes 'Land Of The Dead' I'm looking at you.
ANYWAY ANYWAY Art!
They do? Who? Art!
Ah, the ravening hordes of the undead. 'Zomvivor' seeks to make it's ravening hordes of the undead a bit different from other ravening hordes of the undead, because these ones are fascinated to distraction by light sources in the night. They cluster around to look at the university's street lights, which kept them predictably in one place. Unfortunately, under martial law, the army kills all power and water at 20:30 to isolate the infected zone. Which means the revs - sorry, zombies - bimble about across the whole campus, making surviving even more difficult. Art!
This is Ning gaffer-taping a knife to a broomstick. Non, very sensibly, told the other 13 to split up and find weapons, and Mook, again very sensibly, notes that the weapons need to keep the zombies at a distance. I also forgot to mention that the 14 survivors are hiding in the library, which is being renovated and thus lacks any initial occupants. Art!
Proof that this is a wise move comes in - nothing happening overnight. No zombies pop up out of nowhere or hidden corners or crevices. Two plus points for the scriptwriters!
Conrad will keep you updated as I watch more episodes. I bet you can hardly wait.
Mixing It Up A Tad
Conrad, seeking to segue from one topic to another, wondered if Thais are big on pets or not, specifically dogs?
Very much so. Far too much, in fact. Art!
Most Thai pets are not spayed or neutered, and if they get kicked out or abandoned, they get fed by Thais, especially at Buddhist temples, thanks to the Buddhist stricture of compassion. Consequently, there is a massive problem with stray street dogs, estimated at over a million. A problem not going to go away soon, one fears.
"Dogs"
There we are, moving seamlessly from one topic to another. Go me. This is the first proper track on Pink Floyd's 'Animals' album, bar the opening acoustic bookend 'Pigs On The Wing'. Why is it called 'Dogs'? O I thought you'd never ask!
Street dogs. Do you see? How everything is connected? ANYWAY the idea is that the Hom. Sap. version of a dog is an apex predator, utterly ruthless in business and social interactions. I was thinking of posting all the lyrics, but there's another 350 words, so that delight will have to wait until another day. Art!
Dogs plural
More Mechanical Mishappery
I did miss out one of these clips from 'Discovery Tech US' because it was an electrical arc accident with no human input, meddling or mishandling. Art!
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| Timeframe 01:49 |
Ah, yes, look at all that potentially hazardous machinery, drills and lathes and HOLY DOG BUNS! Art?
Timeframe 01:50 Timeframe 01:51
No human input here, unless that guillotine door hadn't been maintained or installed properly. No information other than 'kicks_mechanic' posted it on Youtube 4 years ago, and, predictably, the ghouls in his Comments all complained that the Chap In The Hat was nowhere near the door when it fell. What do you want, two halves of him?
Another Entry In The 'Museum Of Failure'
Being a car, Your Humble Scribe knew nothing of it, and cares less, except as a filler to get the Word Count up. the junction Art!
Please welcome the 'Lightyear Zero', which was touted by Dutch company Lightyear as the first solar-powered family car.
Conrad can see an immediate problem with this merely by looking out of the window. Here in the Allotment Of Eden during December it's not daylight until 09:00 and the light is beginning to go by 15:00, and the rainclouds have been shedding their aqueous cargo all day long. Ergo no sun.
Perhaps they have better weather on the Continent? Regardless, the L0 initially came with a price tag of €119,000, going on the market in 2021 STRIKE THAT a price tag of €250,000, going on the market in 2022. Three months after production began they filed for bankruptcy, having produced as many as twelve cars. Ooops.
That's it for today, Vulnavia!
* From the original Malay 'amoq' meaning 'furious assault'. You're welcome.
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