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Excellent but underrated film

As Good As It Gets

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Rarely do I refer directly to another reviewers review when I put my own take on a film, but I agree 100% with FERTILECELLULOID's opinion of this film and of the other films he references when comparing them to this one. MAN EATER had the potential to be a truly great film, but got lost somewhere along the line and the emotional response that the viewer initially feels becomes clouded by a "rushed" feeling second half.The film tells the semi-biographical story of Li Hui Huang (or Zee-Oui as he is "re-named" by customs officials when he reaches Thailand...) - a sickly and slow-witted Chinese immigrant to Thailand after WWII, who works odd-jobs and steals when convenient in order to support his existence. Plagued with a violent case of asthma that he constantly suffers from - Huang is often berated and picked-on by other adults and children alike due to his weaknesses, both mental and physical. His mind-state goes from bad-to-worse based on a combination of this relentless bullying, a string of insufferably bad luck, and his deteriorating health. Unable to consistently afford proper medicine, Huang resorts to abducting and killing children to secure a "remedy" that was originally introduced to him as a young boy by his mother. Meanwhile - a female reporter is on the case of the child-killer, and is eventually able to peg Huang for the crimes after a slip-up at one of the murder scenes...MAN EATER started off as a very strong film that showed the inner torment of a man plagued by many factors that caused him to go insane. Unfortunately - the film didn't keep with this tone and towards the second-half turned more into a typical "good-guys-chasing-the-bad-guy" type of film. Even so, MAN EATER is quite a bit above average in almost every respect (hence my still giving it a pretty high rating...), but I felt that focusing more on Huang and his "journey" would have made this a near perfect film. The acting is great, the sets/locations are superb, and the basic subject matter is interesting and thought-provoking. There are some relatively "graphic" scenes of child-violence, but most of the actual violent acts are portrayed off-screen, thought the aftermath of Huang's deeds are shown pretty unflinchingly. But again, as FC mentioned - MAN EATER never quite reaches the exploitative graphic excess of THE UNTOLD STORY, or the extremely dark tone of IN A GLASS CAGE (both films that deal with somewhat similar subject matter) - and personally I would have liked to have seen MAN EATER get taken to those extremes. Regardless - this is a very solid film that I would still recommend. The story is apparently based on a true-crime case, though I have never researched it to see how well the film follows the real-life events - but it's fascinating stuff nonetheless...7.5/10

A down on his luck refugee keeps getting the short end of the stick, finally snapping and resorting to cannibalism as a belief that it will cure his asthma.. Not as gruesome as some lead you to believe .. but in this modern day of "SOFT SENTIMENTALITY" in movies, it shocks like no other has lately.. Strangely you find yourself feeling sorry for a cannibalistic child killer.. simply based on all the crap the poor bastard goes through before he snaps... Over all a very good, very thought provoking look at a sad sack gone mad.

"Zee Oui" is a surprisingly grisly tale of Thai serial killer and cannibal,who murders small children.Li Hui is a Chinese immigrant,who works in Thailand as the butcher.Everone treats him with an utter contempt.Driven completely out of his mind,Li Hui starts killing small children and,if that's not bad enough,he also believes he must eat their hearts and livers,in order to contain his severe tuberculosis."Zee Oui" is actually based on a true crime case of cannibalistic serial killer.It features some rather unpleasant scenes of violence against children,so squeamish should definitely avoid it.Still Li Hui is a pretty complex character and his murderous behavior is attributed to the physical effects of tuberculosis.The directors are two sisters,who only made several television commercial before making this stylish film.Recommended for fans of Asian horror.8 out of 10.

Beautifully shot Thai horror film about a Chinese immigrant (Zee-Oui) who becomes a murderer of children. If it had maintained focus on the killer's fascinating journey, it would have been a great film. Unfortunately, it adds a superficial, unrealistic subplot involving a beautiful journalist with her own memories of an abducted sister. As a result, it's a very good film with some bad TV movie dramatics.Directors Buranee Rachjaibun and Nida Suthat Na Ayutthaya, who come from a background in commercials, paint a sympathetic portrait of Zee-Oui, a shy man whose weak physical stature and poor health invited much harassment and derision from others. Physically abused, cursed with terminal tuberculosis, and plagued by memories of being forced to eat human flesh during a tour of duty in WW2, Zee-Oui finally snaps and leaves a trail of bodies across rural Thailand.Long Duan is totally believable as Zee-Oui. A sequence in which he stalks potential victims at a carnival is visually powerful and creepy in the extreme, recreating the mood of Lang's "M". In the film's most striking scene, he carries a struggling victim across a bridge and stabs her beneath it as a train roars overhead. The combination of sound, lighting and composition is extraordinary.Taking a cue from John McNaughton's "Henry - Portrait of A Serial Killer", the directors depict only the grisly aftermath of most of the murders. There is one reasonably graphic stabbing scene and another depicting the cooking of organs, but the violence never reaches the level of Herman Yau's "The Untold Story" and the darkness on parade is never as pitch black as that found in Augustin Villaronga's "In A Glass Cage". It is so sad to see a potential classic undone by stock additions that may have been put there to give the work broader appeal. With this film's inflammatory subject matter, that was never going to happen, anyway.There has been some misguided criticism of the filmmakers' sympathetic portrayal of a child killer. No matter how you want to cut it or how passionately you want to deny it, Zee-Oui was a fellow human being who lost his moral compass and expressed his confusion and inner chaos violently. The film does not excuse the crimes of its central character; it simply tries to explain how one person went off the rails.It is a very worthy achievement.