Kate

I'm not the biggest fan of mixing horror with war. The war is scary enough. People kill other people skillfully enough, we don't need monster added to that mix. It only works when it's strictly soldiers focused - so then it becomes more of an action horror. If civilians are added in the mix, it ain't it. Especially when the the war set up is too grand for the weak script.

They tried to make it a cohesive story for the Japanese being the invaders on Thai territory like the main characters were invading the monsters lair, but that created a contradiction that was not explored at all in the script - how the monster that represented the attacked Thai people was the bad guy in that specific situation, and how war and attacks are often more complex if we talk about specific people on the group compared to few people who make the decisions.

So yes, the set up was solid, the plot overall was weak. The moment they end up in the cave, there is no story at all. Which overall is not a bard thing in horror movies - some we just watch to witness fun monster fighting people. But if you give me an emotional war set up, you gotta follow with something stronger.

Initially I was not crazy about the monster's design, but later they presented some fun ideas like it animating dead body by eating through them. Gross, but effective. Especially since the deformations in the bodies were different.

The acting was fine. No really outstanding performances. I liked the special effects - I feel like often in these movies they struggles to match the lighting of the CGI monster with the light in the background so it stands out too much, looking fake. They did a good job with it here.

Overall, decent watch, but not one I would be recommending to people.

I'm curious how the Japanese and Thai people feel about this movie :)