A Wicked Tale

The story is familiar enough. The film maker allowed his imagination to run riot on the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the European fairy-tale that was written down by Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm. The dark, sexual and murderous undertone of the story was radically censored in later versions of the story, when it was primarily intended as bedtime reading for little children. Tzang Merwyn T. did not only reverse that censorship in his unbridled version, he also used ingredients from cult, horror and splatter genres to turn the undertone into an overtone.It was a striking choice for an Asian film maker to have Europeans playing the role. A European fairy-tale with a European cast, yet the film evokes an Asian mood. Probably because the maker did not allow himself to be hindered by European traditions. (GjZ)