Soho Horror Film Festival 2024 Coverage
Ba review
A moving meditation on parenting. And death.
Festival reviews will not contain spoiler
Ba
Directed by Benjamin Wong
Screenplay by Benjamin Wong
Starring Lawrence Kao, Kai Cech, Michael Paul Chan, Brian Thompson, Shelli Boone, Jonathan Medina and Blue Chapman
Ba Review
Ba was a bit of an unexpected one compared to the wacked out nature of most features in the Soho Horror Film Festival. It’s a much more grounded and subdued story. Of course, it also involves a man becoming a grim reaper…so it definitely earns its genre film festival cred. Bring a tissue and prepare yourself for the story of a desperate father who finds a case full of money with some supernatural strings attached.
Daniel (Lawrence Kao) is struggling. He’s broke, reduced to sleeping in his car…and trying to raise his daughter Collette (Kai Cech). When he finds a sack of cash in a parking lot, he initially leaves it where it sits. It’s against his nature to take what isn’t his. Fear for his daughter’s future makes him reconsider that position. He takes the money…and finds out that it comes at a cost greater than the prize.
Taking the money binds Daniel to a contract as a grim reaper. His appearance changes to that of an undead skeleton-like figure. He can buy his way out of the contract with clean money…but is forced to deliver death to those whose time has come until then. Worse…it means he can’t let his daughter see him. He cloaks himself in clothing and goggles to conceal his appearance. He also can’t touch her…because of the whole grim reaper thing. Although he’s doing everything that he can to protect her and buy his life back…Collette has never felt more alone. A hefty price to pay for one moment of weakness.
The first life Daniel takes is the family dog. It’s accidental…he isn’t aware of his powers yet. Collette suspects her father killed the dog…even though it isn’t in the nature of the man we’ve seen to that point. Daniel’s only friend is Sonny, a convenience store employee. The good news is that the relationship allows Daniel to acquire food for Collette. The bad news is that Sonny has the kind of movie cough that lets you know his ticket is inevitably going to be punched.
If all this wasn’t tough enough, child protective services have started sniffing around Collette. Daniel has pulled her from school…trying to keep her sequestered while he deals with his grim reaper problem. You can probably start to see the number of things that could make this go from worse to whatever is worse than that for Daniel. The movie’s title, Ba, comes from what Collette calls her father. It’s a fitting title. This movie is all about how far a father will go to protect his daughter.
Given that setup, it should come as no surprise that Ba is an emotionally charged movie. It’s easy to feel bad for Daniel. His punishment in no way fits his crime. It’s even easier to feel bad for Collette. Daniel is her entire world…and now he is barely able to walk in it. Their relationship is the most important aspect of Ba. The two leads are fantastic. The movie is at its best when they are on screen together. Circumstance separates them for some long stretches of time…but even that absence works for the film. You feel like something is missing. Because it is.
The only negative of note in Ba is that it rushes a few story beats to the point where they lack their full potential impact. Everything the story does makes sense within the narrative and the rules of this world. A couple of key moments stand out as underdeveloped, however. The Sonny storyline develops too quickly. Its resolution comes and goes with little fanfare. So it goes with the Collette child protective services story. A wild and seemingly out of nowhere (minor) character turn pops up and then is resolved in almost comedic fashion. A rare misstep for a story that has kept all its sad ducks floating in the same direction.
Ba combines real world issues with an otherworldly problem. Daniel’s damnation feels like it would be the final straw for a lesser character. He’s been dealt bad hand after bad hand…and he manages to navigate them all with caring and compassion as he raises Collette. It’s easy to empathize with him and his situation. The performances of Kao and Cech elevate the already interesting material into something more effecting. A story about lost souls that’s really about how hard a father will hold onto his no matter what hardship plagues him.
Scare Value
A moving picture about a father’s desperation. It’s easy to feel for the characters given the story’s choice to make their ruination a product of need rather than sin. Some story beats are too rushed to fully land…but the central relationship is handled perfectly. Great performances, an interesting concept…and a lump in the throat inducing screenplay.
