My Boo (Courtesy: CineCinnati)
My Boo is a light-hearted romantic comedy that will take you through the ups and downs of emotions. It’s an experience you definitely should have.
A Heart-touching Story: My Boo
A romantic comedy or a rom-com is a sub-genre of comedy and romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centred on romantic ideas, such as how love is able to surmount all obstacles.
What are some of the obvious rom coms that come to mind? When Harry Met Sally? 27 Dresses? Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani? What about a horror rom-com? Roohi, perhaps?
So how is My Boo different from these movies? The story follows a gamer comes up with a moneymaking scheme for the haunted house his grandfather left him and soon ends up in a romance with one of the ghosts in it. A simple and predictable plot. Yet it captured attention of many.
The Recurring Nightmarish “Death”
Though not as gory as a proper horror piece, My Boo takes time to introduce us to the reason why it is categorised as a horror.
Ghosts are undeniably the primary requirement for a horror movie. But what sets apart, say, Roohi, from this particular movie is the way that they represent the genre.
Most of the other movies or series, we know that there are ghosts, yet we seem to forget that they were once human too. Not in the sense that we forget their humanity, but the way we forget that they once died. My Boo focuses on this aspect of horror.
In the first 15 minutes, we are shown the brutality of these ghosts’ deaths. In the following sequence of events we realise that these brutal scenes are something that is very daily or even “normal” for them, to the point that they think of it as a chore to get done with. But. They still feel it. The pain, the fear and the doom. We are shown a physical reminder of those death’s as a part of their daily life. The intestines, the chopped head and the handprints on Anong’s neck.
The Portrayal of Masculinity through Joe in My Boo:
When Joe (Sutthirak Subvijitra), a nearly professional, underemployed gamer in modern Bangkok, finds out his grandfather has died, he thinks it’s his chance to get some quick cash that will help him realise his gaming ambitions. Joe gets nothing. His brother (Adisorn Trisirikasem) tells him he’s welcome to the derelict house that he got.
Thinking he’s struck gold, the house is huge and Joe figures selling it will net him some good cash. But upon inspecting the place he promptly finds out it’s haunted.
The immediate reaction, unlike other male horror protagonists isn’t showing his dominance by show of strength, it is self preserving.
What Joe does different from other male horror protagonist is treat the ghost as what it is, a former human being, but a human being nonetheless. He helps Anong find her body. Yes, he may have had ulterior motives to it, but that never stopped him from being kind to these ghosts who have been through a lot. That doesn’t make him less “manly”. It makes him more human.
My Boo is certainly not one of the movies that gives you jump scares with its horror scenes. It makes you think of the nature of human beings, the characters linger in your mind even after the show, that’s where My Boo succeeds.
To read more, visit: https://cinecinnati.com/critics-reviews/my-boo-review/
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