On this particular trip, Oden gets help from inside man Lo Jin (Wee Hong Thomas), who claims that he can help track Kate and that there is the possibility she was abducted by a crime organization and sold into white slavery. This means that Oden is kept at an arms length, told he cannot meet with the informants or tag along too closely with Lo Jin, otherwise that will put them in trouble. But, as they travel through Cambodia's seedy nightlife, meeting dead ends and robbery, moving on with little tangible evidence and more money spent, Oden starts to wonder if he is being fooled.

The film is pretty basic and routine. It doesn't really simmer or thrill, mostly due to issues that one can chalk up to the limited production. The direction and setups are simple. The acting and staging is sometimes awkward. All problems that, no doubt, could have been smoothed over with more time and money. It does at least succeed with some good location footage. No doubt yawn-inducing to natives, but to Western and European eyes its is completely compelling, be it a mist covered forest, ancient temple grounds, or the dingy back alleys. Much of Morris', who looks kinda' like the guy who played Max Headroom, grumbles as an actor are forgivable considering his multitasking (and the jungle heat too). As his guide, Thomas does a fine job, dryly getting to offer the film's best one liner- after Morris' character discovers a rat in his bed, he says, "Catch it and I'll make you breakfast."

In terms of how the story unfolds, there was a little obviousness in some of the twists. One quickly realizes it not a film about the mysterious loss of a loved one and the tone (and common sense) suggests that the truth of what happened to Kate isn't going to be pretty. With some nods to problems of third world crime, the films real focus is on the possible deception of Lo Jin and mental unbalance of Oden. As the film wound to its conclusion, I was surprised to find that my assumptions about the finale were all true and that, plus some diaphanous character psycholgy, took some steam out of my enjoyment.

The DVD: Lifesize Ent.

Picture: Non-Anamorphic Widescreen. It is a cheap DV film, so the source has all the video limitations one expects (washed out color, dull contrast, low sharpness details). Unfortunately, the trasnfer is rife with video-related transfer problems like, ghosting, motion blur, and jagged edges.

Sound: 2.0 Stereo. English language. No subs. Its a low budget film, thus some of the location recording is poor and often awash in external noise. The techno, pulsing groove score is clear, which actually makes it a tad bracing agaisnt the roughly recorded dialouge. But, again, this is all forgivable.

Extras: Trailers. -- Michael Morris' NYU Student Film (26: 55). -- Deleted Scenes with commentary. -- Commentary by actor/director/writer Michael Morris and actor/co-producer Wee Hong Thomas.

A nice round of extras. The student film is, well, a student film, an okay curio but not something most viewers are likely to repeat. The deleted scenes are a nice addition, though you can clearly see why they were scrapped. The commentary track isn't recorded very well and the audio is canny. Because of the nature of the production, there are plenty of anecdotes and Morris and Thomas barely take a breath during the track.

Conclusion: Much like another film I'm reviewing today, the Japanese indie Lost By Dead, I brace at being too harsh. Does the film entirely work? No. Last Seen at Angkor isn't horrible either . It is the kind of project that the hurdle of just getting it made with so much against it (budget, general conditions, etc) makes the final product an admirable accomplishment no matter what the little tics tremors may be. Discwise, the DVD has a decent round of extras but the transfer doesn't do the limited film any favors, making this one worth a rental at best.