Bangkok Robbery

After a string of historical epics (including Bangrajan), director Thanit Jitnukul turns to modern times with the tale of a bank heist with 102 Pid Krungthep Plon or Bangkok Robbery.

On the surface, this looks like the kind of commercial action flick I tend to avoid. A review by the Bangkok Post's Kong Rithdee didn't help matters.

An easy pitfall of film criticism, especially in the jagged cultural landscape of Bangkok, is when a critic tries to coax meaning out of something totally meaningless, and thus fooling himself and readers that every piece of cinema is born out of conceptual seriousness. That's what I always intend to avoid, especially in the case of this appalling 102 Pid Krungthep Plon -- so appalling and scatter-brained that the movie doesn't even explain what "102" means or how this term is related to the story (I'll buy the government lottery with that number next time, just to make some sense out of it).

The film uses the premise of the government's plan to repay the IMF loan, a move that triggers resentment among the opposing political camp. So vague and unintelligible is the script that I can only make out that these politicians want to screw up the cabinet's work by hiring a band of bandits, led by Nawin (Ampol Lampoon), to plant bombs at various buildings in downtown Bangkok and then rob the gold from the Central Bank. Or something like that. I'm not sure about anything any more. Neither have I any idea how the bad guys think the repayment will further corrupt the economy, or what they plan to do with the gold, or how the brilliant bandits believe they can get away with transporting tons of freshly-stolen gold in a flatbed truck covered with plastic sheets that would arouse the suspicion of the world's laziest policeman.

I've heard that the 102 refers to the number of minutes the criminals have to complete the heist. Not that I really care. After all, there's a film festival going on right now in Bankgok.