Review: Ai Tui

• Directed by Dokdin Kanyamarn.
• Starring Sombat Metanee, Petchara Chaowarat.
• Restored print shown at 2nd World Film Festival of Bangkok.

In Ai Tui, a village is celebrating its name change to honor the benefactoress who owns the land and allows the villagers to farm it. But the will that deeded the land to the woman is being challenged, and at one point, the villagers are thrown off their land and their homes are burned.

A co-worker of mine, when reading this synposis, said that the movie didn't sound much like a comedy. And comedy is supposed to be the theme of the 2nd World Film Festival of Bangkok, where this film was showing.

However, Thai movies of that era, from the late '60s to the early 1970s, had a bit of everything - melodrama, romance, action and comedy - giving audiences the most bang for their hard-earned baht.

This is most definitely the case with Ai Tui, or Mr Tui, a 1971 film by Dokdin Kanyamarn.

It starts out with the village celebration of Songkran, the Thai New Year. The holiday turns extra special when the villagers hear that Khun Mae Priew is coming upriver in a boat to visit.

They break into rousing song, performing in a traditional Thai folk style.

Then they gather on the dock to greet their benefactoress. Trouble is, none of them have seen her. They suppose she is an old woman. And when a matronly woman steps off the boat, they think its her and give her a big ceremonial "wai" -- the Thai clasped hands greeting -- in unison. Turns out she is only the maid. Then a young woman steps off. She is greeted. But she's just a village girl. When the actual Khun Mae Priew (Petchara Chaowarat) steps off, the villagers aren't sure what to do. She's young and pretty. Can that be her? With her identity finally established, the villagers all do their wai and then the dock promptly collapses, dumping everyone into the water.

The festivities continue, with the village headman's handsome son, the titular Ai Tui (Sombat Metanee) performing a song. It's something he's been working on for years and is incomplete. Priew writes some new lyrics on the spot and gives them to Tui to sing. A bond is formed.

That night, gunmen storm the village, trying to kidnap Khiew. She bids a retreat to Bangkok. At her villa in the capital, she finds a thug has moved in and fired her staff and hired a new maid who doesn't recognize her. Then her late husband's sister shows up -- an evil, snooty woman with a duplicitous daughter in tow. She is contesting the will that gave Khun Priew the estate.

From the village, two women have accompanied Priew, Bon and Bua. They break into another song about how the women need to be stronger, an occasion they gives them a chance to go jogging along in short-shorts. Bon and Bua prove to be an engaging comedy team, especially when paired the actors who are playing their boyfriends - Dokdin and another guy. The actress who portrayed the spunky, short-haired Bon, Alisa Prompathan, was a real joy to watch. Not only was she a great singer, she had a comedic sensibility; kind of reminded me of Carol Burnett.

The short-short outfits were just part of the outrageous costuming of the era. Another eyebrow-raising getup for Petchara (who had costume changes for every scene) was a short yellow dress with a ruffled front. And on the boat, Petchara had a little sailor outfit, complete with yellow sailor hat atop a luxurious beehive of black hair. And the boat featured an all female crew, all wearing little striped T-shirts and red sailor hats. It was this style that Michael Shaowanasai sought to emulate when he created his character, Iron Pussy. Petchara was the model.

I could also see the influence of this era's films on Tears of the Black Tiger (which Sombat co-starred in) and Monrak Transistor. In Tears, there was a matronly maid who doted on the leading lady. I'll bet this character was a standard of many films of the era. Monrak sought to capture the overall feel of the films from this age, featuring music, comedy, drama and action -- something for everyone in one film.

Back to Ai Tui. Tui and his friends (including comic-relief expert Dokdin) have secretly followed Khun Priew to Bangkok. Tui, in a hilarious yet poor disguise as a hipster university graduate (circa 1970) with Nehru jacket and large round tortoiseshell shades, tries to charm Priew. He says he studied agriculture in "Taxi ... I mean Texas". This whole scene doesn't really make sense. Priew is out at a nightclub, where she meets the disguised Tui. On her way home, another vehicle tries to run her down but is instead slammed into by a military vehicle. It's a surreal scene of the accident with moaning bodies hanging out of an overturned vehicle. Oh, and the negative was flipped in this scene. Don't know why.

Later, Priew decides that Tui is needed to help protect her. So she sends for him. In another clumsily handled bit, it is revealed that Tui was posing as the hipster. Dokdin saves the scene by ending up with a paint bucket on his head -- an always guaranteed laugh getter.

There's a trip to the beach, giving the filmmaker a chance to show many ladies in bikinis and the young Sombat a chance to show off his chiseled torso. It's also time for the melodrama, as the evil daughter-in-law's daughter gets Tui off alone and sets him up to be caught by Priew.

With the drama out of the way, there's time for action, with the villagers being thrown off their land and uprising against the thugs. Plenty of fake blood is spattered as machetes and bamboo spears come into play.

There's a chase scene with the long-tailed boats that recalls From Russia With Love, where Bond threw some gas cans on the water and then ignited them with a pistol shot. Tui and the lead gangster then go at each other, jousting with the long-tail boat propellers. Tui's shoulder is cut, though the blow was edited out - either because of bad film or a bad edit. But the gangster gets a propeller in the face, and this blow is seen.

This film's rare screening was at the 2nd World Film Festival of Bangkok, to an auditorium that was about half full. Before the screening Dokdin and Sombat were on hand to talk about the good ol' days. Dokdin received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the festival. It was noted that Sombat, looking fit as ever, once held, or still holds, a world record for most-filmed actor. He's appeared in around 600 films, according to the pre-screening banter. Petchara no longer makes public appearances because she is blind, which people attribute to eyedrops she used to make her eyes sparkle.

Cheers erupted for the final scene, a reprise of the main song, which featured Khun Priew in a flowing red dress. There was also a water buffalo. I wasn't sure whether the audience was cheering the beautiful Petchara or the water buffalo. At one point, the buffalo's cud chewing was used to make it appear he was singing in Sombat's voice. Then Sombat appeared from behind a tree. And the movie ended with a big, happy song.

Tui, by the way, is a more polite word for buffalo, or kwai.


(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes; photo: Sombat Methanee and Dokdin Kanyamarn chat during festivities leading up to the screening of Ai Tui at the 2nd World Film Festival of Bangkok.)