Review: Plon Na Ya 2 Ai Yah!

• Directed by Poj Arnon
• Starring Jaturong Pollabong, Charoenporn Onlamai, Kirk Schiller, Somchai Kemklad, Pharanyu Rotchanawutthitham, Thana Sutthikmon, Treechada Marnyaporn, Bongkot Kongmalai
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 5, 2012; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

With great trepidation, I checked out Poj Arnon's latest katoey comedy and was surprised when a half-decent action film broke out. Not only that, amid the usual shreiking and carrying on by the transgender cast and comedians in drag, the story was even more-or-less coherent, despite increasingly outlandish plot complications – a remarkable accomplishment for a Poj Arnon film.

Plon Na Ya 2 Ai Yah! (ปล้นนะยะ 2 อั๊ยยยย่ะ) is the sequel to Poj Arnon's 2004 katoey comedy remake of Dog Day Afternoon, Spicy Beautyqueen in Bangkok, about financially struggling transgender folks who form a gang in order to rob a bank.

The first film featured Nang Nak and Bang Rajan leading man Winai Kraibutr in a admireably committed performance as a cabaret dancer who needs cash for a sex-change operation. Spicy Beautyqueen also gained notoriety after Louis Vuitton's agressive copyright watchdogs demanded the removal of LV logos from the outlandish soccer-themed costume worn by gang leader Jaturong "Mokjok" Pollaboon. So now, thanks to LV's lawyers, if you watch Spicy Beautyqueen, the entire latter half of the movie has Jaturong's Louis Vuitton knock-off dress blurred out with the same kind of pixellation smudges that prevent Thai TV viewers from seeing such offensive acts as smoking, drinking alcohol or guns pointed at heads.

Plon Na Ya 2 picks up the story eight years later. Winai isn't back, but Jaturong's character is. He, or rather she, has returned to Thailand after a stint in New Zealand. Also returning from the first film is Charoenporn "Khotee" Onlamai's character who was killed off previously but had a twin running a sheep ranch in New Zealand. Initially a straight-acting man, he's convinced by his "madam" Jaturong to adopt her cross-dressing lifestyle and he takes to it rather quickly.

Joining the cast this time around is Kirk Schiller, playing a flamboyant transgender friend of Jaturong's character. Together, they plan to undergo sex-change surgery at the same time. He keeps his mustache and goatee beard, and offers a coarse explanation as to why late in the film.

That same morning, Somchai Kemklad and several young guys from Poj Arnon's limitless stable are heading off to work. If you remember the first film, you might recall Somchai had a cameo as a pizza-delivery guy, and if you don't remember there's a black-and-white flashback that also briefly reveals Jaturong's forbidden Louis Vuitton dress. It's Somchai's first day on the job as the driver of a Bangkok city bus, and his brother is among the passengers. Ripping a page from current-events headlines as Poj Arnon often does, gangster students from rival technical schools start a brawl aboard the bus. Gunshots are fired and the driver's brother is seriously wounded.

Fast-moving events bring the folks from the bus shooting to the same hospital where the sex-change patients are having their operations.

With the arrival of armed gangsters, the situation escalates into a hostage stand-off with the police.

And then there's a fairly entertaining car chase that has the transgender folks, hostages and the bus gang getting mixed up with victims fleeing from the thugs of a gambling kingpin. They are driving their cars while wearing motorcycle helmets that turn out to be rigged to explode if they try to remove them.

And there is indeed an explosion, with one of the cars blowing up. An outtake reel at the end of the movie shows the car did a corkscrew rollover and landed upright before exploding. I'm not sure why that cool stunt didn't make it into the movie.

With breathless implausibility, the transgender criminals, the bus gang, the hostages from the hospital and a surviving gambling kingpin captive band together to plan a robbery of the gambling kingpin's mansion.

Here's another chance for the costume designers – a department overseen by Poj Arnon himself – to go hog wild with exagerrated wigs and colorful sequined cabaret gowns. Even Somchai Kemklad dons drag.

Also joining the cast time around is transgender beauty queen "Poy" Treechada Marnyaporn playing a helpful surgeon named Yingluck. Surely it's no coincidence that Yingluck happens to be the name of Thailand's first female prime minister. She dons a mid-riff-baring drag-queen outfit and gets into the spirit of the caper by saucily helping to "seduce" the gambling kingpin's henchmen.

And "Tak" Bongkot Kongmalai takes part in the proceedings as one of the motorcycle-helmet-bomb captives who joins with the robbery scheme. She and Poj Arnon had earlier feuded during the production of the action film Dangerous Flowers, a.k.a. Chalee's Angels, but they've apparently patched things up.

More shooting, shouting and brandishing of weapons ensues and our heroines and heroes eventually make their escape to South Korea for another chance at sex-change surgery. Khotee, Kirk and Jaturong all don traditional Korean costumes and pose for Thai tourists. Somchai and his cohorts get a chance to wear stylish cold-weather gear and play at being Korean gangsters. And there are more outtakes reels in which live octopuses are harmed – something all Thai movies shot in South Korea must be compelled to show.

It all mostly works, somehow, thanks mainly to the humorous charm of rotund little cross-dressing comedian Khotee who always manages to be funny even in the most dire circumstances.

As confusing as this all sounds, I was surprised at how tolerable Plon Na Ya 2 was. Nonetheless, I won't be waiting with bated breath for Plon Na Ya 3, as inevitable as it seems.

Related posts:

• Talking dogs and Spicy Beauty Queens in sequels

Review: Sassy Players (Taew Te Teen Raberd)

• Directed by Poj Arnon
• Starring Sudarat Butrprom, Peerawit Bunnag, Warapat Petchsatit,
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 2, 2009
• Rating: 1/5

For the grand finale football match in Taew Te Teen Raberd (แต๋วเตะตีนระเบิด, also Sassy Players), the gay-transvestite team wore yellow to face the powerhouse rival, wearing red.

I'm not going to say who won, because really, who cares? But the message is that yellows and reds should love one another.

But another state of emergency has been declared after Bangkok's traffic was snarled and the ASEAN summit was invaded by red-shirted anti-government protesters -- unhappy with the government seated with the help of the last batch of anti-government protesters, who wore yellow. So that message has clearly not been heeded.

But given that Sassy Players was made with the manure-bucket method, it's easy to see why that message was lost. And what's the manure-bucket method? Well, it's when a director has a big bucket of manure and the manure is flung at a wall to see what sticks.

In the case of Poj Arnon and studio Phranakorn Film, it must have been a dumptruck load, because there is so much going on in this movie, it's difficult to determine just what it is about. Lots of manure was flung, but most of it slid down and formed a fetid pool of muck.

The setting is at Catholic school, formerly all girls, but has opened to boys, and one of the teachers, Tukkie, played by the indomitable comic actress Sudarat Butrprom, wants to field a boys' football team.


The school has just enough students who were born male to fill the 16-member squad, but seven of them are transvestites. The bonus is the team won't have to have a cheerleading squad -- it has one built in.

And when the sight gags don't have to do with the outlandish outfits, absurd cosmetics or garish shrieking and mincing by the ladyboy athletes, piling on top of each other in a great heap, there's half-hearted drama involving the team's straight-acting boys. Are they gay or aren't they? That's the big question that's used like a rabbit for racing greyhounds to chase after.

The structure is the basic sports comedy of the team forming, learning how to play, going through training sequences and the team members bonding with each other in the process. The katoeys and the straight-acting players get along just fine. There is no drama there -- sleepovers at each others' houses or at the school are treated as ordinary.

The supposed center of this sports comedy is a rather petty and mean-spirited parody of Chookiat Sakveerakul's Love of Siam, which the Catholic school setting and Christmas-tree lights complement. Just have the pretty boys saunter through Siam Square going moon-eyed over some girl (or maybe each other?) and the picture is nearly complete. The capper is a scene directly lifted from Sahamongkol Film's Love of Siam, except here a dim-witted mother has an inane heart-to-heart talk with her son, asking him to choose a bra or a pair of mens' briefs -- the undergarment he selects will determine his sexuality.

Sassy Players also tries to reference the GTH romantic comedies like Seasons Change and Hormones. There will also be inevitable comparisons to The Iron Ladies, which is about a winning men's volleyball team of gay and transgender players, but Youngyooth Thongkonthun's 2000 comedy had something that Sassy Players lacks -- earnestness and a heart.


The host of young actors and actresses all seemingly look just like the young actors and actresses in teen romances by Sahamongkol and GMM Tai Hub -- so Poj Arnon and Phranakorn now have the necessary parts to assemble their own teen romantic comedies. Look out.

The problems with Sassy Players are many. For one, the two dozen or so characters are dealt with artlessly and confusingly. To help process them all, I treated the seven katoeys as one character. A group of rival teachers who want to sabotage Tukkie is another character. Former Bangkok gubernatorial candidate Leena Jangjanja is among these, but oddly the colorful politician and beauty-product queen doesn't make much of an impression. The straight (or are they gay?) boys on the football team are another character. The boys on the rival powerhouse team -- always gratuitously filmed in the locker room in their briefs -- is another. Throw in a dwarf referee, a rather confused Japanese teacher (Season Change's Yano Kazuki), lesbian schoolgirls, "Lukate" Metinee Kingpayom and a katoey housekeeper with a bizarre taste in accessories, and it's all pretty overwhelming.

The usually eye-popping cinematography by Tiwa Moeithaisong bafflingly fails here too. The lighting is flat and blindingly contrasty, though once the story settles into the football games, the images are more kinetic and tolerable.

Because I submitted myself to Sassy Players, I kept looking for something to like, and at least try to enjoy the movie.

There's the unique kicking style of the katoey players. Like the gay character in Revenge of the Nerds, whose limp-wristed javelin throw was a big winner, the queer kicks by the katoeys kept the opposing goalkeepers guessing.

And the other thing in Sassy Players that made me smile was diminutive comic actress Sudarat's ability to dominate every scene. If her sassy attitude didn't make her the star, then the progressively weirder outfits she wore ensured that all eyes would be on her no matter how strange things got.


Related posts:

• Trailer for Poj Arnon's gay teen soccer comedy
• Poj Arnon's gay teen soccer comedy explodes with color

Review: Mor 6/5 Pak Mha Ta Pee

• Released in Thai cinemas on October 3, 2013; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5

Kids, mind what your teachers say and show them respect, or else they will fly into a murderous rage and after they die they will haunt you for the rest of your days.

That's the lesson to be learned in the haunted schoolhouse horror-comedy Mor Hok/Haa Pak Maa Taa Pee (มอ6/5 ปากหมา ท้าผี, a.k.a. Mor Hok Tub Ha, M. 6/5 or Make Me Shudder!). It's the first 3D offering from the 12-year-old movie studio Phranakorn. Poj Arnon, the infamous master of schlock, is credited as writer, production designer and costume designer, but, oddly not director. That credit goes to someone named Poch Apirut (but it's really Poj Arnon).

It's a headache-inducing effort, thanks to the constant, ear-splitting screams of the schoolboys as they endlessly run around shrieking like schoolgirls. You have to squint, thanks to the dimly lit school corridors, made even darker by the polarised 3D glasses. I peeked at the screen without the glasses, and things weren't much brighter, plus it was blurry.

Even though the lighting was dim, the 3D photography wasn't too bad, turning the tour of the haunted school into an immersive journey, sort of like Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Too bad Werner wasn't narrating or directing though. Perhaps one day he could do a documentary on Poj Arnon's obsession with making crappy movies.

And there were also gimmicky special effects to sweeten the 3D, like a cloud of murkily rendered bats squealing out of the screen, or a gore-drenched teacher ghost's spectre flying at the audience.

The story is about the bully leader of a gang of boys in short pants – fresh-faced youngsters cast out of Poj's talent-management stable. He likes to lead his pals on dares to explore haunted houses. They stay after school one night to explore an off-limits building on campus where years before a boy leaped to his death, distraught over his bad grades.

Soon, the ghost kid is stalking the boys, chasing them down gated-off hallways and up and down endless staircases, screaming all the way. Eventually they take a break, and the ghost boy is actually pretty friendly and talkative for a guy with a smashed head. But then they are back to running and screaming some more. And this goes on for 90 minutes.

It isn't until the last half hour or so that the movie gets interesting. After so many dark, dead-end hallways, the story starts to go somewhere, thanks to the introduction of an imperious headmistress played by none other than original Bangkok Dangerous actress "May" Pathawarin Timkul, who still has the best glowering sneer in the business.

There's a whole backstory to her character and her dealings with a couple of other teachers who are mysteriously hanging around late at night in this abandoned school building. It's a story from another time and another, better, movie.

Related posts:

• Karaoke Girl, Ilo Ilo and a Poj Arnon 3D horror in Bangkok cinemas

Karaoke Girl, Ilo Ilo and a Poj Arnon 3D horror in Bangkok cinemas

It's an interesting week for fans of Southeast Asian cinema in Bangkok, with the release of Ilo Ilo, the first Singaporean film to be awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and the city-state's submission to next year's Academy Awards.

There's also Karaoke Girl, the debut feature by indie Thai filmmaker Visra Vichet-Vadakan. A fixture from this year's festival circuit, Karaoke Girl is an experimental documentary and drama about a young woman who works as a bar "hostess" in Bangkok.

And as a weird aside, there's Mor Hok/Haa Pak Maa Taa Pee, the first 3D movie from Phranakorn Production and controversial director Poj Arnon.

Ilo Ilo is a family drama set against the backdrop of the 1997 financial crisis. Directed by Anthony Chen, the partly autobiographical story is about a Filipina maid who moves into an apartment with an ethnic Chinese family. She becomes a confidant to the bratty spoiled schoolboy son and newly unemployed dad, earning her a hairy eyeball from the pregnant domineering mother.

By coincidence, Ilo Ilo has a Bangkok connection, thanks to one of its producers, Wahyuni A. Hadi, wife of Thai indie filmmaker Aditya Assarat and herself one of the driving forces behind the promotion of Singaporean independent cinema. Winner of the Cannes Camera d'Or Award for best first feature – the first Singaporean film to be awarded at Cannes – Ilo Ilo is at House on RCA. Check out the trailer embedded below.



Karaoke Girl (สาวคาราโอเกะ, Sao Karaoke) depicts the grim life of a young woman who works as an escort. The debut feature of Visra  is the story of Sa, a country girl who was sent to Bangkok when she was just 15. After three years in a factory, she entered the sex trade in order to support her family. Four years later the filmmaker met her, documented her life in the city and in the country and also wrote a fictional script for her to act in. The story is drawn from Sa's actual experiences, threading memories of her rural childhood with the complicated reality of her urban life.

Boasting impressive credits, with New York University professor and Salaam Bombay cinematographer Sandi Sissel as a director of photography, Karaoke Girl premiered in the main competition at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it earned positive reviews. It went on to a bunch of other fests, including Helsinki and London's Terracotta Far East Film Festival as well as Karlovy Vary, Vancouver, Jeonju, Hamburg and Luxembourg City. It won the award for Emerging International Filmmaker at London's Open City Docs Fest.

Happily, the film had a positive effect on Sa, and she's turned her back on her old life, according to the filmmaker.

Karaoke Girl is in limited release at the Apex cinemas in Siam Square and the Esplanade Cineplex Ratchada. It'll open next week at Major Cineplex Airport Plaza Chiang Mai and at Bangkok's House cinema on October 17. The trailer is embedded below.

Mor Hok/Haa Pak Maa Taa Pee (มอ6/5 ปากหมา ท้าผี, a.k.a. Make Me Shudder is the first stab into 3D by B-movie studio Phranakorn and schlock filmmaker Poj Arnon.

The horror comedy is about young schoolboys in short pants who challenge themselves by entering haunted buildings.

I don't know what else to say about this, except it looks like utter nonsense but I will still watch it because I haven't filled my Poj Arnon quota this year. The trailer is embedded below.

Poj Arnon casting for gay soccer comedy

Bangkok Love Story writer-director Poj Arnon is scouting for good-looking young men for his next project, a gay soccer comedy being produced at Phranakorn Film.

Bangkok of the Mind has the news via Popcornmag:

Are you young, male, and good-looking? If so, Thai director Poj Anon might have the film role for you.

It's a teen comedy, for which he requires the services of 20 young men aged 15-18. They can be 'real' or 'artificial' men (kathoey), and if they can play football, it's a plus.

Bkkdreamer further relates that it will be "a comedy in the vein of Satree Lek" (Iron Ladies), the internationally popular comedy about a gay and transgender men's volleyball team, "only his would be about football, where gays and straights must play, and rub up alongside each other."

There's even an e-mail address for prospective players: banpoj [at] yahoo [dot] com.

(Photo of Poj Arnon at the 34th Brussels International Independent Film Festival by Etienne Carton/Flickr)

Review: Sop Dek 2002

• Directed by Poj Arnon
• Starring Somchai Khemklad, Pitchanart Sakakorn, Chudapa Jankhat, Arisara Tongborisuth
• Released in Thai cinemas on March 10, 2010; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

The latest ripped-from-the-headlines thriller to hit the big screen in Thailand is Sop Dek 2002 (ศพเด็ก 2002, 2002: The Unborn Child), which is based on the scandal last year of the discovery of 2,002 fetuses in a Bangkok Buddhist temple that had come from illegal abortion clinics.

A movie-of-the-week and moralistic social-message film, there's a notification at the end that states its aim of preventing unwanted teen pregnancies, which is laudable, but I kind of doubt anyone will take it seriously. Because, after all, it's a movie by Poj Arnon.

And that's too bad.

This creepy thriller is a welcome departure from Poj's transvestite comedies. For the most part, it holds together as solidly serious suspense but runs off the rails in the third act as it seeks to tie things up and ensure that all the characters get what's coming to them, according to karma.

"Tao" Somchai Kemklad stars as Tri, a crime-scene photographer whose work puts him on a case of a woman left for dead after an abortion gone wrong. The young man is married to pretty schoolteacher Pim (horror queen "May" Pitchanart Sakakorn) and they have a 5-year-old daughter, Yaimai.

The little girl keeps seeing an imaginary friend in the shadows. She insists it's her little brother, which immediately casts suspicion on the parents.

The couple's apartment is pretty creepy with its dark wood and stark black-and-white photos of malnourished street urchins supposedly taken by Tri.

Meanwhile, there's an actress (Arisara Tongborisuth) who is pregnant and is wondering what to do with her baby.

And there's a teenage couple, students in teacher Pim's class. The girl becomes determined to have abortion after her jugeared boyfriend (Peerawit Bunnag) won't man up and commit to supporting her and the kid.

After abortion pills ordered from a website don't work, the girl goes to a rundown illegal abortion clinic run by a hard-bitten chain-smoking former nurse (veteran actress Chudapa Jankhat). Here's where the glorious gore is on full display. With blood dripping everywhere, blood-coated surgical gloves, blood-soaked instruments and pans and vessels filled with blood, the abortion doc goes to work with the aid of sickening sound effects. A wriggling fetus is yanked from the womb with forceps, plopped in bag and tossed on a pile of other bags in an adjoining room.


When it comes time to take out the trash, the abortion doc loads up her motorbike and visits the undertaker at a Buddhist temple. The fetal corpses are kept in numbered compartments at the back of the temple, where they await cremation. But the broken-down furnace puts cremations on hold, so the numbered cabinets become full. Which is what happened in the case of last year's real-life scandal.

The little girl Yaimai keeps seeing her little brother and getting into bizarre situations, like wandering off to the haunted Buddhist temple and scaring her mother half to death. Or she'll find herself playing on an ominously squeaking playground swing in the middle of the night or out on a ledge of the apartment, with no explanation of how she got there.

And Tri, given to an increasing amount of brooding as time wears on, is starting to see things himself – ghostly figures in photos he's taken, just like in the movie Shutter. He tries to take video of himself and his wife sleep – kinda kinky – and it's like something out of Paranormal Activity with the tripod repeatedly knocked down.

The suspense jiggers higher and higher, until the threads that bind these characters together are pulled tight.

And it's kind of ridiculous and fantastic at the same time, with one character smothering in a grave that's full of crawling dead babies and another sent over the brink by a swimming pool full of blood.

The cops come calling at the temple, and the rescue squad pulls out 2,002 bodies, and places them in 2,002 little body bags, just like in last year's abortion scandal.

Only Tri isn't among the crime photographers taking pictures.

Meanwhile, the high school boy visits his girlfriend in the hospital after her botched abortion, and apologizes for not "having protection". So at least there's that. But I wonder how many youngsters (or grown-ups for that matter) will take that bit of advice about preventive measures seriously?



Related posts:

• Poj Arnon makes a movie out of the abortion scandal

Review: Kao Rak Thee Korea (Sorry Saranghaeyo)

• Directed by Poj Arnon
• Starring Noh Ah-joo, Haru Yamagushi, Ratchanon Sukprakob, Sarun Sirilak, Thanya Rattanamalakul
• Released in Thai cinemas on July 8, 2010; rated 13+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

Maybe Poj Arnon should make more movies in South Korea?

Because the latest effort by the prolific producer-director, Kao Rak Thee Korea (เการัก ที่เกาหลี) or Sorry Saranghaeyo, is uncharacteristically brisk and coherent, marking a major departure from previous efforts that were sprawling, indecipherable messes.

Kao Rak Thee Korea is a broad parody of the Korean trend that has inundated Thai culture in recent years, with Thais eagerly glomming on to South Korean soap operas, pop music and hairstyles.

The movie focuses on a family that runs a dry-cleaning business – middle-class Thais with a big house, a garish wardrobe of winter clothing and enough disposable income to afford a winter package tour to South Korea.

The main character is the teen daughter Kana. She's played by Haru Yamagushi, a enthusiastic bundle of energy in a kewpie-doll-size package. She's obsessed with all things Korean, especially the pop star Ajoo.

Her sister, Mara (Thanya Rattanamalakul), also follows the Korean trend, and wants to visit one of Seoul's vaunted cosmetic surgery clinics to reshape her ghost-face looks, which prevent her from having any success on a string of blind dates.

Along for the ride are a pair of Kana's young suitors, Won (Sarun Sirilak), who wants to be a K-pop dancer, and the brooding Chai ("Guy" Ratchanon Sukprakob), as well as Kana's BFF, effeminate guy Sayan (Patrick Paiyer). There's also mom and grandmother, and pair of effeminate male tour guides (one played by hoarse-voiced DJ "Moddam" Kachapa Tancharoen).

Kana is quickly deposited in a Seoul clinic for her treatments, but bizarrely turns back up during the tour in various states of ongoing repair, with the bandages on her face increasing with each visit, until even her eyes are swaddled over with gauze.

Kana, along with goofball mom and grandma and the effeminate tour guides, serve as comic relief and the source of parody. They are all rather shallow, vain and annoying.

Meanwhile, teenybopper Kana and her effeminate male friend Sayan have snuck away from the tour, taking a train to find her idol Ajoo.


This portion of the film is more melodramatic in tone and is boosted by the appearance of pop star Ajoo, smoothly and confidently playing a version of himself.

The set-up has him feeling overworked and depressed after a break-up with a girlfriend. It's a comment on the pressure-cooker that is the South Korean entertainment industry, where stars are precision-manufactured money machines, and they pay a high price if they break down.

Kana's visit is just the distraction he needs, and his stern taskmaster manager allows him to take a few days off to get his head right.

The concern is whether this star genuinely likes Kana or is just taking advantage of her, and how far is he going to go.

Chai has Ajoo's manager's phone number (they speak English to each other) and he uses it to track down the star and his gal pal. He and Won eventually turn up and keep a close eye on Ajoo.

One humorous scene has all three guys soaking together in a tiny hot tub, and the appearance of someone in the doorway makes them all hug each other tight in order to cover up their private parts. The other person just shakes their head, wondering what the heck that was all about.

Gorgeous snow-covered landscapes are captured lovingly, and when Kana's heart is indeed broken – Ajoo couldn't help it after all – she tearfully traipses through the winter wonderland, sobbing like she's in a music video. Second-stringer Chai is there to hug her.

The cohesiveness of the narrative starts to fall apart once the family returns to Bangkok for a frenzied ending that culminates at a K-pop concert.

They all should have stayed in South Korea.


Related posts:

• Poj Arnon went to South Korea and all he brought back was a movie

Poj Arnon went to South Korea and all he brought back was a movie

Poj Arnon's South Korean movie Sorry Saranghaeyo looks like it's gone through a few changes since it was first mentioned earlier this year.

In an early trailer, it appeared to be a romance that was (mostly) heavy on the melodrama, with lots of crying in the snowy mountain landscapes.

A new trailer (embedded below) has a solid dose of comedy added.

The movie has a rejigged name too, Kao Rak Thee Korea (เการัก ที่เกาหลี), though from what I can tell, Sorry Saranghaeyo (Sorry ซารังเฮโย) remains in the title.

The story has a Thai family going to South Korea to visit the locations of their favorite TV dramas and movies.

One sister Kana (Haru Yamagushi) hopes to glimpse her favorite pop star, Ajoo (Noh Ah-joo). She's in for heartbreak while her guy pal Chai ("Guy" Ratchanon Sukprakob) is there to comfort her but secretly loves her.

Meanwhile Kana's sister Mara (Tanya Ratnamalakun) wants to indulge in another favorite activity of Thai hi-so's: She wants cosmetic surgery, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who can relate to being shallow, vain and image conscious.

During production, there was behind-the-scenes drama between Poj and Guy, who's one of the young actors in his talent-agency stable. Guy had asked to return to Thailand early so he could take a role in a soap opera on Channel 7. Poj saw that as a good opportunity for his star.

But then it emerged that Guy had signed a contract with Exact, another production company, which made Poj unhappy.

Anyway, words were exchanged, and Guy said that was the reason he was demoted from the lead role in Sorry Saranghaeyo to a supporting player, though Poj denies that was the reason.

Or maybe it was the reason. Or maybe the whole "argument" was stage-managed to drum up publicity for the film?

I don't understand what it was all about. Guy is still in the movie, is featured prominently on the posters, in the production stills and in the trailer, and his name is mentioned in the synopsis.

Sorry Saranghaeyo opens tomorrow.

Review: Mor 6/5 Pak Ma Tha Mae Nak

• Directed by Poj Arnon
• Starring Wanida Termthanporn, Pongpit Preechaborisutkun
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 10, 2014; rated G
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5

Since the legend of Mae Nak Phra Khanong originated more than a century ago, storytellers, playwrights and filmmakers have all sought to put their own spin on the tale of the ghost wife Nak, who died in childbirth while her husband was away at war. But her love was so strong, her spirit remained, and when Mak returned, his love was so strong, he was blind to the fact that his wife was no longer alive.

Now comes Thailand's reigning cinematic snakeoil salesman, Poj Arnon. A shameless opportunist who's never one to shy away from making a film that's ripped from today's headlines, his latest zeitgeist-capturing effort is Mor 6/5 Pak Ma Tha Mae Nak (มอ 6/5 ปากหมาท้าแม่นาค, a.k.a. Mathayom pak ma tha Mae Nak). It blends last year's blockbuster Thai movie Pee Mak – the record-shattering box-office hit – with his own 2013 horror-comedy, Mor 6/5 Pak Ma Tha Pee (Make Me Shudder!), in which bratty schoolboys ran and screamed as they were chased by ghost teachers.

While GTH's Pee Mak added four of Mak's bumbling war buddies to the Mae Nak Phra Khanong story, Poj ups the ante by adding 10 foul-mouthed shrieking schoolboys in short pants.

Taking a cue from another of last year's hit movies, the indie teen drama Tang Wong, the Mathayom 6/5 fellows pray to the Mae Nak shrine for good luck on their school exams. But, being complete idiots, they insult the shrine and find themselves pulled back in time to Mae Nak's day.

They then hamfistedly attempt to assist in Mae Nak's giving birth, but of course botch things up.

Later, Nak and her baby Dang appear to be just fine, and apparently alive. She tasks the boys with going to the battlefield to track down Mak and tell him the good news.

Of course, the lads all have to don period clothing, so off come the shirts, out come outlandish "historic" hairstyles and, for good measure, their teeth are blackened in keeping with the fashion of the era.

A short action scene later, the boys have returned with Mak (Pongpit Preechaborisutkun), but something's off. It appears Nak is dead after all. Torch- and pitchfork-wielding villagers band together against the ghost while the boys attempt to gently clue Mak in while also not upsetting Nak.

The story then follows the usual lines of the Mae Nak story as well as the usual Thai horror-comedy rhythms of nonsensical, headache-inducing running around and screaming.

Poj sets up plenty of opportunities for the boys to get close together, grabbing onto each other out of fear. Several scenes are devoted to the shirtless, loincloth clad young men sleeping, arranged with one boy's head making a pillow out of another lad's groin, much to the audience's delight.

Singer-actress Wanida "Gybzy Girly Berry" Termthanaporn joins the pantheon of Thai actresses to take on the role of Nak. Unfortunately, she isn't given much to do, other than look fierce, and I'm not sure she pulls it off. It seems she is upstaged by hair, makeup, costume and cheesy special effects, including a rubbery-looking arm stretch (hey, about a Stretch Armstrong-style Mae Nak action figure?)

As with the first Mor 6/5, the movie was filmed in 3D – the second to come from studio Phranakorn. But I didn't see it in 3D – Thai 3D releases are quickly supplanted in local cinemas by Hollywood 3D action movies and animation, so if you don't see them in 3D in the first week or so, you'll likely miss out. But I don't feel I missed a thing. If anything, the 3D would have just given me a bigger headache.

Mor 6/5 Pak Ma Tha Mae Nak has persisted in hanging around in cinemas after nearly a month, earning around 30 million baht, according to the latest published account. It's not near the record-setting levels of Pee Mak, but it's probably enough that Poj and Phranakorn will do another sequel, just as long as the boys look good in short pants and school uniforms.

See also:

• Official trailer

Review: Tai Hong (Die a Violent Death)

• Directed by Chartchai Ketknust, Manus Worrasingha, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit and Poj Arnon
• Starring Mai Charoenpura, Akara Amarttayakul, Supaksorn Chaimongkol, Sattawat Sethakorn
• Released in Thai cinemas on January 28, 2010; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 4/5

There is an exploitive Grindhouse feel to the portmanteau horror Tai Hong (ตายโหง, Die a Violent Death, also Still), four short stories that are ripped bleeding from Thailand's mass-market daily newspapers -- the ones that infamously splash gruesome pictures of motorcycle wrecks on their front pages.

The segments deal with a fire in a nightclub on New Year's Eve, death in jail, a dead body in an apartment building's water tank and a haunted motel room.


Released by Phranakorn Film and put together by producer-director Poj Arnon, the results are grittier than the successful recent horror anthologies of other Thai studios -- GTH with its Phobia (Phrang) series and Sahamongkol's Haunted Universities (Maha'lai Sayong Kwan).

Joining Poj in his fun are three indie filmmakers, Chartchai Ketknust, Manus Worrasingha and Tanwarin Sukkhapisit.

Chartchai handles the first segment, Flame, which controversially addresses the blaze at Santika, a Bangkok nightclub where 66 people died as the result of a fire on New Year's Eve 2008-09. It still may be too soon for a movie to portray the events of that night with any sensitivity or respect. But somehow, through the lethal mix of flaming cocktails, rock band pyrotechnics and a goofy decapitation by Christian cross, there is surprisingly sweet closure for one guy, portrayed by "Golf" Akara Amarttayakul and his girlfriend (Pimonrat Pisolyabut).

Imprison, directed by Manus, is a psychological horror, about a man ("Tae" Sattawat Sethakorn) who's put in a jail cell where a suicidal inmate's corpse had just been removed. Guilt weighs heavily on the prisoner, and with the passing of each night night behind bars, the horrible reality of what he's done grips him tighter and tighter. It doesn't help that the prisoner in an adjoining cell (Attaporn Teemakorn) is creeping him out.


Revenge, by Tanwarin, is a sickening look at what happens when a deaf drug dealer (Weeradit Srimalai) stashes an overdose victim (“Dew” Arisara Tongborisuth) in the water tank of his apartment building. It's not clear how it occurred to him to put the body there, without thinking through the possibilities of what might happen to the building's water supply. But Tanwarin, to her credit, shows us in sickening and graphic detail as bits of skin start turning up in people's water glasses. It's the classic Asian hair ghost, with those long black locks streaming out of the faucets and shower heads. The neighbors complain about the horrible odor of their water. Actress "Kratae" Supaksorn Chaimongkol is a resident leading the charge. She complains to the stern uncaring landlady, played in a guest-starring role by Wonderful Town actress Anchalee Saisoontorn. While the residents boil rice and shower in the foul water, the drug dealer is visited by the young woman's gore-covered ghost.

Finally there is Haunted Motel, a hilarious segment by Poj that features two veteran actresses, Mai Charoenpura, vamping it up for all its worth as an aging prostitute, and Wasana Chalakorn, the crazy lady from last year's The 8th Day, again as a crazy lady. Picked up by two men on a motorcycle ("Moddam" Kachapa Tancharoen and Ratchanont Sukpragawp) and taken to one of Bangkok's many curtained drive-in short-time motels, Mai finds herself in the room with a pair of bumbling idiots and thinks she can quickly abscond with the Blackberry phone of one of the men. But the gold-toothed old cat lady who runs the motel gets in the way. Meanwhile back in the room, more about the relationship of the two men is revealed. The segment gives way to the typical Thai horror comedy of much running around in circles while screaming, but brilliantly, Poj parodies the convention that he himself has been guilty of falling for, with Mai stopping to ask herself, "oh, why am I running around screaming?"


The segments, which unspool consecutively, are tied together by an opening scene that has the various characters meeting up around the nightclub. Mai's crooked hooker pickpockets Akara before she departs in search of other fresh meat. Kratae appears in Imprison as a visiting friend of the inmate. These feel like unnecessary padding until a final flourish at the end makes it all worth it.

Seeing Tai Hong in a cinema, with an enthusiastic Saturday night crowd was a great experience. The Grindhouse atmosphere -- the exploitive, ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter, the cast of familiar actors being put through their paces and a Suspiria-like color palette -- was firmly felt when the reel broke almost toward the end. The lights came up immediately and a smooth jazz soundtrack blared out of the speakers. After about five minutes, just when folks were starting to wonder if the movie was over, the lights went out and the movie started back up again, and Tai Hong roared to an ending that will likely seem a lot less impactful when seen at home on DVD.


Related posts:

• A horror omnibus from Phranakorn: Die a Violent Death

Poj Arnon directing romance in South Korea

Poj Arnon is the latest Thai filmmaker to be caught up in the trend of Korean pop culture. He started shooting a movie last week in Gangwon Province, South Korea.

Sorry Sarahaeyo (Sorry Sa Rang He Yo) is a Thai-South Korean co-production aimed at promoting tourism in South Korea. It's a romance about a vacationing Thai woman, played by Thai-Japanese model Haru Yamakushi, who falls in love with a South Korean actor, played by singer Noh Ah Joo.

At a press event in Bangkok a couple of weeks ago, Poj stated it’ll be the first time he’s directed a romance about a woman in love with a man. He’s better known for his katoey comedies and the gay romance Bangkok Love Story.

Other Thai directors working in South Korea recently include Wisit Sasanatieng, who's in production in Busan on his Iron Pussy segment for the city's pan-Asian romance anthology Camellia.

And last year, Aditya Assarat examined what it's like for a South Korean actress to go on vacation in Thailand in Phuket. Last month, Phuket screened at the Clermont-Ferrand festival.

Production on Sorry began on February 17 in Gangwon Province and is expected to wrap by March 2. Shooting locations will include Chuncheon City, Pyeongchang County, Sokcho City and Kang Neung City. The movie is co-produced by Poj's production company Film Guru and South Korea's Don't Worry.

(Via Asian Media Wiki)

Review: Tai Hong Tai Hian

• Directed by Thammanoon Sakulbunthanom, Achira Nokthet, Poj Arnon, Thanadol Nualsuth
• Starring Pimchanok Luewisetphaibun, Chotwutthi Bunyasit, Natpassara Adulyamethasiri, Pharunyoo Rotchanawutthitham, Charm Osathanond, Charlie Trairat, Jazz Chuenchuen, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, Oranut Unsawat, Phongsakon Chaisuriya, Nick Kunatip Pinpradab, Pichaya Nitipaisankul, Manatnan Phanloetwongsakun
• Released in Thai cinemas on February 6, 2014; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

Poj Arnon has rounded up another batch of directors for yet another horror omnibus, Tai Hong Tai Hian (ตายโหงตายเฮี้ยน), four sleazy ghost stories inspired by pulpy true-crime cases. It's a follow-up to a similar 2010 project by Poj, Tai Hong, a.k.a. Die a Violent Death.

The yarns involve one of Thailand's notoriously dangerous public-transport minivans plunging from an elevated expressway, murdered women in the sewer of a brothel, a body stuffed into a hotel room's air-conditioning vent and a young man who leaves the monkhood to seek revenge.

The results are mixed, but the biggest problem has to do with slow pacing. With four stories crammed into just under two hours, they should move a bit faster, but it takes them forever to get going.

Each segment is themed according to numbers, 14, 16, 15 and 13, which are referenced by such things as a button worn by a brothel worker, the room number in a run-down hotel or a record spinning a lullaby to lovers.

Seemingly long silences underline the sluggish pace of the first entry Tok Tangduan, about the falling minivan. The segment, directed by Thammanoon Sakulbunthanom (The Intruder), also suffers from an over-reliance on phones to tell the story, but that's probably intentional because a smartphone plays a vital role in the van plunge. A young woman is leaving the office late. A guy has been calling and texting her, while he's driving his fast red car. But then he's not there, forcing the girl to take the "last van of the evening". The phone messages persist and the surroundings in the van become increasingly spooky until it finally becomes clear that karma has caught up with the young lady, portrayed by Pimchanok "Bai Fern" Luewisetphaibun, and she is on her last ride.

The strongest segment, Tha Lor Soi 9, about the brothel, provides a bit of comic relief. Fan Chan kid star Charlie Trairat is one of a trio of guys who head to the place. His buddy wants to select girl No. 16 for the night, but they run into trouble, mainly from the house's strong-armed transgender madame, hilariously portrayed by transgender actor-director Tanwarin Sukkhapisit. Charlie and another of his pals then end up handcuffed to another customer, played by young comic actor Jazz Chuenchuen. They end up in a sewer that's filled with bodies, and the guy they are handcuffed to is actually a ghost. Decent makeup effects are another highlight of this segment, which is directed by Achira Nokthet, the production designer on Tanwarin's It Gets Better.

Poj himself chips in with the third entry, Pee Nai Chong Ae. It has a tattooed guitar-toting rock 'n' roller (Pharunyoo Rotchanawutthitham) checking into a fleabag hotel, but there's something wrong with the air-con. Beauty-pageant queen Charm Osathanond provides eye candy before she becomes part of the ductwork.

The finale by Thanadol Nualsuth (The Intruder) is an exasperatingly confusing revenge tale. With a chronology that was put in a blender and never put back together, Gam ("bad karma") is very difficult to follow. From what I could piece together, "Golf" Pichaya Nitipaisankul had a falling out with his psycho girlfriend, played by Manatnan "Donut" Phanloetwongsakun, and then entered the monkhood. But she kept hounding him, so he left the monkhood, tracked her down and killed her. Or maybe he killed her and then became a monk? The suspense comes from the spot of bother he runs into while trying to dispose of the body. There's a cameo by a famous leading man who was likely just hanging around the set. He all-too-briefly adds dramatic heft to the segment, and very nearly saves it.



Related posts:

• Review: Tai Hong (Die a Violent Death)

Review: Bangkok Love Story

• Written and directed by Poj Arnon
• Starring Rattanaballang Tohsawat, Chaiwat Tongsang, Weeradit Srimalai,
• Chatcha Rujinanon
• Released in Thailand cinemas on September 13, 2007

A shootout in a Buddha factory.

If all I had to do was write that sentence as a means of critical response to Bangkok Love Story, I would be very happy indeed, because then I could move to more enjoyable matters. Unfortunately, there is a bit more to tell about this film, which will likely gain what stature it can in pop culture as the "Thai Brokeback Mountain" or maybe "that gay hitman movie".

Written and directed by Poj Arnon, Bangkok Love Story, or simply Puen (Friend), is the tale of two young guys who weren't looking for love when they first met. Thrown together in odd circumstances, they are sort of dumbstruck at first by lust, and love comes later -- a lot later.

Poj has said he had the idea for the story long before Brokeback Mountain was made into a smash-hit, Oscar-winning film. But since Brokeback, it's lot easier to get a movie like Bangkok Love Story made, and like it or not, comparisons will be drawn.

Bangkok Love Story is about a loner hitman named Mhek (Cloud), played by Rattanaballang Tohsawat, who supports his HIV-positive mother and brother (Mhok, or Fog) with his assassination jobs. His usual hits are simple, walk-by affairs: sneak up, pull the trigger and run away. But for his next assignment, Cloud must kidnap a guy named It (or Stone), played by Chaiwat Tongsang, and bring him to his scar-faced bosses (including Ong-Bak baddie Suchao Pongwilai).

The confrontation with the bosses goes awry, with Cloud declaring he won't kill Stone because Stone's a good guy and Cloud only kills dirtbags. The aforementioned shoot-out in the Buddha factory occurs, with Cloud taking a bullet, Stone picking up Cloud's gun and returning fire, and then the two guys escaping and eventually holing up in Cloud's rooftop hideaway. Stone then digs the bullet out of Cloud's shoulder, and, while wearing nothing but his undershorts, proceeds to give cloud a sponge bath. The two men hide out, usually wearing nothing but their undershorts. They sneakily stare at one another, and finally get it over with in the rain, on the rooftop, as the skytrain whizzes by.

It's unfortunate that Bangkok Love Story has been marketed as Brokeback Mountain was -- as a gay love story. Knowing that walking in, there's no surprise. It's not a matter of will the guys get together, but when, and how, and who will be the Heath Ledger and who will be the Jake Gyllenhaal (Rattaballung and Chaiwat, respectively, more or less, though Chaiwat takes on some of Ledger's character's attributes later). The movie really has no place else to go after that first bit of PG-13 sex, though it does try for a twist at the end to keep things interesting.

The sexual tension gone, Cloud wants nothing more to do with Stone, and much of the rest of the picture is spent with Stone wallowing in tortured pain at not being able to be with Cloud, and the harmonica-playing Cloud slyly hiding from Stone when Stone comes looking for him. Of course there is the issue of Cloud's fiancee, Sai (Sand) who wonders why her husband-to-be isn't the same since he returned from his strange disappearance. One day Stone turns up with a ragdoll he found in Cloud's room, and spends his nights pathetically hugging it, much as a denim jacket was pathetically hugged in Brokeback. At that moment, Sand knows that Stone is lost to her.

Subplots? Well, it wouldn't be a film without one. In Bangkok Love Story, it involves Cloud's brother, Fog (Weeradit Srimalai), who is HIV positive, and is persecuted for his affliction, and gets revenge by working as a hustler. Both boys were sexually abused by their step-father, who infected the mother and Fog with HIV. It's not clear how the story of Fog really fits in film, other than to just be there and make a well-intentioned social statement about the treatment and stigmatisation of AIDS- and HIV-positive people in Thailand.

Chemistry-wise, the pairing of Cloud and Stone never really gels, beyond a couple of make-out scenes in the rain. By the time they really get together emotionally, it's too little, too late. As a supportive big-brother stand-in, Stone and little brother Fog share more tenderness in the friendship department.

Where Bangkok Love Story falls apart with its storytelling, it makes up for in the style department. Bangkok has never looked so beautiful on film, with super-saturated colours, sped-up motion and jumpy editing. The love scenes are in the rain (did I mention that?), which must be symbolic of something or other. Some colourful Siamese fighting fish figure into the story, too, and I have to wonder if the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Siamese Fighting Fish had a say in any of the proceedings.

At one point, the love-tortured, whitey-tighty clad Stone puts a pistol to his head and pulls the trigger on an empty chamber, clicking it over and over. Running on empty. That was one bit of symbolism that was probably appropriate, for a film about love that left me feeling a bit hollow afterward.

(Cross-published at The Nation weblog)

Poj Arnon makes a movie out of the abortion scandal

Opportunistic showman Poj Arnon seizes upon last November's aborted fetuses scandal for his latest ripped-from-the-headlines movie, Dek Phee Du 2002 Sop (เด็กผีดุ 2002 ศพ, 2002: The Unborn Child.

The scandal erupted at the discovery of illegally aborted fetuses at a Buddhist temple in Bangkok. First a few hundred were found, but the number grew to more than 2,000. Undertakers had stored the fetuses there for cremation, but the temple's crematorium broke down, and the resulting stench had neighbors complaining.

Rescue teams pulled the fetuses out of the numbered compartments at the temple, bagged them up and laid them out on the ground for newspaper photographers and TV cameramen to capture. The sea of little corpses made for compelling photos. Similar images are used in Poj's movie.

The discovery of the fetuses resulted in a crackdown on illegal abortion clinics and gave rise to much discussion about Thailand's abortion laws.

On what side of the issue does Dek Phee Du 2002 Sop stand? Like most Thai horror movies, I supposed it comes down to karma.

Somchai Kemklad stars in the movie. He plays a crime reporter, married to a high-school teacher, portrayed by "May" Pitchanart Sakakorn. The happy couple have a young daughter, and the little girl starts seeing ghostly little playmates, which are apparently tied to an abortion had by one of the teacher's students. Soon their lives become a living hell.

See what it's all about in the trailer, embedded below. Dek Phee Du 2002 Sop is in Thai cinemas on Thursday.

Trailer for Poj Arnon's gay teen football comedy

Phranakorn Film's YouTube channel uploaded the trailer to Poj Arnon's Taew Te Teen Rabert (แต๋วเตะตีนระเบิด). It's embedded below.

It looks to be trying a bit of everything -- there's a bit of Love of Siam vibe happening, as well as lifts from Poj's own Bangkok Love Story -- guys looking all dramatic in the rain.

But there's also the insane slapstick comedy that Phranakorn is infamous for. Here, a dwarf is involved. Not sure what that's about, and not sure I really want to know.

Poj Arnon films flood, adds comedic sound effects

Opportunistic producer-director Poj Arnon mobilized film crews to wade into last year's floods to film the backdrop of Rak Ao Yoo (Love Flood), which opens today. It's being released by M Pictures.

The romantic comedy is about an office worker (scandal-plagued singer-actor "Film" Rattapoom Tokongsub) and his buddy (Attaphong Attakitkun) volunteering to help flood victims in order to meet women.

He pursues one he really likes (Busarin Yokphraiphan) but she doesn't feel the same way, at first. Bencharat Wisitkitchakan also stars.

Poj, his cast and crew had to work fast to make this movie while there was still water covering Bangkok's streets.

The title comes from the Thai government's oft-repeated refrain during the flood crisis of ao yoo – "we can handle it" – which also has a sexual connotation in Thai slang.

The trailer, with Thai-comedy sound effects included, is embedded below.

Poj Arnon's gay teen soccer comedy explodes with color

When the garishly colored posters for Poj Arnon's gay teen soccer comedy, Taew Te Teen Rabert started appearing in cinemas a week or so ago, I wanted to tear my eyes out.

Now, with fluorescent-hued raybeams dazzling my burned-out sockets, I bring them to you.

It's all totally within the spirit of this, uh, film.

I saw the trailer at the press preview of Best of Times and am still dreading its appearance in the usual places on YouTube. It's only a matter of time. The movie appears to offer everything anyone could ever want and more from a Thai gay teen soccer comedy, including shrieking, mincing transvestites, boys kissing boys and even girls kissing girls.

Taew Te Teen Rabert (แต๋วเตะตีนระเบิด), as Bangkok of the Mind explains, is loosely translated as "gays with exploding feet" -- the transliterated teen in the title referring not to teenagers but to the Thai slang word for feet.

It's due for release in Thai cinemas on April 2.

(Via Deknang/Popcornmag)

Bangkok Love Story Region 1 DVD available for pre-order

Bangkok Love Story, Poj Arnon's award-winning gay romantic crime thriller, is going to be out on English-subtitled Region 1 DVD on August 26.

It has been spotted at HK Flix and at Amazon.

TLA Releasing picked it up for distribution in a deal announced last year.

According to TLA Releasing's page about the film, Bangkok Love Story is slated for screenings at the 14th Philadelpha International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in July, the Vancouver Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in August and limited-run commercial screenings in New York, West Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale, also in August.

The story is about an assassin hired to take out a young policeman, but the gunman has a change of heart at the last minute and the two join up to shoot their way out of a Buddha factory and then head to the gunman's rooftop hideaway. The gunman is wounded and the policeman lounges around in his boxers and gives the gunman sponge baths. Well, it starts raining and one thing leads to another.

The story was praised for its sensitive, sympathetic portrayal of a relationship between two straight-acting gay men, as opposed to the usual depiction of gays in commercial films as flaming, effeminate, exaggerated freaks. A subplot about the gunman's HIV-positive brother and childhood sexual abuse added weight to drama.

Bangkok Love Story (Thai title: เพื่อน...กูรักมึงว่ะ or Pêuan ... Goo Rák Meung Wâ, literally "Friend ... I love you") has had a run of film festivals already, including the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the Brussels Independent International Film Festival (where it won the top prize, the Grand Award in all Categories) and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

Writer-director Poj Arnon won the Subhanahongsa Award for Best Script. It also won Best Cinematography for Tiwa Moeithaisong, who also edited the film -- a well deserved kudos, because the imagery of Bangkok was simply stunning. And it won for Best Sound.

Looks like TLA is giving it good treatment in the run-up to the DVD release in North America.

Now, if only The Love of Siam would get an English-friendly DVD release -- the Director's Cut, please -- I think maybe there would be some very happy people indeed.

More information:

• Bangkok Love Story trailer at YouTube

(Thanks Logboy!)

Review: The Intruder (Kheaw Aa-Kaard)

• Directed by Thanadol Nualsuth and Thammanoon Sakulbunthanom
• Produced by Poj Arnon
• Starring Kwankao Sawetwimol, Akara Amartayakul, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk
• Relased in Thai cinemas on April 29, 2010; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

Karma comes back to bite the innocent and the not-so-innocent in The Intruder (Kheaw Aa-Kaard, เขี้ยว อาฆาต, literally "fang feud"), a snakes-in-the-apartment thriller that is heavy on the melodrama and woefully short on camp but still entertaining for shocking body horror and snake bites that made me jump.

The action takes place in a down-at-the-heels, moldering apartment building that was built in the 1980s on the eastern edge of Bangkok in what is known locally as Nong Ngoo Hao -- the Cobra Swamp. Despite its rundown appearance and constant threat of snakes -- a vigilant guard spreads sulfur to keep the slitherers at bay -- the building is a popular dwelling for flight crews at the nearby Suvarnabhumi Airport and young hipsters griping about the poor Internet connection. There's also a family with a small child and a rock band that plays thrash metal too loudly.

Characters are briefly introduced and quickly dispensed with as the building is swiftly consumed by an all-out CGI snake invasion. Worm-shaped cobras fill the hallways, snarl the power cables and strangle the phone service. They fill an elevator car and wriggle their way under a corpses' skin.

The survivors are narrowed down a small group that tries to stay one step ahead of the snakes. Akara Amartayakul is a doctor specializing in snakebites who just happens to be visiting the building when the snake-swarm strikes. And it just so happens he used to date the building's landlady, played by Kwankao Sawetimol.

There's also the family with the little girl, whose dad has been carrying on with a young woman in the building. So there's more tension between the mom and dad.

Apinya Sakuljaroensuk is rather subdued as a cub reporter for a TV station. She has the only phone that works but won't let the others know that because she's secretly captured phone-cam video clips of the serpentine carnage and has been sending them to her producer.

And there's a crazy old mystical auntie (Wasana Chalakorn) who knows why this is all happening but is powerless to stop it.

The characters that matter have backstories that are filled out piecemeal in between meals for the snakes. The people have as much depth as the digital reptiles. And, disappointingly, there's no cool catchphrase uttered by the hero Golf Akara, who's too grim and fatalistic to let loose with any colorful lines. Have to leave that to Samuel L. Jackson in Snakes on a Plane.

The best bits are the massed snake strikes. Mouths full of gleaming fangs zip in and take chunks out of a guy's arm. The cobras grow fat as the body count rises. The CGI creations are mixed here and there with the real thing. After all, something with real fangs bit a couple of the actors during the film's production, incidents that were duly reported in the media, likely at the urging of master promoter, producer, story writer, costume designer and snake-oil salesman, Poj Arnon.

In the end, The Intruder slithers toward the moralistic and takes a cynical view of the media's role in the reptilian ruckus, implicating everyone, except perhaps for anyone who paid to see the movie. The most appreciative audience for The Intruder might actually be snakes, but they don't carry cash.


Related posts:

• Snakes under your skin in The Intruder trailer
• More snakebites from the set of The Intruder
• Snakes in an apartment in The Intruder

Love of Siam, Muay Thai Chaiya top Subhanahongsa Awards

A drama about family dysfunction and gay teen romance, The Love of Siam, won the two top Subhanahongsa Awards on Sunday night.

The Best Director award went to Chukiat Sakweerakul, who thanked his parents for teaching him what love was all about. He also thanked the drama's ensemble cast, saying "this award is not for me alone, but for all who acted in the film." Chukiat, 26, had previously directed the psychological thriller, 13 Beloved, and made his feature-film debut with 2004's psychological horror Pisaj (Evil). He will next be working on a follow-up to 13 Beloved, 14 Begin.

Winning the Best Film award, Love of Siam producer Prachaya Pinkaew thanked Sahamongkol Film International executive producer Somsak "Sia Jieng" Techarattanaprasert "for not allowing commercial gains be the priority in producing The Love of Siam", according to The Nation.

Although the filmmakers made a conscious effort to market the film to mainstream audiences by omitting aspects of the gay romance between the two male characters in the film's posters and trailers, The Love of Siam was still a commercial risk because of its length, of around 2.5 hours. A three-hour director's cut has been showing to sold-out audiences at the tiny House cinema in Bangkok.

The Love of Siam also won Best Supporting Actress for Chermarn "Ploy" Boonyasak's role as the lookalike of a sister who had disappeared. (Or was possibly the sister, but had amnesia - who knows?)

The Best Actress award was an upset, going to Marsha Wattanapanich for her role as conjoined twin sisters in the horror thriller, Alone. This shut out a National Film Association win for Sinjai Plengpanich, who played the troubled mother in The Love of Siam. Sinjai had already won other Best Actress awards for her role, include Starpics and the Kom Chad Luek Awards. This year's Best Actress category was very competitive, though, featuring many fine performances by some veteran Thai leading ladies. Others nominated were Lalita Panyopas Sasiprapha for Ploy, Woranuch Wongsawan for Perng Mang the Haunted Drum and Suwajanee Chaimusik for Seven Days to Leave My Wife.

Akara Amarttayakul and Sonthaya Chitmanee won the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor awards for Muay Thai Chaiya. Akara portrays a boxer caught up in the gritty underground world of Muay Thai in the 1970s, while Sonthaya played Akara's character's loyal friend.

Muay Thai Chaiya won the most awards. In addition to the best actor and best supporting actor nods, it also won for Best Editing, Best Make-Up and Best Art Direction.

The homosexual crime action thriller Bangkok Love Story won Best Screenplay (for director Poj Arnon) and Best Cinematography (for Tiwa Moeithaisong). It also won for Best Sound, and was tied for second place with three awards with The Love of Siam, which won Best Film, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress.

Alone also picked up the award for Best Song, "Suan Nueng Khong Chan", which was sung by Marsha. The Life of Buddha won for Best Score, which was one of the highlights of the animated drama.

The awards ceremony was held at in Bangkok at Siam Niramitr Theatre and was attended by about 1,000 celebrities. From what I gather from the photos of the ceremony, it was a relatively understated, austere affair, in memorium of HRH Princess Galyani Vadana, who died on January 2.

Black was the color of choice for most gowns, Marsha Wattanapanich's red dress (to match her lipstick) being one of the exceptions. There were a few others, too, including some actors wearing all-white suits.

Some of the dresses sported by some of the guests in attendance were a bit too revealing. But there was nothing approaching the flesh-baring, liberating gutsiness that Amy Chotiros showed last year, which caused a huge scandal that saw the actress being harshly disciplined by her university and cut out of a movie role. This year, presenters were under orders to keep their wardrobe tasteful. For a look at some of the celebrities and what they were wearing, check out this gallery at The Nation Weblogs.

Widely viewed as "Thailand's Oscars", the Subhanahongsa Awards are given by the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand.

Subhanahongsa Awards for films released in 2007

Best Picture

• The Love of Siam (Sahamongkol Film Internationa)

Best Director

• Chukiat Sakweerakul for The Love of Siam

Best Actor

• Akara Amarttayakul for Muay Thai Chaiya

Best Actress

• Marsha Wattanapanich for Alone

Best Supporting Actor

• Sonthaya Chitmanee for Muay Thai Chaiya

Best Supporting Actress

• Chermarn Boonyasak for The Love of Siam

Best Screenplay

• Poj Arnon for Bangkok Love Story

Best Cinematography

• Tiwa Moeithaisong for Bangkok Love Story

Best Film Editing

• Sonit Atwinigon for Muay Thai Chaiya

Best Sound

• Wachai Rawongsarut for Bangkok Love Story

Best Original Song

• "Suan Nueng Khong Chan", from Alone, performed by Marsha Wattanapanich

Best Original Score

• Gaywan Golawanotai for The Life of Buddha

Best Art Direction

• Tana Maykaampoot and Natniti Sotganwijit for Muay Thai Chaiya

Best Costume Design

• Charaa Wanaalai for Kung Fu Tootsie

Best Make Up

• Marit Choakbecha for Muay Thai Chaiya

Best Visual Effects

• Julien Vanhoenacker and Joaquim Montserrat for Body #19

More information:

• Subhanahongsa Awards 2008 photo gallery at Nation Weblog
• Love of Siam takes top Subhanahongsa Awards
• Love of Siam leads Subhanahongsa nominees

(Via Lakorns; Photo: From left, best supporting actor Sonthaya Chitmanee, best supporting actress Chermarn Boonyasak; best actress Marsha Wattanapanich; best actor Akara Amarttayakul, via The Nation/Warisara Wuthikul)