LPFF 2015 review: Spotlight on Cambodia

The Cambodian Space Project: Not Easy Rock 'n' Roll

Cambodia's constant struggle to reconcile its bloody Khmer Rouge past with the ancient legacy of Angkor and the push for modernity in the 21st century were common threads running through five movies at the sixth Luang Prabang Film Festival, which made Cambodia the subject of its first “Spotlight”. It showed there is more to Cambodian cinema than the works of its multi-award-winning veteran leading director Rithy Panh.

Curated in part by Sok Visal, Cambodia’s “Motion Picture Ambassador” to the Luang Prabang fest, the Spotlight devoted a full day to the country’s re-emerging cinema movement, with a diverse selection of four films. The line-up included the documentaries The Cambodian Space Project: Not Easy Rock ’n’ Roll and Still I Strive, martial-arts action in Hanuman and melodrama in The Last Reel. Shown on another day was a fifth Cambodian entry, the cult crime-comedy Gems on the Run, co-directed by Visal.

Cambodia’s “code of women’s conduct”, masked killers and arranged marriages were among the common themes linking the films.

Still I Strive

Referenced in at least three of the entries, that book that holds that Cambodian women should be polite, quiet and dutiful, is promptly tossed out by domineering female protagonists. In Not Easy Rock ’n’ Roll, a Phnom Penh bargirl undergoes a transformation from a mouse-like figure afraid of her own voice to a tigress-like diva rocker who could teach a thing or two to Cookie Lyon of TV’s Empire. In The Last Reel, a teenage girl jumps off the back of her gangster boyfriend’s motorbike to take up the mantle of movie producer and actress as she tries to reconstruct the missing reel of a 1970s historical epic. And in Gems on the Run, a plucky gun moll chooses love, and falls for the movie’s unlikely hero, a portly police officer who wants to be a singer.

A masked vigilante is out for revenge in Hanuman, which brings Cambodia’s ancient Bokator “pounding a lion” martial art out of the shadows. And it’s masked men who rob an armored car in Gems on the Run. Meanwhile, both the heroine in The Last Reel and the plus-sized leading man of Gems on the Run are seeking to escape from pending marriages arranged by social-climbing parents.

More martial arts are on display in the jawdropping and surprising documentary Still I Strive, which covers the orphan schoolchildren of the National Action Culture Association, an organization run by veteran actress Peng Phan. Having lost her own family during the Khmer Rouge years, she and her husband devote their lives to teaching arts to the orphans. With heartbreaking individual profiles of students, showing the hardships they faced in broken homes to a life of love and learning at the orphanage, the film follows their efforts to perform for the country’s arts-and-culture patron, Princess Bopha Devi.

Hanuman

Directed by Adam Pfleghaar and A. Todd Smith, Still I Strive has these remarkable youngsters acting in full-fledged dramatic segments, following a parallel quest in ancient times, in which their skills in music, dance, storytelling and stage combat are used to full effect. It's amazing.

The gritty Hanuman, meanwhile, is set in contemporary Phnom Penh, where a masked vigilante rises up to challenge the country’s culture of impunity and take revenge on criminals who killed his father. The masked man is also reunited with his estranged brother, a police officer who has been secretly trying to bring his father’s killers to justice himself. Directed by Italian filmmaker Jimmy Henderson, Hanuman is clearly inspired by The Raid, which vividly brought Indonesia’s pencak silat martial arts to world screens. Along with nods to Thailand’s Tony Jaa and Ong-Bak, Hanuman also revels in the lurid images of Italy’s spaghetti westerns and giallo slashers. It's not going to do for Cambodian action cinema what the The Raid did for its stars (who turn up in the new Star Wars), but it is the start of something, and I hope the Hanuman gang will regroup to make more of these types of films.

The Cambodian Space Project and The Last Reel both dealt with the vibrant Cambodian pop culture of the 1970s. Under the patronage of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, himself a multi-hyphenate musician, producer, director and star of his own movies, Cambodia’s cinematic golden age was paralleled by a rollicking music scene, which emulated American rock ’n’ roll. Both scenes were brought to an abrupt end in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge took over, emptied the cities and put the populace to work making the country into an agrarian utopia. Intellectuals and artists didn’t fit into that scheme, and were targets for persecution and death.

The Last Reel

The forces of music and film combined in The Cambodian Space Project: Not Easy Rock ’n’ Roll, which surveys the resurgence of Cambodian rock and its revival under an unusual band, the Cambodian Space Project, which began in 2009 when Australian pop-artist and musician Julien Poulson heard the extraordinary voice of bargirl Srey Thy performing karaoke. The two had little in common but music, but it was enough.

The band is similar to another outfit, the U.S.-based Dengue Fever, which were featured on the soundtrack to Matt Dillon’s 2002 made-in-Cambodia drama City of Ghosts and have been the subject of their own documentary. But while that band’s frontwoman Chhom Nimol was influenced by the slain 1970s Cambodian singer Ros Sereysothea, the Cambodian Space Project’s Thy has taken the more earthy and grounded vocalist Pan Ron has her major influence.

Directed by German Mark Eberle, The Cambodian Space Project: Not Easy Rock ’n’ Roll follows the band’s journey from the bars to Phnom Penh to music clubs in Sydney, Paris and Hong Kong. Clips include the band’s landmark performance at the Cambodia International Film Festival, providing live musical accompaniment to Georges Melies’ 1902 science-fiction epic A Trip to the Moon, the style of which was emulated by Cambodian filmmakers in the 1970s and by Eberle in fantastic animation sequences that imagined the photogenic Thy as an actress in an Angkorian sci-fi epic. Making the film turned out to be an epic undertaking for Eberle, who at one point was drafted to play bass in the band in order to keep both the band and his film project going.

It was a hit with viewers at the Luang Prabang Film Festival's daytime venue, who gave it the festival’s first Audience Choice Award.

Cambodia’s lost cinematic golden age, artfully covered in French-Cambodian director Davy Chou’s Golden Slumbers, unspools further in The Last Reel, a handsomely mounted melodrama that was the country’s official submission to next year’s Academy Awards. Directed by Kulikar Sotho, who rose to prominence as a location supervisor on Angelina Jolie’s made-in-Cambodia action romp Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Last Reel follows a young woman who discovers old film reels in a dilapidated Phnom Penh movie palace and realizes that the beautiful actress in the movie is her mother. Secrets of her family’s Khmer Rouge past surface as the young women sets out to recreate the movie’s missing final reel, with help from a motley crew of her biker boyfriend, the theater's elderly projectionist and film students.

Gems on the Run

The Last Reel strained my brain with its soap-opera leanings and a time-travelling story that omitted an entire generation between the Khmer Rouge era and the teenagers of today, whose grandparents, not parents, would have been Khmer Rouge cadre and captives. But for reasons of sentimentality, nostalgia and, I suppose, vanity, there was a compression in time that took away from the weight of the film's dramatic heft.

I liked Gems on the Run better, and I told Sok Visal so at one point during the fest. He thought I was kidding, but then he doesn't know me very well. Directed by Visal and his French friend Quentin Clausin, Gems on the Runs is exactly the type of film I actually enjoy, with its sprawling, shaggy-dog tale of a portly police officer who wants to be a singer getting mixed up with an estranged childhood friend, his ladyfriend and stolen diamonds. It is, essentially, a Coen Bros farce made in Cambodia. Visal, whose family made their escape to Thailand and then France during the Khmer Rouge era and made his return to Cambodia in 1993 to produce music, is a first-time filmmaker with Gems. The film was something of a flop on commercial release, though the soundtrack did well. It's got a cult following, of which I'm now a member. Visal, for his part, wants to do a horror film next, and I can't wait to see it.

The rotund leading man, Cheky Athiporn, was a photographer before he got put in front the camera for his eye-popping star turn in Gems on the Run.

Other actors provided more connections between the films in Luang Prabang's Spolight. Among them was actress Ma Rynet, star of The Last Reel who also appears in Hanuman. And the girl’s mother (or should it be her grandmother?) is portrayed by Dy Saveth, a Golden Age star. Saveth, who famously survived the Khmer Rouge era because she missed a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok to Phnom Penh in 1975, also appears in Cambodian Space Project, imparting advice to the budding diva Thy.

Further talent ties are cemented by the appearance of hard-working actor Rous Mony, who plays the sneering villain in Hanuman, The Last Reel and Gems. I liked to think he was also lurking the background in Space Project and Still I Strive.

Here's Wise Kwai's ratings, for those keeping score:

The Cambodian Space Project: Not Easy Rock 'n' Roll: 4/5
Hanuman: 3/5
Still I Strive: 5/5
The Last Reel: 2/5
Gems on the Run: 4/5

Sok Visal talks about Cambodian cinema with Cambodian Space Project director Mark Eberle. Wise Kwai photo

(Adapted from an article in The Nation)

Review: Ror Dor Khao Chon Phee Thee Khao Chon Kai

• Directed by Tanwarin Sukkhapisit
• Starring Somchai Kemklad
• Released in Thai cinemas on January 22, 2015; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5

The commercialization of former indie rebel Tanwarin Sukkapisit continues apace with the throw-away horror-comedy Ror Dor Khao Chon Phee Thee Khao Chon Kai (รด.เขาชนผีที่เขาชนไก่).

Produced by that infamous purveyor of cross-dressing schlock, Poj Arnon, and released by Phranakorn Film, audiences can be excused for believing they are seeing yet another movie directed by the prolific Poj. It looks very similar to Poj's recent Mor 6/5 horror comedies, which involve a dozen or so schoolboys in various states of shrieking and shirtlessness.

But no, it's directed by Tanwarin, who co-wrote the script. The story, best as I can make out, has schoolboys in Kanchanaburi's Khao Chon Kai military boot-camp, taking part in Thailand's version of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC). It's a scheme that gets young men out of having to participate in the drawing for the military draft, but here they have to contend with something far more frightening (to them anyway) – a pair of ghosts.

One of the pale-skinned spirits is portrayed with his usual frightening intensity by veteran leading man Somchai Kemklad. I'm not sure he needed much makeup. He's a terrifying drill instructor who has become even more menacing ever since his run-in a year before with a landmine. The other ghost is a kid, a cadet, who was apparently killed by the dead drill instructor. He always turns up and greets the frightened boys with a quick twitch of his eyebrow.

As with these horror comedies, most of the time is eaten up by the usual headache-inducing running around and screaming, even though the ghosts aren't very scary. The scares, such as they are, are interspersed with a bath-time dance sequence, with the boys doing a K-pop number while wearing just their underwear briefs.

With nearly a dozen schoolboy characters, it's near impossible to pick one as outstanding. All look the same in (and out) of uniform, with the same buzzcut hairstyle. And they act in the same stupid manner with little to distinguish them apart. There's a mean guy, and another guy has a dumb smile. Yet another guy always freezes in place when he encounters a ghost, which actually isn't a bad tactic. There's an interesting trio of comic-relief ladyboy characters, all with the requisite amount of sass, but with a cast already filled with clowns, they aren't really needed and are quickly forgotten.

There are probably serious issues this overwhelmingly homoerotic film could have dealt with, such as how gay guys and transgenders cope with the boot-camp setting. But with all the nonsensical running around and screaming, it's hard to take anything seriously.

Behind-the-scenes photos from the set indicate that Tanwarin likely had a blast playing general to her troupe of young actors in army uniforms. I think they had more fun making the movie than anyone did watching it.

For Tanwarin, Ror Dor represents yet another move deeper into commercial territory after years of making edgy short films. Well respected within the industry, the transgender filmmaker took hard knocks when her highly personal and sexually explicit indie drama Insects in the Backyard was banned from screening in Thailand. She then set out on a purely commercial direction, helming the Issan-dialect country comedy Hak Na Sarakham (produced by Prachya Pinkaew at Sahamongkol) and then turning back to transgender issues and addressing them in a mainstream way with the award-winning drama It Gets Better. Last year, she did two decent features, the cute horror comedy Threesome and the Japanese-Thai romance Fin Sugoi. Tanwarin hooked up with Poj on the producer-director's Die a Violent Death omnibus horrors, directing the better segments, acting in front of the lens and helping with various other aspects of the productions.

Here's hoping Tanwarin is banking the cash earned from these jobs, with an eye toward making another award-winner. That would distinguish her from Poj, who just seems to keep making bad movies and then using the cash from those to make more bad movies.

See also:

• Official trailer from Phranakornfilm
• Duck when a movie's bad [Soopsip, The Nation]

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

Capsule reviews: Rang (The Parallel), 3AM 3D Part 2

There's probably an anti-abortion message somewhere in Rang (ร่าง, a.k.a. The Parallel) that star Paula Taylor wants you to take to heart. But the social commentary gets lost in a muddled, unevenly paced story about ghosts. Paula, the actress and model with the megawatt smile, became a mother not too long ago and is now serious as heck, and she turns in a solidly dramatic performance here. In Rang, she is drugged by her dirtbag boyfriend and taken to a back-alley abortion clinic. She somehow survives the ordeal, but loses the ability to have children. So she decides to adopt, and she settles on a creepy little girl who has a creepy little doll and a past that is as haunted as Paula's character's is. The girl has been left speechless since she witnessed her shopkeeper mother's violent death at the hands of a thug. A tussle ensued that saw her mother's face smashed into a glass shelf, cutting deep into her cheek. One second the gash is there, the next second it isn't. Then it's there again. After that, the curly-headed mother's fighting spirit apparently went to reside in the curly-headed doll. And anytime anyone threatens the little girl, the fearsome ghost mom with the curly hair and cut on her cheek is there to take care of them. A couple of comical young police detectives in skinny jeans are on the case, and somehow tie everything together. Overall, Rang isn't very scary, though there is decent gore. And the lighting is nice. Released by Golden A Entertainment, it's directed Phon Worawaranyu, previously an assistant director on films by industry veteran Tanit Jitnukul. Rated 18+ (3/5)

The clock has run out on Five Star Production's 3AM series of 3D shorts about horror happenings in the wee hours when ghosts are at their strongest. Following the far-stronger 2012 first batch, 3AM 3D Part 2 (ตีสาม คืนสาม 3D, Tee Sam Khuen Sam Sam D) is an infuriatingly unscary, unsuspenseful mess. It offers little that hasn't been done before, and gimmicky 3D effects that only make things worse. First up is Patchanon Thammajira's The Third Night, about a bunch of snot-nosed biker punks attending the funeral of one of their gang (Ray MacDonald), whose spirit is angry that his cutie-pie ex-girlfriend (Petei Hokari) has so quickly taken up with another guy, a dude named Bozo (Inthat Lieowrakwong). Angry ghost Ray hunts everyone down. The best, most-interesting segment of the three is Kirati Nakintanon's Convent, which is set in a Catholic girls' boarding school. Supanat Jittaleela, the tomboy from Yes or No, is the handsome boy-like toy who is fought over by a couple of girly-girl rivals. The action eventually leads to an abandoned chapel, where the ghost of a headless nun plays piano. Entertaining gore is served up here. Finally, there's Isara Nadee's comic segment The Offering, which is set in a Chinatown joss-paper shop and has also served to tie all three segments together. Amid papier-mâché cars, houses and other joss-paper offerings for dearly departed ancestors, a bumbling shop worker and the owner (Chirawat Wachirotranphat) are confronted by increasingly spooky happenings. The shop owner's wife (Sinjai Plengpanich) shows up to cause more confusion. Much running around and screaming ensue, but no good comes of of it. The only good thing about this segment is that it's the last one and then the final credits roll. Rated 15+ (2/5)

Review: Fud Jung To

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• Directed by Rerkchai Paungpetch and Noppadon Arkard
• Starring Ramita Mahapruekhong, Pakorn Chatborirak, Anek Intachan, Phongchak Phitsathanphon
• Released in Thai cinemas on December 25, 2013; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5

To me, “Gypso” Ramita Mahapruekhong is Thailand’s most annoying actress, which puts her high in the running for most annoying actress in the world.

I don’t know what it is about her that rubs me the wrong way. She’s talented, funny and pretty. Maybe it’s because she’s always been cast in atrocious movies.

Which brings me to Fud Jung To (ฟัดจังโตะ), in which she plays a super-annoying girlfriend who is forced to take a trip to Japan with her super-insensitive prick of an ex-boyfriend.

It’s a contrived plot to be sure, but then aren’t all romantic comedies contrived? However, “Fud Jung To” takes forced situations to new heights of ridiculousness.

The latest effort by studio M-Thirtynine and director Rerkchai Paungpetch, “Fud Jung To” is another of their year-end comedies. It’s something they’ve been doing for several years now. All have been nonsensical yukfests with mostly incomprehensible plots. Most of the titles have been untranslatable. I asked a Thai colleague to explain this one, and she says Fud Jung To has no meaning at all.

Yet despite all the nonsense, the movies have been crazily popular. So they keep making them. Fud Jung To debuted on Christmas Day, and a late-night screening this week at a suburban Bangkok multiplex was still pulling in a fair-sized crowd. According to the box-office figures as of New Year’s Day, it’s earned a not-so-shabby Bt31.67 million.

Gypso is a young product presenter named Gabs who is obsessed with buying bottled tea. She’s hoping the next cap she unscrews will be the one that wins her a trip to Japan. Gabs is not someone you’d want to be queued up behind at the 7-Eleven, because she’ll have an armload of bottled teas, which will lead the clerk to mentioning a promotion on the stuff to entice her to buy even more. But this only causes Gabs to be indecisive and take up even more time in line. Being one of her friends isn’t so hot either. Ask her to buy you a juice or cola, you’ll get a green tea instead. And you’ll have to surrender the bottle cap.

Gabs has gone to such a length to score that winning cap, she has even landed a boyfriend who works at the tea company and whose job it is to design those caps.

Seems like there would be a conflict of interest with that relationship, but the real problem is that Gabs’ sweetie Gob has about had it with her roller-coaster emotions, neediness, whining and constant phone calls pestering him about everything. He’s played by “Boy” Pakorn Chatborirak, who’s wonderfully deadpan in his reactions but also comes across as a jerk.

Really, it’s hard to sympathize with either of these characters. They are constantly at each other’s throats, slapping each other’s faces, kicking each other’s behinds, strangling each other and then kissing.

He breaks up with her in a little Japanese restaurant in a shopping mall, possibly in hopes that the public venue would keep Gabs from going nuts. And she doesn’t go nuts – she goes absolutely berserk, bawling and screaming at the top of her lungs, running down the up escalator and drawing a huge crowd of dumbfounded onlookers.

Gabs’ emotions then rocket back up into the stratosphere when she hears she’s won that trip to Japan, but her joy is immediately tempered when she learns that she must take the trip with the person she named in her entry – her ex-boyfriend Gob.

So the two ex-lovers are forced to travel together. Their shared futon becomes a wrestling mat as the bickering twosome grapples for superiority.

To heighten the contrived situation, the pair are also compelled to don various Japanese outfits, ranging from traditional wedding garb to school uniforms and finally bizarre cosplay getups.

They have to wear the costumes because they are being recorded by hidden cameras for a promotional short film. At least that’s what they’re told by their tour guide, a bespectacled young geek named Guide (Phongchak Phitsathanphon), who is accompanied by his oddball father (comedian Anek Intachan, a regular in these M-Thirtynine year-end movies).

To be fair, for the first hour, Fud Jung To clicks along entertainingly, in spite of its contrivances. Perhaps sensing that audiences are starting to grow weary, Rerkchai dispenses with some of the sloppiness of his previous efforts. He sticks closer to a script. Also, there’s no sign of cherubic funnyman Charoenporn “Kotee” Onlamai, who’s been in Rerkchai’s previous films. Also, Rerkchai is assisted by a co-director, Noppadon Arkard.

As the slaps, kicks, punches and bites pile on, the effect is numbing. The laugh-a-minute pace slows to a dull, quiet crawl.

A twist is introduced, clumsily. It might have been more effective if it hadn’t already been revealed in the trailers and synopses. So much of the suspense is killed because the bored audience is wondering when that twist is going to show up. And when it does, it’s underwhelming, because, after all, it’s just Gypso again, only with a different hairstyle and different clothes, but she’s still caught in the same nonsensical movie.

(Cross-published in The Nation)

LPFF 2013 reviews: I Love Souvanh, Ah Boys to Men, A River Changes Course

I Love Souvanh – The opening film was supposed to be Big Heart, about a young boxer and his romance with a young woman. But it wasn't ready for its world premiere on the opening night of the 2013 Luang Prabang Film Festival. So the program was switched to another world premiere, I Love Souvanh, a romantic drama about a young Japanese businessman who is sent to Laos to buy textiles. Skeptical at first of being in a "less developed" country, he falls in love with a local lass, a designer at a small company that weaves traditional fabric, and is charmed by the local culture.

Produced and directed by Bounthong Nhotmankhong, a managing director of a textile handicraft company in Savannakhet, I Love Souvanh is a throwback to the propaganda films that extolled the virtues of hard work and traditional culture. It's a chore to sit through, especially because of the sound, which is brutal. If car doors aren't being slammed right in your ear, there's an endless wash of Lao classical music to drown everything out. It's beautifully shot though, and it better be, since it's also a tourism reel for Savannakhet. The Japanese man is shown the various sights around the Mekong River city, which is joined to its Thai neighbor Mukdahan by the Second Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge. Of course praises are also sung in the name of Savannaket's most famous native, the late former prime minister Kaysone Phomvihane.

The camera-toting Youki is quickly sized up by three young ladies at the textile shop, and two of them are flirty. But of course he's immediately drawn to the shy and standoffish one, Phim. She storms off in a huff when he picks up a piece of fabric she's working on to examine the detail. Turns out it was a skirt, and it's improper for a man to touch the hem of a good Lao lady's garment, even if she's not wearing it.

The kindly uncle who runs the textile firm takes Youki under his wing. They get stinko on the local brew. Hah hah. Drinking and driving is funny.

But eventually Youki and Phim end up working closely together and much screen time is devoted to her prattling on about the natural and organic ways of Lao cotton and textile production (Thai fabrics have too much chemicals, we're told early on), as well as the Lao work ethic and how wonderful in general life is in Laos.

With sales pitch like that, Youki decides to stay on a bit longer and learn the ways of the Lao people. And eventually an actual story starts to happen when the truck Phim is riding in gets stuck in the mud. It's the most authentic moment in the whole movie. (2/5)

Ah Boys to Men – Singaporean director Jack Neo can do whatever he wants. He can even blow city landmarks to hell, lay waste to Housing Development Board flats and kill thousands of his countrymen. It's all CGI of course, involving a slick Top Gun style air attack by a shadowy invasion force, which also has troops on the ground, in a Black Hawk Down urban warfare scenario, shooting and killing civilians. Good thing Singapore has its own formidable military, with well-trained fighter pilots, tanks and seasoned infantry, ready to sacrifice their lives.

It's the fantasy opening to Ah Boys to Men, a comedy about young men doing their National Service bit. It's like Full Metal Jacket, but with more comedy and without all the swearing and lethal insanity.

The main focus is on a hot-headed rich kid who is angry about being separated from his girlfriend. He'll do anything to get back with her, even play sick. Along the way, a few old-timers remember their time in the National Service, and their flashback basic training scenes are among the most entertaining.

Through his comedy on the National Service, Neo is able to portray the vast tableaux of Singaporean culture. He even works in a way to comment on the news scandal a couple years or so ago in Singapore, when a family's Filipina maid was photographed carrying a young soldier's backpack, running up behind the uniformed man. Another fun fantasy bit has the boy's mothers as soldiers, who send their eager-to-please Filipina maid running ahead to see if the coast is clear. It's not.

In the end, the rich kid buckles down and concentrates on his training. "Singapore has no enemies," he says. "The enemy is us." (3/5)

A River Changes Course – An opposite bookend to I Love Souvanh, cinematographer-director Kalyanee Mam (Inside Job) paints a dire portrait of her native Cambodia, where the traditional rural ways of living off the land are quickly being outpaced by modernity and environmental degradation. The focus is on three families – subsistence farmers in the forests of northern Cambodia, a Muslim teenage boy working with his father on small fishing boat on the Tonle Sap lake, and a young woman on a rice farm in the central plains near Phnom Penh.

For the forest dwellers, the threat is logging, and all around their property, the trees have been cleared to make way for other plantations. On the Tonle Sap, the fish are scarce and it's no longer possible earn a living. And for the rice farmers, the family makes the tough decision to send the daughter to Phnom Penh to work in the garment factories, where she in fact earns a pittance and can't really afford to send as much back home as everyone hoped. The farm girl remarks that she feels like she's been split in two, having yearned for city life but wanting to be back in the country and belonging to neither place.

The fisherman's family decides that it too must send a child away in order to have one less mouth to feed, and so the oldest boy is shipped off to a Chinese casava plantation. His story is especially sad, and he starts to tear up when the filmmaker presses him about what he said three years before when she started her project. He wanted to go to school, get a degree, get a good job and get his family off the water and onto a piece of land. Now he likely never will.

And the forest family finally bows to mechanization, buying a small rice mill. The father, who is always seen weaving baskets, looks the saddest, even though it appears he no longer has to spend hours on end as a basketmaker.

An honest, unflinching portrait of modern Cambodia's rampant, unchecked development, it won an award at Sundance and other fests, and was such a hit in Luang Prabang, the 40-seat screening room was filled to the gills and another screening was added. (4/5)

Review: Ruam Phol Khon Luk Thung Ngern Laa

• Directed by Pornchai "Gun" Hongrattaporn
• Starring Paowalee Pornpimon, Pai Pongsathorn, Sunaree Ratchasima, Apaporn Nakhon Sawan, Ekachai Sriwichai
• Released in Thai cinemas on November 28, 2013; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5

The outfits of the young stars are skimpier and the waistlines of the older stars have expanded, but the music of luk thung has stayed more or less the same since the last all-star luk thung movie, 2002's Mon Pleng Luk Thung FM (มนต์เพลงลูกทุ่งเอฟเอ็ม, a.k.a. Hoedown Showdown).

Unfortunately there isn't actually much music in this sort-of sequel, Ruam Phol Khon Luk Thung Ngern Laan (รวมพลคนลูกทุ่งเงินล้าน). The earlier movie, about folks from various walks of life coming together for a luk thung singing contest, turned into a virtual concert film, with song after song. This new offering skimps on songs, with just one proper musical number during the film. If you want more, you have to wait for the end credits.

So without songs, we're left mainly with the lame comic antics of rotund luk thung diva Apaporn Nakhon Sawan, whose screaming matches with rival diva Sunaree Ratchasima chew up a lot of screen time.

The premise is that singers from the first film, now all big stars, are brought together by the first film's singing monk for a merit-making trip at his down-at-the-heels forest temple. It literally takes forever to get going, as the singers' tour bus moves in fits and starts as it struggles to leave Bangkok.

And, like the first film, the "masked bandit" (Ekachai Sriwichai) with the treble clef tattoo on his wrist has returned to make trouble. The budget for this new effort by M Pictures was apparently not enough to license popular songs or give the bandit actual Mission: Impossible-style rubber masks like the first film. Here, director Gun Hongrattaporn makes due with a quick cut when the bandit assumes a new identity. He's wired the bus up with a bomb like in Speed.

The ghosts of Mae Nak and doomed Japanese officer Kobori from Koo Kam show up, as does Dracula (Swedish luk thung singer Jonas Anderson), though I'm not sure why. And the comic cops from the first film emerge from the bus' toilet, and their appearance was sickening.

Somehow they make it to temple, put on a temple fair and perform that one song. There's muay Thai from a girl fighter, just to get a bit of action in. Then they end up in Buddhist hell, which is appropriate because this stinker of a musical comedy is hell.

If there's one redeeming thing about Ruam Phol Khon Luk Thung Ngern Laan it's young singer Paowalee Pornpimon, the perky performer who made her film debut playing doomed superstar Pumpuang Duanchan in last year's biopic The Moon. Appealing as ever, she's given the one musical number, a duet with young heartthrob male singer Pai Pongsathorn. And there's a bit of romantic wrangling as a triangle forms between Paowalee, Pai and short-skirted star Yinglee.

WFFBKK 2013 capsule reviews: I Have Loved

I Have Loved – Well, I'm glad I got that out of the way. This is the type of film I only see in film festivals, because I can't fathom why I'd see this otherwise. A gauzy, dreamlike swirl of romance and sadness, I Have Loved infuriated me with its pretentiousness and seeming pointlessness. But here I am days later, still thinking about this Singaporean film made in Siem Reap, Cambodia. So good job 13 Little Pictures, and directors Elizabeth Wijaya and Lai Weijie. Mission accomplished. Taking place mostly in the sterile confines of a Siem Reap luxury hotel, with a few sojourns to Angkor Wat, Tonle Sap lake and the city's streets, the story has to do with a sad young blonde woman. Mostly she's courted by a long-haired young dude. He's probably in a boy band, judging from the several verses of a sappy song he sang to her, a cappella. Shut up already. The other guy is older, rocking the white linen suit and white fedora, like he's stuck in French colonial times. T.S. Eliot is quoted, but I can't remember what was said and still don't know what the heck it all means. (2/5)

Peculiar Vacation and Other Illnesses – For my next viewing, I was relieved to find this less pretentiously arty than I Have Loved. But Peculiar Vacation is a rudderless journey. It's a story about a guy and girl moving a couch, and it seemed familiar because Indonesian director Yosep Anggi Noen made one before. He expands on his earlier short film with this feature debut. It's about a lovely young woman (Christi Mahanami) taking a job in a furniture store. She sells a sofa and then has to help deliver it, with help of a young man who drives the truck. The customers live only two hours away, but the trip takes forever, with a few overnight stops in hotels and many other meandering other side trips that bring them, ahem, closer together. "We should deliver this sofa quickly," she says to the guy, about 80 minutes in, and I swear the audience died laughing. Meanwhile, because there's always a meanwhile, there's this sad fellow who starts a business selling gasoline out of Coke bottles by the side of the road. What's that you say? He's the woman's husband? I did not know that. (3/5)

The Cleaner – This Peruvian drama was the best of my picks from the first full day of the 11th World Film Festival of Bangkok. It's about a solitary old man who works as a cleaner for a health service during a devastating epidemic in Lima. He cleans up after dead people, going into their homes, collecting their belongings and burning them. He also mops up their blood wherever they fell. There are haunting images of deserted train stations, malls and other public places, and Eusebio is the only guy around, scrubbing away with his mop while wearing his white isolation suit. Then one day, he finds a strange little boy. He has no choice but to bring the kid home and take care of him while he tries to find the boy's family. It's a very dry, quiet tale, told very simply with not much dialogue or big actory moments. I appreciated the guy's routine. He comes home to his little shambles of an apartment, tosses his keys on the table, and they miss and fall off. He picks them up and puts them on the table. Then gets a little spray bottle of disinfectant from a rickety little cabinet and sprays it on himself. Then one day the keys land on the table and stick. (3/5)

Rebirth – This Malaysian-Tamil drama goes the other extreme of I Have Loved in that the exposition is so bloody obvious that a bunch of us were giggling the whole time, which likely annoyed the heck out of director M. Suurya. Rebirth is about a Forrest Gump-like savant who is forced to perform traditional dances by his money-grubbing sister and his philandering thief of a brother. The dancer Kuttan also performs menial tasks at a goat farm. But what he really wants to do is play badminton, and he stitches up an old racket and cobbles together a pair of worn-out sneakers. He even makes a dummy to practice with in his room, in a bit that reminded me of King of Comedy. The guy's a bit insane. It's a very old-fashioned movie, not just in terms of the rustic setting, but also in the method of storytelling, which wouldn't be out of place in the silent era. Add the colorful characters and over-the-top performances, especially the domineering sister. She treats Kuttan harshly but is also protective of him, because after all, he's her cash cow. Mean as she is, and as big a jerk as his brother is, I'm not sure they deserve what's coming. (3/5)

What They Don't Talk About, When They Talk About Love – Winner of the NETPAC Award at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam, this is likely one of the best Indonesian indie films of the year. Directed by Mouly Surya, with handsome production values, it's a coming-of-age romantic drama set in a school for visually impaired youngsters. Two girls take centerstage. One is a partially sighted teenager who wears big goggles for glasses. Having just come into womanhood, she sets her cap for a blind classmate who at first seems more interested in another girl who feeds him cake. Meanwhile, her blind roommate gets into a steamy affair with Doc, a deaf punk rocker who hangs around the school. Played by Nicholas Saputra, his character comes off skeevy at first, the way he hangs around the place at night, seemingly preying on the blind girl. Water is usually involved in their lovemaking, with them meeting in the therapy pool, and later in the shower. The film meanders about sometimes, losing its way. At times, I wasn't sure what was going on, or who the characters were. Had a girl regained her sight? It all comes together beautifully in the end though, and is bookended by colorful musical numbers. (4/5)

Stepping on the Flying Grass – This Indonesian tale of idealized childhood involves a close-knit group of schoolkids who are assigned to write about their biggest dream or aspiration. A bossy kid wants to be in the army. A girl wants to be famous actress. Another kid just sits and picks his nose, and says he wants to make people happy. But a fourth kid, Agus, only wants to eat in a nice restaurant and have a "meal fit for a king". The others laugh at him. And so the next 70 minutes or roll harmlessly and uneventfully by, as Agus puts together his case. He rides his bicycle, delivering chicken to earn spending money. Meanwhile, more about him is explained. He has a sweet mother who's a good cook. But she only cooks tahu (tofu), which his father makes in a local factory. So it's all forms of tahu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No wonder the boy wants to eat in a Padang restaurant. (3/5)

Rock the Casbah – It's 1989, during the First Intifada, and a squad of young Israeli troops are almost ready to rotate out of fighting, and return home, or head to Amsterdam. They are sent on one last mission into the Palestinian settlement in Gaza, to show 'em who's boss. But they are taunted and lured into the warren of alleys in the city, where they are pelted with rocks and cinder blocks. Then a washing machine is pushed from a roof and crushes a soldier to death. The remaining squad members are ordered by their gung-ho commander to stay on the roof of the Palestinian family's home, keep watch on the neighborhood and find the guys who shoved the appliance. It's a tense situation that ratchets up as this taut, well-made little Israeli war drama goes on. (4/5)

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

Review: Pawnshop

• Written and directed by Parm Rangsi
• Starring Krissada Sukosol Clapp, Supaksorn Chaimongkol, Chalee Muangthai
• Limited release in SF Cinemas on August 1, 2013; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5 

"I hate graveyards and old pawnshops. For they always bring me to tears," John Prine wrote in his song "Souvenirs".

And Prine might have the same sentiment for the low-budget Thai horror Pawnshop (โลงจำนำ, Long Jam Nam), though the tears might not necessarily be of sadness, but of sheer frustration and impatience for a dull movie that goes nowhere.

Directed by Parm Rangsi, who previously did the cooking comedy Daddy's Menu  (เมนูของพ่อ, Menu Khong Phor), Pawnshop is latest in a string of low-budget horrors released by B-movie marque Golden A Entertainment.

It wears its pretensions as an "art-house horror" on its sleeve, with plenty of nifty point-of-view camera angles, shadows, smoke, theatrical-style staging and lots of spattering fake blood. It looks pretty, but there isn't much beneath the surface.

Selfishly I suppose, I was kind of hoping for something like the U.S. reality-TV series Pawn Stars, which is strangely addictive and entertaining because of its wacky cast and the endless parade of weird artifacts brought in by their customers.

But no. The depressing Pawnshop is run by possibly the worst pawnbroker in the world, a cruel, unscrupulous dealer who has no intentions of giving any of his customers a square deal. The customers have no redeeming qualities, each being motivated by their own bad situations or simple greed to deal with the dodgy pawnbroker. And, there is a curious lack of curios on display in a shop that should be jam-packed with junk – a sure tip-off that this is a pawnshop best steered clear of.

You see, the pawnbroker Long Zhu (Chalee Muangthai), doesn't ever seem to buy anything. He only trades for people's souls, hence the Thai title Long Jam Nam, or literally "coffin pledge". The souls he takes are then in turn used to feed a malevolent, vengeful ghost he's pledged his life to. She was a classical Thai dancer long ago, but was raped and murdered. Now she vomits an endless stream of blood. And Long Zhu will do anything to keep the ghost on his side, even commit murder. However, it can't be a very good trade, because Long Zhu is still living in a dingy, dusty little pawnshop.

The deals invariably go like this: the customers come in with the items they want to sell and they state their ridiculous price, say 600,000 baht for a few flea-market trinkets. Long Zhu then counter-offers with an equally ridiculous price, say 30,000 baht.

"But," he says. "I can offer you more for something else." And, for that 600,000 baht or maybe even 1 million baht, the deal is you have to trade your soul.

The customers' eyes light up at the prospect. "Well, I wasn't using it anyway," their thinking probably goes.

Of course there's a catch to all this – the customers must spend the night in a room at the pawnshop, and if there's "an accident", there will be no pay-off.

Among the easily duped customers is a guy named Neung, played by Krissada Sukosol Clapp. A pub owner, he has the unfortunate habit of driving home drunk and falling asleep at the wheel. Something bad happened, and now is wife (Supaksorn Chaimongkol) is mad at him. So he plans to sell some of his stuff to the pawnbroker to raise money and get out of whatever mess he's in.

To pad out the running time, there are other customers – some other guy whose story is forgotten about completely, a young woman who is there to defiantly prove her fearlessness, and, in the words of the pawnbroker, "a fat gay guy", whose boyfriend lost all his money gambling on English Premier League soccer.

In addition to the pawnbroker, there are a couple of young women, presumably his daughters, who still hang around this mean old man for no apparent reason, and a couple of shady guys who help finalize the deals.

It takes forever for the movie to get around to spilling the beans about the horrible thing Neung did, even though it's been explained in most of the synopses made available online – he ran over a little girl and wants to raise money to pay for her hospital treatment.

But instead of making clear what Neung's got at stake and making him a more-sympathetic character from the start, the story takes a seemingly endless path that's filled with dead ends and cul-de-sacs.

It's a vacuum that must be filled with something, and that something is the formidable presence of Noi Sukosol, who in this "art-house film" is given space to lose his shit Nicolas Cage-style and go over the top with a performance that seems to belong in another film entirely.

He is given to outlandish temper tantrums, in which he gets into awkward shouting matches with his shrewish wife (Kratae Supaksorn in a thankless role). He hits himself in the face, repeatedly, and bangs his head against the well. And, in a master stroke, when confronted by the pawnshop spirit, gets into a slapping contest with the ghost.

The talents of the intense, brooding Noi, the energetic lead singer of the rock band Pru, have been well-used in bigger-budget movies, such as Antapal or 13: Game of Death, or better-written small-budget indies like A Moment in June, but here, when there's little else happening around him, he's just too much.

Noi's antics had the audience of around six people in a late weeknight screening in stitches. And I don't think comedy was what was intended by anyone involved with the making of this picture.

See also:

• Pawnshop official trailer (embedded below)

Review: Koo Kam

• Directed by Leo Kittikorn
• Starring Nadech Kugimiya, Oranate D Caballes
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 4, 2013; rated G.
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5

Koo Kam (คู่กรรม), the story of star-crossed romance during World War II in Bangkok, has been made for the big screen and television perhaps dozens of times. There's probably an adaptation that remains true to the novel that's also compelling to watch.

Unfortunately, I've only seen one – the version of Koo Kam that's on Bangkok big screens right now. So I really have no idea how it compares to the earlier versions. But I can't imagine it holds up very well.

Directed by "Leo" Kittikorn Liawsirikun and produced by M-Thirtynine, the production of Koo Kam reportedly cost 35 million baht (not including the 20 million baht for marketing) and looked to be the most ambitious effort yet by the still-fledgling studio, which has made a mint on its year-end romantic comedies.

And Koo Kam at times does have an epic feel, with wartime explosions, including a CGI-assisted bombing of Bangkok's historic Memorial Bridge (it was an intended target of an actual Allied bombing raid in 1944, but the B-29s missed). There's also scenes with a hundred or so extras, such as a wedding and times when the Japanese troops are boarding the steam train to head for the Burmese border. Slick stylization spices things up during key action scenes.

But mostly this new Koo Kam has the hermetic, Thai-TV-series feel of M-Thirtynine's extremely profitable and extremely dumb small-budget comedies. It also suffers from a dull and dragging pace, especially toward the end.

And the score doesn't help either. The same two or three intrusive cues of piano or electronic-keyboard orchestra are used over and over. The score is put too high in the mix and robs all scenes of what little life they had.

Well known to most Thais, Koo Kam is the story of a Japanese officer named Kobori who falls in love with a fiercely independent young Thai woman named Angsumalin. She turns out to be helping the Free Thai resistance.

Koo Kam's earlier adaptations include a series that's on Thai TV right now, starring "Bie" Sukrit Wisetkaew and "Noona" Nuengthida Sophon, which National Artist author Thommayanti herself has declared to be the definitive version. A famous movie version was 1996's Sunset at Chaophraya by GMM Pictures (the only version to officially have that title), starring Thongchai "Bird" McIntyre and Apasiri Nitibhon and directed by Euthana Mukdasanit. Apparently a true epic for its day, 50 million baht was spent to make it.

But Leo Kittikorn's Koo Kam basically boils things down to the relationship between the officer Kobori, played by Thai TV-and-commercials heartthrob Nadech Kumikaya, and Angsumalin, new-face actress Oranate "Richy" D Caballes.

Like a sitcom, it starts out cute, funny and full of energy. For just a little bit, it fooled me into thinking I might be charmed by this version of Koo Kam.

A young Japanese engineering officer, Kobori is working at the navy yard when he spies Angsumalin lurking around in the water by the docks. He tries, ineptly, to introduce himself to the bathing beauty, but Ang will have none of it and tells him no uncertain terms to leave her alone.

Kobori persists though, finds out where Ang lives and tracks her down to an old-timey colonial-style Thai mansion on an orchard neighboring the navy yard. For a brief instance, the girl's frowny little mouth turns right side up, showing that perhaps she likes the goofy Kobori just a little bit, and she tries to clue him in that maybe he shouldn't walk through the orchard at night.

Various entanglements thrust the two together, like destiny. The dorky Japanese officer's efforts to charm Angsumalin don't stop. He annoyingly gives her a Japanese name, Hideko, and tries to make teriyaki for her and her mother. I wanted to scream at Kobori "her name's not Hideko!" Or at least have Angusmalin scream it.

Meanwhile, the girl's estranged father, who is a muckety-muck of some sort in the Thai government, thinks it might be a good idea if Angsumalin and Kobori got married, as a sign of the strong Thai-Japanese alliance. Of course, the wily Thai politician is also using the marriage to further blind Kobori and his superiors that the Thais aren't really doing anything at all to aid the Japanese war effort or hinder the resistance.

So the relationship between Angsumalin and Kobori is bit like Colonel Klink and Hogan on Hogan's Heroes, in which Kobori turns a blind eye to Ang's resistance activities as long has she'll love him. She doesn't and apparently never will. But she'll throw him a bone every once in awhile if it'll keep him off her back. But he doesn't stay off.

A curious choice that weakens the film is the decision to go for the G general-audience rating instead of the censors' spicier 18+ or 15+, making the climactic wedding-night scene for Kobori and Angsumalin a huge anti-climax. Fans hoping to see a shirtless Nadech, like Mario Maurer in Jan Dara, will be disappointed by a clumsy scene of drunken grappling, Nadech's blurry shoulder blades and an awkward morning-after apology to Ang.

A more-interesting choice was the casting of the ingenue Richy Oranate as Angsumalin. A Chiang Mai native plucked from the relative obscurity of the Thai national badminton squad to make her debut as an actress, she was intriguing to watch during the scenes early on when she determinedly rebuffs Kobori's advances. She reminded me of another frequent M-Thirtynine player, the prolific young actress Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, or perhaps Kristin Stewart, and Richy really made me believe she hated Kobori.

Later, Angsumalin has a change of heart, spurning her long-haired rock-star resistance-agent boyfriend, and she decides too late and too melodramatically to pour out her romantic feelings to Kobori. Then Richy reminded me of another M-Thirtynine regular, "Gypso" Ramita Mahapreukpong, an inexplicably popular actress and TV personality who irks me for reasons I can't put my finger on other than she always seems to come across as fake or affected in some way.

As for Nadech's performance, I guess he's fine as the lovable tortured idiot Kobori. He'll continue to rake in the dough, doing TV dramas, commercials and endorsements of every product under the sun.

Koo Kam follows the current trend of remakes of popular old classics, with other recent regurtitations being ML Bhandevanov Devakula's sex-filled but oddly boring two-part reworking of The Story of Jan Dara, starring Mario Maurer, and the GTH studio's insanely popular and entertaining Pee Mak Phra Khanong, a romantic-comedy twist on the Mae Nak Phra Khanong ghost story that also stars Mario.

The box office shows where the Thai audience's preferences are – Pee Mak is nearing the record-breaking 550-million-baht mark or has possibly already surpassed it depending on how the beans are counted, while Koo Kam, released just a week after Pee Mak, has been clobbered and is struggling to break even.

Oh, and another thing or two, fans of Thommayanti's novel have reportedly criticized this version for its contemporized language. Historical purists have knocked the production as well, pointing out such minutia as a water slug on a boat that didn't exist in Thailand back in the 1940s. I can't speak to those things. However, I appreciated the decision to go with a soundtrack that's about half Thai and half Japanese. In most cinemas, the film was released with Thai subtitles for the Japanese and English bits, however Paragon Cineplex had a version with English subtitles. So thanks M-Thirtynine, for making it possible for me to see your film and trash it. As much as I grew to hate watching it, I've enjoyed the chance to see the story and write about it.

See also:

• Koo Kam official trailer at M-Thirtynine's YouTube channel

Review: Jan Dara: Epilogue

• Directed by ML Bhandevanov Devakula
• Starring Mario Maurer, Chaiyapol J. Poupart, Ratha Po-ngam, Bongkot Kongmalai, Sakkaraj Rerkthamrong, Sho Nishino
• Released in Thai cinemas on February 7, 2013; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5

Once committed to a direction, Bhandevanov "Mom Noi" Devakula sticks with it, even if it's as dull and predictable as the path he took in the first part of his epic adaptation of the erotic novel of family dysfunction, The Story of Jan Dara.

Jan Dara: Epilogue (จันดารา ปัจฉิมบท), a.k.a. Jan Dara 2, wraps up Mom Noi's two-part take on the tale of a bastard son of a noble family in 1930s and '40s Siam. It follows last year's Jan Dara: The Beginning.

It's a story that sizzles with sex and symbolism about Thai society, so it's really a shame it turned out so stuffy and boring.

One problem is the old-fashioned stagebound direction that veteran dramatist Mom Noi adheres to. Despite a few bravura cinematography moments and the sumptuously detailed art direction and costume design that are trademarks of Mom Noi's movies, it all has the feel of a high-school play. The performances for the most part are campy and overly-dramatic. Instead of conveying emotion, the performances only elicited laughter from the audience.

The chief offender is Mario Maurer, the heartthrob star who is woefully miscast as Jan. He pastes on a mustache in a bid to appear more mature and believable as his character commits acts of adultery and rape, but his puppy-dog eyes and sweet, dopey expression betray him. Scenes that feature him smoking, drinking and lounging about in nothing but a pair of silk trousers (or less) are especially laughable.

In the right hands, the melodramatic Mom Noi acting style is effective. Stealing the show is Mom Noi's go-to character actress Radklao Amradit, portraying the family matriarch. As Jan's grandmother on her deathbed, she speaks her lines powerfully and with hair-raising venom as she tells Jan to claim his birthright and take revenge on his evil stepfather. The singer and stage actress is required to wear heavy aging makeup, as are Mario and his co-star Chaiyapol J. Poupart. But while the guys look hilarious, Radklao pulls it off. She benefits from better lighting than the young actors do in their old-age scenes, but it's also her immense talent that sells it. Here's a thought – if Mom Noi does another literary adaptation, he could do it Cloud Atlas style with Radklao playing all the roles.

As the story goes, Jan has learned the terrible truth behind his birth, sort of. Mom Noi throws a few curveballs at audiences who might only be familiar with Nonzee Nimibutrs's 2001 version of the tale, and gives Jan's parentage a Rashomon twist – only fitting because Mom Noi offered his version of Rashomon in 2011. Each witness to the act has a different story.

Finally figuring out that the sadistic man he thought was his father was in fact his stepfather, Jan returns to his family's Bangkok mansion to take charge. Not only does he take over the family business, give his stepdad  (Sakkaraj Rekthamrong) a stroke and banish him to a locked tower wing, Jan also takes the old man's mistress Bunluang.

Faring a bit better in part two is Ratha "Yaya Ying" Po-ngam who portrays the worldly Bunluang. It was a role previously portrayed by Hong Kong's Christy Chung in Nonzee's version, but Ratha succeeds in putting her own memorable stamp on it.

"Tak" Bongkot Kongmalai, who chewed up the scenery as Jan's doting aunt/stepmother Waad in part one, is for the most part sidelined here. She takes vows as a Buddhist nun, has her head shaved thinks to nifty CGI and finds peace.

Jan, meanwhile, is on the warpath, driven by disappointment and despair. His old sweetheart is gone, and Bunluang ultimately spurns him. Just like his stepfather, who married Jan's mother to save the family's reputation, Jan is forced into a sham marriage with his cousin/stepsister Kaew to cover up an incestuous affair she had, which resulted in her giving birth to a developmentally disabled child.

Kaew is again portrayed by Japanese AV star Sho Noshino. In part one her voice was dubbed, but she underwent Thai dialogue coaching and speaks her lines herself in part two. Her character also undergoes a few changes from Nonzee's version, the most notable of which involves her gluing on a mustache in a seemingly self-aware parody of Mario's character, and in the bloody way she aborts her baby with Jan.

Chaiyapol J. Poupart is Jan's loyal servant and friend Ken. Choosing a path that leads to better karma, his life is filled with happiness and contentment while Jan's, despite all his riches, is not. It's Ken, along with the bombing of Bangkok during World War II, that sort of shakes Jan out of the cycle of hatred and violence that he seemed doomed to repeat.

The sense of dread for Jan is underlined by Chatchai Pongprapaphan's score, which has Godfather-like tones.

The story circles back to the beginning, cutting to modern-day Bangkok with Mario in unconvincing old-age makeup, sitting on a Bangkok park bench in the harsh daylight. He's joined by his friend Ken, also in old-age makeup, and again Jan is reminded that his friend Ken has achieved everything that Jan could not.

A big chunk of Jan's life seems to be missing, with the timeline skipping through a few decades after the war when Jan could have conceivably gotten his life back on track and found happiness. But, apparently, he didn't. Time slipped by and old age crept up. In the end, those Godfather strains play Jan off as he hobbles down the street, whimpering.

See also:

• English-subtitled trailer

Related posts:

• Review: Jan Dara: The Beginning

Review: Khun Nai Ho

• Directed by Rerkchai Paungpetch
• Starring Araya A. Hargate, Akom Preedakul, Jaroenporn Ornlamai, Teeradate Methavorrayuth, Ray MacDonald
• Released in Thai cinemas on December 27, 2012; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5

For no other reason than it's funny looking, soap star "Chompoo" Araya A. Hargate wears a wig in Khun Nai Ho (คุณนายโฮ), the latest year-end comedy bonanza from M-Thirtynine Pictures and director Rerkchai Paungpetch. The comical bowl-shaped bob gives the usually long-haired actress the appearance of a mushroom, a fact that is later commented on with much venom by one of the characters.

Khun Nai Ho, a.k.a. Madame Ho, also has the international English title Crazy Crying Lady, which is literally what the movie is about. Sort of.

It's the latest in a long line of romantic comedies from Rerkchai and M-Thirtynine, released every New Year's holiday. They all follow the same formula – casting attractive young, popular stars with veteran male comedians who are usually in drag. All are incomprehensible tales, full of non-sequitur humor and take forever to get to the point. And they are, for some reason, wildly popular with Thai audiences. According to the latest box-office figures, Khun Nai Ho has earned nearly 80 million baht after three weeks, zeroing in on the industry's benchmark 100 million baht figure and ensuring that we'll get another one of these types of comedies around this time next year.

Like just about every Thai comedy, Khun Nai Ho starts out fun and full of energy, but quickly degenerates into a succession of headache-inducing nonsensical jokes, gay slurs and slapstick gags. The production design and costuming is candy colored and gives the movie a generally hermetic feel, more like a TV series. Much of it seems to have been filmed in a city park, where tiny roadways add to the fantasyland feel. The electronic keyboard soundtrack also seems to have been borrowed from Thai TV. And the storytelling is episodic, just like a TV series.

Also from TV is the star, Thailand's leading soap-opera actress, "Chompoo" Araya. She portrays Ho, a woman-child who wears her emotions on her sleeve.

The story follows her from childhood. As a schoolgirl she is bright but emotionally crippled. Simple requests from anyone cause her to cry. At school one day, the teacher asks the children what they want to be when they grow up. Ho's neighbor-boy classmate Doc says he wants to be a doctor, of course. Her long-haired guy pal Boyd wants to be a rock star. The little girl Ho says she wants to be pregnant, which earns her a severe reprimand from the teacher, who instructs Ho to wait until she has indeed grown up. The incident scars Ho for life.

Another life-altering occurence is when little-girl Ho is awarded for earning the highest marks in her class. She runs home, crying all the way, to tell her parents, only to be met on the front porch by her father and younger brother. Dad then breaks the news that her mother and sister have been killed in a car crash. And cue more tears.

Cut to years later, the adult but still childish Miss Ho is a teacher at her old school. She's still single and still a virgin, thanks to that traumatizing reprimand from her teacher years ago. Ho is also still handicapped by her overemotional state, which causes her cry all the time. Tell her some good news, she cries. Tell her some bad news and she cries even more.

Chompoo Araya is really the perfect choice for this role, because in order to work on Thai TV she has be able to turn on her tear faucet as easy as most folks turn the tap on their kitchen sink.

But one of the many problems with this movie is that Chompoo, despite being the star and central figure, is sidelined by various nonsensical subplots involving the supporting characters, namely her father, played by Akom Preedakul, a.k.a.  Kom Chaunchuen, and her gay cross-dressing brother, portrayed by Jaroenporn "Kotee" Ornlamai.

Kom's character is a retired military man who can't let go of his former career. He's haunted by an incident on the battlefield, and apparently suffers from terminal post-traumatic stress syndrome. Despite his unkempt facial hair, unruly mane and not-so-trim physique, he holds on to his military bearing and wears a uniform everywhere.

Among the shenanigans involving Kom's character is an outing to a paintball range with his old army buddies. It's run by Ho's wannabe rock star childhood friend Boyd (Ray MacDonald). The fun turns disastrous when dear old dad opens up with real bullets rather than paintballs.

Kom's character Nawa is also ashamed that his son is gay, and scolds the boy for dressing up in women's clothes, engaging in less-than-manly activities and having a boy-toy boyfriend. Kotee, as always, commits fully to the character, squeezing his rotund figure into tight outfits. A humorous aside is the "Yes! You Can Do" self-help videos Nawa records, offering tips on everything from makeup to robot dancing. At one point, Kotee strips to the waist, letting fly his large man boobs and corpulent tummy. The stunt earns him gales of laughter from the audience but does nothing to advance the plot.

Plot? Oh yeah. Plot. Eventually, somewhere toward the end of the movie they get around to that. Ho still desperately wants to have children but doesn't want to give up her virginity. However, her best friend, the dear old childhood chum Dr. Doc (Teeradate Methavorrayuth), is as it turns out, an obstetrician. He informs her that her eggs are dying, and if she doesn't get pregnant soon, she won't be able to have kids.

At the urging of her gal pals, she tries a weekend hookup with her supposed boyfriend, the paintball-range operator Boyd. But Boyd is simply too aggressive, and scares the tearful Chompoo off. Ray brings his usual dramatic intensity, but shows off his comedic range as he rattles off a string of insults when he breaks up with Ho.

The next likely candidate is her BFF, Doc. But will it be too late by the time they finally get around to being more than friends?

Unfortunately by then, time has run out and the end credits are running alongside outtakes involving Kotee's character and his self-help videos.

See also:

• Official trailer (embedded below)