Tribute to Pen-ek in Bangkok's Italian Film Festival

Bangkok's annual Italian Film Festival is set for next month, and this year's edition is one of the biggest and most ambitious in terms of programming.

Not only will the Moviemov Italian Film Festival show a line-up of contemporary Italians films as it has in the past, this year they have added a selection of classic films – a retrospective on comedy director Mario Monicelli, who died last year.

And, in the spirit of Thai-Italian cultural exchange, the Italian Film Festival will show two films by Pen-ek Ratanaruang.

Also, according to the festival website, Pen-ek will receive the Best Thai Director 2011 Award from Italy's Ciak magazine in Rome this year.

Pen-ek's chosen two of his movies for the fest:

• Ploy, 2007 – A jet-lagged Thai-American couple (Pornwat Sarasin and soap actress Lalida Panyopas) check into a Bangkok hotel after a long-haul flight from the U.S. and their tenuous marriage is tested when the husband invites a young woman (Apinya Sakuljaroensuk) up to their room. Meanwhile, the hotel's bartender (Ananda Everingham) is engaged in a playful tryst with a maid (Porntip Papanai). Ploy premiered in the Directors' Fortnight program at the Cannes Film Festival. Pen-ek will present the film along with Goffredo Bettini, artistic director of Moviemov, and Piera Detassis, artistic director of the International Rome Film Festival and director of Ciak Magazine.
• Last Life in the Universe, 2003 – Tadanobu Asano stars in this quirk-filled black comedy as an eccentric, suicide-obsessed librarian living in Bangkok, hiding from his secret past. Violent circumstances lead him to take up with a young Thai woman (Sinitta Boonyasak) at her ramshackle house by the sea. Last Life is one of a pair of pan-Asian co-productions Pen-ek did with Asano and cinematographer Christopher Doyle (the other is 2006's Invisible Waves). The cast also includes cult Japanese actor Riki Takeuchi and a cameo by filmmaker Takashi Miike. Asano received the Upstream Prize for Best Actor at the 2003 Venice Film Festival.

Pen-ek just wrapped up his Shoot the Music concert down in Hua Hin over the weekend and is still at work editing his latest feature Headshot.

With the honors coming from Rome, I wouldn't be surprised to see Headshot screening at the festival there this fall.

The full line-up of the Italian Film Festival is over at the Bangkok Cinema Scene blog.

Pen-ek blew up the music

Pen-ek Ratanaruang put on his Shoot the Music concert down in Hua Hin over the weekend.

Similar to Bangkok's 9 Film Fest, which also combined beer, film and music, Shoot the Music was sponsored by Heineken and had Pen-ek orchestrating a combination of short films and live music.

From what I can gather, the shorts were shown in between or maybe during musical performances.

There were dozen or so local acts leading up to the headliner, R&B musician Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds.

At one point, there was a small explosion on the stage.

"The lights went out and everything froze," writes Manta Klangboonkrong in her review of the show in The Nation.

There were a number of amusing promo spots and short films made for the event. These include the It's Personal shorts Boxer and Mafia, featuring Tarr Barbie as a slick gangster. Singer-actress Ploy Horwang also appears. They are combined in a playlist and are embedded below.

She finally gets married in Sabaidee 3

Director Sakchai Deenan completes his Sabaidee trilogy of cross-border romantic comedies with this story of a Thai magazine writer ("Boy" Pakorn Chatborrirak) who visits Laos and falls for local lass Kam (Khamly Philavong).

The series started in 2008 with Sabaidee Luang Prabang, which starred Ananda Everingham and Khamly. Ananda was also executive producer. The film was co-directed by Sakchai and Laotian director Anousone Sirisackda.

Then came last year's Sabaidee 2: From Paxse With Love, which starred Ray MacDonald as a down-and-out filmmaker hired to take wedding photos who becomes smitten with Khamly.

This third episode was filmed back-to-back with Sabaidee 2.

There's a teaser that has highlights from all three movies and one that's just for this one.

It opens in Thai cinemas this week.

Review: The Hangover Part II

• Directed by Todd Phillips
• Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Crystal the monkey
• Released in Thai cinemas on May 28, 2011; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

Did money talk when it came to making The Hangover Part II in Thailand?

According to the Thailand Film Office, approximately half a billion baht (around $16.7 million) was spent on the Hollywood comedy during its 40 days of shooting in Thailand, making it one of the biggest productions to visit the Kingdom in recent years.

So if a Thai filmmaker wanted to shoot scenes that involved a drug-dealing, cigarette-smoking monkey simulating fellatio on a monk, would they be allowed?

Perhaps as long as the monk in question is not technically a Thai Buddhist monk, but one dressed in robes usually associated with Burmese monks.

Other scenes involve a transgender go-go dancer exposing her man parts, and that's been controversial because depictions of male genitalia have traditionally been taboo in Hollywood films.

Of course, the naughty bits – male, female or otherwise – are blurred out by Thai censors. Never mind that the movie is rated 18+, and that the ratings system enacted in 2009 was supposed to put an end to that antiquated way of censorship. However, even under the Film and Video Law of 2007, genitalia is generally frowned upon, even in a movie released under the restricted 20- rating.

Watch just about any Thai comedy released in local cinemas today, and there's usually scatological hijinks involving monks and/or ladyboys. The Hangover Part II is essentially the same schtick, only with a much-bigger budget and Hollywood actors.

The big difference is those Thai comedies are rarely shown overseas, and never in worldwide releases like The Hangover Part II. Certainly, more people are going to remember The Hangover Part II than folks who've watched an ad from the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

So Thailand's image as a tourist destination is perhaps taking a big hit, and many viewers have to be wondering what the Thai authorities were thinking when they allowed this movie to be filmed here, reveling as it does in all the stereotypes of the city's dark side of drugs, drinking, transvestite hookers and activities that involve Ping-Pong balls.

It's not all bad though. There are also scenes of a five-star luxury resort on the Andaman Sea – just two hours across crystal blue waters from Bangkok by speedboat, according to the movie.

And Bangkok's exclusive State Tower, home to a high-end hotel and ultra-expensive eateries that offer a panoramic view of the city, also figures prominently.

The cast and crew all stayed at five-star hotels during their stay in Thailand. Nonetheless, star Ed Helms said he suffered from severe food poisoning. "Let's just say my body exploded," he says. And Justin Bartha says he wishes he could unsee the "dirty shit ... that got burned into my eyes".

For many viewers, the gut reaction is that they'll want to steer clear of Bangkok and Thailand on their next vacation. They won't take into account that the Hangover boys are behaving like idiot low-lifes and associating with scum. The things that happen to them are the consequences. Keep your wits about you, use common sense and don't take part in illegal activities, and Bangkok and the rest of Thailand are generally safe.

As for the movie itself, it is a clear cash-in to build a franchise out of the 2009 hit that became the most lucrative R-rated comedy ever. The sequel has already bettered that, ensuring there will be a Hangover Part III and beyond.

As with the first Hangover, the Wolf Pack boys Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) are running around the morning after, trying to piece together the events of the night before, which in their inebriated state, they've forgotten.

They and their buddy Doug have traveled to Thailand for Stu’s wedding, and Stu, hoping to prevent a repeat of the out-of-control bachelor party they had for their buddy Doug's nuptials, aims to just go to bed after the dignified pre-wedding dinner at a luxury resort on Krabi.

However, at the urging of his bride-to-be (Real World and Sucker Punch star Jamie Chung), he relents for one celebratory beer on the beach with his buddies and his fiance's younger brother Teddy (Mason Lee, from Ang Lee's The Hire short).

Somehow they wake up the next morning in a seedy Bangkok hotel room, having been magically transported overnight from the Andaman Sea to the "city of squalor". Teddy is missing. All that remains is his finger. Bearded Alan has his head shaved. And Stu has a facial tattoo that's just like Mike Tyson's.

Their old enemy, the international criminal Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) is there. Only now he's like an old friend.

Also, they have a monkey. This is Crystal, a Capuchin monkey (native to South America) who's been in Night at the Museum and many other movies. Smoking CGI-enhanced cigarettes and dealing drugs, the cheeky primate steals the show from the three main actors, and the scenes in which she doesn't appear feel slack.

And an elderly wheelchair-bound monk turns up, wearing Teddy's Stanford sweatshirt.

Apart from the mute monk played by Aroon Sriboonruang, there's only a handful of Thai talent onscreen. The most prominent is veteran actor Nirut Sirichanya as Stu's overbearing and disapproving father-in-law. He's currently known for his role on the judging panel of the Thailand's Got Talent TV show, but film fans might remember him as Tony Jaa's serene mentor in Ong-Bak 2 and 3. Stay and watch the end credits for the endless list of Thai names who worked on the crew.

Other cameos include Paul Giamatti as a criminal cohort of Mr. Chow and director Nick Cassavetes as a tattoo artist (he got the role after Mel Gibson was vetoed by the cast and Liam Neeson's scheduling didn't work out). Bill Clinton was on set during the filming in Bangkok, and had photos taken with the cast, but his people apparently came to their senses and he doesn't appear. Chiang Mai's quirky band the Ska Rangers also appear, playing a cover of Flock of Seagulls' "I Ran", which is tragically cut short to make way for another cameo. But the full-length version of the Rangers' song is on the soundtrack album.

Eventually the movie's tagline “Bangkok has them now” emerges as a mantra. And Stu is wrestling with his inner demons, embodying that love-hate relationship many Bangkokians have with their city.

There's vivid cinematography of the metropolis. And there's a car stunt that's probably the most memorably epic thing done by a Hollywood film in Bangkok since the 1974 Bond picture The Man with the Golden Gun.

It should be noted, however, that one of the car stunts left an Australian stunt double severely injured.

Overall, there's a been-there-done-that feel to the movie, despite the location change from Vegas to Bangkok. The jokes aren't as funny as the first film.

Galifianakis tries hard, setting up the monkey-to-monk fellatio scene: “When a monkey nibbles on a penis, it’s funny in any language.”

And everyone does laugh. But who will have the last laugh?

See also:

• The Hangover 2 goes ‘supersonic’ online – what is the fallout for Thailand? [Jon Russell, Asian Correspondent]
• Unleashing the monster [Kong Rithdee, Bangkok Post]
• Why Thailand can enjoy The Hangover Part II without shame [CNNGo]
• Follow the Wolf Pack's Thailand trail [CNNGo]

Related posts:

• Prime Minister Abhisit shakes hands on the set of Hangover Part II

9 Film Fest 2011: Winners and notes

The first 9 Film Fest was held last night, mixing short films with live music and beer under a tent in the Parc Paragon outside Bangkok's Siam Paragon.

Nine short films, each nine minutes long and incorporating something about the No 9 in them, were chosen from a reported 184 entries, each made specifically for this festival. All but two were by Thai filmmakers, and all but one were filmed in Thailand.

The shorts were screened in three "acts", broken up in between by performances by the musical acts Calories Blah Blah and Buddha Bless. After the third act, was the awards presentation. A mini-show by the rock band Paradox closed out the evening

The festival was created by Brian Bennett, who started the original Bangkok Film Festival back in 1998. He's patterened the 9 Film Fest after the TropFest in Australia. The Bangkok Post emerged as the major sponsor of the fest, and took it over, driving it with considerable marketing muscle.

Judges on the short-film jury were directors Nonzee Nimibutr, Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Pimpaka Towira, actor Ananda Everingham and the newspaper's film critic Kong Rithdee. All except Pen-ek were on hand to give out the awards. Pen-ek was down in Hua Hin, staging his Shoot the Music concert.

The total prize purse was 300,000 baht, split across the various categories.

Here's the line-up of shorts:

• 9 Days, directed by Meechai Tubphete. This Cloverfield-like home movie is about couple facing nine crisis-filled days, barricaded in their apartment during the apocalypse.
• The Elevator, directed by Suphasit Tanprasertsupa. A man goes from boyhood to old age in the course of nine floors on an elevator. It's a rather sordid life for the guy. I thought this one was quite clever – one of the best of the evening.
• Touch Screen, directed by Katan Thammavijitdej. A teenage girl talks with her boyfriend on her touch-screen mobile phone. She is seen through the vertical frame of a cellphone screen, and the text messages are off to the side. This one had an interesting story but was hard to read.
• The Numberman Theory, directed by Eeji Shimada. A rather odd Japanese man who's obsessed with numbers tries to contort his body into the shapes of the numbers from 1 to 9. The nine minutes are padded out with documentary-style interviews of the bespectacled dude, who admits he's not especially limber. He dons a head-to-toe black Spandex bodysuit anyway and gives it go.
• Death of a Butterfly, directed by Pongpun Yuencheewit. A woman’s voice reads a sad letter to a man over experimental-film imagery.
• Navigator, directed by Kanin Ramasoot. A driver and his GPS device get into a fight, break up, then make up. It's a romantic comedy, starring My Girlfriend the Car.
• Half, directed by Rakphong Rakrien. A political satire by a Thai who lives far away from Thailand and feels ashamed about what’s happening there. Some nice black-and-white imagery.
• 9 Years Later, directed by Krisanai Piriyarangsan. A soldier trying to find a right spot for an uninterrupted radio signal runs into an enemy. Always ambitious, trying to make a war movie on a tiny budget.
• Man with a Video Camera, directed by Kris Clijsters. It's Bangkok, post 05/19/2010. Lots of vivid images. A beautiful snapshot of the always-changing, fitfully modernizing city.

And the prizes went to:

• Best Cinematography: Man with a Video Camera.
• Jury Prize: Death of Butterfly
• Special Mention: 9 Years Later
• Best Actor: The Numberman Theory, Yuto Tanabe
• Best Actress: Touch Screen, Asia Kohpetch
• Runner-up: Touch Screen
• Best Short Film: The Numberman Theory

The Japanese director and actor of The Numberman Theory were both present, which was apparently a surprise, since they had earlier said they couldn't make it. "It's destiny," director Shimada said upon receiving his giant 100,000-baht check from Nonzee Nimibutr.

Overall, it was a fun event, though a bit weird, with the films broken into three acts and then a band coming on to perform for about a half hour in between. So was it a concert or a film festival? Yes is the answer. It was both. And I'm not really sure either worked. Folks who wanted to see films were annoyed at having to listen to the pop music of Calories Blah Blah and the DJ/rap sounds of Buddha Bless. And fans of those bands were annoyed at having to sit through 30 minutes of weird short films. Many of the film fans I know left the event during the musical interludes and did not return.

The seating was arranged in such a way that the audience was forced to schmooze with one another, which was the likely intent of the organizers. It was a party-like atmosphere. There was a couple rows of VIP sofas down front, blocked off by a nylon-ribbon barrier. Then there was an area of little squat tables and little cube-stools you could perch on, chat with your friends and drink Singha beer (a sponsor). In back, off to one side, there were tables and chairs and more sitting, chatting and drinking. Folks were constantly on the search for a place to sit down and stealing and scamming for chairs. There was a big open area under the beer tent, where people stood. They should have put more chairs in.

The atmosphere of conviviality made it difficult to actually see and hear the films. By the end of the evening, most folks where I was sitting were just talking (loudly) and drinking and not watching the films or the music or anything.

Finally, the awards were handed out in a rather dramatic, special-effects laden ceremony.

The bands, the beer, the smoke machines, the shooting confetti, the marketing campaign. How much money was spent? Seems like a lot for one night and nine short low-budget films. Especially when there are other film festivals around Thailand that show dozens upon dozens of features and shorts over the course of a week or more and struggle to find sponsors and raise money for budgets.

For me, the highlight of the night, aside from the films, was seeing the costumed rock band Paradox live. Their performance closed out the event. Paradox is one of the Thai rock bands that performs frequently at festivals and are an audience favorite for good reason – with two back-up singers, one in a luchador mask and the other looking like a character out of Ultraman – these boys put on a show and are solidly rocking. One of their gimmicks is to throw out balloons, balls, beach toys, candy and other prizes. They also spray water, so watch out. They were featured in that recent romance shorts anthology, Love Julinsee. And flamboyant bassist Song Paradox, who usually dresses as a schoolgirl, like a demented little sister of AC/DC's Angus Young, has been featured in a couple of films as well, The Sperm and The Possible, playing a musician.

So music and film do go together. And sometimes it works.

August Band hits the road in Puan Mai Kao

Formed as a fictional musical group for director Chookiat Sakveerakul's 2007 gay teen romance Love of Siam, the August Band played at a few promotional appearances for the movie and proved so popular it became a real act.

The band, which appeared in an animated Yellow Submarine-like fantasy segment in the shorts anthology Four Romances, now has a whole live-action feature built around them in Puan Mai Kao (เพื่อนไม่เก่า, a.k.a. August Friends).

Singer "Peachy" Witwisit Hirunyawongkul and the rest of the guys hit the road for a bicycling journey from Bangkok to Lampang that will test their friendships.

Kriangkrai Wachirathammaphon, who was a co-writer of Four Romances, directs with Chookiat as co-screenwriter.

Here's the trailer. It pedals into Thai cinemas this week.

Charlie the odd man out in lesbian romance Do-Nut

Fan Chan star Charlie Trairat is caught in a confused and heartbreaking romance in Do-Nut (โด๋ นัท), a love-triangle tale that is similar to last year's surprise hit lesbian love story Yes or No, So I Love You.

Charlie's an art student named Do who finds himself left out when his tomboyish friend Nut (Pimradapha Wright) pursues a romance with the pretty Jane (Phulada Luechatham).

Nirun Thampreecha directs this picture, in cinemas this week. It's distributed by Golden A Entertainment.

Here's the trailer (embedded below).

Review: Laddaland

• Directed by Sophon Sakdaphisit
• Starring Saharat Sangkapreechat, Piyathida Woramuksik, Sutadta Udomsil, Atipit Chutiwatkajornchai
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 28, 2011; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 4/5

Family dysfunction and ghosts combine for genuine terror in Laddaland (ลัดดาแลนด์, a.k.a. The Lost Home), an intense, dread-filled drama about a father struggling to keep his family together in a haunted housing development.

It's the second feature directed by Sophon Sakdaphisit, who previously co-wrote the hit GTH horror thrillers Shutter and Alone and made his debut with the haunted-film flick Coming Soon. The tale is loosely based on fact – producer Jira Maligool gave Sophon the idea, telling him about a haunted theme park in Chiang Mai, and the story was shifted to the housing estate.

Saharat Sangkapreecha stars as a dad determined to make his family happy. He's just moved to a housing estate in Chiang Mai, where he's taken a new job. Dad lovingly prepares for the arrival of his family, setting up all the furniture and preparing bedrooms for his young son and teenage daughter. After pouring over his wedding-photo albums, he sits down at the little four-seat dining room table and practices the speech he's going to give his family at their first meal in their new home. Which is kind of creepy from the get-go.

The housing development is one of those suburban gated communities, where row upon row of single-family homes stretch for as far as the eye can see. Each house is the same, with the same green patches of yard and a driveway to park the family station wagon.


It's the American dream, with children scampering in the lawn sprinklers and Golden retrievers playing fetch. Only it's in Thailand, and it doesn't take long before the dream is shattered.

The teenage daughter doesn't like the new house. She misses the grandmother who raised her and her friends in Bangkok. Though she softens a bit when she sees the flowering tree her dad painted on her bedroom wall. But dad doesn't get to give his little speech, because the daughter's BlackBerry rings as they are starting dinner. It's grandma – the mother-in-law who's made life miserable for dad.

Other blots on the family's idyllic existence include the neighbor's intrusive black cat – now there's a subtle omen. The mewling feline leaves a deposit on the lawn. It belongs to an unfriendly neighbor who abuses his wife. No, all is not well behind the walls of these homes.

And then a Burmese maid ends up found murdered in a house down the street, stuffed inside a refrigerator with her face burned off by acid.

And so the suspense builds and hardly lets up. Misdirection, fake jumps, plenty of don't-go-in-there moments and scary soundtrack cues are deftly played. And just what is that air-conditioner's magic eye looking at?

Meanwhile, more and more about the father's background is revealed – a shady, pyramid-scheme sales job, financial pressures, the ungrateful, rebellious daughter, jealousy about his wife's former boss and that darn, disapproving mother-in-law.

It's enough to make a man crack and go out and buy a gun. Which he does. And the dread edges a notch higher.

Mother's feeling the pressure too. It's those pesky ghosts. And when the little boy swears up and down he was playing with one of them, mother doesn't believe him. And the back and forth between the two – "you're lying", "I'm not lying", "you're lying", "I'm not lying" – escalates to the point that mom is smacking the kid around and bringing the audience to the point of tears.

More than a truly scary ghost thriller, Laddaland is a terrifying picture of family dysfunction, reminiscent of Tokyo Sonata in more than a few notes, with a bit of Poltergeist thrown in. Even a bit of Shutter is recalled, thanks to the cat-cam around the black kitty's neck.



Related posts:

• Visit Laddaland, home of ghosts and Sophon Sakdaphisit

Review: Jakkalan (This Girl Is Bad-Ass)

• Directed by Petthai Wongkumlao
• Starring Yanin Vismitananda, Petthai Wongkumlao, Athit Amonwet, Akhom Pridakun
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 28, 2011; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5

The just-revealed international English title of Jakkalan (จั๊กกะแหล๋น) is This Girl Is Bad-Ass. And yes, Jeeja Yanin is all that. Unfortunately, her fierce brand of martial-arts action is secondary to an extremely lame-ass collection of one liners and sight gags by director Petthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkumlao and his comedian cohorts.

Playing like an outtake reel of scenes from various Sahamongkol comedies, romances and action flicks, the problem with Jakkalan is a lack of focus. A bit of Bodyguard here and Chocolate there, with some Crazy Little Thing Called Love (and even Love of Siam) tossed in, it could've been decent, but it's instead a disaster.

An unwieldly, kitchen-sink blend of comedy, romance and action, Jakkalan is too loosely plotted, with unfunny jokes, fight scenes that have no resolution and a cast that's overstuffed with Mum's showbiz pals who were apparently allowed to run wild with whatever dumb gags they could come up with. By comparison, past directorial efforts by Mum, like his first Bodyguard movie, the soap-opera satire Wongkumlao or his country comedy Yam Yasothon were much more tightly scripted and way more entertaining.

But those movies were mainly for Thai audiences. And if Jakkalan is to be made a success internationally, it'll need to be significantly retooled, but then there isn't that much there to begin with. Folks overseas want to see Jeeja, but her scenes come too few and far in between the nonsense.

Jeeja is a tomboyish young woman named Jakkalan who's been raised by her uncle (Mum). She works for a bicycle messenger service, and, in bowing to the current fad in Thailand for fixed-gear bicycles, Jeeja pedals a fixie. She even uses the bike as an effective weapon in the first big fight scene. But that takes forever to get to because first there are scenes of Mum taking care of little Jakkalan as she grows up, from a precocious rugrat to a rebellious 10-year-old who beats up all the bullies in the neighborhood.

Uncle Mum runs a street stall selling movies, which gives him a chance to note that he only sells authorized copies (only by Sahamongkolfilm of course) and issue a frustrated but ultimately self-serving and unfunny diatribe against movie piracy.

More "comedy" is provided by ubiquitious yukster Kom Chuanchuen, who wears outfits that seem to have been put together from the discount bin of the BDSM department at a thrift store. The only way you can protect yourself against the heinousness of what the clown Kom is wearing is to close your eyes whenever he's onscreen, which is a lot. He plays the boss of the bicycle messenger service.

Meanwhile, there's a weird young guy (Akhom Pridakun) with bad teeth who has a crush on Jakkalan and is always hanging around, asking Mum for advice on how to approach her. The fact that he keeps calling Mum's character "Uncle" seems strange, even if you owe that to the convention of Thai people referring to their unrelated elders as "uncle", "auntie", "older brother", etc.

But Jakkalan has her eyes on a long-haired neighbor guy (Athit Amonwet) who's a rock musician, and this gives her a chance to act like a goofy teenage girl in puppy love – a side of Jeeja that hasn't been seen, and it's actually pretty adorable. There's also a couple scenes where Jeeja forgoes the T-shirt, jeans, trucker's hat and sneakers and is dolled up in a dress and make-up.


She has some comedic bits as well, and acquits herself in a scene in which she delivers rapid-fire insults to that weird guy who keeps pestering her.

Jeeja's even funny when she's fighting, and the key to that is pretty simple: Instead of frowning, all she has to do is turn on that sweet smile while she's punching a dude's face.

Her job at the messenger service involves delivering mobsters' cash and some kind of illegal "stuff". It's never explained what the "stuff" is, but it's probably drugs. She's actually keeping a chunk of the mob's money, as well as some of the "stuff", which gets her in trouble with the two ridiculous mobster outfits she's working for. Like the samurai Sanjuro in Yojimbo, she finds a way to play the rival mobsters off each other. But that's a plot point that gets lost amid all the drawn-out jokes and tiresome romantic overtures.

The fight scenes don't come often enough, and when they do, they don't last very long.

The first fight has Jeeja taking on a crew of bad guys trying to retrieve the mobster's dough. They come tumbling out of a small van like clowns from a tiny car in the circus. And Jeeja wastes them all with a combination of muay Thai kicks and fixed-wheel, backwards-riding shenanigans. One of the bad guys even gets stabbed with a knife, repeatedly, borrowing Stephen Chow's schtick from Kung Fu Hustle.

Another fight has Jeeja tangling with a female fighter (Alisa Sonthirot) in a schoolgirl uniform, like Go-Go in Kill Bill. But the schoolgirl isn't really all that fierce, and soon Jeeja faces a half dozen or so guys, and gets creative by using bicycle sprockets as throwing stars, hexagonal nuts as knuckle dusters and bicycle-tire innertubes to tangle things up. The CGI blood sprays and again it's all over too soon as Jeeja is pointlessly faced off by a group of trash-talking female mob enforcers brandishing pistols.

The frayed and frazzled plot threads finally come together for a long, dragged out ending, involving a shootout between the mob factions and the police in a warehouse. Jeeja again faces the schoolgirl, but the focus isn't on her so much as letting Mum's comedian friends get in on the action. Even Mum and his stunt double throw a few punches and kicks.

The cavalcade of comedians is endless, with all the Chuanchuen family taking part (they beat up their dad, though since he's not playing their father in the movie, that's apparently okay). There's also appearances by Sudarat "Tukky" Butrprom, Pongsak "Teng Terdterng" Pongsuwan, Yam Yasothon co-star Janet Khiew and others.

The best part of the movie is the end credits, where the identity of one of the mobster's sycophants – a guy in a zipper-mouthed mask like the Gimp in Pulp Fiction – is revealed, and he lets loose with a tirade against Mum that keeps going until the screen is dark.


Related posts:

• Jeeja does comedy in Jakkalan

Agrarian Utopia, The Rocket and Stories from the North in New York

Along with the Blissfully Thai series at the Asia Society and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Primitive exhibition at the New Museum, there are also the films of Uruphong Raksasad in New York City.

His Agrarian Utopia will be at the Anthology Film Archives and his short film The Rocket is Stories from the North at the Museum of the Moving Image.

Agrarian Utopia starts on June 11 at the Anthology Film Archives. It won many awards at film festivals around the world in 2009 and 2010, and was honored at this year's Thailand National Film Awards and the Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards.

Here's the blurb from the Anthology Film Archives:

In Uruphong Raksasad’s ravishing documentary/fiction hybrid, two rural families, facing the seizure of their lands, come together to work the same rice paddy for a season, using pre-industrial farming methods. The title is, of course, ironic. The film shows a vanishing utopia that in reality is already essentially extinct: the plot of land was rented for the shoot, with Uruphong hiring locals to play the farmers. The serenely beautiful imagery – golden fields, time-lapse skies – bespeaks a nostalgia for a simpler time, but Agrarian Utopia is also clear-sighted and tough-minded in its assessment of the present-day economic and political realities that have transformed Thailand’s agricultural community – among other things, the film provides a partial back-story for the recent clashes in Bangkok between the Thai government and the red-shirt protesters.

The New York premiere is presented by the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar as part of their "Flaherty On the Road" initiative.

Meanwhile, the Museum of the Moving Image will show two of Uruphong's earlier films, his short, The Rocket and his short-film anthology on rural life, Stories from the North – fertile soil in which the seeds of Agrarian Utopia was planted. It's screening on June 5.