Blissfully Yours

Reviewed by Simon Booth

Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Year: 2002
Starring:  Johnny Anfone, Lynn Nussara
Time: 114 minutes

Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON is one of only two Thai films I can think of that have been officially released in the US. This is fairly typical America, where it is often assumed that foreign film = art film. I nearly bought MYSTERIOUS OBJECT, but after reading some reviews I decided to pass, as it sounded rather too strange and a little boring. BLISSFULLY YOURS is the director's second feature, and it all takes place in a single day.

An illegal immigrant from Burma has a rash for some reason, so his girlfriend takes him take him to the doctors in the morning. In the afternoon she makes an excuse to leave work and they drive up to the mountains, where they hang out and eventually have sex. Their friends, an older couple, also have sex.
BLISSFULLY YOURS is unquestionably an art film, and it's the kind that give art films a bad name. Interminably slow, pretentious and ultimately not really about anything. There's enough material for a 10 minute short, padded out to two hours with endless shots of people driving somewhere, or lying on the grass, or generally doing nothing much at all. It's highly reminiscent of the films of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, with a bit of explicit sex thrown in for no reason except perhaps to try and generate some controversy.
There are moments where the film is beautiful, when the couple are in the forest, but ultimately the film is just VERY BORING INDEED. I'm sure there are people that just adore this kind of stuff, and I've seen plenty of slow arty films that I've enjoyed myself for that matter. This film did  practically nothing for me though, and I can't recommend it to anybody.

I find it slightly sad that films such as this get US distribution, at least at film festivals, but far more entertaining stuff such as Pee Hua Kard or Pbob - Body Jumper will never ever see the light of US day.

Nothing to Lose (1+1=0)

Reviewed by Simon Booth

Director: Danny Pang
Year: 2002
Starring: Pierre Png, Arissara Wongchalee (Fresh), Yvonne Lim.
Time: 94 minutes

The Pang Brothers have shot to fame over the past few years with their energetic film-making that seems to revitalise genres that have been flagging in recent years. In particular, Bangkok Dangerous and The Eye have been huge hits. Their background as editors on some of Hong Kong's top action titles clearly shows in their visually kinetic film making style. NOTHING TO LOSE is the solo directorial debut of the less interestingly named half of the twins, Danny Pang.

Somchai meets Go Go on a Bangkok rooftop, where both are planning to make the ultimate jump and escape their problems in life. Somehow they manage to talk each other out of it and go for food instead, where they learn that when you've reached the point where death holds no fear there's nothing left to stop you doing almost anything in life. This starts them off on an adventure full of mayhem, with nothing to lose.

NOTHING TO LOSE has all the visual style of the Pang Brothers other works, with cinematography that owes a lot to Christopher Doyle and MTV. Unfortunately it starts with a bit of a whimper, with some poorly dubbed and terribly cheesy dialogue that makes it look like you're in for an "all style, no brains" experience. Thankfully, the opening proves to be rather a red herring in a film that becomes progressively more complex, unusual and compelling as it goes on. Danny Pang creates a couple of complex characters, and as both story and backstory are revealed we are drawn into an increasingly rich situation and connect more with the protagonists.

The film was introduced at the SF International Film Festival as "a remake of Natural Born Killers", which is one of the more vacuous observations I've heard about a Thai film (why is it at these fests the people that introduce the films always try to compare them to American films anyway?). Certainly there are elements in common, but these become less and less as the film progresses.
The greatest strength of the film is not Danny Pang's writing or visual flair though, it's actress Fresh, who is ravishing, wild and utterly compelling to watch in an all-out performance. Dressed in a sequence of wigs and bold outfits she would leave a lasting impression on any male mind, and the rather geeky Somchai is helplessly in her thrall. Singaporean actor Pierre Png looks good but is rather flat as an actor (which is perhaps appropriate for the role) and suffers a lot from being dubbed into Thai. The supporting cast is good, but everybody is outshone by Fresh  (incidentally, this was her first film role).
NOTHING TO LOSE is a film that transcends its premise and beginnings, and ultimately offers a lot to look at, enjoy and even think about afterwards. It should be a successful film in the west, but the lack of a subtitled home video release will doubtless prevent that for the moment.

Recommended if you get the chance to see it with subtitles.

Goodman Town

Reviewed by Simon Booth

Director: ?
Stars: Watchara TungkaPrasert, Archariya BuaSuwan.
Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Year: 2002

Ouch... my brain hurts.  Why?  Because I've just watched Goodman Town, and tried my level best to follow the plot... no easy task!  To call it "convoluted" would be kind - messy" would be more fair, I think.  If you're planning to watch it, I'd recommend reading this synopsis first to prepare:

The year is future, and the time is post apocalypse.  The world has been reduced to Mad Max style banditry and rule of the gun, with the remaining population gathered together in small groups and dressed in "out of the garbage can" fashions.  One place that's relatively thrived is Goodman Town... that is, until bandit Tiger Yai takes over the town and displaces the population. The refugees set up Dark Commune, and seek to reclaim
Goodman Town as their own. They hatch a plan to tunnel under the town, but it will take them some time. To buy time, they send a fortuneteller to Tiger Yai and tell him he must marry in 4 days or die.  Tiger Yai buys this story and sends his men off to find his wife - who can be identified by a birthmark on her chest.
Meanwhile, a famous hero called Mr. Climax has been wandering around amnesiac since he was betrayed by 4 famous killers, quite having forgotten what his wife looks like.  In fact, his wife looks exactly like the daughter of the chief of Dark Commune (it took me an hour to figure this crucial plot point out, and realise the very cute actress was playing two characters). And, as luck would have it, she's the one that Tiger Yai has to find and marry.

That should be enough to make sense of most of what happens, if and when it's supposed to make sense... and that's certainly not all the time, because Goodman Town is a very *silly* movie.  It's an Action Comedy (it says so on the DVD case, so I know), featuring some really silly and often dumb comedy...  lots of slapstick and goofiness.  It's vaguely reminiscent of pBob - Body Jumper's puerile humour, but not quite as genuinely funny - or maybe it lost more in the translation?   Actually it probably lost a lot because of the terrible acting displayed by most of the cast :)

So it probably sounds like I didn't enjoy the film... not so, in fact :) Although it has several gaping flaws, it's quite entertaining and fun to watch.  The characters are colourful, and the apocalyptic world quite well conveyed in a low-budget way.  Also, the film is very stylishly filmed and edited - I'm guessing the director probably has a music video background, given the relative measures of style versus narrative coherency.   There's some really nice camera work, and in particular there's some stylishly filmed action.  The film definitely fits the "Action Comedy" description on the box, as it's relatively chock full of cool action scenes.

There's lots of gunplay, some huge explosions and a fair amount of cool posing.  The largest portion of this comes in the finale, naturally, which runs a good 20 minutes or so and features more bullets and explosions than most of John Woo's career.  Technically, the lack of experience of both cast and crew is evident - but so is their enthusiasm, and certainly no effort was spared in bringing some classy carnage to the screen.

I certainly can't claim that Goodman Town is a great film... the flaws are numerous and large, but it has quite a lot going for it as well.  It's fun, stylish and quite creative - just not very well directed and very badly acted. There are some decent special effects and some cute girls (and boys), and lots of action though, which is good enough for a popcorn movie.  Not one we're likely to see get wide international distribution though.
Which means, most people are going to have to go to the Thai DVD if they want to see the film.  The Mangpong release is below average even for a (recent) Thai film - non anamorphic widescreen picture from a reasonably clean print, with English subtitles burnt into the image (optional Thai subtitles can be displayed above these, taking up half the image with text, with most readers of this review won't require those I presume). The   picture quality is acceptable, but the DVD features an absolutely terrible 5.1 sound mix - really thin, weak and unbalanced.  Thankfully a stereo Thai track is provided as well, and this sounds much better.

Certainly not essential viewing, but quite fun and unique. 7/10