Baytong (a.k.a.Ok Baytong)
Director: Nonzee Nimibutr
Year: 2003
Starring: Poowarit Poompuang, Jeeranan Manoojam,
Saranya Kruengsai
Time: 107 minutes
Nonzee Nimibutr has been the modern Godfather
of Thai cinema with his contributions as both director (Dang Bireley and
the Young Gangsters, Nang Nak, Jan Dara, Three – The Wheel) and producer
(Tears of the Black Tiger, Bangkok Dangerous). These films have helped
bring Thai cinema to the attention of the world and fostered a film environment
that has allowed new filmmakers to go in exciting inventive directions
that have kick started the industry. Thai cinema is still filled with large
amounts of banal commercial works, but with directors like Thanit Jitnukul
(Bang Rajan), Wisit Sasanatieng (Tears of the Black Tiger), Pimpaka Towira
(One Night Husband), Pen-ek Ratanaruang (6ixtynin9, Monrak Transistor,
Last Life in the Universe) and of course the Pang Brothers (Bangkok Dangerous,
The Eye) there are some tremendous films coming out of Thailand and the
future looks bright. Baytong is a wonderful addition to this body of work.
Unlike Nimibutr’s previous work, Baytong is nearly
devoid of flashy stylization and lush sensual surroundings - it is very
basic and simple and becomes all the more powerful for being so. It is
a heartfelt if very subtle plea for peace and understanding in these very
sad times. Like much of the current world Thailand has also been affected
by Islamic disaffection and has been the target of terrorist attacks.
Though much of the film does not revolve directly around this issue, it
is the igniter of the story and the moral backbone of the message – one
of religious and cultural diversity and tolerance.
When Tum learns that a terrorist bomb on a train
has killed his sister, he takes a leave from his cloistered duties as a
monk to go home for her funeral. This is in Baytong, at the very southern
tip of Thailand bordering on Malaysia where the Muslim influence is very
strong. It is a small but busy town where as one character tells Tum “if
you haven’t had a bird shit on your head, you have never been to Baytong”.
He meets his sister’s five-year-old daughter (Saranya Kruengsai) and an
affectionate bond begins to grow between them – to the point where he decides
to give up his robes and leave the temple to care for her upbringing.
Completely unworldly in his ways and knowledge
of everyday things, Tum has to humorously deal with learning to ride a
bike, cell phones, alcohol, erections, zippers . . . and pain. A major
Buddhist tenet is to rid yourself of desire and in his old world where
there were so few temptations that was a simple thing for Tum, but in this
new life where there are so few limitations, he discovers that he has needs
– for love from his niece and from a woman (Jeeranan Manoojam) he meets.
And this brings an unknown mysterious pain that is all the more excruciating
for being so unexpected - and he has to look deep inside him and connect
with his beliefs to move on.
The film is told in almost leisurely fashion –
small scenes that begin to add up to something very whole and surprisingly
emotional. Much of it is slice of life with a real sense of living in a
small Thai city that is nicely captured by the photography and pacing of
the film. Though Poowarit Poompuang as Tum displays very few moments of
heightened emotion and plays much of the film in straight-faced puzzlement,
it is absolutely perfect for his character and the viewer feels like he
is seeing the world anew through his eyes. In a world that seems to be
brimming with so much hatred for different cultures and beliefs, this simple
ode to humanity and forgiveness is a refreshing and needed reminder that
we are all in this together.
My rating for this film: 8.0
The Unborn (a.k.a. The Mother)
Director: Bhandit Thongdee
Year: 2003
Starring: Inthira Charoenpura, Wannakit Siriput,
Karunpon Thieansuwan
Time: 108 minutes
Porawee (Inthira Charoenpura – the heartbreaking
Nang Nak) is a bartender and low level pusher/user who gets on the wrong
side of her drug supplier (Wannakit Siriput) when the money she hands over
doesn’t equal the amount of drugs she has sold. Like every reputable slimy
drug dealer would do in that situation he bashes her around and throws
her off a pier for dead into the water. She survives. But nothing is quite
the same anymore. Something she doesn’t understand happened under the water
that probably saved her life but is driving her to the brink of madness.
In the hospital the doctor informs her that she is ten weeks pregnant and
her first thought is to abort it, but she soon has other worries to occupy
her.
She begins having flashes of visions and horrible
nightmares – except she is awake. She almost drowns in a bathroom stall,
sees a fetus in the water cooler and of course has a longhaired female
ghost slithering towards her. Everyone assumes she is sneaking in drugs
and these are just hallucinations, but a social worker (Karunpon Thieansuwan)
begins to wonder whether she is possessed or is really seeing something
supernatural. An old lady lying in another hospital bed tells him of the
visitor “She will go when she gets what she wants”. But what does this
ghost want?
This film falls squarely in the large bin of ghost
stories influenced by The Ring and this one also owes some moments to “The
Eye”. This sub-genre of pissed off female ghosts who come back to get their
own – but never do it simply but always in a roundabout manner - seems
a bit overdone now but can still give a few chills. This ghost has reasons
to be angry but instead of doing her own dirty work she uses Porawee to
bring about some revenge. The film is fairly uneven – it contains some
nice scenes and images that are creepy – but then hospitals naturally creep
me out – with the first half being decently engrossing. In the second half
though the mood that was created is lost and the film becomes almost a
pedestrian hunt for the bad guys that is so obvious that you wonder why
they bother. Director Bhandit Thongdee also directed the very different
and quite charming musical Hoedown Showdown.
My rating for this film: 5.5
(Inthira Charoenpura)
One Take Only
Director: Oxide Pang
Stars: Pawarit Mongkolpisit, Wanatchada Siwapornchai
Time: 88 minutes
Year: 2003
An Oxide Pang film is always a treat visually
and this is no exception. One would think that he suffers from some sort
of rare instance of sensatory attention deficit after watching this film.
He seems bored if any two scenes in a row have the same look to them and
so he is constantly playing with the hues, the lighting, the speed, the
angles as much to amuse himself as the audience. And to some degree it
works. For example there is one scene in which the two protagonists finally
have the mandatory sex scene – but Pang films it in such a way that the
coupling runs along the bottom of the screen, goes vertical, upside down
and all over the place completely disorienting the viewer, but giving it
a small sense of wonder – that’s how sex should be! As much as his film
tricks entertain, they can’t completely hide the fact that there is very
little going on in this film. But the lackadaisical pacing of the film
until it finally verges towards near the end on a plot of sorts is part
of its charm. Still from time to time you have to ask yourself, why am
I interested in these people and what goes on in their lives - and
there is really no answer. Yet his visuals make the film compelling and
its short running time blows by very quickly.
Bank (Pawarit Mongkolpisit - the assassin in Bangkok
Dangerous) is a small time slacker drug dealer who fantasizes about being
a tough guy but on the one occasion when he tries to be he gets his butt
handed to him and has to be rescued by the diminutive Som (Wanatchada Siwapornchai)
who quick thinkingly puts some bricks into her bag and uses it as an assault
weapon to beat off four guys. The two strike up a friendship and learn
that they live in the same building. What he doesn’t know is that she is
also a prostitute who arrives at work in her school uniform and makes enough
money to pay for school and to send some home. Pang makes it clear that
he is at odds with the material youth in Thailand – in one almost cinematic
aside he stops the film to show a poor young girl selling flowers on the
street to cars passing by and when one car stops this barefooted urchin
just stares inside at a girl of her own age who has everything while she
has nothing.
This materialism also drives our loving couple
into a few errors of judgment. They fantasize about what they would do
with a lot of money and it all comes down to new clothes and a cool cell
phone. So Bank decides to push the envelope in his drug dealings and go
for bigger and potentially more dangerous payoffs – and soon they are swimming
in money and living good – but one has to wonder how long before the hammer
comes down on them. Both actors give if not technically good performances
– likeable ones and in particular Wanatchada is a sweetie.
My rating for this film: 6.0