Jan Dara

Reviewed by Simon Booth

Director: Nonzee Nimibutr
Year: 2001
Starring: Santisuk Promsiri, Christy Chung, Eakarat Sarasukh
Time: 122 minutes

Hey, at least I can honestly say that I didn't buy this DVD because of breasts! Whilst the prospect of Christy Chung getting kitless wasn't exactly horrible to me, it was rather the fact that JAN DARA was directed by the consistently excellent Nonzee Nimibutr that landed it in my shopping cart.

Poor Jan Dara has a bad start in life - his mother dies in childbirth, and his father hates him thereafter as a result (or maybe just because he's a complete bastard, which does seem to be mostly true). Not a great household to be growing up in in the 1920/30/40-ish years in which Jan is a young boy. But as he reaches young man age, the affluent household seemingly full to the brim of luscious females does have some benefits.
The movie is about Jan's early life, and particularly about his early sexual experiences - and the sexual experiences of those around him. This is one of those movies that makes me feel that everybody in the world is having more sex than me (admittedly, every movie from Mary Poppins up has that effect - it's just the movies, right?). The characters here hop into and out of each others beds with such frequency and complexity that it's like they're the pieces in a game of sex-chess or something. Christy Chung is just one of a bevy of pretty ladies who end up on their backs for half the movie.
But JAN DARA is far from a bedroom farce - Nonzee Nimibutr is a film maker with much more skill, class and brains than that. Actually it's taken from a Thai novel, and it does feel very novelistic - quite high brow (though down-beat). The characters are very well developed and explored, and the period setting is loving realised with great cinematography. Totally excellent soundtrack too.
Ultimately JAN DARA is not a happy movie - there's a viciousness in his family environment that leads to basically unhappy people all round most of the time. In fact, one can hardly blame them for trying to shag themselves into a coma in search of a little respite from the gloom. Though not happy, it is very enjoyable however - because it's a well written, well directed, well acted and generally very well made piece of film. And hey, Christy Chung shows us her tits for chris' sake
The Elephant Keeper (Kong Liang Chang)

Reviewed by Simon Booth

Director: Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol
Year: 1987
Starring: Sorapong Chatree, Ron Ritthichai
Time: 135 minutes

You know what I hate? I hate illegal loggers. They're raping the forests for their own profits, destroying the future for animals and people alike. It's not the villagers and forest dwellers who take a few trees to build their houses, or even to sell for a living - I understand their situation, and it seems like a reasonable co-existence with the land. It's the big corporate lumber-plunderers with their machines that can strip a 1,000 year old tree into planks in an hour... the ones who are getting fat and rich from their nature-piracy.

You know what I don't hate? Not much, admittedly, but definitely elephants. Elephants are super-cool because they're smart like Lassie but big like houses. They're also practically bullet proof, and they have super-long memories - get on the wrong side of an elephant and you'd better watch out, 'cause he'll still be holding a grudge 3 reincarnations later. If elephants were amphibious or could fly, they would definitely be the best animals in the world. Though gibbons are pretty amazing too.

What may surprise you most is that none of these are opinions I held just a few hours ago, prior to watching The Elephant Keeper. I like it when a movie not only entertains me but changes my view of the world. Not in a way which is ever likely to be very relevant to my life admittedly - though owning a pet elephant I can ride to work has moved considerably higher up my list of ambitions than it was this morning.

The Elephant Keeper is another movie from Thailand's premier movie-making royal, Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol. It tells the story of an elephant keeper and his elephant and a group of forest rangers, desperately trying to fight against the groups of illegal robbers pillaging the forests of Thailand for profit. It's something of an environmental movie, with the beautiful locations and nature photography making all the more effective the point that thoughtless plundering of the forests is going to screw up the country/planet. It doesn't just lay the blame on 'bad men' for this though, it tacitly glances at the political and social reasons why people are driven to this kind of livelihood. Though admittedly, "being a bad man" does come at the top of the list.

The movie is 135 minutes long, paced fairly gently and smoothly. It's told as the recollections of one of the rangers, 20 years after the events it covers - though narration is sparse. The recollections are an explanation of why this particular forest is never pillaged for logs anymore - it's believed that it is protected by an elephant who will kill anybody that tries. The ranger says that he knows this to be more than rumour because he's met the elephant, and knows why he protects the forest.

The movie features some good performances, particularly by Sorapong Chatree (the guy who wasn't the sister-in-law in "The Sister-In-Law") and his elephant - who is as large, powerful and smart an elephant as you could hope to cast in your movie. It's a fairly bleak tale, set against the backdrop of a land that's already been heavily deforested and the economic problems that brings for people used to living in and off the forest. The more the forests shrink, the less work there is for an honest elephant keeper and his beast. The group of rangers assigned to protect the forest are a pitifully small bunch to protect such a huge area from the bands of well organised and armed forest-robbers. It doesn't help that they have to hand the men they capture over to the corrupt police force, who immediately let them go again. It's not a good situation for a good man to find himself in, but I guess everybody would be good if it were that easy.
Prince Chat directs the movie with skill again, developing his characters and his narrative confidently and subtly. He also makes great use of the locations and the camera, and there are beautiful images throughout. Sadly the DVD is not of great quality, though it's a much better transfer than The Sister-In-Law. It's full frame, but that appears to be the OAR because the image never feels cropped. The VCD has English subs as well, but is also full frame.

A good movie, that receives my recommendation but may not be to everyone's tastes.

Nothing to Lose (1+1=0)

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

Though only one of the Pang brothers is involved with this film, it still displays their characteristic flair for kinetic style, off kilter colors and a fast moving narrative. The films that the Pang brothers have directed clearly show their Hong Kong background and Hong Kong film influences. Bangkok Dangerous felt very much like a Hong Kong hitman film transferred to Bangkok, The Eye of course takes place in both countries and this film too feels much more Hong Kongish in its attitudes than the Thai films I have seen. Though never particularly gripping and with an ending that felt rushed and anti-climatic, this film still treads some enjoyable Bangkok turf and brings forth a few interesting characters. In some ways it is like sniffing Sassy Girl on gasoline fumes where the Breathless couple turns to crime and murder rather than pranks and whimsy.

Love can start anywhere. Even on a rooftop with the pavement staring you in the face down below. Somchai is up on the roof looking for a final escape from his gambling debts and he spots Go-go teetering on the edge with a similar solution for her problems written on her face. Both decide to eat first and die later and then decide not to pay – why pay when we are as good as dead is their reasoning. After bashing up a car for the joy of it, she takes him to a run down hotel and introduces him to the pleasures of weed and abstinence. Watching Go-go running around in her halter-top, boots and tight shorts makes the abstinence part difficult as hell for Somchai. Soon the cops are after them for a convenience store robbery and then the gamblers are after them both for some unpaid debts. A bloodbath later and they are on the run for their lives.
The film has energy, style, two good performances, some well-shot scenes, but it doesn’t really seem to add up to as much as one would hope. Beneath the visual sheen there isn’t a lot of depth or emotional connection. Where it really seems to fail though is in follow through – after the shoot out one expects the film to simply go into hyper drive but instead it slowly lets the air out and goes out with a whimper instead of a bang. Besides some of the intriguing milieus that the characters traverse – a grungy and dangerous gambling parlor, the seedy hotel – the most enticing aspect to the film is the yowza in your face attitude shown by actress Arissara Wongchalee a.k.a. Fresh. With her assortment of wigs,  her long legs and slightly twisted mind, she is hard to take your eyes off of.

The Thai DVD states that it has English sub-titles but it does not. I was able to see it with subtitles at a showing.

My rating for this film: 6.0