Jan Dara

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 the DVD 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 an unpleasant person at heart). 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 turn out to have some benefits.

The movie is about Jan's early life, and particularly about his early sexual experiences - and the sexual experiences of everyone around him for that matter. 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. Former Miss Hong Kong 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. One can hardly blame them for trying to screw 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. That and all the sex :))

I disagree with the previous comment. The movie is not hard to follow if you have access to English subtitles or you understand Thai. This movie had an enormous budget in comparison to other Thai movies and this is reflected in the higher standards. The story is the story of Jan Dara, a Thai man. As the previous comment said, there is sex, soft-core for Western standards, but very explicit, although not graphic. This was enough to cause an uproar in Thailand when the movie was released. This caused the movie to be censored. Well worth watching if you have any links with Thailand...

This Thai film tells the story of a young boy named Jan whose mother dies in childbirth. The boy's 'father' seems to hold a very strong hatred for the child and does not pass an opportunity to mistreat him. As he becomes of age, he starts to learn about life and sexuality. His view of sex becomes more like a sport. And as he continues his life he starts to become more and more like the person he despises the most – his 'father'.

This film is told as a narrative and explores the customs, taboos and traditions that many societies bare. As we get deeper into the film, we begin to understand the pressures Jan is faced with and consequences of his actions.

In the end as he begins to understand his origins, we also understand why his 'father' hates him so much and why his aunt Waad seems to love him as he were her own.

Overall, this film is a dark melodrama filled with high sexual tension, depravity and moral decay and is definitely not for the conservative and religious zealots.

"Jan Dara" is another beautifully shot picture from Thailand's Nonzee Nimibutr. I liked his 1999 film "Nang nak" but "Jan Dara" is definitely an improvement. The classically beautiful camera work mixed with highly erotic scenes remind one of Annaud's "L'amant" - but "Jan Dara" has a more nostalgic look with lots of sepia colors in it. What strikes me is that there's not a single (important) character in this movie that is ugly. This is a movie full of gorgeous people. In "Nang Nak", the main actor was amazingly well built but had rotten teeth - here, everyone seems to be a model. I found myself especially enchanted by the the one who plays 17-year old Jan. This beauty of the actors and actresses perfectly fits the slightly artificial mood of the movie.

I've talked about style. What about story? Well, that's not as rewarding. There are your typical family drama plots, the hate, the love - basically a soap opera. With lots of sex. Would I recommend it? Definitely, if you lov e lush settings and gorgeous people. I for one found myself having a nice time...

Rating: 6/10

JAN DARA is one of those rare films that succeeds on many levels: the story as adapted from a famous Thai novel 'The Story of Jan Dara' by Utsana Phleungtham is one of intrigue and exploration of lust, revenge, and thwarted passion; the cinematography by Nattawut Kittikhun is incredibly atmospheric while at the same time pausing for some of the most beautiful studies of nature on film; the musical score by Chartchai Pongprapapan and Pakawat Waiwitaya mixes the exotic pentatonic Oriental melodies with quaint excerpts from early recordings of Richard Strauss and Puccini operas; the direction by Nonzee Nimibutr is so sensuously elegant that this film firmly establishes him as an important figure in international film-making.

Simply stated, the story is about Jan Dara, the son of a woman who died giving birth to him, his life as an abused and unwanted child in the house of his 'father' spent searching for the love of his lost mother, his first encounters with passion and love, his adaptation to the realities of surviving in a family fraught with conflicts and bizarrely tangled interrelationships, and the disillusionment that comes with the discovery of his true family history and how the way his life comes full circle. It is a period piece and includes the outside effects of WW II in an otherwise sequestered house of strange isolation.

While JAN DARA includes many sensuous scenes (the 'first memory' of Jan Dara is watching his 'father' in an indiscretion with his beloved aunt), these scenes are photographed so sensitively that they become studies like Kama Sutra paintings rather than being vulgar. The story makes many flashbacks and flash-forwards and keeping the various actors at the different ages of these sequences straight can be problematic. The cast is uniformly excellent and credible, even when they may be too evil to watch! Here is an example of Oriental films that don't rely on choreographic martial arts to sustain interest. In that way it is similar to the beautiful SPRING, SUMER, AUTUMN, WINTER, SPRING, and for those who enjoy the subtle arts of Asia this film is a must. Highly recommended. Grady Harp