SuckSeed: Huay Khan Thep

I was given the chance to sit down and watch the 2011 Thai movie "SuckSeed", and of course I jumped at the offer, as I enjoy Asian cinema, and "SuckSeed" was a movie that I had never heard about prior to getting the chance to watch it.

Well, I must admit that "SuckSeed" fell quite short of my usual movie interest and utterly failed to entertain me. I managed to endure about an hour of the movie, then I just had to give up. Why? Well, because I didn't care an ounce about the storyline or the characters, nor were I at any point entertained by what transpired on the screen.

"SuckSeed" is definitely aimed at a younger audience, which I am not a part of. And whatever director Chayanop Boonprakob had on heart with this movie was something that just failed to captivate me.

I can definitely see how the movie would be interesting for a younger audience, no doubt about it. But I was not in that target audience.

It should be said that the movie was nicely produced and filmed, and I am sure that the actors and actresses in the movie were doing good jobs. But I hardly noticed, because the characters didn't matter one bit to me. In fact, all the male characters in the movie just seemed like one and the same to me.

I am rating "SuckSeed" a mere three out of ten stars, and this is not a movie that I have any intention of returning to finish at any given time. The movie was just a massive swing and a miss for my liking.

Suck Seed It is a film from the Thai film label that everyone is well known like GTH. The story of a group of teenagers that are about the confusion Filled with love, friendship and music, this is a great movie with a fun and warm feeling. Which reminds us of that age again by making the funny scenes very funny The love scene is cute too. Which this movie is different from general teen movies All the actors performed very well. And another interesting thing of this movie Is to insert various songs To match the storyline, thus making the audience feel very involved And finally, this movie is also very interesting, it is probably a love story in many aspects of the characters and friendships. That, despite the changing of time, cannot make their friendship fade away Which the movie is doing very well In giving an idea And it also inspires young people who are interested in playing music.

This movie tell abput friendship, have a good plot and really funny to watch. I laughed a lot at this movie and at the same time I also cried

The other reviews do a good job telling you the plot. I had seen the soundtrack for this film several times in the Thai record stores and was intrigued by the track list and artists who were involved. Otherwise I didn't know anything at all about the film. The album cover made me suspect it was a dumb teen comedy. But when I saw it listed in Thai Airways' AVOD system on a recent flight I decided to check it out. And I was very pleasantly surprised.

Far from being a dumb comedy (although there are plenty of funny moments) it's really one of those unrequited love triangles. And I love those kinds of films. I'm not ashamed to admit I shed more than a few tears. The acting is excellent, especially Ped. I imagine that for an actor playing that type of withdrawn, shy character must be a real challenge. And while the relationship between Ped and Ern seems to be the center, it's really the relationship between the boys, Ped and Koong that is what holds the film together. Their break up and reunion had a palpable realness to it that really hit me. Poor Ped just can't figure out how to ask for what he wants or needs from anyone. So he is a bit isolated. You feel really sad for him when he loses the girl and the boy.

The music is great. And I also enjoyed the cameos from the music stars. Definitely worth checking out!

The Thai production house GTH was probably synonymous with the horror genre, until last year's romantic drama and surprise hit Hello Stranger made one sit up and take notice that they too are capable of churning out hits outside of their established genre. SuckSeed just proved once again that they are as comfortable as the Japanese in taking the zero to hero formula and coming up with an awesome coming of age tale of a group of students trying to make it to the finals of their high school rock band contest, and comes complete with the requisite love story, comedic antics and plenty of rock music to make up the soundtrack.

Directed by first time helmer Chayanop Boonprakob, SuckSeed tells the story of good friends Ped (Jirayu Laongmanee) and Koong (Pachara Chirathivat), opposites in character with the former being the shy boy nursing an infatuation toward fellow classmate Ern (Nattasha Nauljam), and the latter being the daring buddy with the slightest of attention spans, having to dabble in plenty of hobbies but never settling for any, until his envy of his twin brother Kay's success with his band Arena made him want to start his own, besides the notion of assuming that being in a band will mean being an automatic chick magnet. Roping in basketballer turned drummer Ex (Thawat Pornrattanaprasert), the trio obviously don't have the talent necessary to entertain nor perform, but that doesn't mean that they're giving up in true blue zero to eventual hero formula, willing to even parody themselves by calling their band SuckSeed, where first you have to suck, before success will come. After all, once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up, no?

And this is the surprise package that delivered where it mattered, be it the musical numbers, thanks to real life Thai bands and/or their frontman making cameo appearances (one of my favourite Thai songs came on as the first, how cool is that?), the more dramatic moments or the comedy where the actors, mostly first timers as well, will put some veterans to shame with their exuberance. While the story was written by a host of writers, it didn't fall prey to the too many cooks spoiling the broth syndrome, where the end product would turn out to be rather scattered and piece meal. Rather, SuckSeed proved to the contrary, with the ensemble cast playing (pardon the pun) their hearts out in their roles.

One may think of it as being quite generic at times, with subplots like unrequited love, teenage romance, sibling rivalry and the likes that pepper movies featuring teenage characters, but the delivery of its charismatic leads here more than make up for it, especially between Jirayu Laongmanee and Pachara Chirathivat as best buddies, and that between the former and Nattasha Nauljam in their romantic angle. Chayanop Boonprakob also utilizes different techniques to keep things varied and interesting, where animation also came into play more than once to spice things up in style especially in its manga inspired moments when dealing with introducing of band members, or even the rebirth of SuckSeed in phoenix style where it rose out of its ashes after two members got burnt by their failure to snag the girls they fancy, and decide to pour their energies into making their band a success. Or not.

Like Japan's Beck this year which also had the formation of a band as its premise and the focus on the relationships between band members, SuckSeed is the Thai equivalent, and powers its way into one of my favourites this year. It's a complete film as much as emotions go in its roller coaster ride, where friendship, romance, comedy and rock all fuse together in synergy to bring forth a crowd pleaser. Highly recommended and an inspiration to those who suck - I Need You! Want You! Love You!