Seis nueve

The last couple of years, Thailand has been outputting some interesting films, both commercial flicks and art-house endeavors. On the good side of the art-house fence, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (gotta love Thai names) has been one of the front runners and main flagships of the Thai film industry. Ruang Talok 69 is one of his earlier films and probably the one that made many heads turn his way.

I've been on to Ratanaruang ever since I watched Last Life In The Universe, a collaboration with Asano and Doyle (at a later time successfully repeated in Invisible Waves). The film left a permanent impression and since then I've been on the look-out for more Ratanaruang's films. When I finally came across Ruang Talok 69 I didn't have to think twice before checking it out.

I'm usually a bit apprehensive about older films of directors I like, especially when I was introduced to their more recent work first. These films are often a little less polished, sometimes just downright dire and dull (it happened to Tsai Ming-Liang). In that sense, Ruang Talok 69 was a very interesting surprise. While it does not equal Ratanaruang's later work, it stands very well on its own and manages to keep a fresh appeal.

That said, the movie does start off a little slow. Tum is a rather dull woman who crawls back home after being fired from her work just a little earlier. Her place is as dull as she is and up until that point, nothing much interesting seems to be happening. That changes when a little box with loads of cash is left at her doorstep. An ideal opportunity for Tum to make a fresh start.

Sadly, things won't go easily for Tum. In no time, two scruffy looking guys are knocking on her door searching for the money. When they both fall dead on Tum's floor only five minutes after entering her home, Tum suddenly turns from a dull-downed woman into a woman with a plan. Money does strange things to people.

From there on, the film slips into an endless spiral of bad luck and coincidence, adding a healthy streak of dark humor and some amusing plot twists, ending up in a sprawling finale with bodies littered all over the place. Most of the action takes place in Tum's apartment, where boxes keep stacking up in order to dump the ever growing pile of dead people that end up inside her house.

It's this streak of black humor that adds a lot of flavor to the film. Without it, the films would've been a little plain. Luckily Ratanaruang has an excellent sense of humor (without becoming too bonkers - Thai humor can be pretty freaky). Top scene is probably the blow job scene, which is a lot less obscene than it actually sounds.

Visually Ratanaruang has everything under control. Nice and colorful settings (a typical Thai film look in other words) and some interesting camera tricks often mimicking the movement of characters. The film is not as polished or brilliant as Doyle's work, but I guess nobody would be expecting that. It's still a very clean and solid looking film.

More praise goes out to the soundtrack. While littered with funky Thai music, the darker scenes are scored with some very interesting tracks. I've found little so far about the composer of the soundtrack, but there's some major influence of Kenji Kawai's work in Ghost in the Shell. Not something you'd expect in a film like this, and the association is a little weird at times, but it does work wonders.

Some very interesting ambient tracks are placed underneath the key scenes, featuring instruments almost directly lifted from the GitS soundtrack. It adds heaps to the atmosphere and already defined Ratanaruang's preference for soothing (dark) ambient to score his films.

In the end, Ruang Talok 69 is a very fun ride, nicely shot and awesomely scored, presented with a great sense of humor and key scenes that are wonderfully executed. It starts off a little slow, the pace is pretty sluggish at first, but as the film continues it keeps getting better and better. Another hit for Ratanaruang, who's easily my favorite Thai director to date. 4.0*/5.0*

An interesting little film that asks what would you do if you had just been laid off and someone mistakenly drops a million bucks at your doorstep? Would you kill to keep the money?

Tum (Lalita Panyopas) has to answer that question quickly as the bad guys are knocking on her door. And, the bodies keep piling up in this funny comedy.

Writer/director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, who wrote and directed the great Last Life in the Universe, certainly kept my interest throughout the movie. but I have to say that the ending really sucked.

By the way, don't any men in Thailand raise the seat?

Thailand's film industry is on a competitive level with other Asian countries now. One of the finest examples is this thriller with the strange English title. It mainly takes place in the appartment of a young woman who accidentally becomes a murderer, and - by and by - almost a mass murderer. The coincidences in this movie lead to a lot of laughters while the Thai actors are portraying themselves self-ironically. This is a sure killer at phantasy filmfestivals and the like where shootouts, splatter and funny gangsters are most welcome. From the fine script over the professional camerawork to a soundtrack that makes you want to know more about Thai music 6ixtynin9 was one of the greater surprises at Milano's MIFED 2000. The movie was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the Festival des 3 Coninents in France.

Although I watch numerous Asian films I believe "6ixtynin9" was the first Thai movie I have seen and I must say I was very impressed. From start to end it had a comedic "whatever can go wrong will go wrong" feel about it while moving along rather smoothly as a mildly bloody quasi action flick. The story itself wasn't overly complicated nor jumbled up like some Asian stuff tends to be. I could see a large group of viewers enjoying this nice little Thai surprise.

The acting wasn't "lights out" but was effective and although the filming was mainly done in an apartment it moved around more than enough to avoid getting stale.

I viewed the on the US version DVD and found the quality good enough but not top notch and it wasn't in surround sound. I would certainly recommend giving this film a watch but you might want to rent before you buy it.

None of my friends, here in Bangkok, said they like the film. My taste might be different but I think Ruang Talok 69 (the Joke 69) is really good.

My reason is that it is a strong and good satire of life in Bangkok and the Thai culture. The Asian financial crisis in 1997, the boxer gangsters (they wear Muay Thai jackets), the rural guy who misses his mom, the sadistic wife, the obscene phone call, etc. all are somehow relating to real situations and real people here. You might be surprised to learn that in Bangkok there are a lot of actual cases of Thai wives cutting their husbands'..... eh, you know which part I'm talking about.

These kind of things so weird and don't make any sense but they are what we face in our daily life. Thai people are so used to them that we sometimes forgot to realize how non-sense they are. So non-sense that it's actually funny. And it's great to see it mocked so tastefully in this movie.

I liked this movie a lot. And when I read the comments, I was glad to know some other people liked it too.