Top Secret: Wai roon pun lan

Well, sure the fact that this movie is based on real events is actually interesting enough. And thumbs up to the guy who persevered here and rose to become a billionaire. But was it a story that was becoming of the screen? No, not really.

The storyline just fell completely short of providing me with any sense of entertainment or enjoyment. So writer Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit didn't really deliver anything grand here. And it was such an insanely slow paced movie that it was hard to stay awake and focused on the things on the screen.

Director Songyos Sugmakanan didn't really deliver a riveting movie with "Top Secret: Wai Roon Pun Lan" (aka "The Billionaire"). But hey, I am sure that there are some out there in the audience with an interest for business and financial investments that might get a kick out of watching this movie. However, I was expecting a proper movie to be entertained by, and instead I was served a plate of financial investment mogul. Sorry, but no deal here.

I've seen actor Pachara Chirathivat in other movies, in which he was much more enjoyable to watch on the screen.

"Top Secret: Wai Roon Pun Lan" just wasn't aimed at me as a target audience, so I can't say that I was entertained or impressed with this 2011 movie.

My rating of "Top Secret: Wai Roon Pun Lan" lands on a two out of ten stars.

Lately I've been watching a lot of historical movies and just fun new big projects from largely USA. A lot of it really feels like production line products. I see the same styles, settings, topics and even themes in Hollywood productions and it feels more similar than ever before. It's not that I dislike American movies it's just that soooo many movies feel the same. Lazy produced products with no soul to them and you forget them a few weeks after you watched them. USA as a setting is also boring by now. It's the greatest country on Earth to film in and set a story in, but while watching this movie I really understood what I was missing. The down-to-Earth product made with care and not just flashy scenes. Here everything feels real. It's seldom you watch a movie that doesn't feel like a reproduction, but the real thing. A careful movie with sets that are ALL natural to the local environment. We get to see all sides of Thailand: indoors, university, business, 7-Eleven, small factory, roads, train station, mall, outdoors mall. Just this alone is great. It's like experiencing a tiny bit of Thailand and it's a breath of fresh air. All sets look way better than flashy big Hollywood sets and I was constantly glued to the screen trying to make out funny letters, cool posters, interesting cultural traits. It was like traveling through Thailand via a plot. They filmed in real locations so there was nothing fake anywhere.

Even the script itself was relaxed and real. There was no rush, no flashy fake scenes, no fake runs or overblown dialogue lines. It all felt like a real story which is frankly very hard to find. You need a tight budget and no CGI, greenscreens or big actors to pull this off. It needs to be calm relaxed scenes with people just trying to be themselves and act natural as students, workers, friends. No one was trying to outshine each other. Everyone was trying to be real.

Now, even though I really liked watching the movie it is very much not a product without mistakes. It's all like real life, but it misses some things you would expect from any regular life or movie. Top for example doesn't really have friends. Top has 1 friend at the start and I was waiting for him to play some role, but he soon totally disappears from the movie and many scenes are with just Top alone or with his uncle. Even the girlfriend storyline doesn't go anywhere. He is REALLY obsessed with money and sales. I get this, it's just that it feels empty at times. You can always feel when a movie doesn't include scenes from real life. You watch a scene and story and it feels empty and lacking. Then you read up on the story and see that the scene lacked that one real person who made the setting and scene interesting in real life. I think they are going for a minimal setting and minimal actors. So it's always a bit empty, but at the same time it gets to breathe and just feel historical. It's weird how even at the very end I was trying to figure out what he did in a Pokemon game. It's like all scenes felt important. It's hard to describe. Even small simple scenes felt like they were trying to tell you something important about the world.

Furthermore in negative things there was some wooded acting here. The mom, dad and Top were all subpar actors for sure. Top often spoke in near slow-motion in an unrealistic way even when he argued with his girlfriend. It felt more natural when they didn't have eye contact with each other. But when actors looked at each other it all became like an amateur theater play. I think the camera just needed to linger on scenes to really catch the real atmosphere.

It maybe even took longer time to track this movie down than to watch it. But as soon as I started it it just dragged me into the story. No silly gags, action or hot chicks to sell the movie. It's just the story alone that works here. It's hard for me to really explain what the experience can be for the right viewer. It just feels like a movie that has a point and is supposed to exist and not just a produced product made for fast consumption.

Do you interest how people make their business? Then you need to see that movie, it is base on the true story, so it worth to spend time on it. This is a guide on how to make the company. Before to come to success, you will face many various problems and learn to overcome them. After watching the movie you understand that work on your business is an interesting way, and the result doesn't come quickly. Sometimes you fail. But the most valuable is the experience. Never give up. Maybe you find your business in the first steps or maybe after the long way. But you should not give up because the most interesting is the way to the goal but not the goal itself.

As a citizen of Thailand, I brand this work as the best piece of filmmaking works that came out of Thailand to date. The world has seen countless Thai films with higher production quality and full of eccentricity. Quite a lot of ghost stories and mindless comedies. Some propaganda works for the Thai royalty. But this one means business. Not just a commercial sense, which is actually the theme, but conveying some thoughts as a struggling society as never before. Thailand is not prettier or uglier than what it really is. Top is just a boy who faces a tough situation around his family and school life, and he stumbles and rises a few times before discovering the way out and his character through a business that seems to cut out for him. The Chinese Thais are truly like that. The joy of middle-class life, business rise and fall, family's ambition for the children, fight to grow together as a family and separately as an individual. The aforementioned is revealed in the film realistically and truly. An enjoyable film. Almost a thriller in the business world. Anyone who finds it boring clearly doesn't care to live his or her life to the fullest.

Yesterday, I was solemnly bored and I came across this unfound gem. Believe me when I call this a gem because it totally is. The movie covers a naive and spoiled teenage boy wasting his times in the fantastical world of video games and how he ventures out to make money. As his naiveness leads him to total business failures, he adapts and yet never giving up to achieve his dream.

It is really and terrifically motivating and empowering. The storyline is fantastic, the cinematography is really great, being better than most movies of its time, the cast being unimaginably perfect. Tbh, I cannot find a single imperfection in this movie.