Ruang talok 69

This is one of those films where nothing is overly blatant, hardly anything is granted by ways of the lead character's internal character and history, and it isn't jam-packed with various sceneries, dialog, etc. Nothing is too 'in your face', hardly any emotion is shown or felt throughout the film, and even (despite the various killings), action seems to be lacking... It's decidedly quiet, introverted and monotone and YET, somehow completely quirky, insane and colorful at the same time. The film is intelligently crafted in such a way that, by the end of the film, you aren't sure WHAT to make of it, or how to classify it... Except you do know one thing; whatever you just watched, you know, in retrospect, you loved it. And even after identifying the fact that you enjoyed the ride, you still wouldn't rank this strange, ambiguous little film as your top film, but for that you just love it all the more.

It's bizarre, zany, quirky, inane, insane, full of black humor and wit, and full of hidden metaphors and analogies not immediately accessible. You can tell when its over that despite its absurdity, within all the intermediary spots where much is left unsaid, the director has packed a good deal for you to think about, and clearly had some lucid, thought-out objectives for the film.

An intelligent, unique little film that's a heck of a fun ride to watch. Highly recommended!

Lalita Panyopas plays Tum, a young lady just laid off from a finance company. She is naturally deeply affected by it and thinks of suicide. All of a sudden, outside her door, there is a box of cash, which she brings in. Of course, she is visited by two thugs who want the money back, which she denies having, so they walk away. Is that the end of that? Of course not. She kills the two guys while trying to save her own life and now has they lying in her small apartment. It turns out, the money was left outside her door by mistake (the title of the movie is the clue). The film then chronicles what happens to Tum. This is a pretty twisted film, like a horror film, but without any supernatural forces. It has a strange, compelling rhythm to it, and it kept my interest. Once you have the first two thugs killed, you're hooked on what will happen next. Believe me, a lot does. Some of it is fairly preposterous, but darkly comic. Ms. Panyopas is a pretty good actress, not classically pretty, but attractive. You can't imagine being her, and, despite the monetary windfall, you don't want to be her. The moral is money is the root of all evil, and it is presented to us again and again. I liked this, check it out.

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.

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*

6ixtynin9 (or Ruang talok 69) was a pretty good dark comedy/drama. I believe this is the first film I have had the pleasure of seeing from Thailand and they made a great first impression on me. Usually, when watching foreign movies, they do not come across that great as they lose something in the translation, I think. This was not the case for 6ixtynin9. I got every subtle joke and I was able to follow the increasingly complex storyline without a problem. I can not say that about the last foreign film I have seen, Sex and Lucia.

The story starts off when a woman, Tum, is laid off from her job. She returns home without a job or enough money for food, etc. She soon finds a mysterious box on her doorstep. Upon opening it, she discovers that it contains $25,000 and soon after, the two men that left it there by mistake, came back looking for it. As you can probably guess, everything was not on the up and up. Anyhow, Tum tells them she has not seen the box. The two men do not believe her and beat her up, then search the apartment. Once their box is found, Tum decides she is not giving it up and, ultimately, ends up with 2 dead henchmen.

Throughout the movie, more and more members of Thailand's organized crime families get involved and this is where small twists and unexpected coincidences begin to happen. You can see Tum becoming more and more callous throughout the day. This is also where her character began to grow on me.

Overall, this movie gave off a sort of Quentin Tarantino feel, more specifically Reservoir Dogs is the closest movie I've seen to it that I can compare it to, although much more subtle. It has it's share of blood, but nothing like Quentin would come up with. Even the English title of this movie makes sense after watching it. The whole problem with the box being left at the wrong doorstep is due to the fact that her apartment number, 6, is not nailed on well and keeps falling to look like apartment 9. This movie was very well done and I can highly recommend it, if you can deal with the subtitles. 8/10