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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.

Nonzee Nimibutr is by far my favorite Thai filmmaker. I loved Nang Nak and OK Baythong, so I was looking forward to this.

The sex is so relentless and so relentlessly loveless, it makes the film bleakly ugly where somber reflection (as in Nang Nak) would work much better.

And how can a 31-year-old glamor star (Christy Chung) play a 50-something "mia noy" with no wrinkles? Implausible! My wife insists that the film we saw on DVD could NEVER be screened in Thailand. She thinks it was made for a foreign market, esp. Hong Kong and Taiwan. Any comments, "pheuan Thai"?

This film was very controversial when it was released in Hong Kong. Not only was it the first movie which Christy Chung's (who is very famous in Hong Kong) first erotic film, it also supposedly starred a 15 year old teenage man. Later the age issue was cleared up and the guy was actually 17 when he made the film.

Anyway, back to the film. It was a story which had a bit of everything. Family tension, love, aggressiveness, revenge, rape, hatred. This is not just erotica, but in fact a tragic story of a man's childhood.

I thought the acting was good. The father's anger, the sister's aggressiveness were portrayed beautifully. The scene when Jan Dara rubbed onto the Night Mistress' breast was hilarious!

If you are not disturbed by the complicated sexual relationships in the film then this movie is enjoyable. It gives the audience something to think about, especially raising the awareness of the public towards the rape victims.

This is an unusual story in general standards on the sexual experiences of a boy 'Jan Dara' with troubled childhood. His mother dies after delivering him and father hates him for reasons unknown to him. He gets his first experience from Aunt who has come to take care of him. Then he gets attracted to his father's young mistress. The teen love between Jan and school girl Hyacinth is pictured very beautifully. There's is not much dialog, but love is present everywhere whenever the two meets, though it ends in a tragedy. The girl dies due to typhoid. Jan gets more trouble from his sister (daughter of aunt and father), who is really a hard nut to break. He goes to his village to know more about his father and mother and it makes him more distracted from leading a normal life. When he comes back his sister is pregnant from somebody and he 'helps' his father by marrying her. The child born is a retard. His wish to have his own child is shattered by his wife. The relationships are hard to understand and sometimes makes us wonder what is real?? It is not just a story of an individual, as it gives a glimpse on Vietnam war which was the worst thing ever happened to that country. Probably the director was trying to question about the value of life as more serious problems are present every where.. The background score and editing is superb

Rapes , incests , and of course curses, a boring and mentally unhealthy story about a series of love affairs under the same two roofs , it's in Thailand but you won't see much of the country and culture here... of course there are sex scenes but these are of course also boring

The silly story is aimed at X-rate audiences, with phony "arty" treatment. The film has neither depth nor characterization. Everybody in the movie is doing hanky-panky without closing their doors, yet you don't see anything exciting. Emmanuelle series are a lot better. Save both your money and energy!

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 :))

Good lighting, lousy editing, poor sound and yawn... did I mention slow? Director is in keeping with most Thai films i.e. they do not know how to keep the pace of the story going and edit points are always way past their 'use by' date. At any rate, it was 'almost' entertaining.

"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

No pun intended - I know the saying goes differently than I suggested in my summary headline. The movie is quite ... open in its sexuality and there is quite a lot of nudity. Just letting you know, in case you are sensitive about things like that. Something you could say the main character is - well he had to endure quite a lot from early on. And we get reminded time and time again about that.

That said, the movie is well told and edited .. and the inner struggle and torment of ... well you could say everyone involved is quite interesting too. Acting is good for a movie with a topic like this. There are some shock factor thrown in for good measure ... and quite a few cliches too. Not sure if this is based on a true story. There seem to be other movies with the same character (name) ... this was the one that I got on my streaming platform, so I went for this ... seen worse for sure.

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

Sad coming of age story about a boy, Jan Dara, and the effect that his father's abuse and sexual depravity eventually has on him. Well written and acted. Beautifully filmed with an exquisite musical score. Very high production values for a Thai film.

The narrator of the film, is left to live with his father after his mother dies while giving birth. The latter despises him and he find comfort in his aunt who is like a mother to him.

As the men in the household seem hardly able to go a day without sex, new characters and children are added to the picture. The relationships and roles of those characters change as the movie progresses, fuelled by strong emotions such as lust and loneliness.

The plot is strong enough to captivate the audience, while the movie itself is eye-candy. Most of the scenes are shot in the house, but they are done beautifully, never getting boring or repetitive. The colours are pale, making the characters even more alive. Finally, the performances are outstanding.

I totally recomend it.

The movie is about Jan Dara, telling his childhood to manhood experiences under the roof of his own home. The cruelty of his father that lead him to hate him more as he grows old. Jan Dara's sexual experiences from her sister's nanny, mistress of his father who taught him well as the story progress. This movie is well told, superb cinematography!, excellent performance from the main characters in the movie. I must say that the flow of the story is well defined unlike the usual foreign movies I've seen. The so-called "erotic scenes" are subtle yet the passion is can be seen and felt. Gonna give this rate of 10 as the highest! worth it! never mind those critics who keep on saying that this movie is a crap! Well...I beg to disagree! Watch this, and find out for yourself...

Bye.

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...

Movies with sensual theme have not been made very well made until "JanDara". Unfortunately, the movie has been cut, chopped, diced and sliced heavily by the censorship committee that the real impact of the story was loosened somewhat. However, the plot by itself is still entertaining enough to deserve a viewing. The film was very well crafted but will some minor flaws; acting seems inconsistent among actors as is film editing. There's nothing new in the cinematography area but the music is excellent, though some sections do have resemblances to "Bad Land", a movie made in the 70's. Despite the movie's retro-setting, I do not particularly like the use of sepia-toned in the film because it distances the characters from the audiences.

The story line is very well combed and has a few plot twists along the way to its climactic revelation. The dark side of the Thai cultures were exploited with added flavoring, though some might argue that it's totally fictitious, the story could very well be true. Sexuality is a taboo in Thai culture, and could be a little awkward for Thais to be absorbed by the movie, but the film could do very well in the 'art house and international' category. Just leave the film as director intended.

The director of NangNak comes back with an old Thai wicked story. Jan Dara's mother die after giving birth to him. His step father, Khun Luang, blamed and hated him for that. Jan wasn't welcome in the family. Khun Luang was a playboy, and taught his real child to hate Jan.... Jan seek to find who is his real father and love/sex.

This story is about love/ sex. I think it's a real twisted (wicked) story... a lot of unexpected things. A great production, great color, set is ok, music isn't that good (reusing one song a lot). But a very good directing, editing. Overall, it was great. One of my favorite movie this year.

I had really been looking forward to seeing this film. I had seen several enthusiastic reviews of it, and I had never, as far as I can recall, seen a Thai film before. I even made a wok of Pad Thai to eat while watching it.

However, what I got was this confusing little stinker. The main character is a young man who lives in what appears to be a family compound, with includes several large houses. The family members apparently move from one of these houses to another, or from one room to another, for no apparent reason. Most of these members, along with some acquaintances, are a group of attractive women who resemble each other quite a bit, and spend most of their time listlessly having sex with the male characters, or, at least once, each other. Even a World War II air raid doesn't stop them.

Neither the male nor the female characters seem to have much else to do, except for the protagonist's father, whose main interest in life appears to be abusing his son.

The sex scenes seem to have been filmed by an experienced soft-core pornographer – plenty of backs and thighs, with the just the occasional breast, nothing else. Nothing much here, or in the rest of the action as well, to hold one's interest, once one stops trying to figure out who is doing what to whom.

Furthermore, the Pad Thai didn't turn out too well. The author of the cookbook said that, in place of the fresh shrimp, chicken and pork usually used in the West, it would be more authentic to use dried shrimp and very firm tofu, both of which turned out, for my taste, anyway, to be too chewy and somewhat unpleasant. Next time I make Pad Thai, I won't try to be so authentic.

Oh, well, perhaps if I had read the original novel, or could have understood the Thai dialog, the film might have seemed less confusing and more interesting.

I have seen this movie when I was in Thailand last weekend. The production of this movie is really really wonderful, I might say. The tone of the movie, the light, the story are just perfect. By just watching this movie, I could learn so many Thai culture including Thai classical songs, foods, and Thai way of living. This movie show the inner behavior of people who act differently inside and outside the house and the reasons of all raw behavior of people focusing on sex. It's one of the best movies from Thailand. I think it's even better than the movie called "Suriyothai" which is claimed to be the best movie of the Kingdom of Thailand. If you have a chance, go watch it, I assure you that you will not regret it. Ohh!! It's come with perfect subtitle so for us, foreigners who can't speak Thai. Enjoy!!!

One of the first Thai movie's I have seen. The story is about the Life of Jan Dara, who's mother dies giving birth to him. He grows up hated by his "family". I've heart that the Thai movie board did not approve of this film until the 3rd time it was send in because of the many "naughty" scenes. Compared to Dutch or French movies this film is really conservative, but for Thailand this is a first. The showing of breast has long been forbidden (as I understand) overall the story is very strong and it is NOT a feel good film, so it does not leave you with a smile on your face.