Jan Dara

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...