SuckSeed: Huay Khan Thep

The Thai production house GTH was probably synonymous with the horror genre, until last year's romantic drama and surprise hit Hello Stranger made one sit up and take notice that they too are capable of churning out hits outside of their established genre. SuckSeed just proved once again that they are as comfortable as the Japanese in taking the zero to hero formula and coming up with an awesome coming of age tale of a group of students trying to make it to the finals of their high school rock band contest, and comes complete with the requisite love story, comedic antics and plenty of rock music to make up the soundtrack.

Directed by first time helmer Chayanop Boonprakob, SuckSeed tells the story of good friends Ped (Jirayu Laongmanee) and Koong (Pachara Chirathivat), opposites in character with the former being the shy boy nursing an infatuation toward fellow classmate Ern (Nattasha Nauljam), and the latter being the daring buddy with the slightest of attention spans, having to dabble in plenty of hobbies but never settling for any, until his envy of his twin brother Kay's success with his band Arena made him want to start his own, besides the notion of assuming that being in a band will mean being an automatic chick magnet. Roping in basketballer turned drummer Ex (Thawat Pornrattanaprasert), the trio obviously don't have the talent necessary to entertain nor perform, but that doesn't mean that they're giving up in true blue zero to eventual hero formula, willing to even parody themselves by calling their band SuckSeed, where first you have to suck, before success will come. After all, once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up, no?

And this is the surprise package that delivered where it mattered, be it the musical numbers, thanks to real life Thai bands and/or their frontman making cameo appearances (one of my favourite Thai songs came on as the first, how cool is that?), the more dramatic moments or the comedy where the actors, mostly first timers as well, will put some veterans to shame with their exuberance. While the story was written by a host of writers, it didn't fall prey to the too many cooks spoiling the broth syndrome, where the end product would turn out to be rather scattered and piece meal. Rather, SuckSeed proved to the contrary, with the ensemble cast playing (pardon the pun) their hearts out in their roles.

One may think of it as being quite generic at times, with subplots like unrequited love, teenage romance, sibling rivalry and the likes that pepper movies featuring teenage characters, but the delivery of its charismatic leads here more than make up for it, especially between Jirayu Laongmanee and Pachara Chirathivat as best buddies, and that between the former and Nattasha Nauljam in their romantic angle. Chayanop Boonprakob also utilizes different techniques to keep things varied and interesting, where animation also came into play more than once to spice things up in style especially in its manga inspired moments when dealing with introducing of band members, or even the rebirth of SuckSeed in phoenix style where it rose out of its ashes after two members got burnt by their failure to snag the girls they fancy, and decide to pour their energies into making their band a success. Or not.

Like Japan's Beck this year which also had the formation of a band as its premise and the focus on the relationships between band members, SuckSeed is the Thai equivalent, and powers its way into one of my favourites this year. It's a complete film as much as emotions go in its roller coaster ride, where friendship, romance, comedy and rock all fuse together in synergy to bring forth a crowd pleaser. Highly recommended and an inspiration to those who suck - I Need You! Want You! Love You!

This movie tell abput friendship, have a good plot and really funny to watch. I laughed a lot at this movie and at the same time I also cried

Its been quite sometime since I last saw Thai movie cause more than half the time it end up very much disappointing. The good thing was not this time, this time I felt great. The movie left me with this really good heartwarming friendship bonding kind of feeling and by the end the movie it managed to make me laugh, weep, and enjoying myself through and through.

Synopsis: Like most teenage boys Ped and Koong, the two best friends decide to form a band. The problem was they suck. So they decide to recruit Ex - a drummer and Earn a guitarist. Things when haywire when Koong started to fell for Earn who was Ped secret childhood crush.

I must say there is nothing new in this movie. It is the story that has been told like a thousand times but something was different this time. There is a good balance in the substance and it has been executed pretty good. The story might be a little childish when compare to Western culture but it is more or less accurate to the Asian culture. I love the fact that they managed to entertain me for over two hours without forcing sex into the movie like most teen movie do. This one is about friendship.

I love the casting, it is one of the best thing that GTH production can do and most of the time they always able to nail in this department. All the four characters are likable; the best part was they all have enough screen time for us to feel for them. I must say the group work out a whole lot better than I expected. Plus Earn is so freaking cute.

Their acting might be dub as unacceptable if compare to Hollywood but I somehow don't really get distracted by it. I even love some of the expression and some of the scene they acted even it seem by force.

When it comes to the technical stuff, Thai movie is nothing to really speak of – it is very ordinary. But since it is Chayanop first feature films I say do is doing just fine.

Another thing that can't be left out is the music accompanying this movie. It is a great combination of Thai rock music. Each song define how each characters feeling which sadly for those who doesn't understand Thai might not enjoy it as much as one should be.

Overall I love this movie and will definitely be adding this to my DVD collection.

Recommendation: I highly recommend this movie to anyone that below 35. You will love it if you're a teenager.

Rating: 7.5/10 (Grade: B)

This movie was simply A-Mazing. I'm usually not the kind of guy to watch teen comedies or that such, but this movie was so good, I had to write my first review for this film. What can I say, everything about it is great. This film really made me laugh out loud literally nearly every five minutes and the rest of the time, with a broad smile. Not only is it funny, but the story and acting are also executed perfectly. As the story gets more emotional near the end, it really shows us another side of the movie that really makes it great: the value true friendship and love. It may sound like a really corny film for a macho guy to watch but I guarantee you that you'll enjoy it if you're under 30. I think this film should receive more attention because nearly everyone thinks thai film makers only make horror and tony jaa films. No one would really expect such a movie coming from the same famous film production company that made those good horror movies.

I was given the chance to sit down and watch the 2011 Thai movie "SuckSeed", and of course I jumped at the offer, as I enjoy Asian cinema, and "SuckSeed" was a movie that I had never heard about prior to getting the chance to watch it.

Well, I must admit that "SuckSeed" fell quite short of my usual movie interest and utterly failed to entertain me. I managed to endure about an hour of the movie, then I just had to give up. Why? Well, because I didn't care an ounce about the storyline or the characters, nor were I at any point entertained by what transpired on the screen.

"SuckSeed" is definitely aimed at a younger audience, which I am not a part of. And whatever director Chayanop Boonprakob had on heart with this movie was something that just failed to captivate me.

I can definitely see how the movie would be interesting for a younger audience, no doubt about it. But I was not in that target audience.

It should be said that the movie was nicely produced and filmed, and I am sure that the actors and actresses in the movie were doing good jobs. But I hardly noticed, because the characters didn't matter one bit to me. In fact, all the male characters in the movie just seemed like one and the same to me.

I am rating "SuckSeed" a mere three out of ten stars, and this is not a movie that I have any intention of returning to finish at any given time. The movie was just a massive swing and a miss for my liking.