Som and Bank: Bangkok for Sale

One Take Only, also knows as Som and Bank: Bangkok for Sale, is a gangster drama from Thailand. Directed by renowned Oxide Chun Pang who would later on direct movies such as action films The Storm Warriors and Out of Inferno, horror films like The Eye and The Messengers and even thrillers such as The Detective and Conspirators, features Pawarith Monkolpisit as quirky lead actor and Wanatchada Siwapornchai as authentic lead actress who sadly wouldn't be featured in any other movie until today.

The story revolves around lowly drug dealer Bank who lives in a small apartment with his distant mother who is more interested in her gambling issues than her son while the father has left the family many years ago. He meets young prostitue Som who shares her salary with her mother in the country and several friends who are facing rough challenges in life. The two youngsters realize that they live in the same decrepit apartment complex and share the dream of getting rich and starting a new life. One day comes an opportunity for them to get one step closer to changing their lives as Bank gets involved into a drug deal with a dangerous but rich criminal living in the country. The first deal works as planned but a second deal involving much more drugs and money goes horribly wrong and sends the young couple on a fateful downward spiral.

This gangster drama convinces on several levels. It honestly shows the negative sides of life in Bangkok by dealing with topics such as drugs, poverty and prostitution. One scene is particularly haunting in that regard when a friend of Som becomes a prostitute due to financial issues, only to break down crying in a tiny restroom of some filthy hotel. The locations blend in perfectly as they show little children attempting to sell items to drivers on busy and dirty streets, filthy hotel rooms where young prostitues meet bored businessmen and decrepit apartments in rundown complexes in a noisy downtown area. The movie has at times the vibes of a documentary or a slice-of-life that portrays the lives of disillusioned young adults in Bangkok. The two lead characters are quite interesting as well. Som actually cares for her mother who doesn't know about her job and tries to help her friends and even her boyfriend as much as she can. Bank on the other side is an arrogant, naive and perverted outsider who constantly drags his lover into dangerous situations while oddly criticizing her life choices. The acting performances are authentic and grounded as the two leads manage to carry the movie almost on their own.

The movie is however not without its flaws. Its pace is quite slow and for two thirds of the film, viewers might wonder where this is going as it simply follows the everyday life of a young couple. Only the final third quickens up the pace and evolves from a romance into a gangster drama. The story itself is quite predictable and plods on without much interest for prolonged periods of time. This film is missing some courageous, exciting and surprising turns that could make it more memorable.

At the end of the day, One Take Only, also knows as Som and Bank: Bangkok for Sale, is certainly interesting for anyone who is fascinated with Thai cinema and culture. Other than that, it's a decent to good gangster drama that convinces mostly with its authentic documentary style, fitting locations and interesting characters portrayed by two gifted leads. However, the film's pace is slow and the story is thin as the movie fails to leave a mark and doesn't offer much replay value.

"One Take Only" is not your average Oxide Pang movie. So is that good or bad? Well, I supposed that depends on what side of the table you are sitting. I must admit that I didn't really enjoy this movie all that much.

Despite the acting in the movie was really good, then the storyline was flat, hollow and rather pointless. Once the movie ended, I sat there on the couch thinking 'was that really it?'

The story is about Som, who is a young prostitute, who runs into Bank, who is a drug dealer. They have been living in the same building but never noticed each other. These two spark a friendship and end up in some heavy drug dealing, heading down a very wrong path...

Certain aspects of the movie were nice, as it does deal with some real life issues, but overall, then this movie was rather pointless and not that entertaining.

For an Oxide Pang movie, then "One Take Only" was below average, and there are far better movies from the same director available.

I never watch movies wanting to be disappointed, so despite not thinking very highly of the Pang brothers 'Bangkok Dangerous' and 'The Eye', I was hoping that 'One Take Only' would impress. Unfortunately it doesn't. Unlike the other two movies this time Oxide Pang Chun directs solo and his brother Danny only co-produces but I don't think that's got anything much to do with the lack of substance in the finished film. I'm no expert on Thai culture but I believe the movie had a lot of trouble with the local censors. As the movie has virtually no sex and the violence isn't that extreme I assume that "cutting edge" film in Thailand means something quite different that other Asian countries. It may be unfair to judge this movie by the standards of Japanese and Korean cinema, but when you've got amazing movies like 'Ichi The Killer', 'Sympathy For Mr Vengeance', and 'Battle Royale' around 'One Take Only' pales in comparison (And I won't even mention the astonishing 'Visitor Q'!!). Pawalit Mongkolpisit who played the deaf hitman in 'Bangkok Dangerous' stars as a small time drug runner who falls in love with a girl (Wanatchada Siwapornchai) who he discovers is a prostitute. A successful drug deal enables the two of them to get the taste of the good life, and all looks well, but then an even bigger score comes up and it proves to be too tempting to resist... I think we've all seen enough movies with similar scenarios to guess what might happen next. The two leads are cool enough and adequate actors but the script is so underwritten (even more so than 'Bangkok Dangerous') so there's very little to keep the viewer involved. I thought Mongkolpisist gave a better performance in 'Bangkok Dangerous', but then again his character in that movie was a bit more complex and sympathetic. I'd like to see this actor in a more substantial role, in say a Takashi Miike movie to see what he's really capable of. Having seen the brilliant Korean crime thriller 'Sympathy For Mr Vengeance' recently and having it fresh in my mind (it also incidentally like 'Bangkok Dangerous' features a deaf mute protagonist) I couldn't help but wish 'One Take Only' was much more ambitious and original. As it is, it's the weakest of the three Pang brothers movies I've seen to date, and I can't recommend it.

the photography was beautiful but i had difficulty understanding what was happening... was there a lot of symbolism?... the 2 goldfishes - do they mean something in Thai culture? there's not much plot, not much happens and it just meanders along. no real start, no real middle and no real end. rather unsatisfying really.

It was difficult to get into the characters as you never felt you got to know them...it was difficult to know which scenes were imaginary and which were real. The move felt chaotic and disjointed. I don't know what the pang brothers were hoping to achieve. Maybe if I were Thai it would make more sense...

I've just watch 2 films of Pang brothers, The Eye and One take only. When I watched The Eye, I was kind of disappointed about this two guys, who I had heard good words about them before. That film (The Eye) has a really bad script, especially the ending (childish,cliche and too coincident in my opinion) , but its still good in photography and experimental images. So I decided to see One take only and I didn't disappointed again. Still great photography, stunning image, MTV-style editing, cool music and this time,the story has a lot of indie spirit,logical and beautiful, you'll see some tiny plot holes, but it doesn't cause any trouble with the storyline. The only problem about this film is I get a bad DVD.