Phuean... Ku rak mueng wa

I was initially impressed that this was a drama, considering most gay-themed films tend to be either campy comedies or soft-core porn, or, as in the majority of cases, both. This film tries SO hard to be so different, so serious, so relevant and so great that the film itself crumbles under its own weight.

The biggest flaw to this film are its two lead characters. The heart of the story is their love for one another. However, that "love" felt completely forced and unnatural. The only way I can rationalize it is that Stockholm Syndrome developed. Really, the increasing attempts at showing how much these two characters love each other actually made me despise them even more. The characters just became whiny and pathetic and I couldn't sympathize with them. If I could the rest of the film may have been bearable...

The second flaw to the film is melodrama overload. This is where the film becomes extremely pretentious. This director seems to be the type who thinks that piling on over-the-top drama nonstop is going to get the audience sobbing and love and praise the film. Much like with the relationship between the leads, the scenarios were contrived, forced and so melodramatic that its just annoying. It's not necessary, it makes no sense. With two already obnoxious lead characters, obnoxious melodrama doesn't make you sympathize with them. It makes you flabbergasted and makes you want to yell at the screen for the stupidity of the characters for being so, well, stupidly and unnaturally.

The cinematography however was absolutely stunning, particularly the cloud/sky and weather shots. But I thought the Wong Kar-Wai-esquire saturated coloring was unnecessary and added more to the pretentious-level. The two lead actors were initially hot, but by mid-film any sex appeal vanished.

Overall, the film is like that one person always desperate for attention so they constantly concoct completely over-the-top stories in which you know is a total fabrication in a lame attempt to get some attention. Probably best if you just watch it on free television on mute.

This is an excellently done film. The Acting is first rate. The direction, and editing were beautiful.

Poj Amon's was not run of the mill. The delivery of the story had enough twist and turns to keep one interested, even though one had the feeling that the end had been pre-defined, it was not anticipated.

The lead actors were out standing. Their portrayal of clan-destined lovers was well thought out and well acted.

Even without an English translation, one developed an understanding of the story, it's characters, the inter-relationship between the main characters and the secondary characters.

This is a must have movie for any serious collector or movie buff should have in their collection. Straight or Gay, it doesn't matter, because the story/movie is EXCELLENT

This movie is so amateurish and melodramatic by our standards. It is also ends up being very boring. I watched it out of curiosity and the one Thai actor is quite hot looking other than it is a waste 2 hours.

Sometimes really bad movies can be funny...this one might work that way if you were stoned but otherwise forget it.

This thing was geared towards gay audiences....they flushed out the handsomest young Thai actors gave them a macho gangster flair for sexiness but good grief!....it is so silly maudlin and drags.

Also after all the effort to put gays in macho non stereotyped roles why have one of the lovers shot in the end. What a depressing deflation... I wish they would put gay people in normal roles where they just happen to be gay. A gay James Bond with upbeat endings instead of the mother hanging herself etc...

This script may conform to some sort of Thai typical gangster plot? Also the excessive melodrama maudlin sentimentality may sell there. Did any of you notice how terrible the acting is....one of the gangsters tries to do a facial tick but it is so obviously forced..

The cinematography is to show that Thailand (Bangkok) has arrived at the dystopia future big city life. I have been to Bangkok several times it does not resemble this movie...except maybe the grid locked traffic and a constant 99 degree and 100% humidity weather.

DO NOT RECOMMEND

It is almost 2h and it's really a waste of time. The only good thing in the movie is the really hot guy Chaiwat Thongsaeng. All the ideas in the film are very interesting, but the director's work sucks. When you expect something to happen, it vanishes. All the characters lack profundity and there is only Chaiwat Thongsaeng who screams "I miss you" all the time. This love is impossible and it will remain like this. If Chaiwat Thongsaeng's character was really a lawyer, it would be stupid to fall in love with his killer and even to plan his own suicide( the scene in the bathroom). for me the movie is illogical, boring, very confusing and it was boring!

The cover of the DVD for this very fine film is misleading: the photograph of the two leads in a rather quiet and elegant setting is about as far from the content of the cinematic adventure as imaginable. Writer/Director Poj Amon has created a love story that is more from the underbelly of the poor section of Bangkok than it is from the expected physical beauty of that Thai city, and rather than focusing on the 'tourist view' of Thailand, he instead finds a different kind of beauty molded into a love story from a far different perspective. And it works very well.

In the world of Thai organized crime there is a star assassin - Maek ((Rattanaballang Tohssawat) - who kills 'bad people' to satisfy his bosses but cannot kill 'good people'. He is the sole support of his mother and younger brother, both of whom suffer from AIDS - the source of their infection is the abusive live-in stepfather. Maek wants to provide a good home for his little family, somewhere away from the slums of Bangkok, so that his little brother will no longer have to ply the hustler role on the streets to help support his ailing mother. Maek is assigned a 'hit' and in stalking the young lawyer he is supposed to assassinate he finds an attraction to the obviously good, married, handsome Iht (Chaiwat Thongsaeng). When the moment comes to complete his grim duty, Maek cannot kill a 'good man' and in the setup Maek himself is shot. Iht is compassionate and rescues Maek from the streets, taking him to his shelter to nurse him back to health. The two men bond and eventually submit to their passion. Yet when Maek recovers, he cannot face the truth of his feelings and separates himself from Iht. Iht's wife is suspicious about Iht's distance, stalks him, and witnesses a secret moment of passion between Maek and Iht, and the discovery turns her into a potential assassin herself. Iht is now by himself, unable to regain Maek's commitment until a series of events leads to the ultimate arrest of Maek: from the imposed separation caused by Maek's incarceration, Iht remains faithful to his love. The ending could have been triumphant (and for moments it is, emotionally), but instead Poj Amon opts for tragedy, a writer's decision that makes the film even more powerful.

The cast of actors is excellent and the chemistry between the two leads is undiluted by the forces that are meant to separate them. In the end, this is a love story between two classes of people whose discovery of a forbidden love emphasizes some universal truths. It is a well- made, beautifully photographed film (Tiwa Moeithaisong is the gifted cinematographer) that deserves a wider audience. Grady Harp