RedLife

Surprised that this indie style drama managed to get a cinema release in Thailand - Bravo - There's themes of mild sex, a drug scene, lesbian implied schoolgirls and prostitution references.

Some very good acting performances and decent character arcs hold together a fairly weak central plot and melodrama- not sure what happened to the school fee money - that plot line was confusing. Would have been better if it dared to push the darker themes more - seemed restrained as compared to the Vietnamese stunner Cyclo which was of course banned for years.

Tame by western indie drama standards but a welcome Thai production. I wonder if this will open the floodgates for more a more gritty social realism movement in Thai film production?

This movie is a slow burn but it does keep you hooked as you desperately want to see what the two main characters have to do with each other. Their story lines run parallel and barely cross, though I won't give away anymore.

The main take away for me is bad decisions of youth very similar to the Filipino film "Ordinary People". However there is a clever underlying theme added to the film of leaving people or leaving loved ones. Throughout the film there are constant departures by death or angry partition and the constant mention by the supporting cast of not wanting the main characters or other loved ones to leave them.

This film is amazing if you watch it properly (without looking at your phone for 20 seconds every 10 minutes) so you dont miss the little details that tie it all together. Like many asian films the main story is between the lines. I think about this film every couple of weeks and how outrageous it it is that the whole world has watched parasite and squid games but no one has heard of this. I love korean films as can be seen from my list of films worth watching again and again and i think their way of story telling is top tier but this thai one sits up there with the best of them and needs to be recognised. Netflix sort it out!