Year : 2005 Director : Kongdate Jaturunrusamee Starring : Mum Jokmok, Woranut Wongsawan Genre : Romance / Drama
Sombat (Mum Jokmok) is a loner and earns a living as a night shift taxi driver in Bangkok. His only friend is his AM radio and the dramas and oldies he listens to. He's a creature of habit, greases his hair, wears old fashioned cologne, and eats cooked pig blood every evening. He doesn't follow the track of today's world, a cold and changing one. His favourite channel envelopes him in a safe virtual world, far from the hostile one outside. His life changes when Nwan (Woranut Wongsawan) gets in his taxi one night. He's attracted by her and the two become lovers. But the relationship is challenged by the conflicts between Nwan's real world and Sombat's dream one. How does the relationship cope with the differences?
This is one of the most interesting Thai movies I have seen, very different from anything else I can think of and a very different role for Mom from his usual comedy action stuff. The audience seemed a bit unprepared for this and were initially prepared to laugh heartily at just about anything Mum did or said though the 50 satang dropped fairly quickly.
It's a fairly grim, dark look at the realities and low ambitions of life for many Thais, and how quickly and easily their dreams can be shattered. Although the female lead has a job which places her some way up the ladder, in an upscale massage parlour, the film includes some harsh glimpses at her work - Woody said he thought she didn't really work in a massage parlour, but 'one of those places where women sell sex' - bless!
The subtitling seemed thoughtfully done and there were a few cracking lines - I loved the part where the taxi driver explains why he eats the same food at the same food stall every night - 'Because I like this one and another one might not be as good!'
Highly recommended, though don't watch it when you need cheering up.
Just got back from watching this and found it to be both touching and tragic. There are some moments of black humour in the film but there is a real sense of inevitability in where the plot is going to take the two main characters.