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Reviews
Wonderful Town (2007)
Beautiful movie
What a wonderful movie. The director, Aditya Assarant, uses Hou Hsiao-hsien-style pacing throughout this beautiful, languid, and thoughtful movie. It is the story of reformed drunk musician, Ton (Supphaisit Kansen) from the big city, Bangkok, who is now an architect working in Southern Thailand to restore a hotel. He stays at a small local inn run by a woman, Na (Anchalee Saisootorn), who is the young matriarch of a family fractured by the tsunami.
The love story between Ton and Na progress slowly, as most do in real life. Ton likes Na right away and his overtures to her are thoughtful and easy going. She slowly warms up to him, cinematically told by her wearing more colorful clothes, some color in her face, and the change in camera fluidity. Her brother notes the change in Na.
The devastation of the tsunami is shown in matter of fact moments. The destruction of hotels, homes, and families is just shown without elaboration. Na cares for her nephew and the hotel alone; partly because of the tsunami and partly because her brother, Wit (Dul Yaambunying), is a low level gangster.
The couples have a quietness together. There is a beautiful scene in the movie, where Ton and Na are lying in a field of grass. Ton puts a wild flower in Na's hair and they just lie together, blissfully happy with the wind literally the only thing you hear. This is also the turning point of the movie. Bad things begin to happen with increasing level of "violence".
As Ton and Na's romance blossom, the townsfolk disapprove. In part because you have the big city boy vs. small town girl, traditional Thai courtship vs. new courtship rules, and, I believe, as a metaphor for the indiscriminate devastation of the tsunami.
There are some things to pay attention to and they are: the quietness. Assarant lets the scenes develop in Kenji Mizoguchi silence, blissful quiet, and a wonderful acoustic guitar as the thread that weaves the signature scenes together. I doubt many young people can watch and I fear many a Westerner, but it is all mother's milk to me.
Much has been made about the seemingly discombobulated ending. Why does Ton have to die? Why does Wit kill him? My opinion (and, yes, I know, opinions are like bad breath-everybody has it), is that it there may be more than one reason: 1) Wit wanted out of the gangster life and his only way was to use a perfect excuse-kill the man that is romancing his sister. Now, he can say to his mates, I have to care for her, so I must work at the hotel; 2) The seeming randomness of the killing is a metaphor for the random death meted out by the tsunami. Both work for me.
Enjoy the movie for a finely crafted work of understated art.
Broken Roads (2012)
Bad acting + Bad writing= Terrible movie
I don't know why, but I expected more from this movie; maybe because Sally Kirkland is in it. The storyline was incredibly predictable. One could argue that in movies like this, the arc/story is always predictable and it is the journey that is to be watched. Well, the journey was terrible also. The acting, well, talking in front of a camera was just plain bad. Sally acted stilted, which I get when she is with her "grandson", but she acted stilted with her friends and neighbors. Grandson? I think he was an extra on "Intolerance", that's how old he looked. The actors who played doctors, the social workers, the nurses should have realized they were in a movie and not the set of "Days of our Lives", because they were awkward, at best and over emoted at worst. Big difference between the small screen and the big screen.
I must admit Shoshana Bush was decent, but she was hampered by, yes I'll say it again, poorly written dialog. Her weepy speech towards the end, is so darn dated, I've "heard" it in silent movies.
Spoiler alert: If you use the move to Colorado in your tagline and as a shock for the boy, why show none of it? Memo to the director/writer/editor- using the tried and true,African-American friend to explain the family history is like Star Trek using the red uniform. It is a lazy plot device to help you out of a jam.
If you like poorly acted, incredibly predictable, poorly edited movies, this is the one for you.