Recap: Kenji is a Japanese man living in Bangkok. He's quiet and withdrawn, working as a librarian and books seem to be his whole life. His pedantically organized home is full of them. However, Kenji is also obsessed with suicide, and repeatedly tries/plans to kill himself, to escape his loneliness. Something seems to turn up and interrupt him every time though. Noi is the opposite. She is a prostitute and her life is more or less in constant chaos, full of violence, drugs and meaningless/destructive relationships. Under odd circumstances they meet and Kenji ends up moving in with Noi, and later starts to get to know her. Together they form an odd pair under pressure from outside forces but find strength in each other.
Comments: This is a very odd movie, but with a peculiar quality that is hard to define. In contrast to most thrillers out of the west (i.e Europa, USA) that puts as much action and violence as it can this Asian production does the opposite. On all levels. This is a very slow movie, but do not make the mistake and put that equal to bad. There is not much action or violence, and that there is is mostly out of picture. The shy and pedantic Kenji does not say much at all, in contrast to Noi that speaks much. But with only one part running the dialog it is slow and intentionally limping. The slowness also is represented in the film itself, in a cinematographic (is that a real word or just something I just thought should be? anyway, I hope you understand what I mean) way. At first I thought the camera never moved at all, the director choosing to cut instead to change point of view. But this is not entirely true, in fact the camera and view changes in almost every scene. But it is very slow and very little, and hardly noticeable. So the camera becomes a very static point, in line with the story that moves slow as well.
Still there is some peculiar kind of quality that I am having a hard time putting my finger on it. There is humor, in an almost wordless way, but nonetheless, it is there. There is the opposite characters and their fate. And there is the looming end that because of the circumstances must come, in one way or another. So the movie never became dull, but instead gave time and room for thought. It also is a visually beautiful movie with clashes between Kenji's pedantic living and Noi's chaos. Especially there is one scene when Noi is having a drug-induced hallucination of Kenji's effect on her life and house. Beautiful! This is a movie for those who want to see something different, something else. Not another blockbuster.
6/10
Comments: This is a very odd movie, but with a peculiar quality that is hard to define. In contrast to most thrillers out of the west (i.e Europa, USA) that puts as much action and violence as it can this Asian production does the opposite. On all levels. This is a very slow movie, but do not make the mistake and put that equal to bad. There is not much action or violence, and that there is is mostly out of picture. The shy and pedantic Kenji does not say much at all, in contrast to Noi that speaks much. But with only one part running the dialog it is slow and intentionally limping. The slowness also is represented in the film itself, in a cinematographic (is that a real word or just something I just thought should be? anyway, I hope you understand what I mean) way. At first I thought the camera never moved at all, the director choosing to cut instead to change point of view. But this is not entirely true, in fact the camera and view changes in almost every scene. But it is very slow and very little, and hardly noticeable. So the camera becomes a very static point, in line with the story that moves slow as well.
Still there is some peculiar kind of quality that I am having a hard time putting my finger on it. There is humor, in an almost wordless way, but nonetheless, it is there. There is the opposite characters and their fate. And there is the looming end that because of the circumstances must come, in one way or another. So the movie never became dull, but instead gave time and room for thought. It also is a visually beautiful movie with clashes between Kenji's pedantic living and Noi's chaos. Especially there is one scene when Noi is having a drug-induced hallucination of Kenji's effect on her life and house. Beautiful! This is a movie for those who want to see something different, something else. Not another blockbuster.
6/10