"Siamese Love"
(2007, Thailand)
Writers: Chuck Szakriko
Director: Chuck Sarek
Starring: Wittwest Helen Yavainku, Mario Maurer, Laila Bunyashu, Kanya Rattana Peggy
He won the Best Film and Best Director Awards at the 17th Thai Golden Swan Awards in 2008
tale:
Mew and Tong have been good friends since childhood, Mew lives a little lonely with Grandma, and Tong is in a happy family of four. All this changed when Tong's sister Tang disappeared during a field trip. Tong's parents decide to switch places to fight for a new life, and Mew and Tong are separated. A few years later, the two met again, and the previous friendship was continued, and Mew was already the main creator and lead singer of August. While Tang is still missing, band assistant June, who is very much like Tang, is invited to Tong's house to save his father, who is now an alcoholic all day, and the father is very happy and throws a party to celebrate. At this party, Mew sang his love song for Tong, and after the crowd dispersed, the two kissed each other, and this scene was seen by Tong's mother, and the relationship between the two fell into a dilemma.
Film critics:
Thai cinema is the most familiar, it can be said that there are two major genres, one is its horror film, the other is its pure love movie (there are also some action movies such as "Boxing" and "Tom Yin Gong" are also well spread). And this film is a more classic and representative Thai pure love movie.
By transplanting the beauty of the two little unsuspecting from the collocation of men and women into the framework of same-sex love, the film as a whole has a stronger beauty and sadness of youth. In fact, same-sex love is not uncommon in Thai movies, and this film undoubtedly achieves a very special existence, even now, it is still a benchmark work in Thai movies that pays attention to the sexual orientation of young people. The film was written and directed by Chuk Sarek, who was only 26 years old at the time, and before that, his film work was mostly horror films, directly spanning into the pure love genre, he did not show any discomfort, but more like a fish.
The length of the film is very long, the director's cut version is nearly three hours long, and the story is like a few pieces of music in the film, slowly flowing and telling. However, from beginning to end, Mew and Tong have not been able to be together, and the friendship between the two has always been pure to the extreme, beyond the feeling of friendship, but can only stay in the degree of "transcendence". When the director grasps this emotional proportion, he deliberately creates a kind of wandering, always maintaining the relationship between the two in an ambiguous state.
Youth, often like this, is full of regrets and helplessness. In the film, this regret is not limited to mew and Tong. Both of them also had girls who loved them, Ying and Donut, but in the end none of the two came together. But both of them always loved in their own way, willfully. Ying's madness, cuteness and perfection, Donut's willfulness and freedom, are also a collection of many qualities of youth, full of the imprints of the moving girls of "those years".
In addition to this kind of youth portrait of love, the film also shows a variety of vivid images of young individuals. For example, the role of June also plays a very important role in the film, she is not only a substitute for Tang, but also a kind self, permeated with the rational side of youth, and all the grievances have disappeared in her. There was also Mew and Tong's group of friends, mew playing music with them, tong playing ball with them, eating, staying up late drinking. These all constitute an indispensable picture in the picture of youth. Therefore, it should be said that this film focuses not only on the youth of Mew and Tong, it is a youth group portrait, and use this group image to promote the development of the relationship between Mew and Tong.
When Tong's mother asks Mew to stop her relationship with Tong, the relationship between the two quickly shifts from the previous ambiguity to pain and struggle. Of course, both were eventually able to free themselves from this youthful confusion, but they relied on two different choices. For Tong, it is more from the expectation of family and the helpless compromise of traditional ideas. When hanging the Christmas tree doll, the mother and son completed the reconciliation of each other, the mother gave the decision to the son, although Tong followed his heart and chose the male doll, he also understood that in reality he still had to meet the mother's expectations. For Mew, it is more from the care and relief of friends, he can't bear to live up to the expectations of a group of people because of personal pain.
When both of them let go of the stone in their hearts, or rather, gave up the obsession in their hearts, there was a final and complete confession, and only then did tong's "I think we still can't be together, but this is not to say that I don't love you", and only then did Mew "thank you" again and again, which made people somewhat distressed.
On the whole, although the performance, the young actors still carry a certain amount of youth, fortunately, this is more or less in line with the original state of youth, does not affect the texture of the film, but also makes it appear more innocent. A large number of musical elements are added to the film, which makes it possible to reach the audience's heart more deeply, of course, this also benefits from its excellent composition. In fact, from the story setting to the arrangement of elements, this film has the shadow of Taiwan's small fresh film, or in other words, they are in line with the established youth film paradigm. However, this film has made its own unique style in integrating various emotions and showing the panorama of youth, even if the film has such and such problems, it can still bring a lot of unique emotions and possible emotional projection, which is enough to make it shine in the world youth film gallery, leaving a burst of youthful echoes.
Author: Xinsheng