MovieChat Forums > Rak haeng Siam (2007) Discussion > *SPOILER ALERT* Why I love/hate this mov...

*SPOILER ALERT* Why I love/hate this movie, and on the American POV


(this is the entirety of my abbreviated IMDb review)

I just watched the film tonight. Despite what I feel are its many flaws, something in the film grabbed me and compelled me to do something to process what I just saw. This is the result. It starts out a bit film-nerd in the beginning, so just jump ahead if you don't understand part. The good part is towards the bottom :) It also assumes you've seen the film.

Viewing a film created for an audience whose culture is not your own poses enough problems already without key characters who have the false-cognate bad luck to be named Donut, Mew, Tang and Tong.

I spent the first half of Love of Siam resisting the film's erratic, ham-fisted, lumbering yet undeniably magnetic pull. The film has terrible, glaring problems, both the cross-cultural kind which grated my western sensibilities and the technical kind which rankled the writer, editor and cinematographer in me (due in some part, perhaps, to the relatively inexperienced 24-year-old director). I'm usually the first to shush a talkative friend during a screening of any kind, yet I found myself pausing the film to lecture my hapless couch-mate about shutter angle, proper sound mixing and the (notably absent) joys of a concise edit. There are moments of the 50's era, sitcom-style corniness which seems to populate so many Asian films as Ying attempts teddy-bear voodoo on her unsuspecting neighbor, in nearly every single scene involving Mew's bandmates, and early scenes involving Tong's parents. There are musical interludes in which the soundtrack is not a clean mix of the song, or even a source-motivated mix of the vocals, but poorly mic'd production sound. Yikes! The director's cut version indulgently re-inserts all kinds of jarringly edited bits which barely propel the story, and more distractingly, refuse to cut together well with the emotional tone or pacing preceding and succeeding them. Note to the editor: fade in/fade out is not a universal band-aid! The cinematography in the first half seems like it was conducted by a fresh-from-undergrad amateur, with unnecessary dolly and crane moves, strange depth of field choices, and a flat, burnt-highlights, choppy motion video feel. Somehow the entire creative staff—production designer, director, cinematographer—managed to fumble the fateful reunion of the two boys, leaving what should be a climactic moment flat on the floor in simple shot/reverse-shot.

But those innocent, beautiful, babyfaced kids—they're so damn cute. Watching them is mesmerizing even when everything else around them is not. And somewhere in the middle of the film, I shut up. Was it the moment in bed where Mew finally reaches out to comfort a grieving Tong? Was it June's charismatically bungled prayer at the dinner table? Or maybe it was the kiss: a lean-forward moment of such pure electricity, audacity and tenderness that my face could barely contain my ear-to-ear grin. What an accomplishment for two actors who claim in interviews to be both straight and less than enamored with each other. The second half of the film feels like it was shot by a different DP (I checked, it mysteriously was not), it feels like the production values went from 10-o'clock news to Hollywood Blockbuster. Suddenly the supporting actors snap into line, even Ying's straight-girl-crush-on-a-gay-boy routine gets more charming. I wish someone would turn my shoes upside down.

The tension builds as mom cages the boys' fledgling romance. Ah, how classic is this trope in Western Gay Cinema: the religious and misguided parental figure shuts out the only light on the path of their offspring's coming of age, only to see them spiral into a self destructive abyss, rescued at the last moment when Parental Units realize the error of their ways and relent, and true love wins, as it always does. The cast shines its brightest here, especially the two boys (Witwisit Hiranyawongkul as Mew and Mario Maurer as Tong), whose teenage angst on screen plays with a smoldering, riveting sincerity.

The moment comes when Mom and Tong are decorating the Christmas tree. Tong presses her for whether to hang a male or a female ornament. Ooooh, how the shivers ran down my writing-workshop weary spine: this is some amazing writing. Show, don't tell is the maxim of every screenwriting professor, and here is an incredibly clever, subtle way to handle the confrontation without any of the clumsy on-the-nose dialog that nearly every other gay film uses in the same predictable situation. She tells Tong to make the decision for himself. He hangs the male. I bestow ye, Charming 2007 Metaphor of the Year.

Tong dumps his neglected and misfortunately named girlfriend (Donut). Ying sees Tong's feelings for what they really are and decides to let go. A classic Hollywood setup begins to unfold as he chases after his true love, who is performing on stage at the titular mall. (What could be more western than naming the film after a mall? Or perhaps it's a more Asian trend, after all, WKW gave us Chungking Express—but I digress!) I am completely swept up in the moment, and suddenly:

"I can't be your boyfriend, but that doesn't mean I don't love you." As one IMDb poster indignantly points out, "they don't even hug!"

What. The. *beep*. Immediately, I am furious. The fury lasts about 2.5 seconds. Then the questions come: Have I been conditioned by Hollywood to expect only happy endings? No, I watch plenty of films with sad endings, so that can't be it. Is it that I was just perversely hoping for a hot sex scene, or maybe just a nice "happily ever after" montage at the end? No, I wasn't looking for that. In fact, I'd even told myself earlier that I'd be disappointed if the film went that direction, because films that assume that teenage love lasts forever annoy me (ahem *cough* TWILIGHT *cough*).

No, I've narrowed my reaction to the ending down to two causes: cross-cultural understanding, and questionable writing. As an American, I was brought up to believe that rebelling against parents is normal, even necessary. For many of us, coming out is an act of defiance. We leave home, strike out on our own, and parents can take us or leave us for who we really are. But at the end of the day, it's being true to yourself above all others' objections that's what matters to the American Gay: we're here, we're queer, get used to it. Our obligations to our parents more or less end at high school or college graduation. I cannot speak for Thai family values, but I hear that Thai society is rather conservative. Just compare previous depictions of gay characters in Thai films—the young, masculine boys of Love of Siam are a far, far cry from the transgendered title character of Beautiful Boxer or the effeminate queens of Iron Ladies. Not to say these communities don't deserve empowering screen time in their own right, but to grasp that there is a spectrum of gayness which exists separate from gender identity seems to be a novelty to Thai popular culture. (Correct me please if I am wrong, I am certainly no expert.) Furthermore, Asian cultures in general consider respect for family to run deep, deeper even perhaps than all the Christian trappings the film clothes its characters in. Sakveerakul goes to great lengths to establish the storyline of the family tragedy so that by the end of the film, Tong's half-rejection, ostensibly to respect his mother's wishes, makes sense.

To my personal sensibilities, this seems reactionary. I should note here that like Mario Maurer, I am half-Asian, half-Caucasian, though my parents and I grew up in America. One of the reasons this film has lodged itself in my psyche despite its many and obvious flaws, and has me up writing at 5 AM, is that it saddens me to think both that millions of LGBT people cannot live the life they choose, and that even the ones who can may never win the approval of their families. Though I live as an open and out gay man, supported by my community, my family and my friends, I know my mother will never accept me one-hundred percent. Given the same choice, I don't think I would have had Tong's strength to uphold the unselfish piety which his culture values.

My final observation on the ending is that it comes with little to prepare us, both for Tong's semi-rejection and for Mew's sudden recovery from the depths of teen depression. On Mew's end, we are meant to believe that a visit from a friend who reminds him that he has had support all along is enough to get him back in the studio. This is the friend who the character has spent the film angry at, and now he's the best friend? (I will admit, this makes for a touching scene when he returns to the studio and the friend announces his return from recording "Gay Power Volume 4!") As for Tong, we know of his family's dire situation, but Sakveerakul has spent the last hour-plus of screen time showing us how miserable they and all the people around them have become because of their separation. How can there be a satisfying resolution for anyone involved if the two aren't together?

Then again, maybe that's the point. Or, as fans have wishfully pointed out, maybe that's the lead in for Love of Siam 2.

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I love your review!
I hated this movie also because of the disappointing ending, but when I really look back at it, the good feelings this movie gave me out-weighs the bad.
Although I doubt it, I hope they make a sequel. It will make a lot of people happy, including me =)

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Your post may be long but it's worth reading. I think I have to agree with you 90% of what you wrote. I notice those flaws too.

Anyway, I really hope there's Love of Siam 2.

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Great review dude, it actually sums up all of the things I learned from this movie
1. it badly needs editing (its almost 3 hours long!)
2. probably one of the most innocent movies ive seen from this genre (i was also hoping for some hot action like in Bangkok Love Story but the absence of which actually made me love the movie more)
3. its obviously screaming out for a sequel (though the first movie definitely could stand on its own)

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you put my exact thoughts into words (except for the film-nerd part LOL). thank you for that wonderful review.

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I rather like endings where things don't work out perfectly, just enough to be bittersweet. That's life.

It's the same with music: I don't know about you guys, but many of the best songs I've heard, don't have a "happy ending." They are poignant and bittersweet.

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[deleted]

Great review!
I agree with it 100%. I felt pretty let down by the ending since I spent the first half of the movie saying "Awwww" at how sweet the boys were. ha haha

"You know me Marge, I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals fa-LAM-ing!"

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