Love Is...

Love is...a beautiful story of four tragic hearts. Well, in this movie, it is.

Its story plot feels familiar, like the type of sob stories that were popular years ago in Indian, Taiwanese, & Korean TV dramas. 

As this Thai movie embarks on the tragic love story plot for today's audience, the title "Love is" makes us question how we would react if we were in similar situations as any of the four characters.

The movie starts off steadily without much drama, and scenes took their time to build each character, their family background, their expectations of life, and their relationship with each other. 

Tall and handsome Kamon from Bangkok visits the hilly Chiang Rai, at the scenic north of Thailand. He is greeted by an excited family of friends who are preparing for dinner outdoors in the cool evening.  

There are two young ladies there. Boisterous Xiao Ping, we find out later, is his best friend. There is sweet Qing, who is Kamon's shy girlfriend. Then there is Wei, whom just graduated from a university in China. He grew up together with Qing and was raised by Qing's grandmother. They are all part of the Thai Chinese community of Chiang Rai where Chinese traditions are still strongly practised. 

The buddy-buddy, happy-family mood drops a notch down the next day. The two guys, Kamon and Wei, spend some buddy time together. Wei confides that he has to marry Xiao Ping as they are both in an arranged marriage by their families. He resents the upcoming marriage as he does not feel any love for Xiao Ping. 

Kamon then reveals his intention to propose marriage to Qing. Wei is visibly upset by this news. It seems he harbours deep feelings for Qing.  

Nurse Xiao Ping on the other hand, loves Wei with all her heart. Qing and Kamon's romance, has actually been going on for several years, but the two characters' roles are portrayed somewhat in contrast to that fact. I don't even remember if they held hands. Her job as a primary school teacher and her responsibility for caring for her grandmother, who has to take insulin jabs, tells audiences that she would be unwilling to follow Kamon to live in Bangkok after their marriage.

Wei and Xiao Ping are wed. The wedding night is a disastrous night of painful tears.

One day, Qing and Wei spend some time under the tree where they used to spend their childhood days, reminiscing about old times together.  We think there may be something going on here as Qing then hugs Wei -- but tells him they are both better off as friends. 

Qing and Wei walk home together. When they reached the house, grandmother and others greeted them with panicked faces. Kamon has just been in an accident!

Love has a different meaning for each of these characters. What happens with Kamon, Qing, Wei and Xiao Ping towards the end of the movie lets you fill in the blanks. Love is ...

When Geek Meets Serial Killer

A curiously captivating movie title, and interestingly, an old friend's directorial debut. So, I took an effort to watch it, curious to see what and how he has made this movie. By the 5th minute, I already wanted to feedback to him that it was brilliantly told. 

It's a movie that is considered daring for a conservative Chinese society. Refreshing black humour, choreographed and executed so well by a director yet unseen in the Chinese world of movie making. 

It starts off with a comic artist who lands the fantasy of a lifetime when 5 sexy maids turns up at his apartment. Then he wakes up --  to a blood-strewn apartment with a dead person lying in front of him.

The story is told in first person narration, each character's psyche expressed clearly to the audience scene by scene, and the storyline of each character was cleverly interlinked with flashbacks, and kept me going "oh....so that's what was going on..." Ne'er a dull moment.

As a producer and director, and intending to write and make my own movie soon, I have always liked intercutting to flashbacks to tell the story instead of telling an entire story the linear way. But it is not easy to write, plan, shoot, and edit this way and still keep your audience clued to what's going on. 

The CGI just makes you laugh at the humour of what really goes on in our minds. Each shot and talent positioning was choreographed to tell a particular satire; the script and the entire message of the movie was a cynical hit at the farce of a hypocritical society.