Hey folks, Harry here... Here's one of the more interesting, fascinatingly odd test screening reports I've ever gotten. "P" with a Squiggly Over It - is possibly one of the oddest titles we've ever reported on. Of course - that is and isn't the name of the film. Only a description of the Thai character that was upon the film. And the description of the movie is quite tantalizing... At this point I'm just hoping to find out what "P with a squiggly over it" means. Who the director is - so we can begin the process of properly tracking this film. Well - here begins the mystery...
Dear Harry,
I was on holiday in Thailand, returning last week. We had been booked to go to Phuket, but after the tsunami decided to spend more time in Bangkok.
We were walking through a large shopping mall when a young lady stopped us and asked if we wanted to see a sneak preview to a new Thai film.
I have seen Ong Bak, and so I was a bit interested. She said it had subtitles and they were trying to get foreigner's comments as well as Thai people.
Before the screening, the director was introduced, who was from the United Kingdom and he spoke in Thai and English to explain that this was the first Thai film ever made by a foreigner, and that this was the first ever screening. He seemed rather nervous. He explained that the Thai authorities had refused to give him the license to make the film in Thailand, but that he had shot it anyway, and warned us jokingly that the police might raid the cinema at any moment.
The film's title was the letter P with a little squiggle over the top of it, meaning something in Thai.
Had it not been for Ong Bak, I would never have even known they made films in Thailand, and would certainly not have agreed to go to the screening.
But what an extraordinary film.
It tells the story of a young girl from the country who learns magic from her grandmother, but then when her grandmother gets sick she has to go to Bangkok and work in a gogo bar. She uses her magic to entice customers, but she gets a bit carried away, and... let's just say that the experience changes her!
Not a very original plot, so what was extraordinary about it?
The girl who plays the main character undergoes an incredibly transformation in the film. At the start of the film she looks about twelve, and when she first shyly gets up on the stage, it's a really uncomfortable scene. But then as the film goes on, her whole character changes. There's a real sadness in the film as you watch this naive young girl being sucked into this seedy world.
The acting from her and from the girl who plays her best friend is amazingly natural. There are some really funny scenes when they are in the bar and revealing the tricks of the trade to get men to take them out.
So for the first half, it's a sexy, funny film, and then out of the blue the whole mood changes, and it gets really dark. There are some really shocking scenes.
I don't want to give the plot away, but by the end there is total bloody mayhem.
It reminded me a bit of 'Audition'. For the first half, it wasn't a horror film. It's a drama. But then when it changes, it really catches you by surprise.
The scenery in rural Thailand and in Bangkok was amazing, and the music was great.
Afterwards I spoke to the director, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, who seemed really pleased that I liked it. He said he was having a lot of difficulty with the censors in Thailand, but that the version I had seen was the international cut which was uncensored. He wanted to know how foreign and Thai audiences reacted and whether the Thai audiences would find it too shocking. I told him I found it damn shocking. He seemed to like that.
He said it has distribution in the United Kingdom and Canada already, and that it would be premiered at a film festival in Belgium in April.
I'm sorry this isn't much of a review and I don't have more information, but coming out of the cinema I really felt like I had been lucky to see something that could be really big, and be amongst the first in the world to witness it.
Love the site.
All the best,
Earl
