Fun Bar Karaoke

The original Thai title is said to translate as “Dream Crazy Karaoke”. Pen-Ek Ratanuruang’s debut is a movie about dreams, and at one point a dream about movies. The influence of Jim Jarmusch’s deadpan humor is very evident as well as one scene that seems inspired by Michael Madsen’s deadly dance in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. Pen-Ek’s background in advertising is very much at play with a scene of a photo shoot for a face cream, part of the action taking place in a 7-11, and some unusual product placement for Coca-Cola. There are a couple of scenes of people dancing, not dance numbers per se, but still it suggests that it would most likely be Pen-Ek who might create the great Thai musical.

Many of the elements of Pen-Ek’s future films are already in place. Characters are connected to each other in ways they don’t expect while the family unit is often fractured. One of the characters, a young man named Noi, is a small time gangster whose dream is to walk away from that life. The film is in part about the clash between traditional Thai beliefs and like in modern, crowded and international Bangkok. –coffeecoffeeandmorecoffee.com