Ploy

The Thai censor couldn’t cope, but the film comprises erotic scenes of the highest level. A man and a woman kill time quarrelling in a hotel. When the man takes a fatherly interest in a beautiful 19 year old girl, the woman loses it. With almost real dreams.

Pen-ek Ratanaruang does not comply with the the image of a film maker from an exotic developing country. For more than ten years, the international film world has followed his alienating films closely. His stories are set in urban locations such as Bangkok, but could equally well be situated in Hong Kong or Tokyo. The protagonists in this film are more citizens of the world than of Thailand.

A married couple returns to Thailand after spending years abroad and moves into the kind of hotel you can find all over the world. The relationship between Wit (Pornwut Sarasin) and his wife Dang (Lalita Panyopas) is far from harmonious. Dang has fantasies and fears that make the friction between the couple even more complex. When Wit meets Ploy (Apinya Sakuljaroensuk) – a liberated girl of 19 – in the hotel and develops some kind of friendship with her, this feeds the jealousy of Dang. Imagination then takes over from reality and drives Dang to embark on a quest through a Thailand she did not yet know – if it exists at all.

The film includes several erotic scenes that the Thai audience did not get to see. These scenes are very tasteful, but the Thai censors do not leave much room to manoeuvre at the moment. Koichi Shimizu, one of the two composers of the film, is involved as a sound artist with the Black Air installation in New Dragon Inns. –Rotterdam