Sia Dai (Daughter)

Reviewed by Simon Booth

Director: Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol
Year: 1996
Starring:  Johnny Anfone, Lynn Nussara
Time: 114 minutes

I decided a long time ago that I never want to be a parent. The reason is very simple - I don't think I'd be at all good at it. I don't berate myself too badly for this, because I think being a good parent is incredibly hard - probably the hardest thing you could ever undertake, in fact, and there's no quitting when it gets tough. Sadly, I think there are a lot of people that become parents without ever having actually thought about this. Some of them no doubt succeed admirably, but it's hard to look at the way a lot of kids grow up and say that their parents have really done them justice.

Such is the theme of Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol's 1996 movie Sia Dai/Sei Dai/Daughter, anyway. It tells the story of four teenage girls whose parents have let them down in one way or another, and the harm their upbringing has done to them. In the absence of a loving home and familial   support, the girls have taken to skipping school to go to the mall... and then sniffing glue or prostituting themselves, amongst other things. Disaffected and troubled youth is not an unusual theme in movies these days - it seems that no movie about kids is complete without a murder, a rape and a suicide these days. Sia Dai manages to avoid two of these, but manages to provide a bleak enough existence for the four girls without them.

There are some directors whose name is enough to make me buy a DVD without knowing anything more about the film - Chatrichalerm Yukol is one. Sia Dai is a million miles away from Suriyothai or The Elephant Keeper, but shows the prince's talents as a filmmaker again. The movie is filmed in a pseudo-documentary style, telling most of the story in a series of flashbacks that fill in the details of incidents that characters mention in the interview-like sections. It's a very effective way of telling the girls' story.

And what a grim story it is! The four girls are all very sweet and likeable, but life has not treated them well, and their own attempts to achieve happiness are surely misguided. Their friendship with each other is the one thing they have that they can really depend on in life, and together they try to get by in the world the best they can. Either that or escape it for a while with drugs. The movie seems very realistic, and I don't doubt that the story of these girls is very much like thousands of true stories out there.

This is a sad thing to think about, and Chatrichalerm wants to make sure we get this point. The underlying message throughout is "This could be your daughter... what are you doing each day to try to make sure it's not?" It's perhaps unfair to point the blame so completely at the girls' parents, though the social conditions they are in are perhaps given a vaguely critical glance too. Being a parent is hard, but being a poor parent is *really* hard. Although the girls' story is a sad one - harrowing, even - there is ultimately a little light at the end of the tunnel, and the possibility of redemption is offered.

The prince's directing and story telling is good, but the movie really rests on the performances of the cast. Everybody does a good job, but especially the four girls that are the core focus. The actresses all give very powerful performances in demanding roles. It must have been very hard   to go through all the most personal and painful moments of these characters lives, and I imagine that being in the film will have left them quite affected. I don't have a clue what the background of the actresses is, but their powerful performances (and expert handling of the various drugs   paraphenalia in the film) perhaps indicate that their own lives have not been terribly rosy. Or perhaps they're just very good actresses working under a great director - it's nicer to think that anyway.
With so many movies about kids on the rocks these days, it's hard to say whether Sia Dai makes for essential viewing or not. Certainly it's a good film, but there are better ones out there - at least, ones that are more enjoyable. Sia Dai is not meant to be entertaining, and it isn't going to make you feel good when it’s over. If you're looking for escapism, look elsewhere, but if you don't mind something a little more challenging, then Sia Dai is at least well made.

The Thai DVD is presented full frame with removable subtitles. 4:3 appears to be the correct aspect ratio for the film, as nothing felt cropped. Picture and sound are about the quality of a VHS - which is probably because that's exactly what it was transferred from The removable subtitles mean it's a big step up from The Elephant Keeper or Gunman DVDs, at least - and to be honest I'm just happy to see more films by this very interesting director getting released with English subs at all. The VCD has subs as well.

Phra Apai-manee


 

Director: Chalart Sriwanna
Year: 2003
Starring: Ying Juraluk, Surachai SaengArkard, Passakorn Pamornbutr
Time: 88 minutes

I have come across a few Thai films of late that rather perplexed me with their seemingly peculiar plot lines and bizarre happenings. Both The Legend of Kunpan and Krai Thong had this effect one – sort of a “who’s drug induced mind did this misshapen idea pop out of” puzzlement. This film struck me in the same way. What these films have in common it turns out is that they are based on Thai literary mythology and are very well-known stories in Thailand in the same way that Paul Bunyon is in the States. This mishmash feels like a combination of Tall Tale stories and the adventures of Ulysses on his odyssey. The movie itself certainly reminded me of some of those mythic adventure type films from the 1950s/60s such as Jason and the Golden Argonauts or The 7th Adventure of Sinbad. Like those, this seems primarily targeted to teenagers/children, but it actually contains some fairly violent action scenes and some risqué moments involving a sea witch and a mermaid!

This legendary tale written 150 years ago by one of Thailand’s greatest poets, Sunthorn Phu, tells the story of two princes of a kingdom within Thailand some many many years ago. Their father the king tells them to go learn so that someday they can rule after he has died. Unfortunately, the king was not very specific about what they should study and so when they came back and tell him that one had become an expert at stick fighting and the other a master flute player, the king is not pleased. So he boots them out and tells them never to come back – and so begin the adventures of Phra Apai-manee and Srisuwan. Perhaps the king should have listened a bit closer as these two are not your ordinary stick and flute men – Srisuwan can use his stick in mighty ways and has magical powers with it while Phra is able to soothe wild beasts with his flute playing – and use it for more powerful means when needed. The sound of his flute to us ordinary men sounds rather off tune and scratchy but it works wonders with tigers!
Though I suspect the film is a very condensed version of the book (at one point eight years passes faster than a midnight snack), the two brothers still have plenty to deal with. They soon team up with three holy men who have powers as well and defeat a group of killer bandits. Phra is then kidnapped by an incredibly ugly female giant/witch who digs his flute playing and is able to turn into a sexy woman who wants to bed him in the worst way – and he all too quickly agrees! At the same time, Srisuwan goes looking for him with the three holy men and instead save a kingdom and their hottie princess from an invading force. And let’s not forget the very nubile mermaid who makes sea urchin eyes at Phra.
The film isn’t really very good – much of the acting and dialogue are fairly basic to say the least, the special effects are on par with those from the aforementioned 50’s and 60’s films (though kind of nostalgic fun) and the film just tries to cover too much territory in its short running time (88 minutes). The film does improve as it goes along and there is something about mermaids that has always appealed to me from Splash to Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948).
Other little tidbits – this legend was the basis of Thailand’s first animation feature finished in the 1970’s called Sud Sakorn. It was 82 minutes long and took two years to finish.

It was the beautiful island of Koh Samet that inspired this tale from the author.

Two related websites:

For toy figures:
A park in Thailand

The Thai DVD has English subtitles.

My rating for this film: 5.0

The Trek

Director: Chanchai Pantasi
Stars: Danai Smuthkochorn, Paul Visut Carey, Eilidh MacQueen
Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Year: 2002

This one is bad cheesy fun that you can enjoy on some lame midnight showing level. The filmmakers and actors seem to be taking themselves all too seriously in this film that treads on the edges of exploitation but never makes the full dive into it. That I suppose is the major problem with it – everyone is as earnest as if they are in an Ibsen play – but this is a jungle horror film folks – have some fun! This genre has certain expectations and this film meets a few of them with man-eating critters and a giant snake – but it was totally lacking in any sexual pizzazz. As a friend said after viewing this – “how can you make a jungle exploitation film and the women keep their clothes on!” My sentiments exactly – you can’t go halfway in these kinds of films – it feels like Merchant and Ivory doing exploitation – much too polite.

A group of fresh-faced do-gooder young students go into the jungle to look for a rare hairy elephant so that they can take pictures of it. The villagers all have that terrified “don’t go in there” look on their faces, but these all too innocents go in anyway – I mean it’s not everyday you can photo a hairy elephant. Soon things go crsshshhs in the night and one fellow becomes dinner for a hoard of centipedes that squiggle into every orifice he has until only raw meat is left on the bones. The guide doesn’t do much better and soon these young people are on their own. Turn back? Of course not. There is plenty more insect grub to be had here. Most of these horrors are CGI effects by the way and not all that convincing, but still fun.
When not peeling off voracious ants, hungry centipedes and giant face sucking spiders off their bodies, a gigantic killer snake who is well fed on amphetamines dropped in the river (we know this because the brown burlap bag has AMPHETAMINES on the front – drug dealers don’t want to make a mistake and take the dirty laundry by mistake) attacks the group and starts devouring them. The suspense lays of course in trying to predict who will make it – the two falangs (westerners) – hmmm – highly unlikely – I have seen enough Asian films to know that white people rarely survive intact, the annoying guy who wants to lead the group (what do you think?), the two cute females (geez I hope so) or the obvious hero of the film. The rest I can’t really remember as they were gone – munch munch - much too quickly.
Neither the Thai DVD or VCD have English subs. I was able to catch it in a special viewing with subs.

My rating for this film: 5.5