Gunman
Reviewed by Simon Booth
Director: Prince Chatree Chalerm Yukol
Year: 1983
Starring: Sorapong, Ron, Chalita
Time: 141 minutes
Gunman is a story of an assassin with a wooden
leg and a heart of gold. It is the story of a police inspector with a fierce
reputation and a secret to hide. It is the story of a little boy who knows
his father is a hero whatever the other kids say. It's the story of a young
cop who takes his job seriously. It's the story of a drunken hairdresser
and his shrewish wife, and of a police snitch. IMDB mistakenly lists the
movie under the name The Sister-In-Law (a different movie from the same
director). To a small degree it is the story of somebody's sister-in-law
too though. I find it difficult to summarise the movie beyond that, because
despite the presence of some huuuge genre cliches, the movie really never
feels cliched... or like a genre movie. The reason for this is the complex
script and rich characterizations. The basic story is quite simple, but
it's really just a back-story on which a picture of life is woven.
If I were king of the world, I would use my wealth
and power to make really cool movies. Prince Chatrichalerm Yukoi is evidently
a man after my own heart. He's not king of the world either, but being
a member of the Thai royal family can't hurt when you want to finance a
movie... and you can bet you're not going to get studio execs scribbling
over your script and cutting out your best scenes either when you're a
prince. Prince
Chatri definitely has an advantage over me
when it comes to making movies - no, not the fact that he's a prince, just
that he's clearly more talented than me.
Gunman is not a flashy movie, not a 'cool' movie,
just a really well told story. It's a movie that isn't in a hurry to get
to its conclusion (it's 141 minutes long), because it wants to make sure
that when it gets you there you really care about it. The characters are
developed so richly you'll think they're members of your own family, and
if you don't care for every one of them by the end then you're just mean.
I do quite firmly recommend Gunman to curious
viewers, but with the reservation that the Thai DVD is... dismal. It looks
like it's been taken from a print that has been in constant projection
since 1983, and telecined in a bright room by a blind man. Maybe a blind
man on drugs. And this is apparently the remastered version too! I was
glad to have my Malata because I had to pan it, stretch it, zoom it and
drop the gamma and brightness
several notches before it became... well,
not good but better. On the bright side, the subtitles are at least well
translated.
Still, you can bet there isn't going to be a pristine
anamorphic transfer supervised by Sony's top technicians any time soon,
and if it's a choice between good movie+bad DVD or the converse... picture
ain't so big a deal, right?
Rating: 9/10