Thailand's popular director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is a favourite of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. My first exposure to his work was the commercial, black-humour crime piece "Sixty nine" (1999). "Last life in the universe" (2003), probably the most acclaimed of his work, is decidedly art-house. "Invisible waves" (2006) is mainly artsy but is also blended with commercial thriller elements. "Ploy" follows the same approach, but ends up being a little bit of neither here nor there.
The story takes place mostly in a hotel in Thailand, in two rooms, to be exact. One is occupied by a middle-aged couple Nut, a restaurant owner and Daeng, an ex-movie star, immigrants in the US for a decade, coming home to attend a funeral. Right away, the audience is intimated to the situation that the 7-year marriage has problems. In the wee hours of the morning, having coffee and cigarette in the hotel's café to kill time, Nut has a chance encounter with to-be-19-tomorrow, rebellious-looking but sweet-at-heart Ploy, waiting for her mother's arrival, in a few hours' time, from Sweden. A decent and kind fellow, Daeng offers to let the girl freshen up and take a nap in his room until the mother arrives. You can imagine how much a clever director can do with this material the trio stuck in a room for a few hours.
In the other room, a few steps down the hall, a chambermaid and a bartender, both presumably off duty, are making out. I'll come back to that.
In Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's famous (some would say notorious) slow-burn style, the marital problems of the two is revealed, culminating in the wife walking out. What follows is a scene not unlike what you saw with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson lying in bed in "Lost in translation", similar, maybe even more innocent. After Ploy has left the scene, having served as the catalyst that brings to the surface the marital problem, we see how it is finally resolved, through a thriller-type development of events. Happy ending.
Coming back to the other room, as I watched the continually escalating erotic scenes that don't seem to have anything to do with the main plot, I couldn't help but wonder if they were just put there for commercial reasons. It was in the final absurdity, ironically, that I saw (or think I saw) some senses of what director Ratanaruang was doing. After the bartender has left, the maid, tying in bed, suddenly burst out in a sensuous, joyful song oozing with the joy she experiences after a satisfying sexual experience. This scene in the other room, then, is there to serve as a sharp contrast to accentuate even more the frustration in Nut and Daeng's marriage.
"Ploy" is not such a bad movie, but is less appealing than Ratanaruang's other movies mentioned about. It is well acted and touched a few things for empathy. The girl in the title role is very sweet.
The story takes place mostly in a hotel in Thailand, in two rooms, to be exact. One is occupied by a middle-aged couple Nut, a restaurant owner and Daeng, an ex-movie star, immigrants in the US for a decade, coming home to attend a funeral. Right away, the audience is intimated to the situation that the 7-year marriage has problems. In the wee hours of the morning, having coffee and cigarette in the hotel's café to kill time, Nut has a chance encounter with to-be-19-tomorrow, rebellious-looking but sweet-at-heart Ploy, waiting for her mother's arrival, in a few hours' time, from Sweden. A decent and kind fellow, Daeng offers to let the girl freshen up and take a nap in his room until the mother arrives. You can imagine how much a clever director can do with this material the trio stuck in a room for a few hours.
In the other room, a few steps down the hall, a chambermaid and a bartender, both presumably off duty, are making out. I'll come back to that.
In Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's famous (some would say notorious) slow-burn style, the marital problems of the two is revealed, culminating in the wife walking out. What follows is a scene not unlike what you saw with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson lying in bed in "Lost in translation", similar, maybe even more innocent. After Ploy has left the scene, having served as the catalyst that brings to the surface the marital problem, we see how it is finally resolved, through a thriller-type development of events. Happy ending.
Coming back to the other room, as I watched the continually escalating erotic scenes that don't seem to have anything to do with the main plot, I couldn't help but wonder if they were just put there for commercial reasons. It was in the final absurdity, ironically, that I saw (or think I saw) some senses of what director Ratanaruang was doing. After the bartender has left, the maid, tying in bed, suddenly burst out in a sensuous, joyful song oozing with the joy she experiences after a satisfying sexual experience. This scene in the other room, then, is there to serve as a sharp contrast to accentuate even more the frustration in Nut and Daeng's marriage.
"Ploy" is not such a bad movie, but is less appealing than Ratanaruang's other movies mentioned about. It is well acted and touched a few things for empathy. The girl in the title role is very sweet.