Soi Cowboy (2008) User Reviews

this is one to miss!

[chamelion · 2/10 · 22 November 2008]

I'll keep it simple and general enough so as not to drop a spoiler. But this film doesn't deserve to be watched and if anything, people need to be warned against it, because there is nothing to spoil! I had reasonably high hopes of a film that has managed to grace (or sully) screens at various film festivals around the world. This one just keeps coming back for more - in this case at the Stockholm film festival - after getting knocked down at each festival. The creators don't seem to be able to take no for an answer. I went in with an open mind and here is the story that ensues...

We open in grainy black and white with one of the good-hearted, well-meaning sex-obsessed painfully-shy main characters, Tobias, lying in his bed and his almost-mute pregnant Thai hooker cohabitee also in the bed. An ex prostitute who is taken under Tobias Christensen's wing. And there is almost no character development. Every shot is long, drawn out and PROTRACTED to death. to DEATH. A whole minute was devoted to watching the toaster for F£$%^ sake.

After we understand that Tobias is the money cow to look after the ex Thai prostitute, they eventually go on a relaxing temple trip after some seriously awkward and IRRITATING waste of film. Again, more extremely long, protracted and BORING... no wait, POINTLESSLY long shots are included. Was the editor murdered or something? The granny on the zimmer-frame, what were they thinking? There were two people in the audience behind me who fell asleep and began snoring - genuine because others sitting nearby were amused and laughing at this, there were tsks and hisses and sighs alike coming from the crowd directed at the screen by this point. AWKWARD.

Then the film becomes COLOUR! And another character develops: the Thai prostitutes little brother. He's on a bounty mission. He succeeds. More long, pointless shots. DULL. BORING.

He returns with the evidence of the deed to be paid by the man who supposedly hired him and encounter possibly the most exciting and mildly titillating 3 seconds of film in the whole 2 hours. Tobias flanked by another Thai hooker and also the "money safe" scene.

The dialogue in the film is either superfluous, or limited - but sometimes serves a purpose in a "connect the dots" way to understand enough of what is supposed to be going on plot wise in this film. Next to NOTHING.

burning your eyes from your sockets would be visually more stimulating than this film, and a damn sight more exciting. DO NOT WATCH.

This was just... yawn.... zzzzz.....

[paul_haakonsen · 1/10 · 2 April 2013]

Wow, this is without a doubt the worst movie I have ever had to suffer through. Not only is the first 80 minutes of it shot in black and white - yeah, black and white! - but there was also very little dialogue in the movie.

This movie was mostly about watching an estranged couple, consisting on an obese white man and a pregnant Thai woman sitting around in a small apartment in Bangkok doing each their own stuff and without talking together. It was like watching something shot out from an actual life experience of a boring couple.

I watched most of the movie on fast forward x32 speed. I kid you not. There was that little happening in 90% of all the scenes throughout the movie. It was all just a lot of prolonged footage of scenes that could have been told better in color and in half the time.

Sure this is a pseudo artsy movie, but come on. Enough is enough. This movie was just too much.

Dealing with issues such as Westerners traveling to Thailand to find love, and the complexity and problems that might follow in the wake given the differences between cultures. But it was done with too much of everything. I am from Denmark myself, and have been married to a Chinese and now with one from the Philippines. So I can relate to aspects of the movie, but I doubt that this movie in any way express life situations for any couple in general. The movie was just downright boring and dragged on in shots that were too long.

The only good thing I found about the movie, well two things given the cheap price for it on Amazon's marketplace, was Danish actor Nicolas Bro was in this movie. Personally I don't count myself a fan of his work, but it was a bold move for him to do this particular movie.

I am sure there is an audience out there for this particular movie and this particular weird genre of movies - especially since it can score a 5.9 score here on IMDb. But, personally, I wasn't in that audience, and I have never been so bored with a movie as I was with this one. This is without a doubt a 1 out of 10 rating from me.

Great Film For Thailand Veterans

[indiandaeng · 9/10 · 26 March 2011]

I watched this film in Pattaya, Thailand and disappointed I cannot get it in a zone 0 or 1 format to watch in the USA. The film is so full of everyday Thailand that anyone who has spent time there will understand. Awfully cheap for the dowry to marry, my wife wanted 1 million baht thai currency). The black and white is so Thailand, cheap and gritty. The bad part is that people who have not spent time in Thailand will not understand it. The surprise ending is fantastic. Can't wait until I can buy a copy, will look in Thailand next trip. Well worth the time in the theater although my Thai wife still doesn't understand it and cannot believe the part of the dowry was in the film.

Well done, congratulations!

Interesting, but leaves too many questions unanswered

[wp02366 · 4/10 · 25 October 2010]

Soi Cowboy could have been a very good movie if there would have been more effort to explain why all these persons were acting the way they did.

Ironically, after I (as a Westerner) had my problems understanding essential parts of what happened in the movie, not to speak of the various character's motives and drives, I watched it another time, this time with my Thai girlfriend - and she couldn't understand it either! The funny thing was that (probably because of bad recording quality and unclear speaking by the actors) she couldn't even understand most of the dialogs despite having her roots in the same province the 2nd (colored) part took place in, so I had to activate the English subtitles for her...

It was very nice to see 'revealed' that actually there is mutual dependency (or, as negative persons would rather like to call it: 'exploitation') between the main characters, the overweight Swedish 'farang' and the pretty but pregnant (and as such, not able to work in a bar anymore but having to find a 'sponsor' if the father of the child doesn't support her financially) young Thai woman. A relationship that seems very depressing at first, reveals some light moments these two troubled individuals share with each other, actually much because the fat 'boyfriend' doesn't expect anything from her (actually not even sex) but supports her very well, while she is understanding and patient with him. In parts this makes the movie an interesting character study and cross-cultural piece. However, there are unnecessary 'endless loops' like the incredibly long time the old woman walks down the hallway - this time should have been used to explain to us the connection between both stories intertwined in the movie and the nature of the relationships between the characters. It would have helped to get a much better peek and understanding of the 'dark sides' of Asian culture - but without it, it's just a very fractional product that would actually have been better without the last (colored) part and an ending only related to the b/w part of the story.

So HERE we have a movie that would need a remake!

Stirring, but incredibly challenging watch.

[oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx · 9/10 · 1 May 2010]

This film concerns a Scandinavian gentleman who works in film, perhaps as a sort of financier/director/producer. He lives in Thailand with his Thai girlfriend, and most of the film is an exploration of that relationship. We also see her brother, and a gangster that he works for.

I think there's some films where you really have to provide health warnings. Soi Cowboy, although I absolutely loved it, is a film that few will appreciate, even many film buffs and art-house lovers, simply for reasons of mise-en-scène let alone content (includes full frontal male nudity).

There is, for example, a very long static scene, which consists of an old lady, who is not part of the storyline at all, slowly shuffling down an empty hotel corridor on a Zimmer frame, that makes the arrival of the trailer in Werckmeister Harmonies feel positively explosive by comparison. You have to approach scenes like that with the same amount of contemplation you give a painting, they are that long because it takes that long to absorb what is happening, assuming that you are aware that you have to make that effort. Director Clay put me in mind of that woman's stoicism, her aloneness, her acceptance, and her confusion. This is blue ribband humanism. It is also, without a doubt, springing from extreme virtuosity. If you are not utterly inured to "active watching", you will find yourself taking a beating watching this movie and such scenes.

If you have any sort of intolerance problems regarding obesity, and let's face it, that's the majority of people, you will have a lot of difficulty watching the obese lead, from whom we see full frontal nudity and at one point masturbation (under a bed cover).

The movie somersaults styles, you have really formal, and even abstract, rail-smoothed black and white pans, and then at other times we're static, or the film goes to hand-held and colour. Sometimes the scenes are slow, later quick, it really is a totally acrobatic movie. An analogy that occurs to me is three-day eventing, you have to see the dressage, the cross-country, and then the show jumping. Very different disciplines, just like the three sections of this movie.

Not only is the film profoundly humanistic, but it's also mystical (for example the scene with the butterfly), and at the end, depending on your interpretation, just downright Lynchian. The ending also has a much more down-to-earth interpretation, but I really feel that the duality is important, and that you can get something out of either way of looking at the ending. So my suggestion is to accept the duality. Although the film is humanistic, British viewers (the film is made by a Brit), may well come at it from a prejudicial standpoint, as there is a lot of baggage regarding sex tourism in Thailand in this country.

Another of the laundry list of potential stumbling blocks is that the first forty minutes of the film are so superficially banal that almost everyone would turn off or walk out if they suspected that such a state of affairs were to last until the film's end. You could be mistaken for thinking that this part of the film looks amateurish. That would be because of the lack of lighting used, in favour of a naturalistic look. In fact this section of the film works much better in retrospect, when you have the other elements in mind.

There's a lot of comment on culture clash. At one point Toby buys Koi a gold chain. Koi wants to know how much it costs. In the Western European bourgeois culture of Toby, such a question is an affront; but it isn't coming from Koi. When you live in a culture where there is no safety net, jewellery is a store of liquid value for emergencies, the sentimental value is inseparable from that. Understanding that Thai women value providers a lot more than western women is also quite difficult.

The level of experimentation gives me real hope for cinema. I just can't believe how beautiful the film became after the initial (necessary) ennui. There are scenes where Toby and Koi visit some temple ruins that just staggered me; when the visit is over and the gates are locked, the view floats through the darkened temple park, apropos of nothing, absolutely nothing, there for art's sake alone, storytelling be damned; a moped ride in the countryside reveals an absolute riot of green cascading from right to left across the screen, pure painterly skills being showcased; a simple solitary dinner on a boat captivates, our oddball couple alienated, communicating through a language that is not the first language of either of them, even disliking the food and disputing with the staff. But there's a heartbreaking kernel of affection there.

Awful movie ...at its best ...

[hondawave · 24 August 2011]

What is the point with this movie? Just having the end in mind, I really do not get it .What first of all starts off as a simple relationship between a thai lady and a westerner, that drags me along to see if there is something new on this topic, then there is nothing, and yet still ends real bizarre and out of touch with any of that! There is NONE whatsoever connection between the different parts that gives us any direction whats the point .You might as well close your eyes, and start imagining any story you like .The communication between the westerner and the thai is limited to an absolute minimum .It is merely a silent movie .So we do not get any smarter on whats the whole take on this movie .I mean the end that I do not understand how can be anyhow related to any storyline in it, should somehow create the base for whats the whole point of the movie .Since endings are for movies what punchlines are for jokes! The end is so far out ...its a joke ...

Well, first of all this movie does not have a punchline .Second of all its not even a joke ...