Thailand's film industry is on a competitive level with other Asian countries now. One of the finest examples is this thriller with the strange English title. It mainly takes place in the appartment of a young woman who accidentally becomes a murderer, and - by and by - almost a mass murderer. The coincidences in this movie lead to a lot of laughters while the Thai actors are portraying themselves self-ironically. This is a sure killer at phantasy filmfestivals and the like where shootouts, splatter and funny gangsters are most welcome. From the fine script over the professional camerawork to a soundtrack that makes you want to know more about Thai music 6ixtynin9 was one of the greater surprises at Milano's MIFED 2000. The movie was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the Festival des 3 Coninents in France.
20 Reviews
Nice surprise!
MAXIMUMMOVIE15 March 2005
Although I watch numerous Asian films I believe "6ixtynin9" was the first Thai movie I have seen and I must say I was very impressed. From start to end it had a comedic "whatever can go wrong will go wrong" feel about it while moving along rather smoothly as a mildly bloody quasi action flick. The story itself wasn't overly complicated nor jumbled up like some Asian stuff tends to be. I could see a large group of viewers enjoying this nice little Thai surprise.
The acting wasn't "lights out" but was effective and although the filming was mainly done in an apartment it moved around more than enough to avoid getting stale.
I viewed the on the US version DVD and found the quality good enough but not top notch and it wasn't in surround sound. I would certainly recommend giving this film a watch but you might want to rent before you buy it.
The acting wasn't "lights out" but was effective and although the filming was mainly done in an apartment it moved around more than enough to avoid getting stale.
I viewed the on the US version DVD and found the quality good enough but not top notch and it wasn't in surround sound. I would certainly recommend giving this film a watch but you might want to rent before you buy it.
A funny story about 6 and 9.
hitchcockthelegend9 February 2016
6ixtynin9 (Ruang talok 69) is without doubt a film of acquired tastes, a pic that's hard to recommend with any great confidence. That is, though, unless you have a kink for violent black comedy crime movies, where the narrative drive is quirky and fulsome, even winsome in some regards.
Story finds Lalita Panyopas (excellent) as Tum, a lady who has just been laid off from work courtesy of lots being drawn. Feeling desperate and at the end of her tether, she's amazed to find on her doorstep a noodle box with $25,000 in it. A gift from the gods? Not quite! And once some shifty gangster types come knocking at her door, nothing will ever be the same again...
There's a whole ream of films this draws from, but favourably so, especially since the films often referenced in reviews are pretty tasty in themselves. Yet this is no hack job, director and writer Pen-Ek Ratanaruang has crafted a splendid pot of Thai neo-noir curry, putting his own stamp on things, imbuing the pic with his own flourishes, such as showing acts of violence off screen! Via a shadow, a splatter of blood, or a pair of legs going limp.
The characters who inhabit this world are gloriously strange or purely deranged. The henchmen are from a Thai boxing club, garishly attired in bright red clobber (film is packed with pronounced reds), one of them is even deaf, while their boss is a bit off the map, likes to have one of his charges massage him with is feet. There's a phone sex pest, who ends up being a real key component to how things pan out, and one of the baddies reveals tears and a most bizarre death in the family!
It's all deliciously off kilter, even as the bodies pile up, the black comedy tongue is prodding away at the inside of the cheek. But ultimately its noir heart is with the vagary of fate and of the coincidences that pitch our everyday woman (she's no moll or assassin type) into a bloody and bonkers world. All of which has hinged, ironically, on a number badly screwed to an apartment door! 8/10
Story finds Lalita Panyopas (excellent) as Tum, a lady who has just been laid off from work courtesy of lots being drawn. Feeling desperate and at the end of her tether, she's amazed to find on her doorstep a noodle box with $25,000 in it. A gift from the gods? Not quite! And once some shifty gangster types come knocking at her door, nothing will ever be the same again...
There's a whole ream of films this draws from, but favourably so, especially since the films often referenced in reviews are pretty tasty in themselves. Yet this is no hack job, director and writer Pen-Ek Ratanaruang has crafted a splendid pot of Thai neo-noir curry, putting his own stamp on things, imbuing the pic with his own flourishes, such as showing acts of violence off screen! Via a shadow, a splatter of blood, or a pair of legs going limp.
The characters who inhabit this world are gloriously strange or purely deranged. The henchmen are from a Thai boxing club, garishly attired in bright red clobber (film is packed with pronounced reds), one of them is even deaf, while their boss is a bit off the map, likes to have one of his charges massage him with is feet. There's a phone sex pest, who ends up being a real key component to how things pan out, and one of the baddies reveals tears and a most bizarre death in the family!
It's all deliciously off kilter, even as the bodies pile up, the black comedy tongue is prodding away at the inside of the cheek. But ultimately its noir heart is with the vagary of fate and of the coincidences that pitch our everyday woman (she's no moll or assassin type) into a bloody and bonkers world. All of which has hinged, ironically, on a number badly screwed to an apartment door! 8/10
6ixtynin9 Was A Brilliant Surprise!
BigHardcoreRed19 January 2005
6ixtynin9 (or Ruang talok 69) was a pretty good dark comedy/drama. I believe this is the first film I have had the pleasure of seeing from Thailand and they made a great first impression on me. Usually, when watching foreign movies, they do not come across that great as they lose something in the translation, I think. This was not the case for 6ixtynin9. I got every subtle joke and I was able to follow the increasingly complex storyline without a problem. I can not say that about the last foreign film I have seen, Sex and Lucia.
The story starts off when a woman, Tum, is laid off from her job. She returns home without a job or enough money for food, etc. She soon finds a mysterious box on her doorstep. Upon opening it, she discovers that it contains $25,000 and soon after, the two men that left it there by mistake, came back looking for it. As you can probably guess, everything was not on the up and up. Anyhow, Tum tells them she has not seen the box. The two men do not believe her and beat her up, then search the apartment. Once their box is found, Tum decides she is not giving it up and, ultimately, ends up with 2 dead henchmen.
Throughout the movie, more and more members of Thailand's organized crime families get involved and this is where small twists and unexpected coincidences begin to happen. You can see Tum becoming more and more callous throughout the day. This is also where her character began to grow on me.
Overall, this movie gave off a sort of Quentin Tarantino feel, more specifically Reservoir Dogs is the closest movie I've seen to it that I can compare it to, although much more subtle. It has it's share of blood, but nothing like Quentin would come up with. Even the English title of this movie makes sense after watching it. The whole problem with the box being left at the wrong doorstep is due to the fact that her apartment number, 6, is not nailed on well and keeps falling to look like apartment 9. This movie was very well done and I can highly recommend it, if you can deal with the subtitles. 8/10
The story starts off when a woman, Tum, is laid off from her job. She returns home without a job or enough money for food, etc. She soon finds a mysterious box on her doorstep. Upon opening it, she discovers that it contains $25,000 and soon after, the two men that left it there by mistake, came back looking for it. As you can probably guess, everything was not on the up and up. Anyhow, Tum tells them she has not seen the box. The two men do not believe her and beat her up, then search the apartment. Once their box is found, Tum decides she is not giving it up and, ultimately, ends up with 2 dead henchmen.
Throughout the movie, more and more members of Thailand's organized crime families get involved and this is where small twists and unexpected coincidences begin to happen. You can see Tum becoming more and more callous throughout the day. This is also where her character began to grow on me.
Overall, this movie gave off a sort of Quentin Tarantino feel, more specifically Reservoir Dogs is the closest movie I've seen to it that I can compare it to, although much more subtle. It has it's share of blood, but nothing like Quentin would come up with. Even the English title of this movie makes sense after watching it. The whole problem with the box being left at the wrong doorstep is due to the fact that her apartment number, 6, is not nailed on well and keeps falling to look like apartment 9. This movie was very well done and I can highly recommend it, if you can deal with the subtitles. 8/10
The more the economy flops, the hornier people get.
lastliberal11 December 2008
An interesting little film that asks what would you do if you had just been laid off and someone mistakenly drops a million bucks at your doorstep? Would you kill to keep the money?
Tum (Lalita Panyopas) has to answer that question quickly as the bad guys are knocking on her door. And, the bodies keep piling up in this funny comedy.
Writer/director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, who wrote and directed the great Last Life in the Universe, certainly kept my interest throughout the movie. but I have to say that the ending really sucked.
By the way, don't any men in Thailand raise the seat?
Tum (Lalita Panyopas) has to answer that question quickly as the bad guys are knocking on her door. And, the bodies keep piling up in this funny comedy.
Writer/director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, who wrote and directed the great Last Life in the Universe, certainly kept my interest throughout the movie. but I have to say that the ending really sucked.
By the way, don't any men in Thailand raise the seat?
My Favorite
k_varut9 January 2001
None of my friends, here in Bangkok, said they like the film. My taste might be different but I think Ruang Talok 69 (the Joke 69) is really good.
My reason is that it is a strong and good satire of life in Bangkok and the Thai culture. The Asian financial crisis in 1997, the boxer gangsters (they wear Muay Thai jackets), the rural guy who misses his mom, the sadistic wife, the obscene phone call, etc. all are somehow relating to real situations and real people here. You might be surprised to learn that in Bangkok there are a lot of actual cases of Thai wives cutting their husbands'..... eh, you know which part I'm talking about.
These kind of things so weird and don't make any sense but they are what we face in our daily life. Thai people are so used to them that we sometimes forgot to realize how non-sense they are. So non-sense that it's actually funny. And it's great to see it mocked so tastefully in this movie.
I liked this movie a lot. And when I read the comments, I was glad to know some other people liked it too.
My reason is that it is a strong and good satire of life in Bangkok and the Thai culture. The Asian financial crisis in 1997, the boxer gangsters (they wear Muay Thai jackets), the rural guy who misses his mom, the sadistic wife, the obscene phone call, etc. all are somehow relating to real situations and real people here. You might be surprised to learn that in Bangkok there are a lot of actual cases of Thai wives cutting their husbands'..... eh, you know which part I'm talking about.
These kind of things so weird and don't make any sense but they are what we face in our daily life. Thai people are so used to them that we sometimes forgot to realize how non-sense they are. So non-sense that it's actually funny. And it's great to see it mocked so tastefully in this movie.
I liked this movie a lot. And when I read the comments, I was glad to know some other people liked it too.
what happens when men enter a single woman's room in Thailand...and other jokes
ThurstonHunger29 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Rented this after definitely enjoying "Final Life in the Universe" also by director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. Please see that one first, if you enjoy it, then perhaps check this one out.
This has trace stylish connections to the other, and there is enough cleverness throughout to make this worth watching, however I'm going to have to invoke a new rule that for every dead body a film loses 5 minutes of character depth. Indeed, corpses in films are just roles that the writer/director didn't care enough about to flesh out, and instead just flushed them down.
The "comedy" here is meant to mingle in a way that I guess is vaguely connected to Tarantino, like QT there's enough tension and blood that some folks won't be able to see the mirth for the murder. Good dream and imagination sequences, and an excellent soundtrack (not just the songs, but the pure soundtrack as well). It was funny seeing a cassette player, in a critical role, I tried renting a car with one recently so I could play some books on tape. I had about as much luck as any given male character has of surviving in this film.
The lead actress, evidently a soap opera star in Thailand, had a beguiling placidity, that really played well as a mouse who roars. The more I think about the film: the masquerading of the "Mafia" man, an excellent use of a mirror in a shot in a cafe, the shot through a keyhole, the symbol of Tum's killer coolness by way of a fly she traps in an ice drink, some of the lines (Jim's request for "just blood, no giblets" and whatever the manicure-to-brain-infection was all about), the more I like this. It's just a genre that I don't normally seek out...sure I'm as desensitized to death as the next guy, but I still am not crazy about seeing it. Nor having to sort of glide past implausibilities...(eg, death by vase to the head??).
I think where "Final Life..." (aka "Ruang Rak Noi Nid Mahasan") succeeds better than this, is that the murder that occurs in that remains mysterious and never the focal point. Here the guarded nature of the lead actress, and left without a real confidante, limits any sort of insight into what she's actually going through. But again this is not an actual film, it is more a fantasy, and I prefer mine with little or no blood.
Still, head and shoulders above so much other dreck, though I wonder if this is really seen as "Thai" cinema. IMDb shows that Pen-Ek spent some time in the US at Pratt Institute, clearly his years there and as an Art Director for other folks makes his silver screen cuisine more cosmopolitan with Thai seasoning than anything else.
I also hate the US title, although it might be a jab at folks looking for another sort of Thai video altogether (something the director pokes at twice during the film). Since I can't quite see to giving this a 9, I guess I'll give it a
6/10
PS On no...not a mandatory 'merican remake
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427994/combined
This has trace stylish connections to the other, and there is enough cleverness throughout to make this worth watching, however I'm going to have to invoke a new rule that for every dead body a film loses 5 minutes of character depth. Indeed, corpses in films are just roles that the writer/director didn't care enough about to flesh out, and instead just flushed them down.
The "comedy" here is meant to mingle in a way that I guess is vaguely connected to Tarantino, like QT there's enough tension and blood that some folks won't be able to see the mirth for the murder. Good dream and imagination sequences, and an excellent soundtrack (not just the songs, but the pure soundtrack as well). It was funny seeing a cassette player, in a critical role, I tried renting a car with one recently so I could play some books on tape. I had about as much luck as any given male character has of surviving in this film.
The lead actress, evidently a soap opera star in Thailand, had a beguiling placidity, that really played well as a mouse who roars. The more I think about the film: the masquerading of the "Mafia" man, an excellent use of a mirror in a shot in a cafe, the shot through a keyhole, the symbol of Tum's killer coolness by way of a fly she traps in an ice drink, some of the lines (Jim's request for "just blood, no giblets" and whatever the manicure-to-brain-infection was all about), the more I like this. It's just a genre that I don't normally seek out...sure I'm as desensitized to death as the next guy, but I still am not crazy about seeing it. Nor having to sort of glide past implausibilities...(eg, death by vase to the head??).
I think where "Final Life..." (aka "Ruang Rak Noi Nid Mahasan") succeeds better than this, is that the murder that occurs in that remains mysterious and never the focal point. Here the guarded nature of the lead actress, and left without a real confidante, limits any sort of insight into what she's actually going through. But again this is not an actual film, it is more a fantasy, and I prefer mine with little or no blood.
Still, head and shoulders above so much other dreck, though I wonder if this is really seen as "Thai" cinema. IMDb shows that Pen-Ek spent some time in the US at Pratt Institute, clearly his years there and as an Art Director for other folks makes his silver screen cuisine more cosmopolitan with Thai seasoning than anything else.
I also hate the US title, although it might be a jab at folks looking for another sort of Thai video altogether (something the director pokes at twice during the film). Since I can't quite see to giving this a 9, I guess I'll give it a
6/10
PS On no...not a mandatory 'merican remake
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427994/combined
Pretty Enjoyable
gordonl563 November 2014
Warning: Spoilers
6ixtynin9 - 1999
This one is a bit hard to tag, it is sort of a dark comedy mixed in with plenty of violence and a neo noir feel.
A young woman working in a Bangkok bank is laid off. The woman, Lalita Panyopas, is the sole breadwinner for her family who live in a country village. She is at a loss as to what to do next. Thoughts of suicide enter her mind as she ponders her future.
She returns to her small apartment to sleep on her problems. Her apartment, number 6, has a loose number that slips down and become a 9 when the door is slammed. This is of course is going to cause Miss Panyopas, a ride into the dark side.
The next morning, Panyopas opens the door to take out the trash, she finds a cardboard box sealed with duct tape in front of the door. She picks it up and brings it inside. She grabs a knife and opens the box. Inside, there is $25,000 in cash. What is she to do? Keep it, or turn it into the police.
A quick trip to the Police station ends that idea when she sees several people being tossed into the cells. She decides to keep the loot. There is soon a knock on the door. She answers and finds two thuggish looking gentlemen looking for a box that had been left in error. Panyopas says she knows nothing about it. The two smile, then give her a fist to the side of the head.
A quick look around the apartment finds the cash. Panyopas is not inclined to giving up the loot. She grabs a flowerpot and brains the one thug. The other goes for her and they struggle on the bed with the thug strangling her. As it so happens, the knife Panyopas had used to open the box is still lying on the bed. She grabs it up and spears the swine with it. Panyopas now has two dead bodies on her hands. What to do? She hides one in a storage trunk and the other in the closet.
Now we find out about the cash. It is the rake off from a crooked boxing racket. Every week, the cash is dropped at apartment 9 for the Thai Mafia. The men this week making the drop had mistaken Panyopas' apartment for the drop place.
The boss of the boxing racket, Black Phomtong, soon gets a call from the Mafia about the non-delivery of the week's cut. Needless to say Phomtong is at a loss to explain this, so he promises to straighten the matter out. He sends two more thugs to look into the matter. The Mafia likewise sends a man to check up on things.
A Policeman who lives in the building happens upon the Mafia type. Guns are pulled and presto change-o, we have two more bodies littering Panyopas' apartment. She goes out and buys several more trunks to stash the bodies in. She decides that she should leave the country sharpish like. She always wanted to visit the UK.
She needs a passport and a visa pronto like. She has heard of a place where an under the table passport and papers can be had for a price. It turns out that the establishment is a sideline of the boxing racket outfit. This of course will enter into play later on.
Panyopas has the passport in the works, a ticket to London bought. Now all she needs to do is dispose of the stiffs. She enlists the help of her best friend, Tasanawalia Ongartittichai. Panyopas needs to borrow her pickup to move the corpses. She is going to dump them is a black water lake just out of town.
While this is going on, the racket boss, Phomtong, has discovered that Panyopas is the one who has his cash. He details one of his henchmen to kill her if she returns to get the passport. He is going to a meeting with the Mafia boss at Panyopas' apartment building.
Panyopas and her friend stop to grab the passport. Pal, Ongartittichai, is killed by the man assigned to kill Panyopas. Panyopas, who is by now is becoming used to bloodshed, in turn kills the gunman.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, er, apartment, the racket boss and the Mafia man are having a healthy dispute. Each is blaming the other over the missing cash. Guns are again produced and soon there are 6 more bodies piled up.
Panyopas returns home to find the new stiffs. She has had enough. She pulls the cash from the hiding place where it was stashed, and hits the road. She takes the cash and dumps it all in the lake. It has caused her nothing but trouble. Panyopas then drives off to return to her country village. She has had enough of the big city.
The misread apartment number bit has been used in several, mostly comedy films before. The story starts with a definite comic feel to it, but grows progressively darker as the film unwinds. The killing of Panyopas' friend, Ongartittichai, was particularly surprising. This is the kind of film one could see the likes of Quentin Tarantino or the Cohen Brothers making.
I liked it.
This one is a bit hard to tag, it is sort of a dark comedy mixed in with plenty of violence and a neo noir feel.
A young woman working in a Bangkok bank is laid off. The woman, Lalita Panyopas, is the sole breadwinner for her family who live in a country village. She is at a loss as to what to do next. Thoughts of suicide enter her mind as she ponders her future.
She returns to her small apartment to sleep on her problems. Her apartment, number 6, has a loose number that slips down and become a 9 when the door is slammed. This is of course is going to cause Miss Panyopas, a ride into the dark side.
The next morning, Panyopas opens the door to take out the trash, she finds a cardboard box sealed with duct tape in front of the door. She picks it up and brings it inside. She grabs a knife and opens the box. Inside, there is $25,000 in cash. What is she to do? Keep it, or turn it into the police.
A quick trip to the Police station ends that idea when she sees several people being tossed into the cells. She decides to keep the loot. There is soon a knock on the door. She answers and finds two thuggish looking gentlemen looking for a box that had been left in error. Panyopas says she knows nothing about it. The two smile, then give her a fist to the side of the head.
A quick look around the apartment finds the cash. Panyopas is not inclined to giving up the loot. She grabs a flowerpot and brains the one thug. The other goes for her and they struggle on the bed with the thug strangling her. As it so happens, the knife Panyopas had used to open the box is still lying on the bed. She grabs it up and spears the swine with it. Panyopas now has two dead bodies on her hands. What to do? She hides one in a storage trunk and the other in the closet.
Now we find out about the cash. It is the rake off from a crooked boxing racket. Every week, the cash is dropped at apartment 9 for the Thai Mafia. The men this week making the drop had mistaken Panyopas' apartment for the drop place.
The boss of the boxing racket, Black Phomtong, soon gets a call from the Mafia about the non-delivery of the week's cut. Needless to say Phomtong is at a loss to explain this, so he promises to straighten the matter out. He sends two more thugs to look into the matter. The Mafia likewise sends a man to check up on things.
A Policeman who lives in the building happens upon the Mafia type. Guns are pulled and presto change-o, we have two more bodies littering Panyopas' apartment. She goes out and buys several more trunks to stash the bodies in. She decides that she should leave the country sharpish like. She always wanted to visit the UK.
She needs a passport and a visa pronto like. She has heard of a place where an under the table passport and papers can be had for a price. It turns out that the establishment is a sideline of the boxing racket outfit. This of course will enter into play later on.
Panyopas has the passport in the works, a ticket to London bought. Now all she needs to do is dispose of the stiffs. She enlists the help of her best friend, Tasanawalia Ongartittichai. Panyopas needs to borrow her pickup to move the corpses. She is going to dump them is a black water lake just out of town.
While this is going on, the racket boss, Phomtong, has discovered that Panyopas is the one who has his cash. He details one of his henchmen to kill her if she returns to get the passport. He is going to a meeting with the Mafia boss at Panyopas' apartment building.
Panyopas and her friend stop to grab the passport. Pal, Ongartittichai, is killed by the man assigned to kill Panyopas. Panyopas, who is by now is becoming used to bloodshed, in turn kills the gunman.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, er, apartment, the racket boss and the Mafia man are having a healthy dispute. Each is blaming the other over the missing cash. Guns are again produced and soon there are 6 more bodies piled up.
Panyopas returns home to find the new stiffs. She has had enough. She pulls the cash from the hiding place where it was stashed, and hits the road. She takes the cash and dumps it all in the lake. It has caused her nothing but trouble. Panyopas then drives off to return to her country village. She has had enough of the big city.
The misread apartment number bit has been used in several, mostly comedy films before. The story starts with a definite comic feel to it, but grows progressively darker as the film unwinds. The killing of Panyopas' friend, Ongartittichai, was particularly surprising. This is the kind of film one could see the likes of Quentin Tarantino or the Cohen Brothers making.
I liked it.
Could have been much better
elestor1 January 2001
I recently watched this movie in a local theatre after hearing the director could be considdered "Thailand´s Quentin Tarantino". I was expecting a fast-paced crime story with sharp dialogues and a lot of gunfire, like Lock Stock and 2 smoking barrels or Pulp Fiction. But 6ixtynin9 isn´t like that at all. It´s not a Hollywood picture, it´s a lot slower, the dialogues are quite short, it´s quite stylish though. The story could easily be used for a Hollywood flic though; a girl finds al lot of cash in front of her door. Ofcourse the bad guys come looking for it and from there everything gets worse and worse. The movie ain´t bad but it could have been a lot better, the plot is quite good but the jokes, the acting, it´s just too slow for my taste.
A darker shade of Pen-Ek
Onderhond3 December 2008
The last couple of years, Thailand has been outputting some interesting films, both commercial flicks and art-house endeavors. On the good side of the art-house fence, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (gotta love Thai names) has been one of the front runners and main flagships of the Thai film industry. Ruang Talok 69 is one of his earlier films and probably the one that made many heads turn his way.
I've been on to Ratanaruang ever since I watched Last Life In The Universe, a collaboration with Asano and Doyle (at a later time successfully repeated in Invisible Waves). The film left a permanent impression and since then I've been on the look-out for more Ratanaruang's films. When I finally came across Ruang Talok 69 I didn't have to think twice before checking it out.
I'm usually a bit apprehensive about older films of directors I like, especially when I was introduced to their more recent work first. These films are often a little less polished, sometimes just downright dire and dull (it happened to Tsai Ming-Liang). In that sense, Ruang Talok 69 was a very interesting surprise. While it does not equal Ratanaruang's later work, it stands very well on its own and manages to keep a fresh appeal.
That said, the movie does start off a little slow. Tum is a rather dull woman who crawls back home after being fired from her work just a little earlier. Her place is as dull as she is and up until that point, nothing much interesting seems to be happening. That changes when a little box with loads of cash is left at her doorstep. An ideal opportunity for Tum to make a fresh start.
Sadly, things won't go easily for Tum. In no time, two scruffy looking guys are knocking on her door searching for the money. When they both fall dead on Tum's floor only five minutes after entering her home, Tum suddenly turns from a dull-downed woman into a woman with a plan. Money does strange things to people.
From there on, the film slips into an endless spiral of bad luck and coincidence, adding a healthy streak of dark humor and some amusing plot twists, ending up in a sprawling finale with bodies littered all over the place. Most of the action takes place in Tum's apartment, where boxes keep stacking up in order to dump the ever growing pile of dead people that end up inside her house.
It's this streak of black humor that adds a lot of flavor to the film. Without it, the films would've been a little plain. Luckily Ratanaruang has an excellent sense of humor (without becoming too bonkers - Thai humor can be pretty freaky). Top scene is probably the blow job scene, which is a lot less obscene than it actually sounds.
Visually Ratanaruang has everything under control. Nice and colorful settings (a typical Thai film look in other words) and some interesting camera tricks often mimicking the movement of characters. The film is not as polished or brilliant as Doyle's work, but I guess nobody would be expecting that. It's still a very clean and solid looking film.
More praise goes out to the soundtrack. While littered with funky Thai music, the darker scenes are scored with some very interesting tracks. I've found little so far about the composer of the soundtrack, but there's some major influence of Kenji Kawai's work in Ghost in the Shell. Not something you'd expect in a film like this, and the association is a little weird at times, but it does work wonders.
Some very interesting ambient tracks are placed underneath the key scenes, featuring instruments almost directly lifted from the GitS soundtrack. It adds heaps to the atmosphere and already defined Ratanaruang's preference for soothing (dark) ambient to score his films.
In the end, Ruang Talok 69 is a very fun ride, nicely shot and awesomely scored, presented with a great sense of humor and key scenes that are wonderfully executed. It starts off a little slow, the pace is pretty sluggish at first, but as the film continues it keeps getting better and better. Another hit for Ratanaruang, who's easily my favorite Thai director to date. 4.0*/5.0*
I've been on to Ratanaruang ever since I watched Last Life In The Universe, a collaboration with Asano and Doyle (at a later time successfully repeated in Invisible Waves). The film left a permanent impression and since then I've been on the look-out for more Ratanaruang's films. When I finally came across Ruang Talok 69 I didn't have to think twice before checking it out.
I'm usually a bit apprehensive about older films of directors I like, especially when I was introduced to their more recent work first. These films are often a little less polished, sometimes just downright dire and dull (it happened to Tsai Ming-Liang). In that sense, Ruang Talok 69 was a very interesting surprise. While it does not equal Ratanaruang's later work, it stands very well on its own and manages to keep a fresh appeal.
That said, the movie does start off a little slow. Tum is a rather dull woman who crawls back home after being fired from her work just a little earlier. Her place is as dull as she is and up until that point, nothing much interesting seems to be happening. That changes when a little box with loads of cash is left at her doorstep. An ideal opportunity for Tum to make a fresh start.
Sadly, things won't go easily for Tum. In no time, two scruffy looking guys are knocking on her door searching for the money. When they both fall dead on Tum's floor only five minutes after entering her home, Tum suddenly turns from a dull-downed woman into a woman with a plan. Money does strange things to people.
From there on, the film slips into an endless spiral of bad luck and coincidence, adding a healthy streak of dark humor and some amusing plot twists, ending up in a sprawling finale with bodies littered all over the place. Most of the action takes place in Tum's apartment, where boxes keep stacking up in order to dump the ever growing pile of dead people that end up inside her house.
It's this streak of black humor that adds a lot of flavor to the film. Without it, the films would've been a little plain. Luckily Ratanaruang has an excellent sense of humor (without becoming too bonkers - Thai humor can be pretty freaky). Top scene is probably the blow job scene, which is a lot less obscene than it actually sounds.
Visually Ratanaruang has everything under control. Nice and colorful settings (a typical Thai film look in other words) and some interesting camera tricks often mimicking the movement of characters. The film is not as polished or brilliant as Doyle's work, but I guess nobody would be expecting that. It's still a very clean and solid looking film.
More praise goes out to the soundtrack. While littered with funky Thai music, the darker scenes are scored with some very interesting tracks. I've found little so far about the composer of the soundtrack, but there's some major influence of Kenji Kawai's work in Ghost in the Shell. Not something you'd expect in a film like this, and the association is a little weird at times, but it does work wonders.
Some very interesting ambient tracks are placed underneath the key scenes, featuring instruments almost directly lifted from the GitS soundtrack. It adds heaps to the atmosphere and already defined Ratanaruang's preference for soothing (dark) ambient to score his films.
In the end, Ruang Talok 69 is a very fun ride, nicely shot and awesomely scored, presented with a great sense of humor and key scenes that are wonderfully executed. It starts off a little slow, the pace is pretty sluggish at first, but as the film continues it keeps getting better and better. Another hit for Ratanaruang, who's easily my favorite Thai director to date. 4.0*/5.0*
a real pleasure....!
emmaamore7 November 2008
This is one of those films where nothing is overly blatant, hardly anything is granted by ways of the lead character's internal character and history, and it isn't jam-packed with various sceneries, dialog, etc. Nothing is too 'in your face', hardly any emotion is shown or felt throughout the film, and even (despite the various killings), action seems to be lacking... It's decidedly quiet, introverted and monotone and YET, somehow completely quirky, insane and colorful at the same time. The film is intelligently crafted in such a way that, by the end of the film, you aren't sure WHAT to make of it, or how to classify it... Except you do know one thing; whatever you just watched, you know, in retrospect, you loved it. And even after identifying the fact that you enjoyed the ride, you still wouldn't rank this strange, ambiguous little film as your top film, but for that you just love it all the more.
It's bizarre, zany, quirky, inane, insane, full of black humor and wit, and full of hidden metaphors and analogies not immediately accessible. You can tell when its over that despite its absurdity, within all the intermediary spots where much is left unsaid, the director has packed a good deal for you to think about, and clearly had some lucid, thought-out objectives for the film.
An intelligent, unique little film that's a heck of a fun ride to watch. Highly recommended!
It's bizarre, zany, quirky, inane, insane, full of black humor and wit, and full of hidden metaphors and analogies not immediately accessible. You can tell when its over that despite its absurdity, within all the intermediary spots where much is left unsaid, the director has packed a good deal for you to think about, and clearly had some lucid, thought-out objectives for the film.
An intelligent, unique little film that's a heck of a fun ride to watch. Highly recommended!
What a waste of time!
junk00430 December 2006
Innocently enough, we thought we'll be watching a Thai thriller/action movie. The movie starts quite odd, but that's OK - it's a Foreign Film, after all. The movie starts with a recently-fired woman who finds a large sum of money on her doorstep. She intends to keep the money at all costs - and since she's not the brightest in the bunch, it leads to all sort of stupid acts taking place. A screenplay writer over here once wrote that you can have only one "act of God" to start the plot - but you can't have "coincidences" all over the place to help you push the plot forward. This movie had some funny moments and some unexpected moments. However, in overall, it looks like the Thai director just created scenes that look like ones from an American thriller of the same type (Money, two groups of gangsters, murders and bodies) without understanding how to do it gracefully. The outcome is very weird at beast, usually just horrible to watch. I say - spare those two hours from your life and watch something else.
A Good Film From Thailand
crossbow01062 May 2008
Lalita Panyopas plays Tum, a young lady just laid off from a finance company. She is naturally deeply affected by it and thinks of suicide. All of a sudden, outside her door, there is a box of cash, which she brings in. Of course, she is visited by two thugs who want the money back, which she denies having, so they walk away. Is that the end of that? Of course not. She kills the two guys while trying to save her own life and now has they lying in her small apartment. It turns out, the money was left outside her door by mistake (the title of the movie is the clue). The film then chronicles what happens to Tum. This is a pretty twisted film, like a horror film, but without any supernatural forces. It has a strange, compelling rhythm to it, and it kept my interest. Once you have the first two thugs killed, you're hooked on what will happen next. Believe me, a lot does. Some of it is fairly preposterous, but darkly comic. Ms. Panyopas is a pretty good actress, not classically pretty, but attractive. You can't imagine being her, and, despite the monetary windfall, you don't want to be her. The moral is money is the root of all evil, and it is presented to us again and again. I liked this, check it out.
6ix 9ine is gr8t cinema
ban681472 June 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Ruang talok 69 doesn't have the pace of current Hollywood movies and it doesn't need to: Pen-ek has got a story to tell. There is no need to for special effects to distract the viewer from a barely existing plot. Rather, a woman's (Tum) struggle in the aftermath of the 1997 economic crisis is depicted with tremendous cinematographic talent. We are shown how she manages, despite finding a bunch-load of cash, to stay true to herself and to resist the temptation of easy money; unlike many during the Tom Yam Gong Disease crisis. Apart from that, '69' entertains with plenty nice shots and love for details, as well as characters which, unlike in many other Thai films, are balanced and like taken from everyday live in Bangkok. In my opinion, this is Pan-ek's best and deepest, yet most amusing movie.
A first-rate dark comedy
davidals11 February 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I rented this without knowing much about it, aside from having heard the directors' name, and was very impressed.
6IXTYNIN9 (the English title) follows a bit of a dark comedy/crime comedy formula, wherein an innocent makes a discovery (money or property) and falls into an uncontrolled succession of events that pushes them toward actions that defy their usual sense of morality. It's all handled inventively here, with slow pacing that builds remarkable tension (especially during the latter half of the film), and some very dry humor that always comes out of nowhere - I almost think it should be rented just for the hysterical 'manicure' scene ("What salon was THAT?"). It should also be noted that the cinematography and performances are dazzling from start to finish.
This is the third Thai film I've seen thus far (the elegant historical drama 'Legend Of Suryothai' and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's remarkable, experimental 'Mysterious Object At Noon'); all three were completely different, but also excellent - I'm definitely on the lookout for more Thai film making it to the US.
6IXTYNIN9 (the English title) follows a bit of a dark comedy/crime comedy formula, wherein an innocent makes a discovery (money or property) and falls into an uncontrolled succession of events that pushes them toward actions that defy their usual sense of morality. It's all handled inventively here, with slow pacing that builds remarkable tension (especially during the latter half of the film), and some very dry humor that always comes out of nowhere - I almost think it should be rented just for the hysterical 'manicure' scene ("What salon was THAT?"). It should also be noted that the cinematography and performances are dazzling from start to finish.
This is the third Thai film I've seen thus far (the elegant historical drama 'Legend Of Suryothai' and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's remarkable, experimental 'Mysterious Object At Noon'); all three were completely different, but also excellent - I'm definitely on the lookout for more Thai film making it to the US.
Great breakaway from typical Thai movies
mya_andaman24 November 2004
I had to watch this film too many times for a film studies course and by the end of the course I was so fed up with it. However, I do think it's a very interesting film...the way the story goes and the way it was made. It definitely is very different from other Thai movies and personally, I think that's why it never made it big in Thailand. I thought the editing was great and the filming technique makes it more realistic and closer to everyday life. Plus the plot surely suited the situations within the country at the time. As for the story I really liked the idea of how everything turned out the total opposite and upside down just cuz of the poorly attached room number "6". I never thought it would be showed in other countries, let alone it gaining foreign fans. I'm glad other people appreciate a small production Thai movie as much as I did.
Wonderfully twisted tale...
dwpollar29 November 2005
Warning: Spoilers
1st watched 11/29/2005, 8 out of 10(Dir:Pen-Ek Ratanaruang): Wonderfully twisted tale of a woman who loses her job, finds a package of money in front of her doorstep that was intended for someone else, kills the two mafia folks who are trying to get the money from her, stashes them in her apartment and that's just the first 15 minutes!! At first, she's just a pawn in a situation that she wasn't supposed to be a part of, but as each person gets killed coming after the money, she becomes the aggressor and wants to keep the money badly so that she can start life anew in another country. This movie is thrilling, exhilarating, comic, tragic, frightening and full of twists and turns. The woman in the middle of everything is played superbly by Lalita Panyopas as she gets deeper and deeper into her situation and becomes more and more hardlined. As she cleans the blood from her apartment after each killing she breaks down only once, and then gives into her obsession completely during a wonderful scene where she lets her best friend see what's been going on in her life lately as she dumps the bodies in a nearby lake. This is one of those "one of a kind" foreign movies that grips you more and more as it goes on. Americans; please don't be frightened by subtitles, the blood, or the fact that we get to see a couple of individuals urinate into a toilet!! Let's grow up!! This is a great thriller from Thailand that should be enjoyed by a lot of people, not just by those who speak the same language and know the way things are in the country it was made.
Great stuff!
rnekic28 March 2004
Warning: Spoilers
Although not one of the newer films, 69 turned out to be one of my favorites of this year's Cleveland International Film Festival. Funny and clever without veering into being overly wacky. You've seen this kind of set-up before but you've never seen such consequences! This is a top-notch black comedy.
Possible spoiler below:
The film is vastly entertaining despite one nagging question that loomed in my head as I watched events unfold: Tum, the next time a million baht shows up on your doorstep - invest in a hammer and a nail! Poor girl, it could have spared you a lot of hassle!
Possible spoiler below:
The film is vastly entertaining despite one nagging question that loomed in my head as I watched events unfold: Tum, the next time a million baht shows up on your doorstep - invest in a hammer and a nail! Poor girl, it could have spared you a lot of hassle!
A nice girl who mostly through not much fault of her own causes the killing of a lot of people
pndfam0523 March 2005
I wasn't expecting much when I rented it. When I started the DVD I was really sure I wouldn't finish it. I'm glad I did. It turned out to have a good story, good acting, and good cinematography. I really enjoyed it.
There were plot twists and unexpected turns. The story starts with a nice girl, laid off from her job, who finds corrupt money outside her apartment door and decides to keep it and ends on a good note.
I laughed at times because the seeming improbability of the circumstances never seemed to occur to the nice girl.
If you watch it, keep in mind that the whole story unfolds in one day!
There were plot twists and unexpected turns. The story starts with a nice girl, laid off from her job, who finds corrupt money outside her apartment door and decides to keep it and ends on a good note.
I laughed at times because the seeming improbability of the circumstances never seemed to occur to the nice girl.
If you watch it, keep in mind that the whole story unfolds in one day!
Important Steps for Mr. Pen-Ek
bloodymonday3 July 2003
Before his controversal"Monrak Transister" Mr.Pen-Ek have provides one of his important and breaktrough film, "6ixtynin9"
With sharp direction and keen eye of details, Mr. Pen-Ek knows how to manage situation very well. He's also makes a interesting plot to much much more interesting plot. Ms.Lalita also give a best performance of her career to date. Great flick krub Mr.Pen-Ek(8/10)
With sharp direction and keen eye of details, Mr. Pen-Ek knows how to manage situation very well. He's also makes a interesting plot to much much more interesting plot. Ms.Lalita also give a best performance of her career to date. Great flick krub Mr.Pen-Ek(8/10)
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