viljar-soiland

This is an excellent film. It is truly fascinating. As the narrator of the film says in the opening scene: this is the story of Phaen (Pan), who is a good guy, but whom the gods, for whatever reason, chose to give amounts of bad luck. In a sense, this is a very "black" film. The film starts with a summary of Pan courting Sadaw, before the two marry, and Sadaw's consequent pregnancy. However, due to his misfortune, Pan is drafted into the army, and from there, his misery continues. No matter what Pan does, and no matter how nicely he acts towards, and attempts to do "the right thing", it seems that he is just pulled deeper and deeper into it. He is pulled more and more towards the urban life, and the miserable conditions there, away from the romanticised peaceful life in the countryside, symbolised by Sadaw, and the transistor which he gave her as a token of her love, but which falls to the floor and breaks. Throughout the film, traditional Thai music is used to describe what is happening, the most frequently used being a very romantic one, whose lyrics are "don't forget, don't forget"--words that give hope to Pan, as he suffers his misfortunes in the big world, because his fate is cruel, and has decided that his dream, although seemingly so close to being realised, will remain simply a dream.