Soi Cowboy

[taxexile]

Soi Cowboy (The Movie)

source: timesonline.co.uk May 16 2008

Movie review by Wendy Ide

With his assured but deeply unpleasant debut feature, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael, the British director Thomas Clay established his credentials as both a cineaste with a defiantly arthouse tastes and an arch provocateur. The artfully photographed ultra-violence garnered plenty of news headlines and rather fewer positive reviews when the film premiered in Critic’s Week in Cannes 2005. Clay drew comparisons to the arthouse enfants terrible Bruno Dumont and Gaspar Noi. A British director, he had a decidedly un-British sensibility.

With his second feature, Soi Cowboy, the 28-year-old Clay distances himself geographically as well as stylistically from his British roots.

Shot entirely in Thailand, where Clay now lives, the film is divided into two distinct parts, perhaps as a nod towards Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady. The first segment, shot in rather lifeless black and white, observes the mundane minutiae of the lives of a bloated Danish ex-pat and his pregnant, childlike Thai girlfriend. The man, played by Nicholas Bro, is a film - maker – presumably he is Clay’s alter-ego, although what that says about his life in Thailand is debatable.

The couple live together in a cramped apartment but it feels more like a convenient co-existence than a relationship. Clay favours long takes and an almost static camera, but he seems less confident in what to do with it than he was in his first film. At one point, during an interminable, wordless breakfast scene, the camera starts to drift gradually, almost imperceptibly, before coming to rest, inexplicably, on a toaster.

Through the quotidian dullness of the couple’s daily life, we piece together a picture of a partnership based on a kind of commerce. She gets to escape the girly bars of Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy; he gets to pop Viagra then stare hopefully at her back as she curls away from him in bed at night. Towards the end of the segment, the couple take a trip to the temples of Ayutthaya and there, when both take on the status of tourists, there seems to be a glimpse of a proper relationship rather than just a business deal. But Clay takes a long time to say very little in this part of the film.

After the stultifying austerity of the first segment, the saturated colours and the jerky hand - held camera of the second part come as a relief. Stylistically, it’s more rewarding. Set among the rural poor, the story demonstrates how much less a life is worth if the cushion of money is not there to protect it. A young man returns home, on the orders of his mafia boss, to kill his brother for some unspecified sin. However, his own life is worth little more. The couple from the first part reappear but as different characters to highlight the film’s less than profound insight that a wrong turn somewhere in life can have devastating ramifications.

Clay doesn’t let us forget his self-appointed auteur status, name-checking his own first film alongside David Lynch’s Inland Empire.

But there is little sign of his supposed genius in this pretentious, fraudulent film.

_________________

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[mahtin]

thanks for the warning

[simon43]

It sounds rather good

Simon

[Boater]

anyone know where to buy in Phuket? or is this going to be screen in the cinema?

Looks a good movie

boater

[taxexile]

At one point, during an interminable, wordless breakfast scene, the camera starts to drift gradually, almost imperceptibly, before coming to rest, inexplicably, on a toaster.

sounds great.

[Mossfinn]

an interminable, wordless breakfast scene,

sounds great.

Moss

[Spee]

But there is little sign of his supposed genius in this pretentious, fraudulent film.

Thanks, but I think I'd rather just watch an Ong Bak re-run.

[rgs2001uk]

tavexile,

i must admit to feeling somewhat letdown, usually when i see your name on a thread i know i am in for a treat, a la your wit and sarcasm.

however on this occasion your review is missing that certain, je ne sais qua,charm and cynicism we have come to expect, infact demand from your postings.

3/10 for effort, must try harder.

we your audience demand better, if you can only post such a trivial and tame review such as this, then please dont bother.

[disgruntled]

'childlike girlfriend' 'convenient coexistence' Useful wording for here in LOS and not only for Soi Cowboy stories

[Goshawk]

it looks good...

trailer for it here

and a review here

[britmaveric]

Very cliche - however I'm sure that's what its going for.

[girlx]

is this the film that was banned at the film festival this year?

[mommysboy]

is this the film that was banned at the film festival this year?

Sounds like a bore of a movie. Probably banned for being crap.

[Goshawk]

SOI COWBOY to be released in Thailand on 8 January 2009 exclusively at Paragon Cineplex.

from their website

looks like an art house movie

[mrtoad]

SOI COWBOY to be released in Thailand on 8 January 2009 exclusively at Paragon Cineplex.

from their website

looks like an art house movie

Don't you mean a Doll House movie.

[MKAsok]

is this the film that was banned at the film festival this year?

That was Children of the Dark. As for the above review, we're supposed to trust the judgement of someone who composes sentences like: 'With his assured but deeply unpleasant debut feature, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael, the British director Thomas Clay established his credentials as both a cineaste with a defiantly arthouse tastes,' who can't be bothered to find out how to spell Gaspar Noé properly? 'Pretentious and fraudulent' is about right.

[Goshawk]

SOI COWBOY to be released in Thailand on 8 January 2009 exclusively at Paragon Cineplex.

from their website

looks like an art house movie

Don't you mean a Doll House movie.

edit: dam_n, just got it.. the bar ! (i take back my previous emoticon )

it's actually a decent flik, got a rough copy over the web a couple of hours ago...

Edited January 10, 2009 by Goshawk

[soundman]

an interminable, wordless breakfast scene,

sounds great.

Moss

[Jai Dee]

and a review here

An interesting review and far more positive that the original posted by taxexile.

I liked this comment: "I was caught up in the familiar-feeling rhythms of both urban and rural life..."

I'm sure many of us have been there and seen that... should be interesting.

[Jockstar]

Anyone know if i can get it on the net?

[Tedhead]

I dunno so much, looks an interesting flick to me. I remember having a French girlfriend and being dragged along to see some French art-house muck called 'Bon Travail'. One part consisted of a man smoking a cigarette for 5 minutes standing on top of a rock. No dialogue or monologue, just the sound of the wind and him staring meaninglessly into the distance. This film is an action-thriller by comparison.

[AndyBlueEyes]

Since Wise Kwai reviewed the movie and 5 out of 5, I will give it a go the next time I head to the movies. From watching the trailer, my guess is that if anyone sees themselves as a reflection of the main character Tobias then they will not enjoy the movie.

[BigSnake]

Maybe a view is in order.

[Jockstar]

Let me know if anyone finds it online. Cheers.

[lightstar]

the only great thing I think it captured, was the noise of BKK. the whistle blowing, the roar of traffic. so true.

it started off well enough, including ummm... long shots of toaster, grannie with zimmer frame... but just what the f&*K is that ending about!!??

What could have been an insight into thai-farang relationships (as though we need one, but hey) turned into a load of tosh.

if anyone can explain the ending to me, and it's relevance to the rest of the movie, I'd love to hear...

Edited January 11, 2009 by lightstar

[dotcom]

I liked this comment: "I was caught up in the familiar-feeling rhythms of both urban and rural life..."

I'm sure many of us have been there and seen that... should be interesting.

Sounds like it has approximately nothing to do with Soi Cowboy. I'll boycott it because the guy sounds like a dolt.

[JimsKnight]

the only great thing I think it captured, was the noise of BKK. the whistle blowing, the roar of traffic. so true.

it started off well enough, including ummm... long shots of toaster, grannie with zimmer frame... but just what the f&*K is that ending about!!??

What could have been an insight into thai-farang relationships (as though we need one, but hey) turned into a load of tosh.

if anyone can explain the ending to me, and it's relevance to the rest of the movie, I'd love to hear...

I took one look at the synopsis and binned any idea of watching this film.

It's just some idle dross using Thailand as a crutch to tell a very mundane and lame film.

[girlx]

i tried to watch this film, i really did, but i ended up walking out at the scene where they got to ayutthaya... it was just too tedious and depressing. i felt really bad for the farang, but then again he was a slob. if i hadn't already lived in thailand for most of the past decade, it might have had a little more impact on me- but i knew already how pathetic certain sex tourists and their prizes are so there was no big revelation for me.

[Groongthep]

I went to see the 1610 showing of the movie yesterday (Sunday the 11th) at the Paragon. It was certainly not what promoters of mainstream films would ever refer to as "The feel-good movie of the year". It is indeed the type of film one would usually see at an art house theater but IMHO this film is nearly completely lacking of anything artful. The first half of the film was shot in black and white to accentuate the darkness of the characters and their lives. Adding to the dreariness was the fact that both main characters were over-the-top caricatures of the worn out stereotypes many of us have grown sick of. There was next to no character development which left many unanswered questions, not the least of which was "Why?" We all know there are many relationships of convenience here in Thailand but the one depicted in this film defied belief. The second part of the film then mercifully switched to color and went into an equally difficult to watch pointlessly violent storyline. Many scenes in the second half were shot using a dizzying hand-held camera effect that reminded me of the Blair Witch Project. Usually these types of films are made with the intent of having something of value to say to the viewer but I left the theater completely puzzled as to what the f#ck this one was trying to tell me other than Thailand is bad place filled with bad people. Save your 180 Baht and see something else.

[sabaijai]

I thought Soi Cowboy was an interesting film. Not a great film (not sure who WiseKwai is trying to impress with his 5 stars!) and certainly not a popcorn entertainer. If you're not interested in film for art's sake, you probably won't like it.

Director Clay used Aphichatpong's cinematographer so we get the same blurred foliage, etc as in Tropical Malady. If you like Aphichatpong films, you'll probably like Soi Cowboy. I'm not an Aphichatpong fan, yet I found this slightly more watchable than TR.

The assistant director is a friend, and after I saw SC, he explained how the two sections of the narrative related to each other. The second, colour part, represents the novel that the fat Dane is writing on his laptop (and discussing over the phone) during the first, b&w part. His real life is dull and routine, but the novel lifts himself and his girlfriend into a world of gangsters and debauchery.

Almost none of the actors in SC had ever appeared in a film before, except for ex-boxer Somluck Kamsing, which suited the indie style all the more. Luuk khreung singer Art Supawatt Purdy played the singer in the final scenes and I thought he was good.

The same local production company, DeWarrenne Pictures, co-produced The Elephant King, which premieres this week at Paragon and Esplanade. Compared to Soi Cowboy, it's a comprehensible and entertaining film, with accomplished actors and cinematography by up-and-coming Diego Quemada-Diez.