I have to say, there are some really good movies coming out of Thailand. They have high production values, excellent acting, lush scores, quality cinematography, and consistent, stylized direction.
In fact, "Beautiful Boxer" (WIW #4, 12 NOV 05) is on my all time top 10 movie list.
Bangkok Love Story would make the top 25. It's the mesmerizing stylized story of a hired killer from a poor neighborhood who does what he does to support his mother and younger brother, both of whom are HIV positive thanks to the brutality and rape of a man who once lived with his family. His latest mark is a cop, whom he trails and then kidnaps to deliver to his patron before killing him. "Cloud," the assassin, never knows anything about the people he kills and believes that they are bad people.
This time, when he learns the mark's identity, he refuses to kill him, "Stone". A shoot out ensues in which Cloud is mortally wounded but manages to escape with Stone's help. Away from danger, it is obvious that Stone cannot return home, and Cloud will die unless someone attends to his wound and nurses him back to health. What at first seems to Stone as a debt owed to Cloud becomes an obsession that unleashes in him his own hidden sexuality...and from here the film is a tour de force of emotions (a true melodrama in all of this genre's glory).
The performances are powerful, the writing spare at times (superceded by the images) and beautiful at others (revealing the motives and confusion of the characters). But it's the full package of the cinematography (lighting, camera angle, film speed, point-of-view, color palette) that really shines in this film. Even if you're averse to sub-titles, this is a film worth experiencing on so many levels.
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