Thailand's choice for BFLF Oscar: Josh Kim's HOW TO WIN AT CHECKERS (EVERY TIME)

If you listen to our cultural guardians, you might think that the only films from Thailand worth knowing about would be those of Apichatpong Weerasethakul (or, "Joe" to his friends), the fellow who has given us any number of impenetrable movies, including the famous Cannes prize-winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Turns out there are other films worth knowing about from Thailand, too, one of which -- HOW TO WIN AT CHECKERS (EVERY TIME) -- was this year's submission from that country as Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film. Though it did not make the shortlist, not to mention the finale five nominees, it's a movie very much worth finding and viewing.

The film's writer/ director, Josh Kim (shown at right) is a Korean-American born in Texas who has based his movie on two stories by the writer Rattawut Lapcharoensap, another Asian-American of, I would guess, Thai ancestry. (I am assuming this because of his unusual, Thai-sounding name.) Checkers... is Kim's first full-length film, after writing and directing several short ones, and it combines two distinct genres: coming-of-age and the GLBT movie.

Both of these genres have been, over the years, pretty much done-to-death by enough movies of inferior quality that, when you hear the mention of either genre, you can't be blamed for wanting to take a pass. It is a pleasure, then, to be able to tell you that Mr. Kim's Checkers combines the two genres into something quite beautiful, heartfelt, poetic, occasionally funny and finally very moving.

This is the tale of a boy named Oat, who we see both as a youngster (above, left) and as a young man (below). We watch as Oat grows from one to the other, with the help of his adoring and adored older brother, Ek, his aunt, and various friends of the family and co-workers of Ek -- as well as Ek's lover, played by a gorgeous newcomer named Arthur Navarat (shown center, two photos below)

Filmmaker Kim weaves into his tale -- based of two of Lapcharoensap's short stories entitled Draft Day and At the Café Lovely -- much of the life in Thailand today: it's economics, politics, social classes, and work environ-ment, along with the manner in which society handles GLBT characters.

As shown here, at least, the life of the gay and transgendered may be less fraught than it is in the USA. (In one telling scene, it is only the "fat kid" who is made fun of in public. Some things never change.) The character named Kitty (played by Natarat Lahka, above left), in fact, is a gorgeous, curving chick who also sports a dick and proves to be the movie's most beautiful, interesting and sought-after character.

We also meet a young man named "Junior," and his crime boss/businessman dad, for whom Ek works. Power, we note sadly, is as corrupting here as it is anywhere else. Evidently, when young men in Thailand turn 21, they must take part of a draft/lottery (shown above) that ensures a certain number of them serve in the military, and the movie smacks us, along with several of its characters, into the middle of this "draft day" and its consequences.

All of this is shown us in relatively quiet, simple manner. But the movie's simplicity never computes as merely simple-minded, while the beauty of face, figure, landscape and color we see here is often exquisite enough to take your breath away (the cinematographer, Nikorn Sripongwarakul, has done masterful job).

The movie begins with a bad dream that our hero remembers and that we head slowly toward as the film progresses. Yet Kim and Lapcharoensap have a surprise or two up their sleeve, so that things do not turn out entirely as we expected. How they evolve provides one of the most quietly thoughtful and thoroughly moving entrances into male adulthood you will have experienced on film in a good, long while, in the process transcending both the coming-of-age and GLBT genres.

How to Win at Checkers (Every Time), from Wolfe Video and running 80 minutes, makes its DVD and VOD debut this coming Tuesday, February 2, for sale and rental. 

EXTRA FOR THANKSGIVING: Could this be the turkey of all time? Refn's ONLY GOD FORGIVES

For the first year since its inception, TrustMovies feels the need to post twice on Thanksgiving, having just watched this past evening Nicolas Winding Refn's more-ludicrous-than-usual movie, ONLY GOD FORGIVES. Not being god, and not even believing in she/he/it, I find it quite appropriate that Mr. Refn would use a non-existent deity in his title in order that -- of course! -- nobody can forgive this prime poop. "How can you keep watching this piece of shit!" my spouse screamed at me after maybe 40 minutes of the movie, at which point he absented himself from the room. I admit I was tempted to stop, but truly bad movies have a kind of fascination about them that sometimes outdoes the lure of their more mediocre (or even a good deal better) brethren. If ever a film deserve the "turkey" label, it's this one.

Mr. Refn (shown at left), whose work I tend to dislike and dismiss as pretty & vapid or stylish & empty (take your pick) -- only Bronson seems to me to be a worthwhile effort, thanks in large part to the performance of Tom Hardy in the leading role -- clearly has a "thing" for his star Ryan Gosling (shown below), whom he used in Drive and again here. Having a thing for Gosling strikes me as a fairly universal occupation among directors. How could one not? The camera loves this guy like it does few other actors working today. Still, that love on Refn's part seems not to translate into giving the actor much to do, say or feel. If you thought that Drive was rather empty, wait till you get a load of this newest delectation, in which Refn takes dysfunction (familial and societal) to new heights (or depths) without having one fucking interesting or worthwhile point to offer about all this. No, but let's just make it as pretty and colorful as can be, shall we?

So he does, and it is. And of course, violent, as well. What else might we expect from this pusher of Pusher and Valhalla Rising?

The story, told with flourishes of color and a tad's worth of dialog, begins with a troubled fellow named Billy, who for some reason feels he must murder a young girl who is working as a prostitute. He does, and the event is taken under the wing of a character who appears to be some kind of avenging angel/police officer (Vithaya Pansringarm, above), who begins arranging that one person involved kill another and then that person in turn be killed by another, and so forth.

Now, you might ask, wouldn't it just be easier for the policeman to kill 'em all, as he seems to possess unlimited authority. But no, this is lesson-teaching time, him to them and Mr. Refn to us. So we must slough through endless bouts of internal angst, mostly from Gosling, who is having trouble with his sex/love life (see above)...

and his family life, too, in the form of his mother, played with quite the nod to Donatella Versace by Kristin Scott-Thomas, above, as you've never seen her (and if she's wise, the actress will never let us see her like this again). Mom's logic goes somewhat along the lines of "Vengeance is mine," sayest the harridan, and so more bloodshed is destined to occur.

Everyone involved here seems to have a family that they must take care for, and so Refn's point may be that people will simply do what they have to in order to protect their own. As usual, however -- even and especially with filmmakers who like to pretend that they are pushing the envelope -- nobody (or very few: Battle Royale deserves yet another thank you) wants to go far enough to kill children. (Although Obama and his drones do seem to relish this kind of thing.)

So on we go with more and more killings and less and less dialog. (My favorite line comes out of Gosling's mouth, suddenly and very oddly: "Wanna fight?") There is one original death in which the victim, who slowly loses the use of his limbs and a few orifices, is surrounded by lovely Thai ladies in evening dress. Yes, but so what?

Only God Forgives -- from RaDIUS/TWC, running 90 minutes, and available now on Netflix streaming, Amazon Instant Video and on DVD and Blu-ray -- is a truly stupid movie, gussied up to look like art. It won't take long, however, for audiences to realize what they're experiencing. In a word: fart.