Monrak Transistor
Encyclopedia
Monrak Transistor is a 2001
Thai film
directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
. Blending several genres, including comedy
, romance
, musical
and crime
, it is the story of a young man named Pan and his odyssey
after he goes AWOL from the army and tries to make it as a luk thung
singing star.
The old jailer picks up the story, saying the prisoner is a boy named Pan from his home village.
Pan is a simple country boy. In the words of the jailer, he thinks about entertainment too much and is not respectful enough of his elders. In other words, he's not too bright.
Yet, he's a good singer, and the story flashes back to a village fair, where he's up on stage singing his heart out, with his lyrics being composed on the spot and directed toward Sadao, a pretty village girl who's dancing in the crowd.
A local rich kid pulls up in his truck and asks Sadao to dance. Then, when the rich kid goes to the drinks stand, Pan hands his microphone over to another performer and moves to dance with Sadao. The rich kid returns, and Pan bumps into him, spilling the drinks. The rich guy, with his thuggish friends in tow, orders Pan to clean up the mess. Pan does so by spitting on the guy's shoes.
A fight breaks out, but the music keeps going, with a guitarist picking up the beat and screaming a punk song as the fight intensifies.
Pan and Sadao retreat to Sadao's home, where Pan breaks into another song, expressing his love. But before long, Sadao's irascible father shows up with a shotgun, causing Pan to jump into the river to escape the shotgun blasts.
Pan is not easily deterred. Via his sister, he sends Sadao a pretty blue blouse, accompanied by a love note. He then shows up one day to dig a pond for Sadao's father, explaining that the man Sadao's father had originally hired was sick. He insists on calling the man Dad.
"Stop calling me Dad. When did I fuck your mother," the old man cruelly admonishes Pan.
The old man is complaining of various aches and pains. Pan offers to get him some folk medicine, something involving foot pollen, which because of the cultural association of the foot being the basest part of the body, gravely offends him. Pan is back in the doghouse with Sadao's father.
Yet the two become married. For a present, Pan presents Sadao with a new transistor
radio. They have a baby on the way and they enjoy being together.
"The movie could end here," the narrator chimes in, "and you'd be heading for exits with a happy ending. But there is more to this sad tale."
Pan's run of bad luck starts when he draws the wrong number in the draft lottery and must enter the army. He heads off to basic training before his wife gives birth to their child. He promises to write her a letter every day.
A musical interlude depicts Pan and the other soldiers singing the mournful song "Mai Leum" ("Don't Forget) as they crawl on their backs in the mud under barbed wire, and during their haircuts.
One day Pan sees a poster for a singing contest and at the urging of his army buddies, he enters. He nervously gets up on stage and says he wants to sing "The Sad Soldier". The band doesn't know the tune, so Pan sings it a cappella
. Though he wows the crowd, he faints onstage when the song is complete. Along with a local girl, Dao, Pan wins the contest and without giving thought to the consequences, he's on a bus headed for Bangkok
, where he hopes to become a big singing star.
He ends up locked inside the music company's office, where he spends the night. The next day, he meets his new boss, a sleazy producer named Suwat, who insists Pan call him "Daddy". He lectures Pan about all the hard work he'll need to do before making it as a star.
So Pan pitches in around the office, mopping floors and running errands. Months go by. He mops the floor while the other singer who won the contest, Dao, receives training as a singer. Pan keeps mopping. Soon, 27 months have gone by. He's still mopping floors.
Meanwhile, Sadao is left alone to raise the couple's child. She has not heard a word from Pan and is looking careworn. The radio she was given as a wedding present is starting to wear out.
Pan sleeps in a storage closet, a room he shares with an old man named Yen, who reveals that he, too, wanted to be a singing star, but it's the young women who usually get all the breaks first, he tells Pan.
So Pan keeps mopping floors, washing cars and running errands. He also becomes close with Dao, whom he assists one night after she becomes ill.
Finally, one night at a show, Pan gets his big break when the star male singer doesn't show up. Pan is hastily thrown into a gold lame
tuxedo and pushed onstage.
What he doesn't know is that out in the crowd is Sadao and her father. They have finally tracked down Pan and have come to visit him. She's brought him bottles of rainwater from the village, figuring the water in the city is dirty and unfit to drink. Pan and Sadao enjoy a brief reunion after the show, but Pan is quickly whisked away by Suwat, to Suwat's home, which is decorated with animal skins.
Suwat tells Pan to relax and goes to change. He comes out with some beers, wearing just a silk bathrobe and his underwear. Suwat puts on a porn tape
- it's a film of the girl singer, Dao. Suwat tells Pan to strip and has him pose for photos. Suwat becomes bolder and bolder, and eventually sexually assaults Pan. Pan reacts in surprise and confusion, pushing Suwat off of him. Suwat lands on a glass table and is killed.
Pan runs out into the street. He sees a policeman. Now, not only is he AWOL from the army, he's also a murderer. He then spots a truck loaded down with other men, so he hops aboard, hoping to hop back off when the truck stops. But the truck doesn't stop until it's taken Pan to a remote sugar cane plantation, where he's set to work cutting cane in torturous conditions.
Meanwhile, back in the village, a smooth-talking travelling salesman
, peddling deworming medicine from his boat, is passing through. He's taken a liking to Sadao, giving her some medicine for her sick baby and inviting her to a movie screening that night. He further charms her at the screening, by demonstrating his talents as a film dubber, improvising lines to tell her how beautiful she is.
Back on the sugar-cane plantation, the workers, tired of their diet of vegetables and rice, are restive. Pan has made friends with one of the workers, Siew, but Pan is also well liked by the tough boss, Yot. One night at a card game, Yot finds that Siew has won all his money. A fight breaks out. There is running through the jungle. Dead bodies are uncovered. The horror! Pan and Siew keep running, and eventually wind up in the city.
Starving and their clothes ragged, they happen upon a luxury hotel where they see beggers, street cleaners and motorcycle taxi drivers - poor people - being ushered in, Pan and Siew walk in and start helping themselves to the buffet, shoving food into their pockets. It's a charity ball where the elite are dressing up as the poor, and Pan and Siew win the prize for most authentic costume. But when all the food in their pockets is discovered, they are kicked out of the hotel.
Desperate for money, Pan and Siew hatch another plan. Siew snatches a woman's necklace, and, as she chases him, he passes it Pan, who is then chased by the police. Eventually Pan is caught, and this brings the story back to where it started in the jail.
Pan ends up serving two years in prison, where he and the other inmates work on the prison farm, fertilizing crops with their own feces
and urine
. While dipping a bucket into the sewage
well, Pan falls in, and is covered in the brown substance.
On his release, Pan waits on the street for a ride. A truck pulls up. It is Siew, who is wearing a track suit, lots of jewelry and is carrying a cellular phone. With his hair dyed blond, he calls himself Peter and announces he is now a drug dealer, and has made quick money. And, to add more indignity to the situation, he's married a former singing star and porn actress - Dao.
Finally, Pan returns to Sadao. She looks more careworn than ever. In addition to a little boy, there's an infant in a crib. "Who's kid is that?" Pan asks when he sees the younger baby. "His father was a dog," she explains. "They are all dogs." Pan looks around. A photo of Sadao's father is on the wall. He's died. The transistor radio lies in a corner, broken and covered with dust. The pretty blue blouse is faded and stained and crumpled on the floor in another corner.
There's a final musical reprise of "Mai Leum", with all the characters in the film putting in an appearance to sing the chorus. Sadao reluctantly accepts Pan back into her life, and breaks down, weeping profusely as the couple embraces.
in 2002. It was the first Thai film selected for the Directors' Fortnight
at the Cannes Film Festival
, where it screened in 2002. Awards include:
2001 in film
The year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series and also the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy...
Thai film
Cinema of Thailand
The cinema of Thailand dates back to the early days of filmmaking, when King Chulalongkorn's 1897 visit to Bern, Switzerland was recorded by Francois-Henri Lavancy-Clarke. The film was then brought to Bangkok, where it was exhibited...
directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is a Thai film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his arthouse work, Last Life in the Universe, and is considered to be one of Thai cinema's leading "new wave" auteurs, alongside Wisit Sasanatieng and Apichatpong Weerasethakul...
. Blending several genres, including comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
, romance
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
, musical
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
and crime
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
, it is the story of a young man named Pan and his odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
after he goes AWOL from the army and tries to make it as a luk thung
Luk thung
Luk Thung refers to the most popular form of a style of music found in Thailand. The term is short for pleng luk thung .Luk Thung songs typically reflect the hardship of everyday life among the rural poor. Tempos tend to be slow, and singers use an expressive singing style with a lot of vibrato...
singing star.
Plot
The story begins in a jail, where a prisoner is being interrogated. The action is taking place in the background, behind bars and is blurred. The focus is on a bottle of laxative. Seems the prisoner has stolen a necklace and swallowed it. Soon, the necklace is passed. And it's not even real gold.The old jailer picks up the story, saying the prisoner is a boy named Pan from his home village.
Pan is a simple country boy. In the words of the jailer, he thinks about entertainment too much and is not respectful enough of his elders. In other words, he's not too bright.
Yet, he's a good singer, and the story flashes back to a village fair, where he's up on stage singing his heart out, with his lyrics being composed on the spot and directed toward Sadao, a pretty village girl who's dancing in the crowd.
A local rich kid pulls up in his truck and asks Sadao to dance. Then, when the rich kid goes to the drinks stand, Pan hands his microphone over to another performer and moves to dance with Sadao. The rich kid returns, and Pan bumps into him, spilling the drinks. The rich guy, with his thuggish friends in tow, orders Pan to clean up the mess. Pan does so by spitting on the guy's shoes.
A fight breaks out, but the music keeps going, with a guitarist picking up the beat and screaming a punk song as the fight intensifies.
Pan and Sadao retreat to Sadao's home, where Pan breaks into another song, expressing his love. But before long, Sadao's irascible father shows up with a shotgun, causing Pan to jump into the river to escape the shotgun blasts.
Pan is not easily deterred. Via his sister, he sends Sadao a pretty blue blouse, accompanied by a love note. He then shows up one day to dig a pond for Sadao's father, explaining that the man Sadao's father had originally hired was sick. He insists on calling the man Dad.
"Stop calling me Dad. When did I fuck your mother," the old man cruelly admonishes Pan.
The old man is complaining of various aches and pains. Pan offers to get him some folk medicine, something involving foot pollen, which because of the cultural association of the foot being the basest part of the body, gravely offends him. Pan is back in the doghouse with Sadao's father.
Yet the two become married. For a present, Pan presents Sadao with a new transistor
Transistor
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current...
radio. They have a baby on the way and they enjoy being together.
"The movie could end here," the narrator chimes in, "and you'd be heading for exits with a happy ending. But there is more to this sad tale."
Pan's run of bad luck starts when he draws the wrong number in the draft lottery and must enter the army. He heads off to basic training before his wife gives birth to their child. He promises to write her a letter every day.
A musical interlude depicts Pan and the other soldiers singing the mournful song "Mai Leum" ("Don't Forget) as they crawl on their backs in the mud under barbed wire, and during their haircuts.
One day Pan sees a poster for a singing contest and at the urging of his army buddies, he enters. He nervously gets up on stage and says he wants to sing "The Sad Soldier". The band doesn't know the tune, so Pan sings it a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
. Though he wows the crowd, he faints onstage when the song is complete. Along with a local girl, Dao, Pan wins the contest and without giving thought to the consequences, he's on a bus headed for Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, where he hopes to become a big singing star.
He ends up locked inside the music company's office, where he spends the night. The next day, he meets his new boss, a sleazy producer named Suwat, who insists Pan call him "Daddy". He lectures Pan about all the hard work he'll need to do before making it as a star.
So Pan pitches in around the office, mopping floors and running errands. Months go by. He mops the floor while the other singer who won the contest, Dao, receives training as a singer. Pan keeps mopping. Soon, 27 months have gone by. He's still mopping floors.
Meanwhile, Sadao is left alone to raise the couple's child. She has not heard a word from Pan and is looking careworn. The radio she was given as a wedding present is starting to wear out.
Pan sleeps in a storage closet, a room he shares with an old man named Yen, who reveals that he, too, wanted to be a singing star, but it's the young women who usually get all the breaks first, he tells Pan.
So Pan keeps mopping floors, washing cars and running errands. He also becomes close with Dao, whom he assists one night after she becomes ill.
Finally, one night at a show, Pan gets his big break when the star male singer doesn't show up. Pan is hastily thrown into a gold lame
Lamé
In fencing, a lamé is an electrically conductive jacket worn by foil and sabre fencers in order to define the scoring area . Foil lamés, although traditionally a metallic grey, are becoming more and more popular in an array of colors. In foil, the lamé extends on the torso from the shoulders to...
tuxedo and pushed onstage.
What he doesn't know is that out in the crowd is Sadao and her father. They have finally tracked down Pan and have come to visit him. She's brought him bottles of rainwater from the village, figuring the water in the city is dirty and unfit to drink. Pan and Sadao enjoy a brief reunion after the show, but Pan is quickly whisked away by Suwat, to Suwat's home, which is decorated with animal skins.
Suwat tells Pan to relax and goes to change. He comes out with some beers, wearing just a silk bathrobe and his underwear. Suwat puts on a porn tape
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
- it's a film of the girl singer, Dao. Suwat tells Pan to strip and has him pose for photos. Suwat becomes bolder and bolder, and eventually sexually assaults Pan. Pan reacts in surprise and confusion, pushing Suwat off of him. Suwat lands on a glass table and is killed.
Pan runs out into the street. He sees a policeman. Now, not only is he AWOL from the army, he's also a murderer. He then spots a truck loaded down with other men, so he hops aboard, hoping to hop back off when the truck stops. But the truck doesn't stop until it's taken Pan to a remote sugar cane plantation, where he's set to work cutting cane in torturous conditions.
Meanwhile, back in the village, a smooth-talking travelling salesman
Vendor (supply chain)
A vendor, or a supplier, is a supply chain management term meaning anyone who provides goods or services to a company. A vendor often manufactures inventoriable items, and sells those items to a customer.- History :...
, peddling deworming medicine from his boat, is passing through. He's taken a liking to Sadao, giving her some medicine for her sick baby and inviting her to a movie screening that night. He further charms her at the screening, by demonstrating his talents as a film dubber, improvising lines to tell her how beautiful she is.
Back on the sugar-cane plantation, the workers, tired of their diet of vegetables and rice, are restive. Pan has made friends with one of the workers, Siew, but Pan is also well liked by the tough boss, Yot. One night at a card game, Yot finds that Siew has won all his money. A fight breaks out. There is running through the jungle. Dead bodies are uncovered. The horror! Pan and Siew keep running, and eventually wind up in the city.
Starving and their clothes ragged, they happen upon a luxury hotel where they see beggers, street cleaners and motorcycle taxi drivers - poor people - being ushered in, Pan and Siew walk in and start helping themselves to the buffet, shoving food into their pockets. It's a charity ball where the elite are dressing up as the poor, and Pan and Siew win the prize for most authentic costume. But when all the food in their pockets is discovered, they are kicked out of the hotel.
Desperate for money, Pan and Siew hatch another plan. Siew snatches a woman's necklace, and, as she chases him, he passes it Pan, who is then chased by the police. Eventually Pan is caught, and this brings the story back to where it started in the jail.
Pan ends up serving two years in prison, where he and the other inmates work on the prison farm, fertilizing crops with their own feces
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
and urine
Urine
Urine is a typically sterile liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination and excreted through the urethra. Cellular metabolism generates numerous by-products, many rich in nitrogen, that require elimination from the bloodstream...
. While dipping a bucket into the sewage
Sewage
Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...
well, Pan falls in, and is covered in the brown substance.
On his release, Pan waits on the street for a ride. A truck pulls up. It is Siew, who is wearing a track suit, lots of jewelry and is carrying a cellular phone. With his hair dyed blond, he calls himself Peter and announces he is now a drug dealer, and has made quick money. And, to add more indignity to the situation, he's married a former singing star and porn actress - Dao.
Finally, Pan returns to Sadao. She looks more careworn than ever. In addition to a little boy, there's an infant in a crib. "Who's kid is that?" Pan asks when he sees the younger baby. "His father was a dog," she explains. "They are all dogs." Pan looks around. A photo of Sadao's father is on the wall. He's died. The transistor radio lies in a corner, broken and covered with dust. The pretty blue blouse is faded and stained and crumpled on the floor in another corner.
There's a final musical reprise of "Mai Leum", with all the characters in the film putting in an appearance to sing the chorus. Sadao reluctantly accepts Pan back into her life, and breaks down, weeping profusely as the couple embraces.
Cast
- Supakorn KitsuwonSupakorn KitsuwonSupakorn Kitsuwon is a Thai film and stage actor. Among his starring roles are as Pan in Monrak Transistor and Khun Krabi in SARS Wars...
as Pan - Siriyakorn PukkaveshSiriyakorn PukkaveshSiriyakorn Pukkavesa is a Thai actress, model, presenter, designer and magazine publisher. She is best known by her nickname, Oom ....
as Sadao - Black Phomtong as Yot
- Somlek SakdikulSomlek SakdikulSomlek Sakdikul is a Thai film actor and musician. He is sometimes credited as Somchai Sakdikul. He portrayed "Suwat" or "Daddy", the lecherous music producer in Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's 2001 comedy, Monrak Transistor...
as Suwat - Porntip PapanaiPorntip PapanaiPorntip Papanai is a Thai actress and model. Among her film roles are supporting parts in Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Monrak Transistor , in which she played the country singer Dao, and Ploy , in which she portrayed Tum, the hotel maid....
as Dao - Ampon Rattanawong as Siew
- Prasit Wongrakthai as Sadaw's father
- Chartchai Hamnuansak as the old prison guard
- Ackarat Nitipol as Kiattisak
- Sawang Rodnuch as Yen
- Ornnapa Krissadee as the charity ball announcer
Festivals and awards
The film was Thailand's official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language FilmAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
in 2002. It was the first Thai film selected for the Directors' Fortnight
Directors' Fortnight
Directors' Fortnight is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. The section was created in 1969 after the events of May 1968, in which the Cannes festival was canceled in solidarity with striking workers....
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, where it screened in 2002. Awards include:
- 2002 Asia-Pacific Film Festival
- Best actor, Supakorn Kitsuwon
- Best Sound
- 2002 Seattle International Film FestivalSeattle International Film FestivalThe Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...
- Asian Trade Winds Award
- 2002 Thailand National Film Awards
- Best actress, Siriyakorn Pukkavesh
- Best picture, Cinemasia
- Best screenplay, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
- 2002 Vienna International Film Festival
- Reader Jury of the Standard
- 2009 International Film Festival of Kerala
Trivia
- The film is dedicated to luk thungLuk thungLuk Thung refers to the most popular form of a style of music found in Thailand. The term is short for pleng luk thung .Luk Thung songs typically reflect the hardship of everyday life among the rural poor. Tempos tend to be slow, and singers use an expressive singing style with a lot of vibrato...
singer Suraphol SombatcharoenSuraphol SombatcharoenSuraphol Sombatcharoen was a Thai luk thung singer. Dubbed the "King of Luk Thung", he was one of the first major stars of Thailand's own country music genre...
(1930–1968), who wrote the song "Mai Leum" ("Don't Forget"). - The westernWestern (genre)The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
screened by the traveling medicine show was Tears of the Black TigerTears of the Black TigerTears of the Black Tiger is a 2000 Thai western film written and directed by Wisit Sasanatieng. The story of a tragic romance between Dum, a fatalistic, working-class hero, who has become an outlaw, and Rumpoey, the upper-class daughter of a provincial governor, it is equal parts homage to and...
, a 20002000 in filmThe year 2000 in film involved some significant events.The top grosser worldwide was Mission: Impossible II. Domestically in North America, Gladiator won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor ....
Thai filmCinema of ThailandThe cinema of Thailand dates back to the early days of filmmaking, when King Chulalongkorn's 1897 visit to Bern, Switzerland was recorded by Francois-Henri Lavancy-Clarke. The film was then brought to Bangkok, where it was exhibited...
by Wisit SasanatiengWisit SasanatiengWisit Sasanatieng is a Thai film director and screenwriter of Chinese descent...
and co-starring Monrak Transistor star Supakorn Kitsuwon. - At the time "Monrak Transistor" was made, Thai author Prabda YoonPrabda YoonPrabda Yoon is a Thai writer, novelist, artist, graphic designer, magazine editor, screenwriter and translator. He is the son of Nation Multimedia Group executive and editor Suthichai Yoon....
was dating lead actress Siriyakorn Pukkavesh. While visiting the set, Prabda became friends with director Pen-Ek RatanaruangPen-Ek RatanaruangPen-Ek Ratanaruang is a Thai film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his arthouse work, Last Life in the Universe, and is considered to be one of Thai cinema's leading "new wave" auteurs, alongside Wisit Sasanatieng and Apichatpong Weerasethakul...
, and the pair went on to collaborate on two films, Last Life in the UniverseLast Life in the UniverseLast Life in the Universe is a 2003 Thai film directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. The film is notable for being trilingual; the two main characters flit from Thai to Japanese to English as their vocabulary requires...
and Invisible WavesInvisible WavesInvisible Waves is a 2006 crime film by Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, with screenplay by Prabda Yoon, cinematography by Christopher Doyle, and starring Tadanobu Asano – all people that Pen-Ek had worked with on his previous film, Last Life in the Universe...
.