Street Smart Sukhumvit

"Pleasure Factory" was not pleasurable AT ALL~!! 

I'd watched its trailer with much interest before its arrival here and entered the movie theater (in Emporium, of coz - where else) with very high expectations. After all, "Pleasure Factory" is directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Thailand's much-acclaimed director who made "Last Life in Universe", "Monrak Transistor" and "Ploy".  

"Pleasure Factory" is about Singapore's notorious red-light district, Geylang, where prostitution is tightly controlled (but legal) and pleasure of any kind can be bought with cold hard cash. 

Sounds inviting, doesn't it? 

The first thing that annoyed me about the movie was the fact that it was dubbed in Thai, with English subtitles. The movie was originally shot in Mandarin and English (both commonly spoken in Singapore), so I was severely disappointed when I found out that instead of hearing Singapore's multiculturalism, I was forced to listen to the typical (lame-o) Thai dubbing voices - to those who don't know, there are only a handful of Thai dubbing voices available, such as "the good guy's voice" (manly-sounding but soft-spoken, speaking proper Thai), "the good girl's voice" (the feminine version of the "good guy's voice"), the "bad guy's voice" (also manly-but sounding very rough), the "bad girl's voice" (feminine bitchy voice); it's all very stereotypical (so even if you don't know the story, you can already guess who the bad/good characters are just by listening to their voices DUH).  

Worse, the dubbers actually dared to ad-lib and slip in some (unappreciated) comments and jokes (which were really unfunny)~!! Totally out of line~!!

What's more, I equate dubbing as actually butchering the film, because the SOUND is part of the movie experience itself and when you change actors’ voices, you are also changing the movie’s feel and mood~!! Plus, I haaaate looking at characters' mouths not moving synchronically with their voices~!!!! Leave the original sound alone and gimme subtitles anyday~!! 

20 minutes into “Pleasure Factory”… I started to fidget. Gaaawd, it was moving soooo s-l-o-w-l-y~!! I totally get that the director was trying to portray loneliness and isolation and emptiness of the soul, blah blah blaaaaaaaaah... but couldn't he make it more... more... well... more PLEASURABLE for the audience to watch?! Everybody in the movie was either pouting, weeping or brooding… and staring into nothingness… with nothing much to say or do. Suffice to say, nothing much happened either. Oh sure there were some sex scenes, but nothing earth-shattering or awe-inspiring. 

There are three “stories” in this movie, eventhough I don’t really consider them as “stories" because they’re totally nonsense and lack exposition/climax/resolution:

-          a young man who comes to Geylang to lose his virginity with his (gay) buddy

-          a skinny hooker who hooks up (pun totally intended) with an old man in a convertible

-          an older prostitute with a younger girl (who I swear looks really retarded - oops pardon my French; the PC term is "mentally-challenged") who… erm… I dunno WHY they were in the movie in the first place~!! AAARRRGGGHH~!!! 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not against “artsy” or “indie” films. In fact, I regularly go to HOUSE in RCA to get my fill of non-Hollywood movies. But it just bugs the hell out of me when filmmakers’ pretentious attempts at being “artsy” or “academic” or just simply “different” translate into unwatchable movies with zero storyline and zilch acting.

Emporium, I want my money back~!!

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117933760.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

streetsmartsukhumvit@gmail.com

sukhumvit

bangkok

thailand