Premiered in Phuket, ‘Bitter/Sweet’ sets new movie standard
Group shot for the cameras. From left: Urs Brunner, actresses Mamee Nakprasitte, Viyada Umarin and Kalorin Neemayothin, with fomer tennis ace Paradon "Ball" Srichapan and Urs's wife Maleerat, the angel in Angel & Bear Productions.
Western films set in Thailand up to now have all pretty much had the same characteristics: The stars are Westerners and Thailand is simply an exotic backdrop. Thai actors and actresses are all taxi drivers, gangsters or gogo girls.
Bitter/Sweet, which had its Thailand premiere in Phuket last night (June 11) as part of the Phuket Film Festival, deliberately sets out to break that mould.
Urs Brunner, whose Angel & Bear production company funded the movie, and who also shares the writing credits, told the Observer at the post-screening party at the Vijjit Resort, “We wanted first to portray Thai women as strong, independent and intelligent. I also insisted that the Thai actors must have as much time onscreen as the Westerners.”
Urs Brunner (second from right) with Mamee Nakprasitte (right), Kal (left) and local Boncafé boss Phakin "Nasser" Tanskul.
On this level, the movie works very well. Napakpapha “Mamee” Nakprasitte plays Ticha, a 20-something Thai girl who has risen above her rural roots to run a successful PR company in the Big Mango. It helps, of course, that the camera absolutely loves her, and her sidekick Mook (played by US-born Kalorin “Kal” Supaluck Neemayothin). Both are convincing as strong, independent and intelligent – and gorgeous.
They also get as much screen time as the three main farang actors – Kip Pardue as Brain Chandler; the amusing Spencer Garrett as Austrian exile Werner; and veteran James Brolin as coffee tycoon Calvert Jenkins.
Much of the action revolves around the coffee business and the coffee plantations of Krabi, which also allows the movie to work as a promotional tool for Thailand in general and Krabi in particular. Apparently the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which initially turned its nose up at the project, is now very interested.
The scenery in Krabi is jaw-droppingly beautiful, and this comes across well, particularly during a short interlude in which the two main characters, Brian and Ticha, take time out to see the sights. Director Jeff Hare knows good scenery when he sees it and makes the most of it.
The movie also works as a promotional tool for Thai coffee. This is no bad thing for Urs’s other interest – his Chonburi-based coffee processing, distribution and retail company Boncafé.
Bitter/Sweet is most unlikely to feature in the Oscars (though it did win best director and best movie at the Houston film fest). The plot is a simple “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again” romance with some amusing comedic moments, a little tension here and there, and no surprises.
The acting is generally convincing, though Liz Burnette gets a credit as “Ticha’s voice” so one imagines Mamee’s English may have been a bit too Tinglish at times (though in Thai she is forceful and in command of her role).
Bitter/Sweet is much more sweet than bitter. It slips down as easily as latte, and rates overall as good light entertainment without too much thought required.
Urs told the Observer that it will be showing in movie theatres around Thailand – it has subtitles in English when dialogue is in Thai, and vice-versa, so is accessible in either language. In most of the rest of the world, it’s going straight to DVD; deals have already been done for Australia and Japan and a number of other countries.
One hopes that copies have been sent to every US director so that they can consider whether the time has come to portray Thailand and the Thais more as they are, and less through the warped lens of American cinematic hegemony.
