Citizen Dog
If you get a job in Bangkok, you will surely grow a tail
Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 22, 2005 05:29 PM
Wisit Sasanatieng
Saturday September 17th, 12:45pm
Paramount
What the hell is going on in Thai cinema? First Bangkok Loco and now this! Two amazing surrealistic magical-realism films in one year!
It seems to be every period of American history at once in Thailand right now. It's post First World War, with a mass migration from the rural to the urban, and decadent street smart city vs honest but simple country rube themes run right through Citizen Dog, Bangkok Loco and last year's superlative-depleting Ong Bak. It's the 60's with a youth culture clashing against an opressive repressed established order. And it's also the year two thousand and weird.
Amazingly, Thailand seems to have metabolized western irony and self-reference while rejecting bitter sarcasm and just general meanness.
This is how the film starts...
Our hero, Pod, moves from the country to the city and gets a job at a sardine cannery. One day the foreman accidentally sets the speed of the line to maximum and in the frenzy of fish decapatation, Pod's finger is lopped off, canned, boxed and shipped out before he realizes it's gone. Pod spends his free hours searching market shelves trying to find his missing fingers, until one day he encounters a tapping can. You see Pod had the habit of absent-mindedly tapping his finger, which it kept up. Pod re-attaches his finger and his happy for a time, until he begins to suspect that what he has is not, in fact, his finger. No sooner does the realization dawn on him than he spies his actual finger on the hand of his co-worker, Yod. Pod grabs Yods hand, saving his finger from a session of nasal exploration, yanks the digit off, pulls Yod's finger off his hand, and sticks his finger back on.
You think I've given away most of the plot of Citizen Dog? No! This all happens within minutes of the opening credits. This movie is dense with characters and plot.
From that point on, Yod and Pod become fast friends, and decide that they cannot bear the thought of swapping fingers with anyone else. So they quit and take jobs as security guards. Thus begins the re-telling of a tale as old as the hills: boy meets girl, girl doesn't notice boy, boy gets a taxi driver job to be close to girl, girl constructs and elaborate fantasy around a briefly glimpsed stranger, boy meets a 22 year old girl who looks 8 and her smoking drinking totally co-dependent talking stuffed bear, girl creates an urban mountain of recycled goods, boy is harassed by his grandmother, reincarnated as a gecko. Also, there's ghosts, and puppies in dresses.
Citizen Dog is an unalloyed joy to behold. At one point, one of characters asks, if they are so poor, how can they get married, when they will never be able to afford to give their children dreams. The answer, is to have them watch Citizen Dog.
Surreal modern Thai fable dripping with supersaturated colours
Posted by: Task, September 19, 2005 04:53 PM
Saturday, September 17 12:45 PM PARAMOUNT 4
The best way to describe this movie might be "A surreal Thai Amélie. The feeling of coming out of the theatre is very similar. Stunned amazement, that kind of thing.
Needless to say, this film is a fantastic experience. I'm not sure how to talk about it, but I'll try...
First off: How is it that the little kingdom of Thailand seems to be producing half of the amazing films I see? To date, I have not seen a Thai film that didn't completely wow me. Every single one of them has been a remarkable experience. There was a third Thai film here this year, 3 Friends or something, and I'm thinking I should have gone to see it simply because it's Thai. I tell you, it's getting ridiculous. If you're not even sure where Thailand is, Bangkok is the capital.
Now that I've gotten past my disbelief, I'll try and tell you all about this movie.
I've already noted that I don't like "absurdity for its own sake" (see my review of The French Guy), and this movie taught me the difference between "absurd good" and "absurd bad". You see, in this movie the people and the things they do are fairly believable. It's the world they live in that's insane, and the strange things that happen to them are merely effects of the surreal world they inhabit. The people though, they make sense. So you understand the characters and can enjoy the ride of ridiculousness that is their daily lives.
Likely the best feature of the movie is the fantastically fast pace. Every minute you're getting something totally new and unexpected. For example, it starts out looking like a musical. Everyone but Pod (the main character) is singing, and he's giving everyone some hilarious and confused looks. I think there's a couple musical scenes, but not very many. Probably because you'd be expecting that. As soon as everything seems to be stable, that's just when you know for sure it's all going to change again.
The most memorable aspects of the movie are likely these: The wrong tapping finger in the sardine can, the rain of hot pink motorcycle helmets, the mountain of plastic bottles, the puppies in little blue dresses, Jin as a kung-fu hero, and Pod's inability to iron anything. Yes, these scenes are all in the same movie.
As a side note, I might mention that Liptons has a new flavour of Cup-o-Soup: Creamy Thai Chicken. It's my favourite. Dammit!