I am able to watch a Thai movie whenever @jovefrancisco is in town and tonight, it was this period movie called The Outrage that was inspired from Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon.

I attempted to watch Rashomon, trying to be a good student of Japanese films, but I stopped midway. So shoot me.

And I was ready to walk out of The Outrage movie or, since the seats at CentralWorld are so comfortable, fall asleep.

But it turned out to be quite entertaining though the introduction was kind of boring. It wasn’t Ananda nor Mario and not even Ploy that pulled this film together. It was the good support cast Pongpat Wachirabunjong–a Thai singer, actor and film director–and Petchtai Wongkamlao–a comedian who is a very familiar face even for me who does not watch Thai dramas or films.

Ananda wasn’t given much to do, in fact, the shaman tasked to summon his spirit in the court hearing had a tougher acting job than him. But man, can the dude cry. Mario was, well, being Mario–fresh and innocent (and bald). Ploy put in a decent performance though the script must have been written by a chauvinist. Her character, in all versions of the “truth”, did not have any saving grace.

The film supposedly was based on lessons from the dharma and there are indeed a lot of quotable quotes.

“Women always use tears as a weapon.”

“A woman’s heart is a labyrinth and no one really knows the way.”

“Don’t lose sleep on it my friend. Sometimes man is good, sometimes man is bad. Life is short to be arguing on who is right or wrong.”

And the cliche that doesn’t hurt repeating and very applicable in analysing how the witnesses to a crime saw it in different versions:

“Men only see what they want to see, hear what they want to hear.”

It’s a genius to bring together in one movie Ananda and Mario, two of Thailand’s biggest male stars. Throw in Ploy, one of the most famous female stars (and the only other one I know aside from Paula Taylor), then you got an all-star cast. (Not sure if that translates to boxoffice though, the cinema on a Friday night was just 1/4 full.)

Taken from Ananda's Facebook

But it would have been interesting to see them in a contemporary drama. I am not just a fan of period films.

Taken from Ananda's Facebook

I can say that after my birthday dinner with two longtime friends, I had Ananda and Mario for dessert. Not a bad birthday indeed.