Puen-Paeng

Quite unlike the mainstream of Thai movies (but a little too similar to the same director's masterly The Scar), this is an elegiac rural melodrama about two contrasted sisters in love with the same cowherd. It's set in the '30s, and lovingly detailed period touches strike an optimum balance between nostalgic escapism and serious reconstruction of traditions that are already almost extinct. At its heart are magical images of life in a Thai village: a brazen girl propositioning a naked boy as he bathes in the river, a romance pursued on the backs of water buffalo.