The Song of Chao-Phrya

Named after the river which flows through Bangkok, Prince Chatri's film is an updated remake of another written and shot by his father, Prince Anusorn Mongkalkarn. It plays like a tropical variation on L'Atalante. A family (husband, wife, baby, sister-in-law) scrapes a living ferrying goods up and down the river; the wife runs away in search of urban glamour and excitement, and her husband has to comb the city's brothels and girlie bars to look for her. It's not shy of the odd glimpse of cruelty and violence, but too stylish to get trapped in grimy social realism. One of its many pleasures is a cameo by film director Komson Pongsutham as a taxi driver who gets plastered at the husband's expense.