Beyond Forgivin'

Manop returns to film-making from an eight-year lay-off with a stylish but garbled thriller. It starts from a characteristically witty premise: a professional hitman falls in love with a woman who sells life insurance. Before he retires from crime and opens a flower shop, though, Lop (Dom Hetrakul, Crime Kings) has one last job to do: a straightforward heroin delivery run. But someone steals the junk and Boss Klang blames Lop, whose pregnant fiancée is murdered in a raid on his house. Manop never quite finds the right balance between shoot 'em up scenes and more reflective musings on mortality, relationships and ethics, and the film sometimes meanders when it should be powering forwards. But the casting and cinematography help compensate.