The Dumb Die Fast, the Smart Die Slow

The hard-boiled thriller, Thai-style - obviously indebted to The Postman Always Rings Twice and other models, but irreducibly Thai in its plotting and characterisations. The kindly owner of a gas station with a no-good wife takes on a hitchhiker as a handyman, unaware that he's on the run. The wife learns the newcomer's secret, and tries to blackmail him into robbing her husband. Manop started out as an 'underground' political film-maker, which doubtless explains the hints of social comment here. Mostly, though, he has fun in the plot's moral quicksand. Very entertaining, and very novel to see these conventions through Thai eyes.