zazami

"The Paradise of Thorns" is an exceptional Thai film. I don't know if it actually reflects only the Thai world or if it is simply a universal film about survival in poverty, about hope for a decent life, hopelessness, frustration, a lot of frustration... I think this can be found anywhere in the world. It seems to me a film about feelings, experiences, not about same-sex love, it could be any couple, it could be man with man, woman with women or man with woman, this film seems to be more of the inner life of some characters more than the fact that the main couple is gay.
What I liked the most is the relationship of growing hatred and frustration between MO and Thongkam. The actors played absolutely superbly ... brilliantly ... I really felt all the hatred between them.
Then I also liked it, although it is ugly and painful for the characters, but I liked that "Sek" took a wife to take care of his mother and a husband to work and make money for him .... so the screenwriter is absolutely brilliant ... I really liked this duality and use, even though he died in a stupid accident, but ... in the end poverty pushes you to do bad things, and the thing in the end that Sek loved Thongkam didn't convince me 'cause he used his money for the land ... for his land ... so ... he used him ...... I really don't think SEK loved anyone but himself. But the ideea of the movie is great.
What I regret is that the relationship between Jingna and Thongkam was not developed. Somehow the whole relationship was in a hurry, and even if Jingna had some feelings of love for Thongkam, he was still on MO's side when Thongkam was at the temple, and flooded the durian plantation.
Somehow the film talks about duality, everything seemed to me to be about duality ... I love you, but I have to do what my family tells me because I have moral obligations to them ... actually you don't even know what the real feelings are, because everything is an abstinence and a frustration.
The landscapes were beautiful and the music actually completed this carousel of feelings.
Unfortunately the ending was quite bad, it left me with a taste of .... why so? ... the way Jingna died is quite stupid, MO's new husband doesn't even make sense to talk about him. It would have seemed fair to me for MO to stay with the land, ok, and for Thongkam to leave as he did, to start his life from the beginning, but with Jingna ... it would have been a fair balance ... at least he would have something left ... 'cause otherwise in the actual ending Thongkam loved SEK, who actually used him, he gave his money to buy SEK's land and in the end he loses the durian plantation and the new lover dies, he leaves beaten ... we don't even talk about frustration anymore, we're heading for depression. I mean why is Thongkam such a loser in life ... why life hates Thongkam? he lost 2 lovers (they both died in a stupid way), he lost all his money, he lost the right to the land, he lost evrything ... but why?