- Ploy
Infobox Film
name = Ploy
caption = The Thai movie poster
director =Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
producer = Chareon Iamphungphorn Kiatkamon Iamphungporn Wouter Barendrecht Michael J. Werner
writer =Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
narrator =
starring =Lalita Panyopas Pornwut Sarasin Apinya SakuljaroensukPorntip Papanai Ananda Everingham Thaksakorn Pradabpongsa
music = Hualampong Riddim Koichi Shimizu
cinematography = Chankit Chamnivikaipong
editing = Patamanadda Yukol
distributor =Five Star Production Fortissimo Films
released = flagicon|FranceMay 21 2007 flagicon|ThailandJune 7 2007
runtime = 105 min.
country = Thailand
language = Thai
budget = US$2 millioncite web | last = Frater | first = Patrick | title = Duo teams on Thai drama | publisher = Variety | date = 2007-03-20 | url = http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117961402.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-06-07 ]
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.ploythemovie.com/
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0993778"Ploy" ( _th. พลอย) is a 2007 Thai film written and directed by
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang . The film premiered during theDirectors' Fortnight at the2007 Cannes Film Festival .cite web | title = Live from the Fortnight | publisher = Quinzaine-realisateurs.com | date = | url = http://www.quinzaine-realisateurs.com/films/14119/Ploy.html | accessdate = 2007-05-18] cite web | last = Leffler | first = Rebecca | title =Wide range of views on Fortnight sked | publisher = Hollywood Reporter | date =2007-05-03 | url = http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/awards_festivals/news/e3i0942cf0e82c1d3ce09f504051a3d7ec3 | accessdate = 2007-05-08 ]The
drama film stars Thai actressLalita Panyopas in a story of a middle-aged married couple who question their relationship after seven years.Ananda Everingham is featured in a supporting role as a bartender.The film contained sex scenes that were shown at Cannes, but due to censorship concerns had to be re-edited by the director so the film could be shown in cinemas in Thailand when it opened there on
June 7 2007 .cite web | last = Rithdee | first = Kong | title =Scenes from a marriage | publisher = Bangkok Post | date =2007-06-08 | url = http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=119300 | accessdate = 2007-06-08 (Bangkok Post articles are archived after seven days for subscribers only)] The uncensored version of the film was shown in Thailand at the2007 Bangkok International Film Festival .cite web | last = Rithdee | first = Kong | title = "XXY" triumphs at troubled Bangkok fest | publisher = Variety | date = 2007-07-29 | url = http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/1755/1/ | accessdate = 2007-07-29 ]Plot
The death of a relative brings a Thai-American couple, Wit and Dang, back to
Bangkok for the first time in many years. Arriving at Bangkok'sSuvarnabhumi Airport at around 5 a.m., they check in to a hotel in the city. Suffering fromjet lag , Dang wants to sleep, but her husband Wit is restless and heads down to the hotel bar to buy some cigarettes. While unpacking their luggage, Dang finds a small paper with a phone number of a woman named Noy, and she is immediately suspicious.In the hotel bar, Wit meets Ploy, a young woman who says she is waiting for her mother to arrive from
Stockholm . The two bond over coffee and cigarettes, and Wit then invites Ploy to come up to the hotel room, where she can take a shower and rest while she awaits her mother. Up at the room, Dang opens the door and sees Ploy. To the girl, Dang is pleasant and friendly, but to her husband, she is seething with anger and jealousy. Fitfully, the three people try to sleep. Dang and Wit discuss their seven-year marriage, and wonder why the love has gone out of it.Meanwhile, a hotel maid, Tum, has stolen a guest's suit from the hotel's dry cleaners. She takes it up to room 609 and hangs it in the closet. Nut, the silent, weary bartender, enters the room and puts on the suit. He then finds Tum hiding in the shower, and proceeds to kiss her and caress her, and the couple starts having sex.
Back in Wit and Dang's room, Dang becomes more upset, and decides to leave. Wit wakes up to find Dang gone, and then he and Ploy sit and smoke cigarettes and talk about love and relationships.
Dang finds a coffee shop, where she takes a seat with a cup of coffee and pours some
vodka in it from a small bottle she took from her hotel room's mini-bar. She is noticed by Moo, who is using his laptop computer. He recognizes Dang from her days as a famous television soap opera actress and invites her back to his home for some more drinks, where he attacks and rapes Dang.Cast and characters
*
Lalita Panyopas as Dang: A former actress, still recognized and well-known in Thailand, she has been married for seven years to Wit.
* Pornwut Sarasin as Wit: A Thai restaurateur who's lived in the United States for a number of years, and was widowed when he met Dang.
* Apinya Sakuljaroensuk as Ploy: A teenage woman with anAfro , she says she is 19 years old and is waiting for her mother to arrive fromStockholm . She has a black eye. Wit first spots her in the hotel bar with a young man who's passed out at a table, whom Wit assumes is Ploy's boyfriend.
*Porntip Papanai as Tum: A hotel maid who steals a customer's suit from the hotel dry cleaners.
*Ananda Everingham as Nut: The weary, silent bartender, he meets Tum in room 609, and puts on the suit she stole, and engages in some erotic role-playing with Tum.
* Thaksakorn Pradabpongsa as Moo: An antiques dealer who meets Dang in a coffee shop and invites her to his apartment for drinks.Production
Origins
Director
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang said he was inspired to write the screenplay after talking with a relative who had returned to Bangkok after some years in the United States. “My cousin had a restaurant in the U.S. and one day she came back to Thailand for a funeral,” Pen-Ek said. “But she didn't have a home here, so she had to stay in a hotel. I met her at the funeral and it struck me as rather odd that this Thai person had to stay in a hotel room when she came to Thailand. It inspired me to start writing a script about a Thai couple in a hotel room."cite web | title = Production Notes | publisher = Five Star Production/Fortissimo Films | url = http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?p=10753231#post10753231 | accessdate = 2007-06-07 ]The film's proposal was submitted in 2006 to the Pusan Promotion Plan at the
Pusan International Film Festival .cite web | title = PPP & NDIF Projects 2006 | publisher = Pusan International Film Festival | date = 2006 | url = http://www.asianfilmmarket.org/release/PPP&NDIFprojects2006.doc | format = doc | accessdate = 2007-03-20 ] Budgeted at around US$2 million, principal photography began in February 2007 in Bangkok. The locations included hotels and restaurants alongSukhumvit Road , as well asSuvarnabhumi Airport , making "Ploy" the first Thai feature film to feature Bangkok's new international airport. "Most of the action takes place in a hotel room. So we built our own room on the rooftop of a hotel, and it looks exactly like a real hotel room," Pen-Ek said in the film's production notes.In March 2007, the Hong Kong/Amsterdam-based film financing and distribution company,
Fortissimo Films , announced it would be executive producer of the film along with Thailand'sFive Star Production . Fortissimo takes care of international sales for the film, while Five Star handles distribution in Thailand.cite web | last = Wong | first = Sylvia | title = Fortissimo boards Pen-ek's Ploy as co-producer, sales agent | publisher = Screen Daily | date = 2007-03-19 | url = http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=31506&Category= | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-06-07 ]From the start, producers sought to make "Ploy" a smaller-scale film than Pen-Ek's previous two films, "
Last Life in the Universe " and "Invisible Waves ", which "were high-budget productions with international collaboration," said executive producer Chareon Iamphungporn. The previous two films had also been scripted or co-scripted by Thai writerPrabda Yoon . Chareon said he wanted Pen-Ek to return to his screenwriter-director roots and "come up with a project that had the personal warmth of his early films like "6ixtynin9" and "Monrak Transistor "."The film reunited Pen-Ek with Thai cinematographer Chankit Chamnivikaipong, who had photographed his first three films, "
Fun Bar Karaoke ", "6ixtynin9" and "Monrak Transistor", before Pen-Ek collaborated withChristopher Doyle on "Last Life in the Universe" and "Invisible Waves".Casting
"Ploy" was a reunion for Pen-Ek and actress
Lalita Panyopas , who is well known in Thailand for her roles in soap operas and a string of films in the 1980s. She starred in Pen-Ek's 1999 crime comedy-drama "6ixtynin9".Pornwut Sarasin, who portrays the husband Wit, was a first-time actor. Forty-eight years old at the time of shooting, he is a vice president for Thai Namthip, the distributor of
Coca-Cola in Thailand, and is well known in Thai high-society circles.Ananda Everingham , who plays Nut the bartender, had worked with Pen-ek on a short film "Twelve Twenty", commissioned for the 2006Jeonju International Film Festival . He shares erotic scenes with model-actressPorntip Papanai , who plays the maid, Tum. She had a major role in Pen-ek's 2001 musical-comedy, "Monrak Transistor ", portraying the singer, Dao.For the title character, Ploy, Pen-Ek chose Apinya Sakulcharoensuk, who was 16 years old at the time of shooting. "She's a godsend," the director said of the actress. "It's as if I could sense that the Ploy character is out there somewhere in the real world, and then she materializes in the form of this girl. Apinya was born to be Ploy."
Apinya had her hair styled into an
Afro , a decision made by costume designer Visa Khongka, to make the character of Ploy look older and unique.Reception
The film premiered on
May 21 2007 during theDirectors' Fortnight at the2007 Cannes Film Festival .cite web | last = Rithdee | first = Kong | title = When local means global | publisher = Bangkok Post | date = 2007-06-01 | url = http://www.bangkokpost.com/010607_Realtime/01Jun2007_real21.php | accessdate = 2007-06-07 (Bangkok Post articles are archived after seven days for subscribers only)] Critical reaction was mixed. Russell Edwards, writing for the film industry trade publication "Variety", was negative, criticizing the film for its "glacial pace" and saying it was "too flimsy and false to truly engage."cite web | last = Edwards | first = Russell | title = Ploy (review) | publisher = Variety | date = 2007-05-23 | url = http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/1417/1/ | accessdate = 2007-06-07 ]Lee Marshall, writing for another trade journal, "Screen Daily", was positive, mentioning "
The Seven Year Itch " and calling "Ploy" "a tasty slice of cinema, by turns , erotic, funny and emotionally perceptive."cite web | last = Marshall | first = Lee | title = Ploy (review) | publisher = Screen Daily | date = 2007-05-23 | url = http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=32793&Category= | accessdate = 2007-06-07 ]"Ploy imposes its own unhurried rhythm but then rewards its viewers for their indulgence, and within the
arthouse niche that it will inevitably inhabit this could turn out to be a strong seller," Marshall wrote.In an interview at Cannes, Pen-Ek reacted to the "Variety" and "Screen Daily" reviews, saying, "One is so bad and one is so good. They're equally not true."
Todd Brown, writing from Cannes for the website Twitchfilm.net, said "Ploy" is a logical step in the director's evolution, continuing on themes that were explored in "
Last Life in the Universe " and "Invisible Waves ". "Ploy is essentially a lucid dream, a film that takes place in that odd in-between state when you cannot be sure whether you are sleeping or awake and there are seemingly sure pointers that would have you believe both. It is a film about people dislocated and relationships formed while others are breaking down badly," Brown wrote. "Ploy" is a beautiful, thoughtful, meditative film, one that requires more effort from its audience than does "Last Life in the Universe" but one that the patient will find no less rewarding."cite web | last = Brown | first = Todd | title = Cannes Report: Ploy Review | publisher = Twitchfilm.net | date = 2007-05-23 | url = http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/010117.html | accessdate = 2007-06-07 ]Kong Rithdee, critic for the "
Bangkok Post ", said "Ploy" is a finely tuned, mature piece of filmmaking that discusses adult themes with honesty and amused attention to the tiny details that define the shifting phases of a marriage. "Ploy" takes us closer to the characters than the director did in his last two outings ... and despite its dreamy episodes of hot-breath lovemaking, the movie is anchored in the sense of social realities more than his non-fans might care to observe."Censorship issues
The version of "Ploy" that was shown at Cannes featured some extended scenes of
nudity and sex between the bartender (Ananda Everingham ) and the maid (Porntip Papanai ). This is uncommon for Thai films because the industry is subjected to a censorship code that prohibits such depictions.Pen-Ek said he didn't like directing the sex scenes. "It's not fun at all. I don't know how to direct two people making love! And it's not a good experience when they had to do it over and over again for 12 hours."
In describing the scenes in his review, Russell Edwards of "Variety" called them "compellingly erotic", but sarcastically added that the scenes "indicate that cinema's gain has truly been pornography's loss."
Todd Brown of Twitchfilm.net said the sex scenes might harm the film's chances in Thailand, saying "Thailand is notorious for the uneven application of its censorship laws but graphic nudity is pretty much always frowned upon."
Ahead of the film's opening in Thailand, the country's Board of Censorship ordered eight cuts for scenes it deemed obscene and inappropriate, mostly the lovemaking scenes. The director re-edited the film, cutting some scenes and adding others not included in the Cannes version, so the length is unchanged. The version shown in Cannes is unlikely to be seen in Thailand.
"Once again a good movie has been butchered by the powers-that-be, who believe their judgment is superior to ours," "
Bangkok Post " film critic Kong Rithdee said in his review, referring to another film that had run afoul of Thai censors earlier in the year, "Syndromes and a Century ", byApichatpong Weerasethakul . That film was pulled from release by the director, who refused to make the cuts ordered.For "Ploy", the cuts have little effect on the film as whole, Rithdee said, though the contrast is less stark between the bartender's and maid's steamy sex scenes and the chilly arguments of the married couple.
The uncensored version of the film was screened in the main competition at the
2007 Bangkok International Film Festival .Box office
"Ploy" was released in Thailand cinemas on
June 7 2007 , but proved to be no match for the Thai comedy film, "Nhong Teng kon maha hia ", which was released the previous weekend and even topped a Hollywood release, "Ocean's Thirteen ".In its opening weekend, "Ploy" earned 6 million baht (about US$171,000) in Bangkok cinemas, compared to the $2.28 million after two weeks of earnings by "Nhong Teng kon maha hia".
Five Star Production had hoped the film would do better, based on the popularity of leading actressLalita Panyopas , positive reviews from Cannes and word-of-mouth buzz."We expected a little more with "Ploy"," Co-producer Aphiradee Iamphungphorn was quoted as saying by "Variety". "It is difficult to predict the market these days. Some people may have second thoughts whether they should see the film with the name Pen-Ek Ratanaruang as a director. Many still have this image that he only makes difficult movies."cite web | last = Rithdee | first = Kong | title = 'Ploy' plays modestly in Bangkok | publisher = Variety | date = 2007-06-11 | url = http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117966673.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 | accessdate = 2007-06-12 ]
Festivals and awards
*
2007 Cannes Film Festival ,Directors' Fortnight , world premiere
*2007 Bangkok International Film Festival , Golden Kinneree nominee for best international film
*2007Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema ,FIPRESCI award winnercite web | last = Edwards | first = Russell | title = Zhang's Osian 'Dream' comes true | publisher = Variety | date = 2007-07-30 | url = http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=Cannes2007&jump=story&id=1061&articleid=VR1117969438&cs=1 | accessdate = 2007-08-23 ]
*2007 Toronto International Film Festival cite web | title = TIFF '07 Visions | publisher = Toronto International Film Festival | date = 2007 | url = http://tiff07.ca/filmsandschedules/visions/ | accessdate = 2007-08-23 ]
*2007San Sebastián International Film Festival cite web | last = Hopewell | first = John | title = San Sebastian adds 'Berlin,' 'Help' | publisher = Variety | date = 2007-08-23 | url = http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117970715.html?categoryId=19&cs=1 | accessdate = 2007-08-24 ] cite web | last = Rolfe | first = Pamela | title = Fest circuit jewels lined up for San Seb | publisher = Hollywood Reporter | date = 2007-08-24 | url = http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/awards_festivals/news/e3i7bfd0548b2baebae03db586f12cc928f | accessdate = 2007-08-24 ]
* 2008Deauville Asian Film Festival
* 2008Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival References
External links
* [http://www.ploythemovie.com/ Official site]
*imdb title|id=0993778|title=Ploy
*rotten-tomatoes|id=ploy|title=Ploy
* [http://www.fortissimo.nl/catalogue/title.asp?filmID=329 Synopsis at Fortissimo Films]
* [http://www.fivestarent.com/PloyTrailer.zip Ploy trailer download] atFive Star Production
* [http://www.fivestarent.com/PloyMV.zip Ploy music video download] atFive Star Production
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