Love of Siam

The Love of Siam
Thai theatrical release poster
Directed by	Chookiat Sakveerakul
Written by	Chookiat Sakveerakul
Produced by	Prachya Pinkaew Sukanya Vongsthapat
Starring	Witwisit Hiranyawongkul Mario Maurer
Cinematography	Chitti Urnorakankij
Edited by	Lee Chatametikool Chukiat Sakweerakul
Music by	Kitti Kuremanee
Production company	Baa-Ram-Ewe
Distributed by	Sahamongkol Film International
Release dates	November 22, 2007 (2007-11-22) (Thailand) September 19, 2008 (2008-09-19) (China) May 20, 2009 (2009-05-20) (Japan) July 16, 2009 (2009-07-16) (Singapore)
Running time	150 minutes 178 minutes (Director's cut)
Country	Template:Film Thailand
Language	Thai
Budget	17 million baht
Box office	42 million baht

The Love of Siam (Thai: รักแห่งสยาม, RTGS: Rak Haeng Sayam, pronounced [rák hɛ̀ŋ sà.jǎːm]) is a 2007 Thai gay-themed romantic-drama film written and directed by Chookiat Sakveerakul. A multi-layered family drama, a groundbreaking element of the story is a gay romance between two teenage boys.

The film was released in Thailand on November 22, 2007. The fact that the gay storyline was not apparent from the film's promotional material initially caused controversy, but the film was received with critical acclaim and proved financially successful. It dominated Thailand's 2007 film awards season, winning the Best Picture category in all major events,

Plot

Ten-year olds Mew and Tong are neighbors. Mew is a soft-featured but stubborn kid, while Tong is a more masculine, energetic boy who lives with his parents and sister, a Christian Thai family. After accidentally spitting gum into Mew's hair, Tong wants to befriend Mew, but the quiet boy and his outgoing neighbor are not initially close. At school, effeminate Mew is teased by several other students and harassed until Tong steps in to defend him. Tong receives injuries and now they begin a friendship. Tong apologizes to Mew for the chewing gum incident. Mew is grateful for Tong stepping in and responds that now they are even. Mew plays on his late grandpa's piano and is joined by his grandma, who begins to play a song. Mew asks his grandma why she liked that song and his grandma responds by telling Mew that it was played for her by his grandpa. It was a way for him to express his love to her and she explains that one day, Mew will understand the meaning of the song.

Tong's family is going on vacation to Chiangmai and his older sister, Tang, begs her mother to be allowed to stay on with her friends a couple days more. Tong buys Mew a present and decides to give it to Mew piece by piece in a game of Treasure Hunt, a tradition in his family. One by one, Mew finds all of the pieces except for the last one which is hidden in a tree. The tree is cut down just as Mew is about to retrieve it leaving the present Tong bought for Mew incomplete. Tong is disappointed at their misfortune, but Mew remains grateful for Tong's efforts.

From Chiangmai, Tang calls her parents and tells them that she will be extending her stay in Chiangmai until the 24th of December. Tong looks at his calendar and realizes that Tang will not be able to attend the Christmas play he would participate in. The parents worry about their daughter. Tang cannot be reached. After the Christmas play, Tong receives a phone call from his parents telling him to stay with Mew and his grandma. After spending the night at Mew's house, Tong awakens to the sight of his parents along with Mew and his grandma. His parents go to Chiangmai to look for their daughter Tang, who may have gotten lost on a trek into the mountains. Tong becomes devastated that his sister is missing, and cries as Mew tries comfort his friend.

Months have passed and Tong's family decides to move to another part of Bangkok. On the day of the move, Tong finds Mew sitting on a ledge overlooking a pier. Tong says his final words and departs in a car. Tong looks back only to find Mew walking towards the car before coming to a stop and crying for losing his best friend.

Six years pass; Tong's father is a severe alcoholic, due to his guilt for losing his daughter. Tong has a pretty--but uptight--girlfriend, Donut. Tong and Mew are reunited during their senior year of high school at Siam Square. The musically talented Mew is the lead singer of a boy band called August. The meeting stirs up old feelings that Mew has harbored since boyhood, his love for Tong.

The manager of Mew's band, Aod, instructs the young musicians--their songwriter Mew in particular--that they must write a song about love in order to sell more records. He assigns them a new assistant manager, June. Coincidentally, June looks just like Tong's missing sister, Tang. When Tong eventually meets her, he and his mother, Sunee, devise to a plan to hire June to pretend she is Tang, in hopes that it will pull Tong's father out of his alcoholic depression. "Tang" borrows a story from the Thai film Ruk Jung, saying she has amnesia, which is why she has forgotten how to say grace at the dinner table. Mew is also the object of an unrequited crush of an obsessive neighbor girl, Ying, who is trying to use a voodoo doll and other tricks to make the boy like her. Unfortunately for her, Mew is more interested in his boyhood friend Tong, who has now become the inspiration for writing the new songs. The manager, as well as the entire band, are all impressed with Mew's composition.

As part of the deception with "Tang," a backyard party is held in honor of her return, and Mew's band August provides the entertainment. Singing the new love song for the first time in public, Mew's eyes lock intensely with Tong's. June notices this. After the party, everyone has left and the two boys are left alone in the yard. They share a prolonged kiss. Unseen, Tong's mother Sunee walks in on this and is stunned and upset. The next day, she goes to meet Mew and fiercely instructs him to stay away from her son, because her family has had enough troubles. When Tong finds out that his mother has interfered, he argues with her, but she has succeeded in creating a rift between the teens which persists for some time. Mew is heartbroken and loses his musical inspiration, so he quits the band.

Tong wants to obey his mother and be a good son, but he also resents that she has forbidden the love that he is becoming more certain about. At Christmas time, as he and his mother are decorating a Christmas tree, he finally finds a touching way to reconcile with her. Because she accepts him now, he in turn becomes more respectful of her, as we soon see. June has saved money and heads off in a bus to start another life, and it remains uncertain whether she was really Tang.

Tong then goes to Siam Square for a date with Donut. Mew has finally been able to rejoin the band, and they are playing nearby, so Tong abandons Donut and tells her that he cannot be with her. He then rushes to see Mew play and is guided there by Ying, who has accepted the fact that Mew loves Tong. After the performance, Tong gives Mew a gift, the missing nose from the wooden doll that Tong gave him when they were children. Although now more certain about his same-sex feelings, perhaps he is now considering his family, because he tells Mew he "can't be his boyfriend but that doesn't mean he doesn't love [him]." However, the friendship of the two continues.

The film ends with Mew putting the missing nose back to the wooden puppet, saying "thank you" and crying quietly.

Cast

from L-R :Aticha Pongsilpipat, Witwisit Hiranyawongkul, Chermarn Boonyasak, Sinjai Plengpanich and Mario Maurer

• Witwisit Hiranyawongkul as Mew
• Mario Maurer as Tong
• Kanya Rattanapetch as Ying
• Aticha Pongsilpipat as Donut
• Chermarn Boonyasak as Tang/June
• Sinjai Plengpanich as Sunee, Tong's mother
• Songsit Rungnopakunsri as Korn, Tong's father

Reception

Marketing controversy and audience response

From left to right - Mario Maurer, Kanya Rattanapetch, Witwisit Hiranyawongkul and Chookiat Sakveerakul

Marketed as a typical teen romance between boys and girls, the gay aspect of the love story was controversial.

Thai-language web boards were posted with messages of support, as well as accusations by moviegoers that they were misled into watching "a gay movie."

Writer/director Chookiat Sakveerakul admitted the film was marketed on the film posters and in the film's previews as a straight romance because he wanted it to reach a wider audience.

"The movie is not all about gay characters, we are not focusing on gay issues, we are not saying, 'let's come out of the closet,' so obviously, we don't want the movie to have a 'gay' label," he said in an interview.

But the director confirmed the mixed reaction of audiences. "I went incognito to a movie theater and observed the audience. I didn't expect such a strong reaction. Maybe I was just too optimistic that homophobia in Thai society had subsided."

Commerical performance

The Love of Siam was released in Thai cinemas on November 22, 2007, opening on 146 screens. It was the No. 1 film at the Thai box office that weekend, topping the previous No. 1 film, Beowulf. It slipped to No. 2 the following weekend, unseated by the comedy film, Ponglang Amazing Theater. In the third week of release, it had dropped to No. 5, with to-date box office takings of US$1,198,637. It has grossed a total of US$1,305,125 to date.

The film was officially released in Taiwan on September 19, 2008 and Singapore on July 16, 2009. It reached No. 12 at the Taiwan box office in opening week.

Critical response

The Love of Siam was received with critical acclaim upon its release.

Bangkok Post film critic Kong Rithdee called the film "groundbreaking", in terms of being the first Thai film "to discuss teenagers' sexuality with frankness". He praised the mature, realistic family drama aspects of the film, as well as the solid performances, particularly by Sinjai Plengpanich as the mother Sunee.

Another Bangkok Post commentator, Nattakorn Devakula, said the film contained important lessons for Thai society. "The point that the film attempts to teach viewers – and a largely conservative Thai society – is that love is an evolved form of emotional attachment that transcends sexual attraction of the physical form."

A reviewer for The Nation called the film "brilliantly conceived".

A few critics found fault with the film, among them Gregoire Glachant of BK magazine, who commented that "The Love of Siam isn't a very well shot movie. Chookiat's camera only records his dull play with equally dull angles and light as it wanders from homes to schools, to recording studio, and to Siam Square without sense of purpose or directions."

The movie also reached a rating of 8.3 (out of 10) on the Internet Movie Database.

Accolades

at Star Entertainment Awards 2007

The Love of Siam dominated Thailand's 2007 film awards season, winning the Best Picture category in all major national film award events, including the Thailand National Film Association Awards, Starpics Magazine's Starpics Awards, the Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards, Star Entertainment Awards, and Kom Chad Luek Newspaper's Kom Chad Luek Awards. Awards won by the film include the following:

Starpics Awards Best Picture Best Director (Chookiat Sakveerakul) Best Actor (Mario Maurer) Best Actress (Sinjai Plengpanich) Best Supporting Actor (Songsit Rungnopakunsri) Best Screenplay (Chookiat Sakveerakul) Best Cinematography (Chitti Urnorakankij) Best Original Score (Kitti Kuremanee) Popular Film. Kom Chad Luek Awards Best Picture Best Actress (Sinjai Plengpanich) Thailand National Film Association Awards Best Picture Best Director (Chookiat Sakveerakul) Best Supporting Actress (Chermarn Boonyasak)

Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards Best Picture Best Director (Chookiat Sakveerakul) Best Actress (Sinjai Plengpanich) Best Supporting Actress (Chermarn Boonyasak) Best Screenplay (Chookiat Sakveerakul) Best Original Score (Kitti Kuremanee) Star Entertainment Awards Best Picture Best Director (Chookiat Sakveerakul) Best Actress (Sinjai Plengpanich) Best Supporting Actress (Chermarn Boonyasak) Best Screenplay (Chookiat Sakveerakul) Best Original Song Osaka Asian Film Festival 2009 Audience Award

The film was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Mario Maurer) and Best Composer (Kitti Kuremanee) categories in the Asian Film Awards at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, but did not win.

In October 2008, Mario Maurer won the Best Actor award in Southeast Asian film category at the 10th Cinemanila International Film Festival.

The Love of Siam is Thailand's submission to the 81st Academy Awards.

Production

Chookiat Sakveerakul at the Thai press preview of The Love of Siam on November 21, 2007.

The film was first shot on December 26, 2006, taking advantage of the Christmas lights and decorations of Siam Square and the surrounding area.

The Love of Siam is unusual among Thai films in many respects. First, at 150 minutes, the film is markedly longer than most other Thai films, and second it is a drama film, which is rare in the Thai industry, which mainly produces horror, comedy, action, and (heterosexual) teen romance films.

Director Sakveerakul said he felt the longer running time was needed to more fully develop all the characters and the story. He received full backing for this decision from producer Prachya Pinkaew and the production company, Sahamongkol Film International.

"They liked the first cut, which was even longer, so I didn't need to convince them that much. I feel that every minute of the movie is important, and I'm glad the audience will be able to see it in full," Chookiat said in an interview before the film's release.

A nearly three-hour "director's cut" was released in January 2008 exclusively at the House RCA cinema, and it played for several weeks of sold-out shows.

The film was a departure for Chookiat, who had previously directed the horror film, Pisaj and the psychological thriller, 13 Beloved.

The gay romance was also unusual, in that it involved two "straight acting" boys. In most Thai films with gay characters, gay men are coarsely depicted as transgenders or transvestites with exaggerated effeminacy.

The young actors portraying Mew and Tong both had difficulties with the kissing scene.

Witwisit Hiranyawongkul, who portrays Mew, accepted the role because it was challenging and because he was interested in working with the director, who was a senior classmate at Montfort College in Chiang Mai.

Mario Maurer, of Chinese-German descent, portrayed Tong, and was "nervous". "I've never kissed a man and kissing is not something you do every day," he said in an interview. "My father said it was just a job and not to think about it too much."

Soundtrack

Untitled

An original soundtrack album was released on November 12, 2007, ahead of the film's release. The two-disc package features a CD with music tracks by Chookiat Sakveerakul, Witwisit Hiranyawongkul, the August band, Passakorn Wiroonsup and Flure, and a VCD. The album proved popular, and had sold out of many shops in the weeks after its release. "Gun Lae Gun" spent seven weeks at number one on Seed 97.5 FM's charts.

Tagline: "Just ask yourself who you think of when you are listening to love song."

Disc 1 (CD)

1. "Gun lae gun" ("กันและกัน") – performed by Suweera Boonrod (Flure) – 4:34
2. "Ticket (Day Trip)" – performed by Chookiat Sakveerakul & August Band – 3:34
3. "Roo suek barng mhai" ("รู้สึกบ้างไหม") (Live) – performed by Witwisit Hiranyawongkul – 4:16
4. "Pieng ter" ("เพียงเธอ") – performed by Witwisit Hiranyawongkul – 4:12
5. "Gun lae gun" ("กันและกัน") (Acoustic version) – performed by Chookiat Sakveerakul – 6:20
6. "Kuen aun pen niran" ("คืนอันเป็นนิรันดร์") – performed by Passakorn Wiroonsup – 3:07
7. "Gun lae gun" ("กันและกัน") (Live) – performed by Witwisit Hiranyawongkul – 6:02
8. "Roo suek barng mhai" ("รู้สึกบ้างไหม ") (Original Mix) – performed by Witwisit Hiranyawongkul – 5:00
9. "Pieng ter" ("เพียงเธอ") (Demo) – performed by Chookiat Sakveerakul – 4:23
10. "Ticket (Night Trip)" (Bonus Track) – Instrumental – 3:50

Disc 2 (VCD)

1. The Love of Siam trailer
2. "Gun lae gun" music video
3. Introducing the August band
4. "Gun lae gun" behind-the-scenes music video

Home media

The standard DVD was released on February 19, 2008 in anamorphic widescreen format with Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 Surround audio tracks and a commentary by the director. The DVD includes music videos, trailer and a photo gallery.

The three-disc director's cut DVD was released on April 9, 2008. Discs 1 and 2 contain the 173 minutes director's cut of the film. Disc 3 includes a trailer, a film documentary, deleted scenes, a Making Of, character introduction, a live concert, an interview with the songwriter and the complete theatrical version with an on-screen commentary by the director.

In addition, an audio CD, a wooden doll, postcards, the letter and a note of "Gun lae gun" are featured in a limited DVD Boxset.

The Love of Siam was released as a Collector's Edition 3-disc set in Taiwan on January 21, 2009. This edition duplicates the Thai three-disc director's cut DVD and adds an exclusive extra of the director's and stars' reception in Taiwan. This is the only DVD of the director's cut that has English subtitles on both the film and the extras, except the Making Of which doesn't have any subtitles.

All Thailand editions mentioned above are now out of print. A budget-price one disc version was released in 2009, accompanied by a two disc version of the director's cut.

The Love of Siam (theatrical version) was released in the US on October 13, 2009. The only extra is the trailer. This is the only DVD of the theatrical version that has English subtitles.

See also

• List of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender-related films by storyline

External links

• Official website
• Rak haeng Siam (The Love of Siam) at IMDb
• Rak haeng Siam (The Love of Siam) at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Love of Siam at SiamZone Template:Th icon