Film Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Wonderful Town
Directed by Aditya Assarat
Kino Video 03/08 DVD/VHS Feature Film
Not Rated

In the 2004 tsunami, the southern Thai town of Pakua Pak was devastated; 8,000 people lost their lives. Many of the buildings destroyed by the disaster stand empty, and the beaches once very popular with tourists now are empty. But there are signs of hope in the community with new resorts under construction with beautiful views of the sea.

Ton (Supphasit Kansen), an architect from Bangkok, arrives to oversee one of these projects. He is a quiet man who keeps to himself and has no trouble adapting to the slow pace of Pakua Pak. He takes a room in a cheap hotel run by Na (Anchalee Saisoontorn), an attractive woman with a city education. She is fascinated with Ton and while he is working at the construction site, touches his clothing in his room.

They begin a romantic relationship but she is quite worried about the gossip in the small community. He doesn't care and wonders why she lets this bother her so much. Her brother Wit (Dul Yaambunying) is apprehensive that this outsider will hurt his sensitive and kind sister. Hoping to scare Ton away, he has four motorbike riding buddies trash his car. But it doesn't work.

Aditya Assarat directs this lyrical drama which pits the tendrils of hope against the depression and darkness that exists in the devastated town. At one point, Ton looks at an apartment complex near the resort. A worker tells him to stay away since it is rumored to be haunted. In a spiritual sense, Pakua Pak is a ghost town where the past has drained the life and energy out of the place so that all that is left is bad karma. The fragile love that Ton and Na experience is pitted against this tsunami of gloom and doom.

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by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat