Simply Love (Love of Siam - part 2, final)

Are June and Daeng the same person? Thai director 'Ma-Deaw' Chukiat Sakweerakul teases his audience, alternately dropping hints that yes, she is, and no, she isn't.

June, just like Daeng, chews gum; she knows things about the family which only an insider would know, which raises Sunee's suspicions more than once; she comes from Chiang Mai, which is where Daeng disappeared.

After her departure, Sunee finds a photograph which Daeng took of the family in Chiang Mai. Has this picture only just turned up, or was it in the family photo album all along? At the same time, Sunee reads a note which June has left, where she says: 'I am not the woman you think I am.'

Most Pantip webboard readers believe June and Daeng are different people. While Sunee and Tong may torture themselves over the identity of the woman who entered their lives and transformed it, there is no mystery for Korn: she was Daeng, his long-lost daughter.

Her departure is like losing a loved one a second time - though June's presence did help the family. Audiences are left with the impression that their lives will improve.

Her ghost-like role in the movie reminds me of the healing role which love letters played in the Thai romance, The Letter. A woman's lover dies, but she keeps getting letters in the mail from him, which he wrote before he died. She doesn't know where they come from. It's almost like he never left, or has come back to keep an eye on her.

It's something only possible in the movies, which is perhaps why June's character makes such an impact on audiences. Another character who plays a powerful role is Tong's mother, Sunee, who struggles to keep her family together after the loss of her daughter - as she watches her husband turn to alcohol to drown his sorrows, and then is confronted with the unwelcome prospect that her son may be gay.

Korn wants to know why Sunee has removed all the photographs of Daeng from their home, and why she won't set a place for her at mealtime.

'Because she's gone, and is not coming back,' she replies firmly. I doubt Sunee wants to sound so cruel and dogmatic, but she wants her husband to get over the loss. Tong watches these heartwrenching scenes helplessly, as he looks to his mother, the pillar of the family, to keep things together.

Sunee happens to witness Tong and Music share that momentary kiss in the garden. Both the kiss and the revelation that Sunee was watching set off instant audience reaction. As for the kiss, young men called out: 'Here we go! Here we go!' When the camera turned to Mum, and we saw the pair in the garden from where she stood, people laughed.

Sunee pays a visit to Music's house to tell him not to see her son again. That leads to a lengthy spell in which Tong and Mew think about each other longingly but do not meet - a tension resolved only in the closing scenes, when Tong turns up at a Christmas concert in Siam Square to watch Music's band perform, and Music rediscovers the desire to sing in himself when he lost when Tong left his life.

While that sequence might move younger viewers, it did little for me, probably because I am older. I found the family drama involving Sunee, her husband, and June, much more riveting. Love of Siam, by exploring the lives of both teenagers and their parents, offers something to audiences from both age groups - though that happened almost accidentally.

Director Mat-daew says when he started writing Love of Siam, the story was focussed on the two teen characters, Tong and Music. Only later did he broaden the scope of the drama to take in the story of their families.

I am pleased he did, as the film would offer little of interest to me if it had been merely about the boys and their friends, even with the gay theme, as same-sex encounters are such a common part of life for young men and women that age. This Pantip webboard poster agrees, saying the family drama carried more weight, and the teen love story left him feeling indifferent:

'Both boys act their parts well. Mario Maurer, as Tong, is the straight-laced type who for the sake of his family calls off his relationship with Music. ''Pitch'' Witwisit Hiranwongkul, as Music, is the fem contrast to Tong's manly type, who smiles sweetly, swallows his loneliness and submits to whatever Tong decides should be his fate.

However, neither left as much impact as the adult women characters in the film.'

Chermarn Boonyasak, as June, takes on the demanding task of trying to keep Tong's family together. She is friend to the boys, Korn's long-lost daughter, and Sunee's employee and occasional listening ear all at once.

But best of all, for me, was Sinjai Plengpanit, as Sunee (pictured above, with director Mat-Deaw).

In the closing scenes, Sunee and Tong decorate a Christmas tree. Tong is reluctant to do the job alone, as he is afraid his mother will criticise him again, as she did his relationship with Music.

'I am afraid you'll be disappointed in me again,' he says.

Sunee asks Tong to choose between two doll-like characters to hang on the tree: a male, and a female. 'Choose whichever one is best for you.'

Tong chooses the male. Sunee looks shattered, but manages to put on a smile for the sake of her son, as if to say, 'I love you, no matter what you are.'

Earlier, contemplating her life, Sunee says in despair to June: 'What have I done to deserve this? (ฉันไปทำอะไรมา...ถึงได้รับการตอบแทนแบบนี้) This gutsy woman says it without an ounce of self pity.

There are not many actresses who could carry off that feat.

Sinjai Plengpanit's inspiring performance transforms Love of Siam from a mere teen romance into a moving and even profound family drama, the likes of which I have not seen in Thai film before.

At times, the film looked more like a Western-style family drama, complete with Speilberg-like touches such as June's ghost-like re-appearance, and clever use of symbols including the missing nose of a toy. The central family, for reasons unknown to me, is Catholic, and the closing scene takes part at a Christmas party in Siam Square.

Few scenes in the film remind me that I am watching a Thai movie. Did Mat-Daew set out to make a Thai film, or a teen movie with western-style themes which he could sell overseas?

Sinjai's performance as the tough, courageous mother is widely praised on webboards. She may find hard to fathom her son's softer side, or the sentimental, booze-soaked heartbreak of her husband, but audiences are left in no doubt that for her, these men are the most important figures in life.

At one point, tensions explode. 'You're a loser!' she calls her layabout husband, before the two grapple and struggle with each other in the family home. Sunee ends up in the floor. In another scene, they embrace, as ultimately, theirs is a shared suffering.

One fan calls her an angel. Another says that is she doesn't get best actress award this year, then something's wrong.