Features: DVD, English, Subtitled
Based on one of the most acclaimed Thai novels of the 20th Century and directed by Thai cinema's most successful and accomplished director, Nonzee Nimibutr (Nang Nak and Baytong).Enter the exotic and haunting world of Jan Dara, a saga of sex, guilt, retribution and love set in the moody and turbulent Thailand of the 1930s. Jan Dara is a young Thai with a traumatic background. His mother died when giving birth to him, and his earliest memories recall his father's sexual relationship with his childhood nanny. Branded a "bastard" by his father, Jan is later disowned and cast out of the house. Years later Jan Dara returns to seek revenge by outdoing his father's sexual conquests.
"This pic looks stunning: Ô30s upperclass Bangkok, bathed in a yellowy period glow, with immaculate interiors, gauzy compositions and gorgeous design and costumes." Derek Elley, Variety
"Abetted by swoonsome cast and muscial score, Nonzee dramatises this moral conundrum in the most sensual terms imaginable." Tony Rayns
Editor's Note
Beautiful, nostalgic photography and a haunting score make this melodrama of sex, love, and filial antagonism a treat for the senses. Nonzee Nimibutr (NANG NAK, BAYTONG) directs an adaptation of Usana Ploengtham's novel, THE STORY OF JAN DARA, regarded as the most notorious erotic work of Thai literature. The title character, played by Suwinit Panjamawat, is established early on as a pariah in his home, when his mother dies while giving birth to him. His father, Khun Luang (Santisuk Promsiri), ostracizes him, labeling him a bastard and delivering brutal beatings to the boy. Khun Luang (which means "master") has an insatiable sexual appetite, and the child's earliest memories are of witnessing his father's conquests. The boy's own sexuality is initiated at an early age, and continues to blossom despite the violence of his father. Eventually thrown out of the house, the grown Jan (Eakarat Sarsukh) is years later asked back into the fold to save the family name. He sets about wreaking his revenge, inadvertently continuing the cycle of cruelty established by his father. This controversial film stars Asian sex goddess Christy Chung as Jan Dara's young stepmother and lover, and sent the Thai censors into convulsions with its overt sensuality that touches upon many taboo subjects. However, it is the essentially human drama at the film's core that gives JAN DARA its poignancy and resonance.
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