Concrete Clouds
Thailand
Lee Chatametikool
A film about flight, both real and imagined, in a nation caught in the epicenter of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. In the heart of Bangkok, a suicide leap pulls the lives of the four main characters together. They are forced to confront their haunting pasts and re-imagine their futures.
1985 marked the start of Thailand’s transformation from an agricultural backwater into a Newly Industrialized Country. 1985 was also a transitional year for Mutt, a 30-year old half-Thai/half-American man, as he graduated from high school and moved to New York City for university. Sai, his half-Thai/half-American girlfriend, was forced to remain in Thailand because her parents couldn’t afford to send her abroad. They struggled to maintain a long-distance relationship but the distance proved too much for Sai to bear and she broke up with him. Mutt coped by romanticizing their love into an idealized fantasy that was impossible to achieve in real life. As a consequence, he found himself drifting from one meaningless relationship to another.
Sai is a budding teenage model but her desire to be more than just a pretty face pushes her to pursue a degree in marketing and open her own market research firm. Appearing on an afternoon talk show to talk about her company’s success, her past modeling career and her thoughts on the modern Thai woman, she espouses her belief that consumerism is the highest form of democracy and a leveling force for women’s rights in Thailand. She sees her job in market research as a driving force enabling Thai women to be independent while maintaining core Thai ‘cultural’ values. But Sai’s beauty and success belie a deep loneliness and a weakness for luxury items. She has amassed a huge credit card debt and purchased an expensive condo at the height of the economic bubble. After the crash, she finds herself behind on her payments and returning every night to an empty condo.
Mutt works as a currency trader on Wall Street and the 1997 financial crisis places a temporary hold on his life. Faced with crushing debt after the crash, Mutt’s father commits suicide by jumping off the roof of a building. His father’s death instills a feeling of guilt that provides a convenient excuse for him to quit his job and leave his American girlfriend. He packs up and heads back to Thailand. He re-enters the old house, which doubles as his father’s chemical import business. Everything feels smaller and older. His relationship with Nic, his younger brother, is cold and distant since Nic was only 6 when Mutt moved to America. They have brief exchanges but mostly co-exist in silence. Mutt tries to sort through his father’s business but discovers that it’s worthless and deeply in debt. When he re-discovers an old box of cassette tapes that Sai sent to him while he was in college, he finds himself drifting back to past love. They are love letters recorded on cassette tapes where she practices being a DJ/newscaster, reporting her daily life and feelings to him.
Nic is an introverted kid who enjoys growing colored crystals from the chemical compounds in his father’s stock. But his father’s suicide throws him into an unanchored state. Nic becomes obsessed with the roof of his downtown townhouse and the condo that stands behind it. To escape his brother and cope with his father’s death, he spends the whole night on the roof staring into the lives of his neighbors in the various units. It provides a way for him to secretly watch over his friend, Poupee.
Poupee a 16-year Thai girl, lives in the one-room condo unit with her sister. Her sister works in the red-light district and disappears for long stretches, leaving Poupee to take care of herself. The room is sparsely furnished but she’s decorated it with dolls and posters. Despite her youth, Poupee harbors a dark secret that cloaks her like a dark shadow. Nic isn’t brave enough to reach out to her in reality so he retreats to an imaginary space where him and Poupee act out the early days of Mutt and Sai’s relationship in cheesy music videos circa 1985.
One night, Sai returns home and finds a foreclosure notice tacked to her door. The reality of losing her condo pushes her to desperation. Meanwhile, Mutt manages to track her down at her. They end up having dinner and reminiscing about the past. After an awkward silence, Sai allows Mutt to take her back to her condo. She drifts towards the balcony and turns her back to him, silently inviting him to embrace her. But she changes her mind when he starts to caress her face and kis her cheeks. Mutt stops. And after awhile, Sai’s hand caresses his chest but he tells her to stop. He gets up to leave.
Nic and Poupee are lying in the darkened room with the only light coming from the flickering television screen. After a long silence, Poupee starts to reveal her dark secret to him. The reality of her life paralyses Nic and slightly disgusts him. When she gets up to walk over to the balcony he regrets not having consoled her but the chance had already passed. He could get up and walk up to her but something holds him back. Eventually, she realizes he does not love her in the way she needs and she asks him to leave.
Mutt walks back into his father’s office. He sits down at the desk again and is overwhelmed by the documents. He shoves them off the table in a fit of rage. he walks into the storeroom. The shelves filled with jars look ominous. He starts pushing them over. The jars break and shatter on the ground. The colored chemical powders fill the air with shades of purple, yellow and green. Mutt keeps smashing the jars with a stick. He walks over to his father’s portrait from the funeral and strikes it with the stick. It leaves a long crack over the glass.
1985 marked the start of Thailand’s transformation from an agricultural backwater into a Newly Industrialized Country. 1985 was also a transitional year for Mutt, a 30-year old half-Thai/half-American man, as he graduated from high school and moved to New York City for university. Sai, his half-Thai/half-American girlfriend, was forced to remain in Thailand because her parents couldn’t afford to send her abroad. They struggled to maintain a long-distance relationship but the distance proved too much for Sai to bear and she broke up with him. Mutt coped by romanticizing their love into an idealized fantasy that was impossible to achieve in real life. As a consequence, he found himself drifting from one meaningless relationship to another.
Sai is a budding teenage model but her desire to be more than just a pretty face pushes her to pursue a degree in marketing and open her own market research firm. Appearing on an afternoon talk show to talk about her company’s success, her past modeling career and her thoughts on the modern Thai woman, she espouses her belief that consumerism is the highest form of democracy and a leveling force for women’s rights in Thailand. She sees her job in market research as a driving force enabling Thai women to be independent while maintaining core Thai ‘cultural’ values. But Sai’s beauty and success belie a deep loneliness and a weakness for luxury items. She has amassed a huge credit card debt and purchased an expensive condo at the height of the economic bubble. After the crash, she finds herself behind on her payments and returning every night to an empty condo.
Mutt works as a currency trader on Wall Street and the 1997 financial crisis places a temporary hold on his life. Faced with crushing debt after the crash, Mutt’s father commits suicide by jumping off the roof of a building. His father’s death instills a feeling of guilt that provides a convenient excuse for him to quit his job and leave his American girlfriend. He packs up and heads back to Thailand. He re-enters the old house, which doubles as his father’s chemical import business. Everything feels smaller and older. His relationship with Nic, his younger brother, is cold and distant since Nic was only 6 when Mutt moved to America. They have brief exchanges but mostly co-exist in silence. Mutt tries to sort through his father’s business but discovers that it’s worthless and deeply in debt. When he re-discovers an old box of cassette tapes that Sai sent to him while he was in college, he finds himself drifting back to past love. They are love letters recorded on cassette tapes where she practices being a DJ/newscaster, reporting her daily life and feelings to him.
Nic is an introverted kid who enjoys growing colored crystals from the chemical compounds in his father’s stock. But his father’s suicide throws him into an unanchored state. Nic becomes obsessed with the roof of his downtown townhouse and the condo that stands behind it. To escape his brother and cope with his father’s death, he spends the whole night on the roof staring into the lives of his neighbors in the various units. It provides a way for him to secretly watch over his friend, Poupee.
Poupee a 16-year Thai girl, lives in the one-room condo unit with her sister. Her sister works in the red-light district and disappears for long stretches, leaving Poupee to take care of herself. The room is sparsely furnished but she’s decorated it with dolls and posters. Despite her youth, Poupee harbors a dark secret that cloaks her like a dark shadow. Nic isn’t brave enough to reach out to her in reality so he retreats to an imaginary space where him and Poupee act out the early days of Mutt and Sai’s relationship in cheesy music videos circa 1985.
One night, Sai returns home and finds a foreclosure notice tacked to her door. The reality of losing her condo pushes her to desperation. Meanwhile, Mutt manages to track her down at her. They end up having dinner and reminiscing about the past. After an awkward silence, Sai allows Mutt to take her back to her condo. She drifts towards the balcony and turns her back to him, silently inviting him to embrace her. But she changes her mind when he starts to caress her face and kis her cheeks. Mutt stops. And after awhile, Sai’s hand caresses his chest but he tells her to stop. He gets up to leave.
Nic and Poupee are lying in the darkened room with the only light coming from the flickering television screen. After a long silence, Poupee starts to reveal her dark secret to him. The reality of her life paralyses Nic and slightly disgusts him. When she gets up to walk over to the balcony he regrets not having consoled her but the chance had already passed. He could get up and walk up to her but something holds him back. Eventually, she realizes he does not love her in the way she needs and she asks him to leave.
Mutt walks back into his father’s office. He sits down at the desk again and is overwhelmed by the documents. He shoves them off the table in a fit of rage. he walks into the storeroom. The shelves filled with jars look ominous. He starts pushing them over. The jars break and shatter on the ground. The colored chemical powders fill the air with shades of purple, yellow and green. Mutt keeps smashing the jars with a stick. He walks over to his father’s portrait from the funeral and strikes it with the stick. It leaves a long crack over the glass.
Support:
Festivals and Awards:
in competition in Busan 2013
in competition in Rotterdam 2014
in competition in Rotterdam 2014
World Sales:
Mosquito Films Distribution