Post Description
Ploy is a 2007 Thai film written and directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. The film premiered during the Directors' Fortnight at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
The drama film stars Thai actress Lalita Panyopas in a story of a middle-aged married couple who question their relationship after seven years. Ananda Everingham is featured in a supporting role as a bartender.
The film contained sex scenes that were shown at Cannes, but due to censorship concerns had to be re-edited by the director so the film could be shown in cinemas in Thailand when it opened there on June 7, 2007. The uncensored version of the film was shown in Thailand at the 2007 Bangkok International Film Festival.
Directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Starring Lalita Panyopas
Pornwut Sarasin
Apinya Sakuljaroensuk
Porntip Papanai
Ananda Everingham
Thaksakorn Pradabpongsa
Music by Hualampong Riddim
Koichi Shimizu
Cinematography Chankit Chamnivikaipong
Editing by Patamanadda Yukol
Distributed by Five Star Production
Fortissimo Films
Release date(s) France May 21, 2007
Thailand June 7, 2007
Running time 105 min.
Country Thailand
Language Thai
Plot
The death of a relative brings a Thai-American couple, Wit and Dang, back to Bangkok for the first time in many years. Arriving at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport at around 5 a.m., they check in to a hotel in the city. Suffering from jet lag, Dang wants to sleep, but her husband Wit is restless and heads down to the hotel bar to buy some cigarettes. While unpacking their luggage, Dang finds a small paper with a phone number of a woman named Noy, and she is immediately suspicious.
In the hotel bar, Wit meets Ploy, a young woman who says she is waiting for her mother to arrive from Stockholm. The two bond over coffee and cigarettes, and Wit then invites Ploy to come up to the hotel room, where she can take a shower and rest while she awaits her mother. Up at the room, Dang opens the door and sees Ploy. To the girl, Dang is pleasant and friendly, but to her husband, she is seething with anger and jealousy. She has bouts of suspicion, followed by hallucinations / nightmares. Fitfully, the three people try to sleep. Dang and Wit discuss their seven-year marriage, and wonder why the love has gone out of it.
Meanwhile, a hotel maid, Tum, has stolen a guest's suit from the hotel's dry cleaners. She takes it up to room 609 and hangs it in the closet. Nut, the silent, weary bartender, enters the room and puts on the suit. He then finds Tum hiding in the shower, and proceeds to kiss her and caress her, and the couple starts having a sexual relationship.
Back in Wit and Dang's room, Dang becomes more upset, and decides to leave. Wit wakes up to find Dang gone, and then he and Ploy sit and smoke cigarettes and talk about love and relationships. They discuss how married life begins to lose its sheen eventually and think of options to keep the flame lit.
Ploy eventually leaves the hotel room, when Wit falls asleep. Out of curiosity, she examines the room in which she thinks the maid and the bartender had sex. She apparently has a dream about the entire episode.
Dang finds a coffee shop, where she takes a seat with a cup of coffee and pours some vodka in it from a small bottle she took from her hotel room's mini-bar. She is noticed by Moo, who is using his laptop computer. He recognizes Dang from her days as a famous television soap opera actress and invites her back to his home for some more drinks. Dang, who has already had quite a bit to drink, eventually throws up. Moo, spikes her last drink and tries to get closer to her. When Dang turns down his advances, he attacks and rapes her, although she puts up a fight. When Dang's life is in danger, they end up playing a game of hide and seek that would end with one of them dead.
The movie ends with Wit attending the funeral when he is subsequently joined by someone.
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