MQFF NOTES: How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) (2015, Dir. Josh Kim)

Before going into Josh Kim's Bangkok set, Thai language feature, How to Win at Checkers (Every Time), I had seen a couple of comments from Thai punters calling the film out on its depiction of Thai culture.

I can honestly say I am in no place to address their concerns. I understand that Thai culture is traditionally very conservative and that Thai reflections of Bangkok's less than savoury side do not make the big screen, at least on the international circuit, all that often. I know that Kim worked his screenplay from a series of autobiographic short stories by Thai author Rattawut Lapcharoensap but at the same time he himself is Korean-American and it takes a very attuned director to work successfully outside his or her own culture.

So, giving a reading of How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) insofar as such a thing is possible, Kim's film is a none-too-robust take on a family under hardship. There are some engaging relationships introduced, though the film is predominantly concerned with the interaction between young Oat (Ingkarat Damrongsakkul) and his older brother Ek (Thira Chutikul), as Ek and his boyfriend Jai (Arthur Navarat) prepare to enter the government lottery that may see them enter military service.

Despite the lives and livelihoods under threat, the stakes never feel particularly high. Kim's reminiscing structure (which sees Oat looking back on his life) never locks into its cyclical intent, which leaves the film feeling like it has shortchanged itself. Kim doesn't invest enough in his characters to give the film dramatic heft, nor does he dive deep enough into the social milieu to give it any sort of sensory power.

I don't know where that leaves the film. Perhaps Kim's distance has allowed some sense of an outsider's view of Bangkok. Perhaps this slight remove from the culture has meant that the film can be celebrated with some sort of critical caveat (the film was put forward by Thailand as its entry to this year's Academy Awards).

I found it curiously unsatisfying.

★★☆

Trailer:

How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) screened as part of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.