Jan Dara A film review by Don Willmott (Copyright © 2005 filmcritic.com)
Jan Dara, a Thai import adapted from a well-known Thai novel by the feverish mind of writer/director Nonzee Nimibutr, is a thoughtful tone poem about the bonds between father and son and the importance of family loyalty in a troubled…
Wait. Let me start again. Jan Dara is about sex. Lots of sex. Lots of hot sex of every imaginable kind. Any other thematic concern — and there are a few — is hopelessly lost in the wake of all that sweaty, mosquito-net-shrouded sex.
The title character (Suwinit Panjamawat) is born into a well-to-do Bangkok household, but his mother dies in childbirth, and his father Khun Kaew (Patharawarin Timkul) hates him for causing her death. (He also hints that Jan Dara may not be his flesh and blood.) As Dad surrounds himself with an ever-changing retinue of hot girlfriends, maids, and nannies, Jan Dara grows up like Cinderella, forced to do chores and endure severe beatings, even as he watches his younger half-sister enjoy her status as Daddy’s little princess. It’s all humiliating and impossible to bear. No matter where Jan Dara walks in the house, Dad is screwing someone on a chaise lounge.
Eventually, Dad’s number one girlfriend Khun Boonlueang (Christy Chung) takes a shine to Jan Dara, and on one especially hot day, she asks him to join her in her budoir to work her over with an ice cube. Jan Dara, who at age 15 has already been introduced to sex by various horny housekeepers, takes Khun Bo as his lover. What better revenge on Dad than bedding his woman? Sex as a weapon. Let the war begin.
Although Jan Dara also longs for a virginal local schoolgirl, he’s always sucked back into the sexual cesspool of the family manse. We see cousins boinking cousins, girls boinking girls, Dad boinking everyone, and Jan Dara boinking Khun Bo. When Dad happens to see this last one, he has a massive stroke. The war is over, but for some reason involving real estate deeds, it won’t truly end until Jan Dara marries and rapes his half-sister. Too bad they didn’t have air conditioning back then. These people really need to cool off!
Hot blooded, I'm hot blooded!
