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Petchtai Wongkamlao (aka Mum Jokmok), Thailand ’s hardest working comedian, is back on his familiar territory directing and starring in this comedy about a bucolic life and a forbidden love in his hometown in the northeastern province of Yasothorn. Mum Jokmok’s recognizable comedic style may make the film adequately entertaining, but oftentimes throughout the movie I keep wondering if this familiarity is just too much.
There is nothing you have not heard before in this story about the love between two people of different economic classes in a rural northeastern Thailand ’s village. Sroi (Yaowaluck Tumboon) loves Tong (Chaipat Ningong) but is forced by her aristocratic aunt into an arranged marriage with the village headman’s son. Her choice between succumbing to a miserable marriage and following her heart in the end will certainly not surprise you.
If this plot has not yet set you into a d?j? vu, perhaps its brightly color-contrasting cinematography will remind you of Wisit Sasanatiang’s 2000 Tears of the Black Tiger. If you have never seen any Thai television soap opera or film, then perhaps Mum Jokmok’s insertion of a music band as narrator of the story will remind you of the 1998’s There’s Something About Mary.
Furthermore, the jokes in Hello Yasothorn are not drastically different from Mum Jokmok’s other routines on his many television shows. Worse, there are slapping the head, kicking in the butts, and foul cussing that have almost made the film like a low-grade caf? comedy. Equally unredeeming is the film’s one-dimensional characters, which range from an over-the-top screaming transvestite and an aristocrat who mixes English and Thai in her speech to a man with a mismatched voice and a pair of brainless twin sidekicks who complete each other’s sentences.
Nonetheless, you may still find the film fairly entertaining if you can look past all these flaws. After all, Mum Jokmok and his comedy troupe are funny, and the film progresses without climaxes, sharp turns, or surprises in a way that demands no effort from the audience.
In short, at its best moment, Hello Yasothorn is a safe, predictable film for the masses. At its worst, it is a B-grade slapstick comedy that employs familiar humor and unoriginal cinematic techniques.
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