A Beautiful Look at Desperation

I have to be honest- I've been looking forward to seeing this since it was announced, and I was so fortunate to be able to attend TIFF and go to the first public screening! Boss Kuno and One Pongsittisak were also in attendance, and did a little Q&A after the film which gave us a little insight into the filmmaking process and character motivations. They also had some freebies for some of the audience, and Boss stayed to talk to the fans after which was incredibly kind of him!

With that out of the way, let's get to the review!

If I had to sum describe The Paradise of Thorns in one word, I'd use the word "desperate." There is no such thing as good vs. bad with this movie; all the main characters are layered and complicated, and they all do objectively bad things to achieve their goals. The film focuses on Thongkam, the co-owner of a durian orchard with his husband Sek, who is left with nothing after Sek passes away since the government won't recognize their marriage due to the law. Because of this, the land passes to Sek's mother Saeng, who moves in with her adopted daughter Mo as they try and claim Thongkam's farm for their own. Thongkam doesn't take this lying down, and he plots to do whatever he has to in order to reclaim the farm and evict Saeng and Mo.

Based solely on the trailer, I would have called Mo the clear antagonist- she lies, cheats, and does whatever she has to in order to ensure the farm stays with her and her mother. But Mo's character is so much more than that: she's desperate to be accepted by her mother who only sees her as a caretaker, and she's frustrated that life has given her this hand. Because of her life (and largely due to Engfa's fantastic acting), I spent a lot of the movie thinking that she was definitely *an* antagonist, but almost all of her actions are understandable because of her past, which makes her a polarizing character: you don't like her because of her choices, but you can empathize with the situation she is in and understand to an extent why she is the way she is.

Thongkam is also a complicated character, largely because of the number of twists and turns this movie throws at him in terms of the relationships he's had and where he stands in them. He starts the movie with a simple life: he loves Sek, and they own a durian orchard. However, over the course of the movie we find out there's so much more happening than that, and it's easy to feel for this man who's had his entire life turned on its head. Of course he'd do anything to get back his durian farm- it's the only thing he has left of the man he loves, and it belongs to him as much as it belonged to Sek.

Saeng, in my mind, represented the older generation and the mentality often shared between them. Children are born to take care of their parents, end of story. One of the things I liked most about this movie was how different people interpreted Saeng's character- I have a Canadian background, and I firmly disagree with that concept, making me see Saeng as an objectively bad person. She's rude and demanding to Mo, and never thanks her for anything. But the person I watched this with is from South Asia, and they said they could think of multiple people in their life who fit Saeng's personality, so they could understand Mo's character better and the resentment she must be feeling. Not that I think Saeng is evil or anything- she was raised with certain beliefs and expects others to follow them. It creates a good conflict for the movie to explore: old vs. new.

From a visual perspective, this movie was STUNNING. I'm not by any means going to call myself a film buff, but even I could see how beautiful and rich the colours in the movie were: the dark green and brown of the orchard complemented the bright colours of the characters really well. There were a few shots in the movie which I thought were incredible from a symbolic perspective, really showing the dichotomy between Kam's character and the relationship with Saeng and Mo.

THIS PARAGRAPH HAS SPOILERS! My favourite scene from the movie was the wedding scene near the end of the film, with Mo getting married at the same time as Thongkam and Jingna. Hearing the "official" wedding steps in the background as Kam and Jingna did the same using a durian gave me goosebumps- it was such a clever way to juxtapose how Mo could legally get married while Kam and Jingna don't have that ability. The word "mockery" makes it sound very negative, but it's all I could think of while I watched that scene (and while that scene was my favourite it was also the one that made me the most upset with regards to LGBTQ+ rights in Thailand/other Asian countries). Mo gets to have the fancy wedding with guests and money, while Kam and Jingna are forced to perform a bastardization of the ceremony since they wouldn't be legally recognized as spouses.

The music in this movie was also very well done, albeit minimal- there's not a lot of "songs", but every now and then there are some violin notes/chords which emphasize character's thoughts and turning points in the movie. It honestly felt uncomfortable at times, but I think this was the best decision that could have been made, because this movie is not supposed to make you feel comfortable. The only actual song I can recall is Jeff's song Rain Wedding during the end credits.

My only problem (and I use that word only because I can't think of a different one) with this movie would be the build up to its ending. The movie did feel like it was building to a final confrontation, but I was not expecting it to go the way it did. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there's a different ending that would have made sense, but the way the characters got there was a bit difficult for me to process in the moment (I'll talk about the ending with spoilers in the next paragraph for those who don't mind them).

ENDING SPOILERS! The last 15ish minutes of the movie are a lot more graphic than I had anticipated, so content warnings for lots of violence and blood and knives and such. My biggest grievance with the ending was Kam trying to sexually assault Mo because he was so desperate to get the farm back under his name. I know he was going to do it solely out of desperation, but it came out of nowhere and didn't sit great with me. Immediately after that, Mo's new husband tries to murder Kam (fine), only to be almost murdered by Jingna (made a lot of sense), and then Mo's new husband DOES murder Jingna, before robbing her and running away. I thought Jingna's death worked well in regards to symbolism- Kam is now exactly where he started, with a dead husband and no claim to the durian orchard. The same goes for Mo- they've ruined all the durians and her husband has fled with their money, so she's also essentially back to square one.

I had honestly expected the ending to just be Mo vs. Kam, so the other characters came as an absolute shock to me. But I understand why the film had to end that way, I just wish it... didn't? If that makes any sense.

All in all, I greatly enjoyed this movie from both a plot perspective and a visual one. It was an absolute roller coaster of emotions, and is absolutely worth rewatching because of all the details you'll pick up on the second time around. Like Boss said in the Q&A, the thorns talked about in the title don't only refer to the thorns on the durian- it also refers to the thorns of emotion you'll feel while watching these characters' lives unfold.

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