Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Matrixiole
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
thomvic
Reading the back of the DVD cover, I was thinking - hmmm OK this sounds alright. So borrowed it from the library and while I did find it moving, the film's main problem is that the love story is developed way too fast to make it feel genuine and pretty much forces you to sob (even though it does work sometimes) rather than making you build up the emotional tension gradually.I was expecting a romance, action/thriller sort of movie and you mainly get a romance drama which is fine with me with a gangster sort of plot thrown in to heighten the tension. There is a little bit of exploration on living with HIV in the film from some of the characters, however a lot of the character development is pretty minimal and the beginning of the romance between the two male leads didn't make me fully believe that they fell in love so quickly with no real sort of lead up to it and the ending scene, though I found moving, made it more melodramatic which seemed to overflow like turning on a tap at full blast rather than letting it flow at a normal pace.The acting is pretty decent with the two leads - I thought that love song they used in the film could have been left out as it sort of felt out of place - it would probably fit a really soppy love story. Even though I did feel tears coming up near the end, a lot was sort of unexplained and the director obviously wanted this to be a story that would make you cry - but just don't force it too much.
az2002-2
It is almost 2h and it's really a waste of time. The only good thing in the movie is the really hot guy Chaiwat Thongsaeng. All the ideas in the film are very interesting, but the director's work sucks. When you expect something to happen, it vanishes. All the characters lack profundity and there is only Chaiwat Thongsaeng who screams "I miss you" all the time. This love is impossible and it will remain like this. If Chaiwat Thongsaeng's character was really a lawyer, it would be stupid to fall in love with his killer and even to plan his own suicide( the scene in the bathroom). for me the movie is illogical, boring, very confusing and it was boring!
Falconeer
Many complain that "Bangkok Love Story," (the original Thai title for this translates into "Buddy, I love you man!") is too melodramatic. Film is fantasy, I believe, a way to escape into another world where emotions and images are cranked up a few notches. The beauty of this odd film from Thailand is at times staggering, and the director has achieved something so rare: he managed to make a gay-themed film that is actually cool, instead of silly and embarrassing junk that is most gay cinema. Meht, nicknamed 'Cloud' lives on a roof overlooking a grey, but beautiful Bangkok. The contract killer seems untamed, long straggly hair in his big haunted eyes, as he oversees the city, waiting to execute the next kill. His target is the innocent and gentle Itt, a lawyer with a seemingly perfect life. However things don't go as planned, and a powerful bond soon develops between these two very different men. The two leads are excellent, and the subject matter has never been handled in a more mature, intelligent way before. Scenes of bloody violence and ugliness walk hand in hand with intense beauty. The art direction and cinematography are dazzling, and the story is as tragic and as dramatic as films from the silent film era. And truthfully, the images here are so strong, that it can be understood without any understanding of the Thai language. I wondered if this was based on a manga, as the film sometimes possesses the look of a fantasy film. "Pheuan... Guu Rak meung waa/Buddy...I love you, man" remains one of my favorite films; this one is very special, and maybe bound for cult status!
yduric
After my first viewing of 'Bangkok Love Story', I was so disappointed by the melodramatic overload at the end of the film, that my first reaction was to write a very hateful comment about it, and I even wanted to smash my DVD against the wall, literally! However, something prevented me from doing so, and I think I figured out what it is. I was actually extremely moved by the story, and I think that I somehow just couldn't stomach its sad outcome, but after re-thinking about it, I finally realized that what I loved in it actually exceeded by far all the rest. Apart from the beautiful cinematography and the first rate acting, that the other reviewers here have already examined, I think that it is above all the authenticity of the love between the two characters and its unquestionable nature that I found absolutely beautifully rendered. This is a love story between two handsome and masculine men from a completely different social background,who, by a series of very unusual circumstances, succumb to a mutual passion, even if the time and place for this passion are inappropriate. What I loved in the director's approach is that, contrarily to a typical Western approach, like for instance in 'Brokeback Mountain', where the characters are devastated by the realization of the fact that they love a person of the same sex,and struggle with a typically Western guilt, an approach that I find nauseating,at NO MOMENT in 'Bangkok Love Story' do the characters waste time by asking themselves the question 'Am I gay?' or try to deny their feelings. What makes this love story tragic is above all their FATE, which is above all determined by the circumstances of their first meeting,and this fate is also determined to a certain extent by their social background. The tragedy here comes from DESTINY, and NOT from the sexuality of the characters, If 'Bangkok Love Story' had been a straight love story it would also had made perfect sense.(I do not want to spoil this review, but those who have seen the film can easily figure it out by examining the plot, nothing would have been out of place if the story had involved a man and a woman). Another reviewer talked about, I think, something like 'clan-destined' lovers, and I think, he's actually got the point and the heart of the story very well. So I finally decided to forgive the over-melodramatic turn the director gave to the story, and to focus on the beauty that lies within instead, and my rating of the film jumped from an initial 1 to a final 10. But, after all, isn't love a feeling of extreme subjectivity?
