Jan Dara

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jan Dara
The Thai VCD cover.
Directed by	Nonzee Nimibutr
Produced by	Peter Chan Jo Jo Yuet-chun Hui Duangkamol Limcharoen Nonzee Nimibutr
Written by	Nonzee Nimibutr Sirapak Paoboonkerd Utsana Phleungtham
Starring	Suwinit Panjamawat Christy Chung Eakarat Sarsukh Wipawee Charoenpura Patharawarin Timkul
Music by	Chartchai Pongprapapan Pakawat Waiwitaya
Cinematography	Nattawut Kittikhun
Editing by	Sunij Asavinikul
Distributed by	Tai Entertainment
Release date(s)	September 12, 2001 September 28, 2001
Running time	113 min.
Country	Thailand
Language	Thai
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Jan Dara (Thai: จัน ดารา) is a 2001 Thai erotic-period-drama film directed and co-written by Nonzee Nimibutr and co-starring Hong Kong actress Christy Chung. It is based on a novel by Utsana Phleungtham. The film premiered at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival. In Thailand, the film was controversial because its sex scenes tested the censorship bounds of the 1930 Film Act.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Awards
4 Film festivals
5 DVD release
6 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jan is a young man growing up in 1930s Siam in a wealthy, dysfunctional family where sex has a huge impact on everyone's lives. Jan Dara is viewed by his father, Khun Luang, as cursed, since his mother died in childbirth. The abusive Luang is a womaniser who has sex with many woman in front of the portrait of his late wife.

The younger sister of Jan's mother, Aunt Waad, is brought in to care for Jan. Luang has sexual relations with her, which raises causes young Jan to be jealous, since he has developed feelings for Waad. Waad and Luang have a daughter, who is the apple of Luang's eye. From the beginning, he teaches her to hate the "bastard Jan". Waad, in return, treats Jan like her own son and despises Kaew.

Later another of Khun Luang's women, the sophisticated nymphomaniac Boonlueang, moves into a guesthouse on the estate, and she teaches Jan his first lessons in the ways of love.

Jan is then framed for the rape of Kaew, who was having relations with the son of one of the family's maids. But it is Jan who ends up punished for Kaew's transgressions. Later, it emerges that Kaew is pregnant. To smooth over the damage to the family's reputation, Jan is asked to return to the family estate and is forced into an arranged marriage with his half-sister Kaew. He does so, as long as he's promised the deed to the estate, which he views as a form of vindication against his father for the abuse he endured from him during his childhood.

Kaew, meanwhile, enters into a lesbian relationship with Boonlueang. Further, she refuses to have the baby she's carrying, and with Boonlueang's assistance, performs a bloody, self-administered abortion.

Jan subsequently finds himself repeating the libidinous patterns of his father, going as far as to have sex with a maid in his father's sitting room, in front of the portrait of his mother. Jan wonders why he can't escape the cycle of sexual abuse started by his father. Then it is revealed that Jan is the product of a gang rape of his mother.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

Suwinit Panjamawat as teenage Jan Dara
Santisuk Promsiri as Khun Luang, Jan Dara's father
Christy Chung as Boonlueang
Eakarat Sarsukh as adult Jan Dara
Wipawee Charoenpura as Aunt Waad
Patharawarin Timkul as Kaew

[edit] Awards

2001 Thailand National Film Association Awards: Best art direction (for Ek Iemchuen); best cinematography (for Nattawut Kittikhun). Also nominated for best screenplay and best sound.