Foot scene from Thai movie เพื่อน...กูรักมึงว่ะ [Phuean, ku rak mueng wa]

[drummer]

The 2007 Thai film, เพื่อน...กูรักมึงว่ะ ("Phuean, ku rak mueng wa"--"Buddy, I love you, man!" a.k.a. "Bangkok Love Story") struck me as extremely thick sentimentality, with next to no substance, but I was intrigued by the suggestive posters and the looks of the two main actors, and so I sat through the whole thing.

It's no "Brokeback Mountain," that's for sure, and frankly, it really isn't worth your notice. However, there was one scene in the movie which I thought some of you might enjoy. If you hate hearing the plot before you see movie, then stop reading now as I set it up for you.

Yun is a young Bangkok gangster "hit man," whose job it is to murder people on assignment. His recent assignment to murder a young, handsome, married man named Shi goes awry, and instead of murdering the man, he ends up rescuing him from the mob that wants to kill Shi. In the course of this, Yun is shot in the arm, and Shi, moved by Yun's sudden decision to protect him, takes Yun to his squalid rooftop hide-out and cares for his bleeding savior.

The night before, Shi performed a makeshift operation to remove the bullet, during which Yun fainted from the pain. The following morning, having slept in the squalid rooftop hideaway, Shi gets up and tries to bathe the unconscious Yun, to deafeningly loud, sentimental theme music which plagues the entire film. As he handles the naked body of the gangster, heretofore unfelt emotions begin to well up in Shi. Ultimately, the two men will fall inconveniently in love, and suffer so many misfortunes that it becomes ridiculous and instead of weeping or sympathizing, we find ourselves looking at our watches and wondering when the movie will be over.

As I said, it isn't another "Brokeback Mountain." Trust me, you're not missing anything if you don't watch the whole movie.

Thai censors evidently forbid the showing of the male actors' naked midsections, and I noticed this scene as one of the numerous occasions I've seen the naked male foot used, symbolically, to suggest the genitals. This occurs in Japanese Kabuki, as well, where a character will sometimes grasp his great toe to indicate a penile erection symbolically.

The .AVI file I made for you of this scene is located here: http://rapidshare.com/files/210347105/phueean_excerpt.avi

(In the poster I'm attaching--the one that intrigued me enough to watch the film, the large word is the Thai word " เพื่อน" which means "friend" or "buddy.")

Anyway, some of you might find this scene somewhat erotic.