The Mia (2005)

User Rating:

3.9/10   

Director:

Kittikorn Liasirikun

Release Date:

6 April 2005 (Thailand)

Genre:

Action | Fantasy

Plot:

Things are going to get nasty as 'mia noi' or mistresses and 'mia luang' or (legal) wives openly declare and wage war upon each other in this bullet-filled, bombs-abound movie. |

Cast

Matinee Kingpoyom	...	Maya. Second Wives Leader (as Methinee Kingpayome)
Manassavee Krittanukoon
Apasiri Nitibhon		(as Apasiri Nitipon)
Piyada Penjinda
Pimsiree Pimsee
Pornwadee Pongsatit
Nussaba Punnakan	...	Jittra, First Wives Leader
Taranya Sattabusya
Pimpaka Siangsomboon
Penpak Sirikul
Vichitra Triyakul
Naowarat Yuktanan	...	Khun Louise, Founder of First Class Wives International

Also Known As:

The Bullet Wives (International: English title)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

Thailand

Language:

Thai

Color:

Color

Company:

Avant

Trivia:

'Methinee Kingpayom' received firearm and fight training for one month prior to filming.

Dances With Bullets: Style=B; Substance=D; Watchability=A

Also known as BULLET WIVES. In Thailand in the near future, women outnumber men so that men become hot commodities, sparking a vicious war between wives and mistresses as they fight over their men. The film takes this somewhat silly plot and makes a very entertaining and stylish, if noticeably uneven, film out of it. The plethora of gunfight sequences owe everything to John Woo, THE MATRIX and KILL BILL (even to the point of the umpteenth rip-off of KB's "Battles Without Honor And Humanity" march-into-the-restaurant scene). The gunfight scenes are choreographed to the point of unreality, but remain extremely effective even so, and occupy the film's best moments. The gunfights are designed as dances, carefully choreographed tangos in which bullets fly freely (and almost always miss their targets, who have an amazing knack for dodging bullets, EQUILIBRIUM/Gun Kata style; while guns never need reloading until somebody's weapon needs to run out at a dramatic moment), but the effect is a sumptuous visual feast of operatic and balletic interplay. The storyline, such as it is, is pretty hard to follow, and not just because the subtitle translation on the Thai DVD leaves a lot to be desired; its written haphazardly and much of whatever logic exists doesn't translate well – but as a fantasy tale it makes up for lack of substance with lots of slick visual style. There is little back story given to the characters, and even the lead wife, Jittra (Nussaba Punnakan), despite having a sister whose pining for her missing husband becomes a major sub plot, and the lead mistress, Maya (Methinee Kingpayome), nor the older women who founded the competing "First Class Wife International" and "Economy Wife International" aka mistresses) associations are given much depth of character. But, in the end, for this film, none of that really matters, since it's all about the dance, all about the style, anyway – a deadly dance in which the true culprits – the men – are eventually exposed. It's a very watchable film, even though the pacing is very uneven and for every gorgeously filmed action scene there are innumerable static dialog scenes that slow the film in its tracks. But, then: gorgeous babes decked out in stylish attire dancing between bullets – in a film like this that just might be enough!