Andaman Girl (2005) Poster

(2005)

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6/10
entertaining comedy but patchy
hunboon23 November 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I decided to catch this show after reading a glowing review in the local papers. This was my second Thai film in a week, after the weak Ong Bak sequel "Tom Yum Goong". I have previously caught the excellent heart-warming comedy "My Girl" (2003) and horror flick "Shutter" (2004).

The film's about a previously respected film-maker whose last few films bombed at the box office. He managed to get financing for one more film, but only if it's adult porn.

The unsuspecting lead actress was the daughter of a mafia lord, seizing the opportunity to run away from an arranged marriage. By coincidence, she has an "Unconscious Emotion" illness, and becomes uncontrollably nymphomaniacal at the sight of sweat.

The first half of the movie was hilarious, as the crew dreams up ingenious ways to maximising their low budget, including gatecrashing a funeral. It's hard to film porn without any love scenes, but somehow they achieved it (with the help of a banana tree and rubber ball).

The problems start when the filming stops. The truth was revealed, and suddenly it becomes a horror movie with a jap/korean female ghost clone residing in a haunted toilet. The flatulent gags quickly become tired and annoying.

The dialogue is uneven, and some of the scenes and character development do not make logical sense. There was also the obligatory Thai effeminate she-man, whose extremely limited screen time could have been eliminated entirely without any effect whatsoever.

Obviously I don't understand Thai, and had to rely on the subtitles. There were some glaring discrepancies between the Chinese and English subtitles, which makes one wonder which one was the correct version intended by the translators.

Ultimately, it's a lightweight comedy and makes for an easy introduction to Thai movies. So approach it without any expectations, and you'll get some lighthearted fun out of it.
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7/10
Silly, genre-bending fun
dzong3 June 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Like many Thai movies, "Andaman Girl" (or "Jee" in the original Thai) takes some crazy characters, an outlandish plot and utilizes everything but the kitchen sink to try and entertain the audience. Some of it works and some it doesn't, but the cast looks like they're having a great time, and you shut the DVD off with a smile on your face.

PEE is an award-winning Thai director who's down on his luck. His beloved girlfriend has thrown him out of the house, his latest films have all flopped, and he's totally broke. After seeing a beautiful girl in a parking lot drop a pair of red panties, he is inspired to write an action movie about her (yes, really). The mysterious girl is JEE, the daughter of a local triad boss who is about to married to the hideously ugly son of a Hong Kong triad friend of her father.

In order to make his movie, PEE has to convince his old film buddies to join him in making the movie on a very tight budget. When each of them says no, PEE gleefully sabotages their current endeavors until they sign on. They then assemble a motley crew of cast and crew members, secure a 2 million baht budget (an inheritance from BROTHER TONG's dead mother, who died after becoming over-excited by a golden bikini-clad male dancer named MAR) and begin to film the movie with JEE (on the run from her arranged marriage) as the female star. Problem: Brother Tong is worried about his investment and says he won't pay up unless they do the film as a porno.

Having such an innocent looking actor playing the naughty PEE was a good choice....The rest of the cast and crew are a lot of fun to watch, but it's MAR (the exotic dancer-cum-male lead) is the one who always steals the show.

(Very Minor Spoilers) In the course of 100 minutes, the crew gate-crashes a funeral, battles a lecherous female ghost who lives in the toilet (which has virtually nothing to do with the rest of the movie), tries to simulate a sex scene using a banana tree and a giant rubber ball, learns about Jee's peculiar sexual attraction to sweat and generally gets very drunk.

Too much bathroom humor to be sure, and as much of the movie falls flat as works, but it's still a fun romp through Thai film-making. Maybe this is how Thai movies get made....Recommended. 7/10
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