One for the Road

One for the Road is full of nostalgia as multiple genres come together including romance, buddy film, as well as sex-positive melodrama. The film had a wonderful soundtrack with some Cat Stevens music along with several mainstream hits, a strong production design, and a lovely mise-en-scene with exquisite cinematography and a touch of colorization. One For the Road follows a young Thai man, who is dying from cancer and has decided to make his final amends by delivering a parting gift to those closest to him on the earthly plane.

One For The Road is very visual, very visceral, and one I was sad to see it end after 136 minutes. But end it did and as the credits began to roll, there it was - a title revealing "Produced by Wong Kar Wai" - "... a filmmaker who specializes in making the evanescent tangible, in capturing fleeting emotions in a style that is always poetic, often ravishing and, despite his films' surface-level dreaminess, unerringly precise." I'm a huge fan of Mr. Wong's work so all I could do in that moment was sit and smile. What a wonderful gift. (Wong and Director Baz Poonpiriya worked together on One For The Road for three years.)

Director Baz Poonpiriya, a strong storyteller who has come into his own, had previously helmed Bad Genius the 2017 Thai box-office smashing and the record-breaking winner of twelve categories at the 27th Suphannahong National Film Awards (the Thai Oscars), before embarking on One For The Road with Wong. If you're a fan of Wong, this is a film you don't want to miss. And, if you're a fan of Thai film (Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2010 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives turned me on to Thai film), it's a must-see! Lastly, if you simply enjoy exquisitely told films, I highly recommend you see Baz Poonpiriya's One For The Road!