Many complain that "Bangkok Love Story," (the original Thai title for this translates into "Buddy, I love you man!") is too melodramatic. Film is fantasy, I believe, a way to escape into another world where emotions and images are cranked up a few notches. The beauty of this odd film from Thailand is at times staggering, and the director has achieved something so rare: he managed to make a gay-themed film that is actually cool, instead of silly and embarrassing junk that is most gay cinema. Meht, nicknamed 'Cloud' lives on a roof overlooking a grey, but beautiful Bangkok. The contract killer seems untamed, long straggly hair in his big haunted eyes, as he oversees the city, waiting to execute the next kill. His target is the innocent and gentle Itt, a lawyer with a seemingly perfect life. However things don't go as planned, and a powerful bond soon develops between these two very different men. The two leads are excellent, and the subject matter has never been handled in a more mature, intelligent way before. Scenes of bloody violence and ugliness walk hand in hand with intense beauty. The art direction and cinematography are dazzling, and the story is as tragic and as dramatic as films from the silent film era. And truthfully, the images here are so strong, that it can be understood without any understanding of the Thai language. I wondered if this was based on a manga, as the film sometimes possesses the look of a fantasy film. "Pheuan... Guu Rak meung waa/Buddy...I love you, man" remains one of my favorite films; this one is very special, and maybe bound for cult status!

After my first viewing of 'Bangkok Love Story', I was so disappointed by the melodramatic overload at the end of the film, that my first reaction was to write a very hateful comment about it, and I even wanted to smash my DVD against the wall, literally! However, something prevented me from doing so, and I think I figured out what it is. I was actually extremely moved by the story, and I think that I somehow just couldn't stomach its sad outcome, but after re-thinking about it, I finally realized that what I loved in it actually exceeded by far all the rest. Apart from the beautiful cinematography and the first rate acting, that the other reviewers here have already examined, I think that it is above all the authenticity of the love between the two characters and its unquestionable nature that I found absolutely beautifully rendered. This is a love story between two handsome and masculine men from a completely different social background,who, by a series of very unusual circumstances, succumb to a mutual passion, even if the time and place for this passion are inappropriate. What I loved in the director's approach is that, contrarily to a typical Western approach, like for instance in 'Brokeback Mountain', where the characters are devastated by the realization of the fact that they love a person of the same sex,and struggle with a typically Western guilt, an approach that I find nauseating,at NO MOMENT in 'Bangkok Love Story' do the characters waste time by asking themselves the question 'Am I gay?' or try to deny their feelings. What makes this love story tragic is above all their FATE, which is above all determined by the circumstances of their first meeting,and this fate is also determined to a certain extent by their social background. The tragedy here comes from DESTINY, and NOT from the sexuality of the characters, If 'Bangkok Love Story' had been a straight love story it would also had made perfect sense.(I do not want to spoil this review, but those who have seen the film can easily figure it out by examining the plot, nothing would have been out of place if the story had involved a man and a woman). Another reviewer talked about, I think, something like 'clan-destined' lovers, and I think, he's actually got the point and the heart of the story very well. So I finally decided to forgive the over-melodramatic turn the director gave to the story, and to focus on the beauty that lies within instead, and my rating of the film jumped from an initial 1 to a final 10. But, after all, isn't love a feeling of extreme subjectivity?

The cover of the DVD for this very fine film is misleading: the photograph of the two leads in a rather quiet and elegant setting is about as far from the content of the cinematic adventure as imaginable. Writer/Director Poj Amon has created a love story that is more from the underbelly of the poor section of Bangkok than it is from the expected physical beauty of that Thai city, and rather than focusing on the 'tourist view' of Thailand, he instead finds a different kind of beauty molded into a love story from a far different perspective. And it works very well.

In the world of Thai organized crime there is a star assassin - Maek ((Rattanaballang Tohssawat) - who kills 'bad people' to satisfy his bosses but cannot kill 'good people'. He is the sole support of his mother and younger brother, both of whom suffer from AIDS - the source of their infection is the abusive live-in stepfather. Maek wants to provide a good home for his little family, somewhere away from the slums of Bangkok, so that his little brother will no longer have to ply the hustler role on the streets to help support his ailing mother. Maek is assigned a 'hit' and in stalking the young lawyer he is supposed to assassinate he finds an attraction to the obviously good, married, handsome Iht (Chaiwat Thongsaeng). When the moment comes to complete his grim duty, Maek cannot kill a 'good man' and in the setup Maek himself is shot. Iht is compassionate and rescues Maek from the streets, taking him to his shelter to nurse him back to health. The two men bond and eventually submit to their passion. Yet when Maek recovers, he cannot face the truth of his feelings and separates himself from Iht. Iht's wife is suspicious about Iht's distance, stalks him, and witnesses a secret moment of passion between Maek and Iht, and the discovery turns her into a potential assassin herself. Iht is now by himself, unable to regain Maek's commitment until a series of events leads to the ultimate arrest of Maek: from the imposed separation caused by Maek's incarceration, Iht remains faithful to his love. The ending could have been triumphant (and for moments it is, emotionally),but instead Poj Amon opts for tragedy, a writer's decision that makes the film even more powerful.

The cast of actors is excellent and the chemistry between the two leads is undiluted by the forces that are meant to separate them. In the end, this is a love story between two classes of people whose discovery of a forbidden love emphasizes some universal truths. It is a well- made, beautifully photographed film (Tiwa Moeithaisong is the gifted cinematographer) that deserves a wider audience. Grady Harp