The combination of rom-com and slapstick comedy has been one that has brought great box-office results in Thailand repeatedly, and Mez Tharatorn proves that he has the recipe to make these films work, as was the case with “I Fine, Thank You, Love You” back in 2014. This time, in order to make his narrative more appealing, he has included elements of a con movie, filled with absurd twists and even more absurd characters.
The Con-Heartist is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
Ina is a somewhat aloof ex-bank employee currently working as a debt collector, whose boyfriend, Petch, dumped her unceremoniously, even though she has took a loan in her name to pay for his tuition. The whole thing has left her in extreme debt, to the point that she shoots videos asking for money from people to pay her monthly installments, while her “boyfriend” is proven to be a con-artist, who exploits his looks to play same the trick with other women, continuously. Eventually, Ina stumbles upon another con-artist, nicknamed Tower, who fails, though, to trick her. Instead of turning him in to the police, she convinces him to help swindle her ex-boyfriend, who now works as a travel agent, in order to get revenge and her money back. Tower comes up with a rather complicate plan to con the con-man, revolving around high-end hotels, and Ms Nongnuch, another con-artist Ina knows, and Tower’s brother, Jone, eventually get aboard with the duo to help execute the plan.
Mez Tharatorn directs a movie that is characterized by a permeating goofiness that occasionally crosses the border to absurdity, occasionally to crudeness. And although a number of the jokes are funny, the ones that have the protagonists doing things that could easily be described as disgusting, including showing the food they are chewing or in the case of the hotel employee, spitting all over the place, end up as rather appalling, particularly after a fashion, and also due to their number. The abrupt zoom-ins or cuts to different scenes accompanied by a swoosh sound are also funny in the beginning, but after a while, they also become repetitious, with the same applying to the interactions between Petch and Ms Nongnuch, which are always accompanied by sounds from a wolf and a sheep, respectively. In general, the extensive use of sound effects becomes quite annoying after a fashion, particularly because it keeps on for the whole of the movie’s 128 minutes.
Apart from the rather episodic approach to the narrative, Tharatorn also bases the film on the will-they-won’t-they romance between Ina and Tower, that becomes even more complicated after a fashion, following the way interconnecting scam(s) unfold, which forms the third main aspect of the narrative. The romantic element also benefits the most by the looks of the three protagonists, Pimchanok Leuwisetpaiboon as Ina, Nadech Kugimiya as Tower and Thiti Mahayotaruk as Petch, all of which are quite easy to they eye, to say the least. DP Chaiyapruek Chalermpornpanit, focuses on this aspect as much as possible, an approach that definitely benefits the visual aspect of the movie.
The cinematography, apart from the aforementioned element, in generally follows the absurd rules of the narrative, through a rather polished, occasionally too bright approach that frequently makes the film look like a TV-advertisement. Add to all the aforementioned a number of Youtube video-like sequences, bits of rock music, and you have the backbone of the movie.
“The Con-Heartist” includes many elements that fans of rom-coms and slapstick comedies will enjoy, although in the end, I felt that its style of humor mostly addresses Thai audiences instead of international ones. The largest part of the movie, however, is definitely fun.
