Nathan Carreon Lim is a Filipino-American filmmaker of Chinese descent. For his debut short film, “Did It hurt?“, he honors his Muay Thai coach Nattawat Jophromma (aka Ajarn Wat) by focusing on his past and his relationship with violence.
Did It Hurt? screened at Busan International Short Film Festival
A young boy sneaks into his house in a rural area. His father asks him about his torn shirt, which means he was in trouble again, and immediately proceeds into beating him. His mother tries to ignore what is happening, continuing to wash the dishes with the water she drops towards the ground being impressive portrayed, with the camera first moving forward and then backwards. The ending of the sequence brings us back to the house, with the boy now being a teenager. Ajarn Wat narrates his past and his connection with violence through his father, which actually changed as he became older.
The boy goes onto a car, with the narration stating that, at some point, he left his house because his parents would not let him take up Muay Thai. The car goes a long distance, with an obviously nervous boy finally reaching the city after a while. The change of settings is impressive, from the green, empty fields to the rather crowded urban area. Black and white images then continue the tour guide aspect of the movie, which eventually brings us into a gym, again in color, where a number of youths are training. A coach sits Wat down and gives him the ‘talk’, which is not exactly encouraging for farm boys like him.
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Nathan Carreon Lim directs a film that unfolds as a fiction/documentary hybrid, in one of the best combinations we have seen in a style that has become quite prevalent recently. The way he achieves that, by including narration from the actual person, flashbacks and flashforwards, all until the apogee of the fight all work rather well, with the pace of the story being ideal. The same applies to the change from monochrome to color, while it is easy to say that Chonborvorn Niyamosatha’s cinematography is top notch. Especially the scene with the water, and the initial match are impressive to watch, as is the scene with the TV close to the end. The same quality applies to Isaac Allen’s editing with the succession of the aforementioned elements being also great.
The comments are interesting too. The way the cycle of violence is created, mostly through the domestic one, is presented eloquently, but Nathan Carreon Lim also states that one can turn the whole thing around, and that being prone to violence can actually not be such a bad thing. Particularly since martial arts and fighting sports definitely offer a way out. At the same time, that Wat still wanted his father to acknowledge and be proud of who he really is, adds another, equally realistic level to the whole context here.
From the three actors that play Wat, Sumet Wongsawat, who plays the teenage one, has the most significant part and is quite convincing in portraying the varying feelings of the character, even with barely saying anything.
“Did It Hurt?” is an excellent documentary that highlights how hybrid films can work, and one of the best shot shorts we have seen lately.
