Robin Dudfield is a,British award winning indie filmmaker based in SE Asia. He is known for the award winning short “Bamnol-The Debt” shot guerilla style in Cambodia, winner of the World Panorama Award 2023 at the Life After Oil film festival in Italy. Robin has hands on experience of planning and shooting microbudget in Thailand and Cambodia to ensure a cost effective production.
Something Blue review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
After an intro with close ups on two people’s mouths and an intertitle reading ‘obsession’, the movie shows a woman in a flashy dress, lighting a cigarette during the night, outside a club. The next scene has a Westerner moving around Thailand, with the intertitles this time focusing on the concept of prostitution in the country, in rather ironic fashion. Under the sound of noise music and through the gaze of the aforementioned man, the camera takes a tour around various sex clubs, where the man comes quite close with a number of women, including the aforementioned one in the beginning of the movie.
The next scene takes place in the morning, with the aforementioned woman, in more conservative clothes this time, counting the spoils of the previous night. It seems, though, that the Westerner is not exactly eager to let her go. More intertitles shed light to local mentality.
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Considering that the protagonist is actually the director, his interactions with various sex workers does emit a sense of creepiness, which I feel though, is actually the comment he wanted to make about prostitution in Thailand, which mostly seems to cater to Westerners visiting just for that. His acting is not exactly great, but considering the nature of the less than 4 minutes short, this is not exactly an issue.
The duration of the short does not allow for much depth, but the comments Dudfield wanted to make do get across, even if through the intertitles. The decaying ‘beyond the law’ part of Thailand is definitely implemented with the darkest colors, in a rather intriguing antithesis with the intense lights that dominate the short. As the film moves in more dangerous paths, so do the images become darker and more filled with shadows, with the combination of the two approaches highlighting the prowess of DP Egor Kaneev’s work.
Anamitra Kanra’s editing results in a rather fast pace, which, in combination with the music, results in a short that functions as a kind of music video, which definitely adds to the entertainment it offers. The comments through intertitles, however, do not work particularly well, neither in presentation (simply words typed on the screen) nor in how on-the-nose the comments are. Vinich Virak as the Thai girl, although in a silent part, is quite eloquent in the way she presents her life both during the night and the day.
In audiovisual terms, “Land of Smiles” is evidently a very competent film. However, it becomes quite apparent that Dudfield needed more time to present his comments in better fashion. Would definitely be interesting to see a feature based on the particular story/aspect of life in Thailand.
