By Lyberis Dion
‘’Headshot’’, the critically successful adaptation of the novel ‘’Rain Falling Up the Sky,’’ by acclaimed Thai author Win Lyovarin, is a gritty neo-noir that transcends its genre’s boundaries by raising important questions about morality, and using a handful of allegorical situations that almost work as a subtle sociopolitical statement. It is not a great film, but a very good one from Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, one of the greatest Asian directors working today.
Tul, an ex-cop turned hit-man, gets shot in the head and wakes up from a coma three months later, only to realize he now sees everything upside down. What follows next is a fairly familiar noirish tale of betrayal and revenge that rings quite a few similar notes with classic film-noirs (e.g. the femme fatale presence), while showcasing a handful of westernized film influences. For instance, the protagonist faintly resembles the...
‘’Headshot’’, the critically successful adaptation of the novel ‘’Rain Falling Up the Sky,’’ by acclaimed Thai author Win Lyovarin, is a gritty neo-noir that transcends its genre’s boundaries by raising important questions about morality, and using a handful of allegorical situations that almost work as a subtle sociopolitical statement. It is not a great film, but a very good one from Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, one of the greatest Asian directors working today.
Tul, an ex-cop turned hit-man, gets shot in the head and wakes up from a coma three months later, only to realize he now sees everything upside down. What follows next is a fairly familiar noirish tale of betrayal and revenge that rings quite a few similar notes with classic film-noirs (e.g. the femme fatale presence), while showcasing a handful of westernized film influences. For instance, the protagonist faintly resembles the...
- 4/8/2020
- by Lyberis Dionysopoulos
- AsianMoviePulse
Getty Images Filmmaker Pen-ek Ratanaruang at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival.
In the opening scenes of “Headshot,” a man sporting a shaved head and clad in the orange robes of a Buddhist monk enters a courtyard, turns toward a group of thugs, pulls a gun from a small bowl and fires at them. The imposter is a hitman, not a holy man, and in the subsequent chaos he’s shot in the head.
Three months later he wakes from a coma...
In the opening scenes of “Headshot,” a man sporting a shaved head and clad in the orange robes of a Buddhist monk enters a courtyard, turns toward a group of thugs, pulls a gun from a small bowl and fires at them. The imposter is a hitman, not a holy man, and in the subsequent chaos he’s shot in the head.
Three months later he wakes from a coma...
- 4/26/2012
- by Dean Napolitano
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Based on Win Lyovarin‘s novel, Headshot (Fon Tok Kuen Fah) is a noir assassin story that features a killer who takes a bullet to the brain – leaving him seeing the world upside down. Considering that it’s from Thailand, has a crazy premise and involves violence, there’s a word of warning that should come along with writer/director Pen-En Ratanaruang‘s film: it’s far more drama than action film. For whatever reason, Ratanaruang and company chose to abandon anything about the story’s gimmick that makes it viable and loaded down their structure with faulty flashbacks and confused caricatures. It’s a fairly standard crime story with wasted potential, but it has a leading man that comes close to making it worthwhile. Tul (Jayanama Nopachai) is a hitman, but he used to be a cop. The good kind. Unfortunately, the good kind of cop often goes after the wrong kind of bad guy, and...
- 2/16/2012
- by Cole Abaius
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Head wounds are unpredictable. One person might endure grievous trauma to the noggin and display no ill effects, while a seemingly minor knock on the dome can drop someone else into a coma for years. So I don't find it difficult at all to accept the idea that a man who survives being shot in the head might find that he sees everything upside-down. That's part of the basic conceit of Headshot, a cops and gangsters thriller from Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang in which a cop experiences exactly that sort of shooting and aftermath, and then tries to deal with the aftermath. I've been following the slow reveal of images and video from Headshot ever since the first materials premiered on Twitch [1]. A couple of trailers showed up there over the past months, and we never ran them. The English-subtitled one is cropping up once more this week, likely thanks...
- 10/27/2011
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
Headshot is from director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, considered one of Thai cinema’s leading “new wave” auteurs. He is best known for his 2003 film Last Life in the Universe and if his new film is half as good, than it is well worth your time. Based on a novel called Rain Falling Up the Sky by a well-known Thai writer, Win Lyovarin, who actually originally intended it to be a sceenplay.
Intresting progam note from Tiff:
Working with his regular cinematographer, Chankit Chamnivikaipong, Pen-ek evokes Tul’s journey into the underworld in unusually muted and dusky tones. Vichaya Vatanasapt’s music gives us a sense of perpetually downward movement. And in Jayanama, with whom the director has now worked twice, Headshot finds its perplexed soul, always struggling to make the closest thing to a moral choice in a deeply immoral world.
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Intresting progam note from Tiff:
Working with his regular cinematographer, Chankit Chamnivikaipong, Pen-ek evokes Tul’s journey into the underworld in unusually muted and dusky tones. Vichaya Vatanasapt’s music gives us a sense of perpetually downward movement. And in Jayanama, with whom the director has now worked twice, Headshot finds its perplexed soul, always struggling to make the closest thing to a moral choice in a deeply immoral world.
Previous Next...
- 9/8/2011
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
International (meaning English subtitled) trailer for Headshot by Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang who some of you might remember from his 2003 drama Last Life in the Universe. The film will is based on the novel Rain Falling Up the Sky by Win Lyovarin and will premiere on the Toronto International Film Festival
[See full post to watch this video]
Synopsis:
Present-day Thailand is rife with corruption. Tul, a straight-laced cop, is blackmailed by a powerful politician and framed from a crime he did not commit. Disillusioned and vengeful, he is soon recruited to become a hitman for a shadowy group aimed at eliminating those who are above the law. But one day, Tul is shot in the head during an assignment. He wakes up after a three-month coma to find that he sees everything upside down, literally.
Unaware of whether the condition is medical or a result of karmic retribution, Tul begins to have second thoughts about his profession.
[See full post to watch this video]
Synopsis:
Present-day Thailand is rife with corruption. Tul, a straight-laced cop, is blackmailed by a powerful politician and framed from a crime he did not commit. Disillusioned and vengeful, he is soon recruited to become a hitman for a shadowy group aimed at eliminating those who are above the law. But one day, Tul is shot in the head during an assignment. He wakes up after a three-month coma to find that he sees everything upside down, literally.
Unaware of whether the condition is medical or a result of karmic retribution, Tul begins to have second thoughts about his profession.
- 9/5/2011
- by Ulrik
- Affenheimtheater
The first official poster for Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s Headshot has arrived, from Twitch, and it’s pretty darn good. The crime-noir should prove there’s other types of films coming from Thailand than Muay Thai.
Present-day Thailand is rife with corruption. Tul, a straight-laced cop, is blackmailed by a powerful politician and framed from a crime he did not commit. Disillusioned and vengeful, he is soon recruited to become a hitman for a shadowy group aimed at eliminating those who are above the law. But one day, Tul is shot in the head during an assignment. He wakes up after a three-month coma to find that he sees everything upside down, literally. Unaware of whether the condition is medical or a result of karmic retribution, Tul begins to have second thoughts about his profession. But when he tries to quit, roles are reversed and the hunter becomes the hunted. Then...
Present-day Thailand is rife with corruption. Tul, a straight-laced cop, is blackmailed by a powerful politician and framed from a crime he did not commit. Disillusioned and vengeful, he is soon recruited to become a hitman for a shadowy group aimed at eliminating those who are above the law. But one day, Tul is shot in the head during an assignment. He wakes up after a three-month coma to find that he sees everything upside down, literally. Unaware of whether the condition is medical or a result of karmic retribution, Tul begins to have second thoughts about his profession. But when he tries to quit, roles are reversed and the hunter becomes the hunted. Then...
- 8/4/2011
- by Jon Peters
- Killer Films
Much of the attention at Cannes this year went to one Thai filmmaker, next year's edition is most likely going to welcome the other Thai helmer (hint: Last Life in the Universe). Pen-ek Ratanaruang who last directed Nymph and more recently contributed to Sawasdee Bangkok, will according to Twitchfilm via (Wise Kwai) tackle a novel by award winning author Win Lyovarin which would move the director into a noir filled world about a hitman. Look for Chankit Chamnivikaipong to lense the project -- which for practicability proposes goes by the translated title of Rain in Blue, is apparently set to begin filming next month. It this becomes fact, look for more info to break out in the following weeks ahead. Here's the book cover. ...
- 6/28/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
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