Several vintage-filter sex scenes can’t save this disappointing melodrama masquerading as an erotic horror.
The movie opens in 1980s Suphanburi in 1980, through the eyes of an elderly man we see a woman approaching a snake. She undresses as appears to be communicating with the snake. Then we jump forward to modern day Bangkok. A rich kid called Pakphoom is cruising along in his BMW and chatting on the phone to a woman. She’s in the process of wrapping up the first of many sexy scenes. The woman is Maekala, who we later find out is the owner of the house where the giant snake still slithers about. Pakphoom finishes up his phone call with Maekala; agreeing to take his boss to meet her the following day. He arrives at his office and we meet his father who is old, we know he’s old because he has grey hair and a walking stick. We also meet his boss and uncle, Chanachol, who is staring out of the window with a concerned look on his face, he’s not just concerned about Bangkok’s haze or traffic though. He’s apparently concerned about everything as he wears the same pained expression throughout the entire film. After an internal monologue bluntly explains that Chanachol yearns for the freedom his giant mansion, gorgeous wife, and thoroughly low maintenance daughter apparently doesn't afford him we can conclude Chanachol is unhappy, but to make sure we remember he keeps dreaming of drowning in black and white throughout the film.
Fast forward to the following day, Chanachol and Pakphoom take a boat ride with Maekala to her house, Pakphoom saunters off to have sex with one of the maids and Chanachol and Maekala get down to the real business of arranging an affair, which it seems is what Chanachol actually needs to cure his permanently furrowed brow. They can’t have sex yet though, as they’re in the middle of a tour which gets cut short when the old man from the beginning of the film comes back to warn everyone that the giant snake is slithering about. Chanachol and Pakphoom take the boat back to Bangkok and Maekala, unfazed, stays at the house. Her beau, Plodj, turns up, and they have sex.
The following night Chanachol and Maekala meet for dinner at her house in Bangkok, Chanachol arrives with Pakphoom who leaves immediately as he has to go back to the office to file some paperwork and have sex with his secretary. Chanachol is desperate to get back to the house in Suphanburi and start this affair, claiming the cure for his concerned facial expression is the simple life in a classic Thai house.
Chanachol seems to be free to spend as much time as he wishes with Maekala at her house, but his reasons for being there are actually much deeper than the movie lets on. Sadly though by time the plot gets interesting the story has gone off the rails and the audience is left counting the minutes between each sex scene.
Earlier versions of the film, and the original story by Vanich Jarungkit-anant, were more interested in Maekala’s promiscuous character and intriguing relationship with the snake. This version offers far too much screen time to Chanachol’s hackneyed ‘trapped-in-a-cage-of-money’ story. The gratuitous overuse of slo-mo shots of people turning around, drinking from glasses, and putting glasses down only result in making the film look even more like a soap opera than it already does.
If you don’t know the original story, it’s interesting enough to sit through a reasonably well shot and costumed film that trundles along. And if you can ignore the obvious shortcomings in the acting and an on-the-nose script, the subplot and general theme of the story are enjoyable, as is the final act. But, overall, the similarities to trashy TV soap operas aren't saved by the sepia toned cinematography.