Bangkok Love Story, Poj Arnon's award-winning gay romantic crime thriller, is going to be out on English-subtitled Region 1 DVD on August 26.It has been spotted at HK Flix and at Amazon.
TLA Releasing picked it up for distribution in a deal announced last year.
According to TLA Releasing's page about the film, Bangkok Love Story is slated for screenings at the 14th Philadelpha International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in July, the Vancouver Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in August and limited-run commercial screenings in New York, West Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale, also in August.
The story is about an assassin hired to take out a young policeman, but the gunman has a change of heart at the last minute and the two join up to shoot their way out of a Buddha factory and then head to the gunman's rooftop hideaway. The gunman is wounded and the policeman lounges around in his boxers and gives the gunman sponge baths. Well, it starts raining and one thing leads to another.
The story was praised for its sensitive, sympathetic portrayal of a relationship between two straight-acting gay men, as opposed to the usual depiction of gays in commercial films as flaming, effeminate, exaggerated freaks. A subplot about the gunman's HIV-positive brother and childhood sexual abuse added weight to drama.
Bangkok Love Story (Thai title: เพื่อน...กูรักมึงว่ะ or Pêuan ... Goo Rák Meung Wâ, literally "Friend ... I love you") has had a run of film festivals already, including the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the Brussels Independent International Film Festival (where it won the top prize, the Grand Award in all Categories) and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
Writer-director Poj Arnon won the Subhanahongsa Award for Best Script. It also won Best Cinematography for Tiwa Moeithaisong, who also edited the film -- a well deserved kudos, because the imagery of Bangkok was simply stunning. And it won for Best Sound.
Looks like TLA is giving it good treatment in the run-up to the DVD release in North America.
Now, if only The Love of Siam would get an English-friendly DVD release -- the Director's Cut, please -- I think maybe there would be some very happy people indeed.
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