Review: Bangkok Love Story

It's a nice idea - an assassin and his intended victim become allies, and, in hiding, unexpectedly find love together. Maek (played by Rattanaballang Tohssawat) is the assassin capable only of killing the bad guys. Iht (Chaiwat Thongsaeng) is his target, the lawyer a crime gang wants murdered.

The film is visually stunning, as is Chaiwat Thongsaeng as Iht. I could watch him watching paint dry all day long and not get bored. But as for the plot... Oh dear.

I desperately wanted to like this film. There was so much potential; the idea itself is a bit different - a gay version of Asian action flicks. But the melodrama puts Brazilian telenovellas to shame. It isn't enough that Maek's brother is a hustler who happily passes on the AIDS given to him by his paedophile stepfather, the mother is also infected, and eventually hangs herself. Oh and so does the brother, after a slow, lingering decline into AIDS hell. It isn't enough that Maek gets locked up for most of his life; when he finally gets out, he's gunned down. That's after Iht, who's been blinded by the widow of one of Maek's victims, has waited a lifetime for him. And because it's in a rainstorm, poor blind Iht doesn't realise Maek's been shot dead, and carries on talking about how much he loves Maek, and how Maek will be his new eyes from now on. Then a Hummer runs over both of them. (No, not really, but it might as well have done.)

The first half of the film, particularly the scenes in which Maek and Iht slowly fall in love - and lust, culminating in a steamy rooftop love scene - is promising. But it goes downhill rapidly, plummets of a cliff and is blown to smithereens as one tragedy tops another. And I like a it of tragedy me, but there's such a thing as overkill.

The one miracle is that I didn't try and jump off the nearest viaduct after this little epic.

Pictured: Chaiwat Thongsaeng as Iht. Or Stone, if you read the subtitles.