ThurstonHunger You know Chatterley almost sounds like a Thai word. This film offers both the sensual and certainly the sexual; smoke and ice intertwined with darker aspects of sex, dark as in vengeance and darker as in violence.The women are separated pretty strictly into madonnas and whores, and Jun Dara, the product of the most brutal sex act in the film, seems to struggle against his fate. His adoration of his mother, his pure rapture with Hyacinth, and hist relationship with the most interesting character in the film, Aunt Waad. Waad is portrayed amazingly by Wipawee Charoenpura, although I fear she is lost somewhat in the bevy of beauties in the film. All of them with gorgeous great Gatsby hairdos, kudos to the coiffeuse!Charoenpura is attractive, but shows more of her heart than merely her bosom (although a scene with that in it is key to the film). Christy Chung is breathtaking, and while you do see her in flagrante, really the visual and thematic foreplay is even more arousing. Interesting that she is seen as a specifically Western wind blowing through this film, I suspect the book makes more of that.People seem to get hung up on the coitus in this film, but I think the exploitation here that the director wants to explore is equally emotional in nature. Is Jun Dara a sympathetic character or an unsympathetic one. Seeing as we start with him as a child, one could argue for the former, but then the nature of his birth is that supposed to push us towards the latter. Khun Luang is another one that could have been seen more favorably, as the story unravels...but he is not. In a way he nobly rescued a woman in trouble, and he seems to be truly grief-stricken early in the film...Ultimately that's what makes this a fascinating film for me, a sort of shattering of easy good|bad divisions, but as the story revolves so much around the fleshy throes and peccadilloes, the film feels more sordid than I think it wants to be? Plus all the "good" women die or become nuns? The short monologue at the end, trying to paint Jun Dara as an everyman was interesting, but it doesn't work well since we've not seen much of his everyness. Instead innocence comes across as an illusion, or maybe for the characters in this an impossibility.Still a compelling watch, and more than the Asian bodice-ripper it appears to some as. I should say the camera-work was as delicate and teased out as the tresses of the fetching though fatally flawed femmes... I look forward to seeing other films by Nimibutr. I bet they also involve twists of fate...that's a four-letter word that's trickier than a lot of others.6/10

Gordon-11 This film was very controversial when it was released in Hong Kong. Not only was it the first movie which Christy Chung's (who is very famous in Hong Kong) first erotic film, it also supposedly starred a 15 year old teenage man. Later the age issue was cleared up and the guy was actually 17 when he made the film.Anyway, back to the film. It was a story which had a bit of everything. Family tension, love, aggressiveness, revenge, rape, hatred. This is not just erotica, but in fact a tragic story of a man's childhood. I thought the acting was good. The father's anger, the sister's aggressiveness were portrayed beautifully. The scene when Jan Dara rubbed onto the Night Mistress' breast was hilarious!If you are not disturbed by the complicated sexual relationships in the film then this movie is enjoyable. It gives the audience something to think about, especially raising the awareness of the public towards the rape victims.

Pedro-37 "Jan Dara" is another beautifully shot picture from Thailand's Nonzee Nimibutr. I liked his 1999 film "Nang nak" but "Jan Dara" is definitely an improvement. The classically beautiful camera work mixed with highly erotic scenes remind one of Annaud's "L'amant" - but "Jan Dara" has a more nostalgic look with lots of sepia colors in it. What strikes me is that there's not a single (important) character in this movie that is ugly. This is a movie full of gorgeous people. In "Nang Nak", the main actor was amazingly well built but had rotten teeth - here, everyone seems to be a model. I found myself especially enchanted by the the one who plays 17-year old Jan. This beauty of the actors and actresses perfectly fits the slightly artificial mood of the movie.I've talked about style. What about story? Well, that's not as rewarding. There are your typical family drama plots, the hate, the love - basically a soap opera. With lots of sex. Would I recommend it? Definitely, if you lov e lush settings and gorgeous people. I for one found myself having a nice time...Rating: 6/10

startains The director of NangNak comes back with an old Thai wicked story. Jan Dara's mother die after giving birth to him. His step father, Khun Luang, blamed and hated him for that. Jan wasn't welcome in the family. Khun Luang was a playboy, and taught his real child to hate Jan.... Jan seek to find who is his real father and love/sex.This story is about love/ sex. I think it's a real twisted (wicked) story... a lot of unexpected things. A great production, great color, set is ok, music isn't that good (reusing one song a lot). But a very good directing, editing. Overall, it was great. One of my favorite movie this year.