Handle Me With Care was one of the most awaited films of the year by seveal reasons. First, it was the third feature of Kongdej Jaturunrutsamee, one of the country’s best scriptwriters. Kongdej gained both local and international reputation from his second pic, Midnight My Love. Secondly, for the first time, he moved to work with another lead studio, GmmTaiHub, the prototype of urban feel-good filmmaking. Its planned road-movie style about two people unhappy with their looks sounded a breakthrough among the overflooded horror and comedy. Unexpectedly, Handle Me With Care seemed not to be so liked by Thai audiences, despite its heartwarming construction and a nice performance of lead actress Supaksorn Chaimongkol.
Kwan, a country boy who was born with three arms, sets his trip to Bangkok, for a surgery on his unwanted arm. Through his life, he had always been proud of being ‘The Special’ as his mother called. At school, he was the best volleyball player, the fastest blackboard cleaner, etc. Kwan faces the reality, when his mother passed away. People try to avoid communicating with him as much as possible, because his third arm is seen as “the sign of bad luck.” So when his personal tailor-maker suddenly dies of heart attack, Kwan realizes that he had to get rid of the third arm, because he can’t no more find a new tailor-maker who wants to communicate with and make clothes for him.
On his trail, he rescues a young woman from being raped. Na is also on her trip to look for her husband who disappears sometime ago in Bangkok. Like him, she finds her big boobs become a danger rather than a sexy look as seen in most people’s eyes. The two face up-and-down lives and hardships while travelling on the road - being hunted by a gangster, losing money to Kwan gambling friend, and stealing the donation money to buy food.
Handle Me With Care offers several experiences that transcends common GTH-branded feel-good boundaries. It is a road movie about someone in the marginal world - two unimportant, and actually unwanted persons, in small northern towns. And most scenes were set in nice, rural, greenery locations, with a folk-song soundtrack, like a nostalgia of the simple old Thai lifestyle. We are heartwarmingly introduced to join the adventure of two people on the road, feeling good with some home truth. Na, for example, asks Kwan to spend their last penny to make a call to her mobile phone, just because she has not received any calls for a long time. Kwan does not allow Na to steal money from a donation box, because it is for the disabled. But suddenly, this good atmosphere is interrupted by a group of lunatic, strange-looking gangsters. In many times, the film drags out the feeling too long and then it is not quite easy to keep audience alert in that move. Director Kongdej also put too many combinations in one film - folk song, comedy, love story, etc.
Nevertheless, Handle Me With Care still has several nice parts that deserve to be collected in memories. Sexy actress Supaksorn Chaimongkol also made a nice switch from her image as a daring, sexy, and crazy role, to become a simple country girl abandoned by her husband.
Anchalee Chaiworaporn