On the eve of Thailand’s military draft lottery, young Oat cannot sleep, tormented by nightmares and memories. That event takes him back to a time when he was just 11 and his older brother Ek, after turning twenty one, had been called to “try his luck” at the lottery. In Thailand, the two year long military service is allotted through a public lottery ceremony, where all the physically fit youngsters draw a red (enlisted) or a black (exempted) card. In the time when Ek was called to the lottery, military service was particularly feared, because that was the period when the level of tension in the Muslim south of the country was at its peak, with attacks and aggressions whose victims were especially found among the soldiers deployed in the area. But Oat’s Proustian stroll down memory lane is most of all a very unusual return on the subjects of life apprenticeship and male identity. The child’s eye of naïve eleven year old Oat, at that time, saw the relationship between Ek and, “his richer, taller, whiter” than his brother, boyfriend Jai, a relationship doomed to failure because the two boys “lived in different worlds”, his superstitious ant who had taken in the boys after the death of their parents, the unashamed bullying by Junior, the local black market’s boss’s son, the injustice and the suffering of growing up and the life lessons unpredictably taught by some magazine that showed “how to win at checkers (every time)”…
Far East Film regulars and old-timers, who have watched movies like The Iron Ladies by Yongyoot Thongkongtoon (2000), Beautiful Boxer by Ekachai Uekrongtham (2004), Love of Siam by Chookiat Sakveerakul (2007) or It Gets Better by Tanwarin Sukkhapisit (2012), have probably developed a certain familiarity with the relaxed and natural approach with which Thai films present homosexual and transsexual characters and their relationships, which is a direct reflex of the policies on gender in Thai society. Besides, last year, a couple of low-budget independent movies, My Bromance by Nitchapoom Chaianun and Love’s Coming by Naphat Chaithiangthum, both of them focusing on slightly homoerotic teenage relationships, unexpectedly turned out to be box office successes, despite their limited production and artistic claim and the lack of promotion, but thanks to effective campaigns on social networks and the appreciation by the younger audience.
How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) seems to be perfectly following this well-established tradition. But with some relevant dissimilarities. The movie is directed by Korean-American Josh Kim, who in the past worked in Thailand as an associate producer on the Korean remake of A Better Tomorrow, directed by Song Hae-sung (2010). Kim was inspired by two stories by contemporary author Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Draft Day and At the Café Lovely, that he combined together after shooting a documentary on military service in Thailand (and some black and white material ended up in the credits of How to Win at Checkers). The movie numbers, among its producers, acclaimed independent director Anocha Suwichakornpong and the production’s great care and technical quality are way above the aforementioned modest low-budgets. Not to mention that, by dealing with issues like social inequality, widespread corruption and religious conflict in the southern part of the country, Kim’s debut reveals such complexity and profound themes that are completely unheard of in its other most recent precursors.
How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) is, at the same time, a light and melancholic movie, marked by delicate moments and repressed anger, shimmering feelings exquisitely portrayed by two amazing actors, little Ingarat Damrongsakkul as Oat and excellent Thira Chutikul as Ek, beautiful photography and dainty score. It is a shame this laudable team effort is running the risk of not being shown in Thailand, if not by being first mutilated by local censorship; the not-so-veiled exposure of the military’s corruption customs is not going to be well-regarded in a country that has recently returned under military government. Clearly, Josh Kim too has taken on the golden rule Oat learned from the checker manual: “Do whatever it takes to win, even if that means someone else has to lose”…