EUROPEAN PREMIERE
In Competition for the White Mulberry Award for First Time Director
You & Me & Me
t.l. Tu ed io ed io
เธอกับฉันกับฉัน (Ther kab chan kab chan)
Thailand, 2023, 122’, Thai
Directed by: Wanweaw Hongvivatana and Weawwan Hongvivatana
Screenplay: Wanweaw Hongvivatana and Weawwan Hongvivatana
Photography (color): Kritsada Nakagate
Editing: Manussa Vorasingha, Aekkarin Thungrach
Production Design: Songsak Pamutira
Music: Chapavich Temnitikul
Producer: Bangjong Pisanthanakun
Executive Producers: Jina Osotsilp, Jira Malikul, Bussaba Daoruang, Phaiboon Damrongchaitham
Cast: Thitiya Jirapornsilp, Anthony Buisseret, Supaksorn Chaimongkol, Natee Ngamnaewprom
Date of First Release in Territory: TBA
Do twin directors have a set of chemistry that helps them make different movies from the others? In the movie
You & Me & Me, the twin protagonists confirm that they are just ordinary people like us. In practice, directors Wanweaw Hongvivatana and Weawwan Hongvivatana prove that the twin chemistry does exist and then makes their debut to be crafted with delicacy, intimacy and artistry.
You & Me tells the story of teenage twins named You and Me on their encounter of their daily lives and coming-up-age environments. Me was born a few minutes earlier than You but was identified as younger sister, according to the local belief. One is good at mathematics and the other is better at English and then each one needs her sister to take a re-examination on behalf of the other. One loves working and the other loves music. One is in love with a boy named Mark, and so does the other. The problem comes up when Mark also falls for You but misunderstood that her name is Me. On the course of triangular love, You and Me encounter another life crisis when their parents decide to separate, forcing them to split from each other.
The film is delicately crafted and shares with us a new experience that we have never had before – twin intimacy. Although the directors try to convey to us that – like many others – the twins have love, hatred, lies, stubbornness and obedience. But these ordinary behaviours are communicated with us, the audience, with care and artistic skills. There are many scenes in the movies that are depicted as a kind of paintings. So our experiences are filled with several artistic endeavours – from painting, acting and film’s movement. First-time actress Thitiya Jirapornsilp, a young emerging star, takes the double roles as the twins with internal conflicts like a twin herself. Other performers also do their own jobs so well that we can call the film as perhaps one of the freshest movies in the last few years.
What I like most from the film is the intimacy between the twins or rather the two sisters. When they share the same bath, I feel like connected with my own siblings when we were young – though we are not twins. The scene itself does not have anything of hyperbole – just a Thai-style water container that is seen in many local bathrooms. But the two sisters enjoy it like their spaces. Some other small things are the excellent reminiscence of the year of millennium in the Thai countryside and quiet sight of Bangkok.
Both Wanweaw Hongvivatana and Weawwan Hongvivatana have never declared themselves as arthouse filmmakers, so does Banjong Pisanthanakun. This movie has a freshness that everyone can feel at the end.
Wanweaw Hongvivatana
Weawwan Hongvivatana
Wanweaw Hongvivatana and Weawwan Hongvivatana are the first Thai twin directors. They have long helped each other in doing their entertainment jobs, despite being educated in different disciplines – cinema and economics. In this decade-long journey, Wanweaw and Weawwan have been active in a variety of local entertainment – making shorts and documentaries, and scripting TV series. Their first documentary
Wish Us Luck was well received in the country. From time to time, they have also helped their family business which runs on a diversity of publications from food magazines to academic books.
You & Me & Me is their first feature.
FILMOGRAPHY
2023 – You & Me & Me