POP AYE

Thailand, 2017, 105 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Kirsten Tan.

A film from Thailand. A film about an elephant. And the name of the elephant’s Pop Aye.

This is a very quirky film – although, audiences are not used to see quirkiness from Thailand. It will have a local appeal and, apparently, international audiences have responded very well to the star, the elephant.

We are introduced to a middle-aged man leading an elephant along the road in country Thailand. He needs a rest, hails down a truck with the audience watching how an elephant, lumbering but elegant, steps onto the back of the truck. But soon, the man clashes with the truck driver and is left on the side of the road again. Which means that the audience is wondering what this is all about.

Throughout the film there are a number of flashbacks so we are able to build up the story of the man and his past and his encounters with the elephant. In fact, he first met the elephant as a child, when its mother was shot, and his uncle took the elephant in (while the kids were watching cartoons of Popeye on the television). Later, the elephant was part of a circus.

The man is having something of a midlife crisis, seen on television being interviewed about demolishing of buildings in Bangkok, the building of new high-rise buildings, the achievement of the man in the past – but, the younger generation is coming up, not telling the man that a board meeting was in the morning when he thought it was the afternoon. And, there is tension between himself and his wife.

At this stage, he happens to see the elephant in the street and is moved. He is actually moved to buy the elephant with the quest to take him back to his uncle in the countryside.

Which means that this is what might be called “an elephant road movie.� There are various people to meet along the way. There is a sympathetic beggar and the man takes compassion on him. There is a bar where he is taken by the police who accuse him of having forged papers for the elephant. There is a transgender prostitute, a female prostitute. Then the beggar is found dead on the road and the man decides to take his body to a Buddhist temple (where the monk is interested in the fee and has a Visa card ready as well as a camera to take pictures of the elephant). There is the dead beggar’s love from long ago, she and the man scattering the ashes in a ritual by a tree. Finally, Pop Aye getting back home.

While these are the high points of the story, what matters is seeing the them, appreciating their quirkiness, wondering what will happen to the man and his wife as well as to the elephant.

1. The appeal? An elephant story? A human story? Asia, Thailand?

2. The Thai tone of the film? Serious Thai, comic light? Thai quirky?

3. The title, the name of the elephant? The audience discovering the elephant’s past, with its dead mother having been shot, the kids and watching the cartoon of Popeye on television, going to the elephant, playing in the water? Uncle Peak? Thana as a little boy, his memories?

4. Bangkok, the vistas of the city, modern? The new buildings, demolition, rebuilding? Skyscrapers?

5. Thana, the audience meeting him on the road with the elephant, the puzzle?

6. Thana and his life, his age, his wife and the dildo, the tension between them, the arguments, her leaving? His being interviewed on television, the tribute to his architectural and building skills? The younger generation? The meetings, his not being invited? Becoming part of the older generation? Treatment by the young?

7. Audience response to elephant, enjoying seeing him, in action?

8. Thana, seeing the elephant in the street, memories, buying him, walking through the countryside, the range of countryside and vistas of Thai scenery? The range of the musical score and tone?

9. The encounters on the road:
• the truck stopping, giving Thana and the elephant the lift, the driver story, Thana sleeping, getting out and abandoned?
• The encounter with Dee, a beggar, on the road, the people around him, his story, Thana helping him with money, lending the phone? Discovering that Dee had called him a saint? The police, shooting at the elephant, demanding Thana’s license, the forgery? Phoning authorities? The slow progress along the road?
• The impatient watermelon driver, passing, losing all his watermelons, the policeman eating, Thana eating, the elephant eating?
• At the end? The transgender entertainer, prostitute, customers, befriending Thana, his giving the sunglasses? Lining up the toilet? Later giving him the key to unlock the chains for the elephant?
• The prostitute, her glamour, in the club, in the toilet, the sexual encounter with Thana? His impotence?
• Discovering Dee and the motorbike accident, his death, the elephant spraying him was water? Recovering his phone? The bystanders taking the bike?
• Thana going to the Buddhist temple, the discussion about the burial, the ashes? Taking a Visa card, the monk photographing the elephant?
• Thana and his going to see Ja, her not having seen Dee for many years, his wanting to come and take her for a motorbike ride? Her reaction? Taking the ashes, going to the tree, the ceremony of scattering the ashes?
• Ja’s father and his concern about the elephant, lending the truck?
• The visit to Uncle Peak, the memories?
• And letting the elephant go?

10. Thana’s wife, leaving the house, the taxi, the mirror and the make up, the phone calls, rejoining him, going to the old building and reminiscing?

11. The audience sharing Thana and his experiences, and the experiences of Pop Eye?