Director Wisit Sasanatieng returns with the Surreal, satirical ‘Citizen Dog’

Award-winning director Wisit Sasanatieng found Bangkok with its golden spires and grime, high-rises and slums, and socialites and soi dogs a fascinating setting for his latest film, “Citizen Dog”, now showing at local cinemas.

“Bangkokians have non-normal souls,” the 40-year-old filmmaker says. “We living in a tense city which has so many problems - traffic jams, plastic junk, few parks, a materialistic outlook on life and so many country boys and girls dreaming of finding jobs here. We get used to all this and sometimes forget what constitutes ‘real’ happiness.”

A surreal and comical love story about Bangkok’s little people, “Citizen Dog” depicts their unending search of happiness in a rapidly changing environment. Theirs is a world overflowing with dreams but void of love and understanding.

The main characters are Pod (Mahasamuth Boonyarak), a migrant worker from the country, and Jin (Sangtong Ket-Utong), a village girl who dreams of being able to read a mysterious white book. While Pod seeks love, Jin pursues a dream. Wisit seems to be saying that when we seek something too hard, it often eludes us.

Wisit had the idea of making a film about Bangkok five years ago. He thought of various Thai gags like making love in a packed bus and geckos issuing warnings about misfortunes to come. But gags alone do not make a movie funny. Then last year, he read Siripan Techajindawong’s novel “Citizen Dog” and approached her. Work on the screenplay began soon after.

The result is a comedy that satirises urban culture. Shooting the film took three months to complete, but Wisit spent more than six months in post-production at The Post Bangkok, assembling and finessing the footage.

The Bt60-million film shows Wisit’s skill in blending various cinematic techniques: computer graphics, special lenses and camera angles, puppetry, innovative props and colour dying, his signature technique.

Computer graphics turns a huge mountain of plastic bottles into a romantic park for a picnic while actress Jin has conversations with an animated character, Than Chai. A puppet is used to create a drinking, smoking and swearing teddy bear.

“It’s like an experimental art project,” says the director who graduated from the Faculty of Decorative Arts at Silpakorn University.

The post-production process of dying film called “lotoscope” imparts vivid colours to the movie. Like a Gauguin painting, some scenes depict vivid figures in a landscape of huge contrasts.

Wisit creates perspective to tiny spaces by shooting with a wide-angle lens, such the elevator scene where Pod and Jin first meet. Besides achieving a surreal quality, he says, the shot hints at something bigger and more important than just the characters.

“I wanted to make a ‘modern’ Thai-style film,” says the director. Like in a post-modern artwork, Wisit uses “retro” motifs like vintage posters, floral patterns and other “out-of-date” props in a contemporary setting. For instance, the cast of rustic characters is dressed in stylised costumes: a granny in a bright orange blouse, green jacket and blue sarong, and Pod in a sardine cannery uniform that comprises chocolate trousers and a sky-blue shirt. Wisit effectively uses colours and objects as liet motifs in different scenes to lend them additional depth.

Like reading a novel, chapter by chapter, the director has Pod introducing the characters who figure in each episode. He also combines narration (by director Pen-ek Ratanaruang) with music by indie icon Pod of Modern Dog, Mahasamut and himself.

“Lyrics play the role of dialogue,” says Wisit, who composed the lyrics and melody of “Sao Sue Fah” (“Girl in a Blue Outfit”). He adds that sometimes music portrays feelings much better than melodrama.

Overall, the film has a fresh, surreal look. It’s unlike his debut “Tear of the Black Tiger”, which had gunfighters on horses racing across the plains of Central Thailand and won the Dragon & Tiger Award at the Vancouver Film Festival in 2000.

“Although Bangkok has many dark sides, it looks different in my movie. Like a coin, it has two sides. There’re many beautiful things, which makes living happily in this city in an individual way possible,” says the director, who’s a native of the city.

In the movie, Bangkok’s citizens, except Pod, acquire tails in the course of their unpredictable lives. “Tails can be anything,” says the director. “Let audiences freely interpret the meaning.”

Yes, tails can be materialism, capitalism, violence, soul-stifling work, idle day dreaming or even attaining “real” happiness in this “unreal” metropolis.

Find out what the tail means to you and ask yourself, “Am I a citizen dog?”

By Phatarawadee Phataranawik

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Bangkok views

Mahasamuth Boonyarak, 24, was born in Bangkok, but studied in England for 12 years, After graduation from the London College of Printing, he returned to Bangkok and became active in the underground music scene. Sangtong Ket-Utong was born in Nakorn Pathom, but lives and works in the capital. The 22-year-old has been a model since she was 16.

Both make their acting debuts in “Citizen Dog”. They talk about how making the film changed their impressions of Bangkok:

Mahasamuth: “After shooting the film, I feel I love Bangkok much more. We have a lot of beautiful architecture but don’t notice it amid a hectic lifestyle. There’s little urban planning and we have problems like pollution, badly designed buildings and too many mega-stores. It’s like a city of illusions. Though director Wisit Sasanatieng’s intentions are satirical, his artistic approach makes the Bangkok of the movie beautiful. If we develop the city in a sustainable manner, thinking about the environment and aesthetic values instead of only making profits, it will be more liveable.”

Sangtong: “Bangkok is a ‘robot’ city, urban people have little time for anything. They live and work in square cells. They become robots, working nine to five to earn money. They don’t think about the happiness that money cannot buy. In the fashion industry, there’re so many illusions. You have to really know what you have and what you need, not ape others. Like Jin, my character in search of a dream I dream of studying fine art in England. Now, I’m learning acrylic painting with Chalit Nakpawan, a Silpakorn University graduate. One day I’ll realise my goal.”