66 •Metro Magazine 195 | © ATOM
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ing together apparently unrelated encounters into an overarch
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architect Thana (Thaneth Warakulnukroh) and his childhood
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Thailand. While Thana and Popeye’s journey hit the familiar
narrative beats of the road movie, however, Tan’s screenplay
resolutely resists romanticising the open road.
That’s not to suggest/NO XDavoids the contemplative
rhythm found in the greats of its genre. To my eye, it most
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narrative, while nonetheless coalescing into something coher
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him, and the road stretching into the distance./NO XDposits
that the meanings we impose on our personal histories are just
as impermanent as the lines drawn on this road: fading into
oblivion, or replaced by fresh white paint after we’re gone.Hero’s journey
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loosely nonlinear structure, opens on the open road as Thana
and Popeye commence their long journey – but, certainly, the
seed of the story comes from its protagonist’s increasing dis
satisfaction with his life.
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of his legacy is palpable. ‘We were young and idealistic then,’
says Thana, while his boss nonchalantly observes that ‘the old
has to make way for the new’.
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opulent surrounds, the atmosphere between him and his wife,
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serves to emphasise Thana’s increasing irrelevance, whether
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pleted without his presence – or at home, where he stumbles
upon a vibrator barely concealed among his wife’s things.
This is a portrait of a man whose success has brought him
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childhood ‘pet’ when it responds to an old song they once
shared. After buying Popeye – now named ‘Chang Beer’ –
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the nostalgic promise of abandoned youth, the possibilities
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seem to be decaying before his very eyes.
Tan and director of photography Chananun Chotrungroj de
pict Popeye with a soft, wistful gaze. The elephant is presented
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also shot with a sympathetic lens that evokes a distinctive
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kit: ‘I wanted the elephant to be something that was true to
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elephant – Popeye is not merely a symbol of Thana’s youth,
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Thana and Popeye’s subsequent journey is framed as a
quest for meaning, a path into Thana’s past that interrogates
his future. This is all implicit – the architect explains the pur
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(or if) he is remembered there.Helpers on the path
Memory is integral to/NO XD
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Thana’s recollections in any great detail. He doesn’t regale
those he meets on his journey with stories of his past, nor are
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the discovery of the young elephant after Thana’s mother’s
death (while an episode of the/NODXDcartoon plays on televi
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It’s clear that, in part, this is a formal strategy used to keep
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encounters on the road – again aided by Tan and Chotrungroj’s
humanistic camerawork – rather than anticipating the destina
tion. But it also suggests an act of denial on Thana’s part: hexxxxFor Thana, the elephant and town
alike represent the nostalgic promise
of abandoned youth, the possibilities
that filled his head as a young architect- possibilities that now seem to be
decaying before his very eyes.