I-San Special (Kuen pra chan tem doueng)

‘I-San Special’ is a funhouse of fantastical dreams and desires, put across with lots of wit and charm aboard a ramshackle bus. At first the film looks very much like a documentary about the crowded Bangkok Mhor Chit bus terminal. One bus, busy but not packed, starts its long journey through the night. A young woman passenger near the front asks the driver to turn off the radio. Suddenly the passengers are speaking to each other with borrowed voices, as characters in a TV-style soap opera. Whenever the bus stops the passengers revert to their normal selves. And so two journeys at once take place under the full moon: one real, on unreal. But which is which? ‘I-san Special’ explores the influence of television in our everyday lives through the conflict between real life and performance. It is a “twisted” road movie, inventive and a enthusiast experimental reply to easygoing and fast-paced Thai cinema consumerism.