Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

edmund-marlowe By far the best of the many Thai films I have seen, this will utterly astonish anyone expecting the melodrama and poor acting so often encountered in Thai cinema. As even by the standards of the latter, its budget was low, it shows in the tradition of which The Bicycle Thieves is perhaps the most spectacular example, that with fine acting and masterful direction, depiction of the emotions in a simple story can trump a budget of any size.A young man called Jeap is invited to the wedding of his long-lost childhood friend Noi-Naa. His initial decision to give precedence to a prior engagement is soon abandoned when in his car he listens to the musical hits of his childhood and memories flood back in the way old music is perhaps uniquely powerful in making them do. Most of the story then focuses on Jeap as a ten-year-old agonisingly torn between the super-girlish circle of his oldest friend and neighbour Noi-Naa and a gang of characterful boys led by an amiably-roguish fat bully called Jack. Extremely nostalgic and wittily recounted, it is definitely a story to make one both laugh and cry. The acting is superb.The title and cover are misleading. Touching as the deeply-felt friendship of Jeap and Noi-Naa is, Fan Chan is not a romance, but a story about friendships and their meaning in the emotional world of the nearly pubescent boy. The idea of its being romantic is actually deeply ironic, for what it does perhaps most convincingly and interestingly is to remind us of a truth that was obvious to everyone until a generation or two ago: that beyond his mother's love, a boy's needs until well into adolescence are for his own sex. Nowadays this tends to be obscured by contrived gender-blindness combined with a silly and uncomfortably half-hearted wish to see children prematurely aping their parents' romantic antics.Unfortunately, the full mind-blowing emotional impact will only be felt by those with nostalgic memories of the lost simplicity of rural Thailand in the 1980s, and especially those who were children then. These above all accounted for its being the extraordinary and unexpected local hit it was, but even with its impact diluted, it fully deserves a global audience.Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a novel of boyhood, www.amazon.com/dp/1481222112.

mlin212 Just saw this film at the Thai Takes 2 festival and it is absolutely wonderful! Very poignant story of best friends (girl/boy) in their formative years, one of which is conflicted and yearning to hang out with the rest of the girls/boys. (You have to guess which...)The movie reminded me of growing up spending hours and hours hanging out with friends, riding your bike everywhere, and just not having a care in the world except ice cream and playing. Hilarious and touching. The gang is a really funny group of characters, each with a personality all of her/his own.A must see if you can find. Don't know if there will be a wider U.S. release but it definitely deserves one. Foreign independent films such as this one are so refreshing and worthwhile. Go see it!

shu-fen I share the generation of Jeab and Noi-naa, for instance we played the same games like using rubber bands to make a long jumping ropes and a group of neighbourhood children gathered together to compete after school. We divided ourselves into different gangs, today enemies, tomorrow coalition. Friends or classmates moved from the vicinity to faraway newly developed areas or even migrated to other countries after the 1982 meeting between Deng Xiao-ping and Margaret Thatcher on Hong Kong's future.Though we speak different languages, I feel that I am one of those little children in this sincere nostalgic production, I even share the feeling of the grown-up Jeab when he returns to his hometown to attend Noi-naa's wedding: everything's facelifted, the bridge that the school bus used to pass has been changed into a sturdier one, just like my city, an ever-changing and moving city.The most delightful surprise should be the parody of two Hong Kong TV dramas which were widely popular among the Asian countries in the late 70's and 80's, "Silk" and "Yesterday's Glitter". It made me recall many of my long-forgotten younger episodes. The flick should be kept in the DVD library of the thirty something as a proof of "collective memory" of those born in the 70's. Two or three decades later, the warmth will still pervade when we review it.

thewinner It's an honor for me to be the first to comment on this movie. I had a chance to see this film a few months ago. As a Thai guy, it flashes back my childhood memory and that made me smile all the way through the end. Even though it is not a high budget movie comparing to those from Hollywood, I believe that the simplified storyline is the strength of this movie. After watching this movie, I had a warm feeling and it really made my day. The movie also has some funny moments like 'the chinese martial art fantasy scene'. I can't guarantee if the non-Thai viewers will enjoy it but I am sure that most of the Thais will definitely like it. :D10/10 for a Thai.