The Motion Picture Teller

by Colin Cotterill

Soho Press/ Penguin Random House Publisher Services

   Ali & Supot are best friends. Supot works for the Royal Thai Mail Service, Ali's Video Rental is where he & Ali spend much of their time watching movies. In their early thirties, there is a "failure to launch" about them both, which they refer to as "waiting for the big something". In the meantime they rent a few videos to local people and add a movie they deem a classic (Seven Samurai, for instance) free of charge in the hopes of creating some more serious film watchers. They spend most evenings in Ali's viewing room in the back of the shop, watching and re-watching classic movies with Thai subtitles. Ali is hoping they will learn languages this way; he is also working on his own film script, with help and criticism from Supot.

   Their lives change when one night a local named Woot brings some videos to sell. Among the professional cassettes is one plain white box with a handwritten label which says Bangkok 2010. Thus begins a journey for both men, as Supot falls madly in love with the beautiful star and Ali reluctantly agrees to help him find out more about the film and the star.

   This is a wonderful thoughtful look at friendship, obsession, maturity and just a bit of mysterious Thai history. 

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