THAI MOVIE

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Phlaew and Na have a small company producing ice and transporting it to customers. They share profit 50-50. They are living in a Bangkok slum where families support each other. Phaew is a nice guy. He is sending local children to school and help to send Maew, little girl having respiratory problems, to hospital. Poor children from slum have no time to do homework after school because they sell flowers, newspapers at traffic light intersections. It is a hard job to sell garlands and get revenue when it is the rainy season. Poor people has no time to study as they need to earn money to survive but get blamed by teacher when they arrive late to school or when they couldn't do homework because they were too tired. There is a contrast between rich children playing piano and poor children playing with bamboo. They dream of changing lifes, i.e. sell clothes instead of selling flower garlands. Elders are gambling and drinking. There are internal family fighting on savings. Pa, middle age woman, borrows money from local mafia den. Pa and Na lose at horse betting and Pa cannot reimburse the mafia den. Pa's husband fled away because of her gambling habit and because her daughter got handicapped by a cart while the mother played cards. Pa gets hit by mafia tough men because she cannot give money back. Phlae celebrates his birthday with all poor kids and Na. Alcohol helps them to forget their problems temporary. Phlaew discovers that Na was unfair with him since two years because he doesn't know how to read. Na didn't share the revenue honestly. Phlaew asks for 30 000 Baht to pay back Pa debts and to do good for her daughter Phae. Pa encounters Na when going to give back money to mafia. He convinces her to bet on Thai boxing following a tip he got. When he realizes that the money they bet is coming from Phlaew it is too late. Meanwhile the mafia tough guys are looking for Pa. They look after her daughter Phae to locate the mother. The local insane guy, who tries to protect Phae and Maew, is hit by a knife. Due to the fear, Maew died due to her respiratory problems. Phlaew asks for revenge. One of the participants brings them to the boss, who is getting and selling land from slums in order to build modern buildings. A deadly fight erupts in which Na gets shot. The boss gets badly hurt but survives. Slum people get caught by the Police. Before dying Maew, the little girl, has writen a text to celebrate the Bangkok 200 years anniversary. Bangkok development is done on the back of poor people. Bangkok is not an angel city anymore. People in slum are moved from one place to another following Bangkok development. To chase people from slums, their houses are often burnt. This movie highlights their difficult and poor living condition (youngsters addicted to cheap drugs, poverty, insalubrity...) but they still have a good heart towards each other in a similar way to people living in up-country villages. "คนกลางแดด" means the people under the sun. Slum people same as villagers are second class citizen. This movie has also been registered as National Heritage per the 2016 list released by the Thai Film Archive.

ThaiWorldView film database contains 1523 movies.

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