imagine with me...
25 Jan 2026 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elisheva_ma wuxia spoof comedy which mixes kathoey exaggeration with lakorn exaggeration.
There are two groups who are initially at odds with each other, but eventually work together. One is a band of kathoey martial artists, not exactly straight out of a wuxia film. The other is a village steeped in melodrama and historical lakorn.
The first two main characters are riffing off of Tales of the Grandmaster because they really missed a trick in not making their fan-waving attitudinal 2nd male lead a kathoey, which is why I thought about it enough to realise who would be excellent in these roles. Which led to the others. Using the actors' names for the characters to help anyone reading this visualise the comedy more readily.
Just imagine:
Pingpong Thongchai camping it up with a wicked fan and potentially deadly AtTiTude. Probably not actually deadly, but je really wishes someone would reply with “I’m dead,” except no one else speaks English and the internet hasn’t been invented yet.
Pompam Niti as a hereditary swordmaster afraid of swords, along with anything sharp, pointy and dangerous. This turns out to be understandable, given a martial skill which causes a sword to glow brightly and zing and zip around of its own accord, with Pompam hanging on for dear life.
Jennie Panhan as a magnificent and powerful sorceress, head of the guild and the one most likely to make sense.
James Rusameekae as a barista of sorts, creating a wondrous variety of drinks which have interesting but unknown effects as this martial art is being invented as we go along. No one is ever sure how any of them will turn out.
The villagers are right out of a historical lakorn in every way possible - lakorn soundtrack, lakorn-experienced cast and crew. Except for the writing, which throws in more and more winks and finds humour in the contrast between melodrama and the rest of what’s going on.
Our band of travelling wuxia kathoeys are forced to stop near the village when a wheel on their very over-loaded cart breaks. Tensions arise between the kathoeys and the villagers and it seems that the villagers are the villains in the movie, several of them are played by actors typically typecast as such after all.
But they’re not. They have a problem - they are under a curse and unable to party or frolic and must live melodramatically day in and day out. They’re only cross with the kathoeys because they were trying to sleep - living this way is exhausting - and the curse made the request to quiet things down come out wrong.
Before this happens however, there is spying, arguing and possibly even some combat. The kathoeys quite enjoy spying on the lakorn villagers because the men take their shirts off a lot. Pompam the hereditary swordmaster who is afraid of swords takes a fancy to a particular lakorn baddie, who takes his shirt off even more than the others, and wants to find out how sharp and pointy his blade is. He’s dangerous, Pingpong reminds je. Pompam is very conflicted. Je really wants to see his sword.
Sexy baddie does have a sword. It’s a good one. He is very proud of it and keeps it polished and shiny, but hidden away. Its location is a secret.
James experiments with new herbal drinks to calm and soothe the lakorn baddies. Pingpong tests them, with various results which are never calm or soothing. Jennie is trying to figure out what sorcery will fix the wheel. She turned it into a tree but fortunately the spell wore off overnight so at least it is a wheel again.
Pingpong’s catch-phrase is “Talk to the fan” but no one else speaks English so the response is always a confused “ehh.” Pingpong does not like this at all.
On one narratively significant occasion however, the other person is an opponent in combat and Pingpong advances on them full of indignantly camp attitude and poking them with the folded fan. With a final “Talk to the fan”, Pingpong makes the winning poke while the other person is confused. It takes a moment for this to become clear, however, as the other person is bewildered by both the catch phrase and the fan’s martial power and unable to move.
This probably means they then tie the stunned villager up and try to figure out what to do with him while also foiling rescue attempts by the rest of the villagers. Mostly they feed him, argue over whose turn it is to keep an eye on him, and feel frustrated that all of is this is far less thrilling than the ancient tales make out.
Jennie gets into an argument with a lakorn villager who thinks the jianghu is in China, or maybe Chiang Rai. “No, not that north. The east north,” Jennie retorts, followed by a lively mor lam interlude. Maybe this should happen early though, so we can have lots of mor lam.
The lakorn villagers live in low, slightly-raised huts - maybe 60-80 centimtetres from the ground. Just enough for our kathoeys to hide underneath to peer up through gaps in the floorboards and attempt to spy, send intoxicating fumes to help them sleep, or whatever other plan they have come up with.
Pompam is under the hut of his favourite baddie one night, hoping to see his sword and learn its mysteries. Sexy baddie polishes it every night as it relaxes him and helps him fall asleep.
He returns from bathing wearing his cloth wrapped as a sarong. He looks around, sensing something is amiss. He kneels in front of the box where he keeps his shiny sword and carefully unwraps his most treasured possession. The tension is thick - surely our kathoey will be caught and skewered. Sexy baddie stands directly over the gap in the floor, weapon in hand. A gasp and a bump below startle him. He knows that ghosts have been seen in the area just last week. Could this be one? He dives into bed, shaking, clutching his sword. And perhaps leaving his sarong trailing behind him.
And various things like that.
Perhaps there should be lots of ghosts too. Maybe they are part of the curse. Or is a wuxia spoof -kathoey comedy-lakorn-Isaan-ghost mashup a step too far?
Eventually everyone settles down enough to talk. They come to understand each other's problems, realise they have no reason to fight and agree to help each other. The villagers give the kathoeys huts to live in and fix the wheel on their cart.
The curse began when the lakorn the villagers were in was cancelled and the screenwriter abandoned the story half-way through, just after the village had been over run with geckos, leaving them mired in melodrama and small reptiles.
Jennie, who is as wise as she is magnificent, realises that reducing the gecko population is the key to breaking the curse and freeing the villagers from their perpetual melodrama. It will also help them sleep better at night and be more relaxed during the day.
Despite continued chaotic misunderstandings and culture clashes as they begin working together, the rivalries turn into friendships. All of the kathoeys have at least one.
We also learn that the reason the men in the lakorn village take their shirts off a lot is because the male lead was turned into a gecko by the curse at a crucial point in the romance arc and ever since they’ve all been locked into competition to take his place. Logically, this reverses the order of the curse/abandonment of the lakorn mid-story and the arrival of the geckos but logic is one of many options and it may turn out to have an entirely reasonable explanation after all if only we could think of it.
Sexy baddie teaches Pompam how to fight with a sword. This does nothing to help break the curse of course, or reduce the gecko population. The ghost of Pompam’s paa, played by Chai Chatayadom, appears. He apologises for not being able to teach Pompam these things, leaving his luk rak with the hereditary power but not the skill to wield it.
Assisted by the village’s primary cook and herbalist, James attempts to get the geckos to leave, or at least intoxicate them long enough they can be gathered up and hauled away, through various concoctions, some noxious and digusting, some delicious and appealing. None of these work, the geckos just hang out on the walls being geckos.
Except when they fall from the ceiling. That is particularly shocking and shriek-inducing. The lakorn villagers have had much practice with this.
Jennie is able to turn geckos into different things, both animate and inanimate. This is a very slow process however and they turn back into geckos the next morning. One gecko becomes a handsome lakorn lead who is abundantly grateful at being restored, vowing to serve his wise and magnificent rescuer. The villagers are all delighted to see him return, they knew he was around here somewhere but no one remembered where they’d left him.
He takes his shirt off at least once, because that is what the men of this village do and he is very happy to no longer be a gecko.
Pingpong’s martial skill, channeled through a fan, is able to stun the geckos. This is a very tedious and boring process however, and a waste of martial energy. The villagers form a fanclub, bring food support and generally pamper Pingpong, who quite likes that part of it. They assume “talk to the fan” is a wise and ancient teaching from a wise and ancient culture and take to saying it to each other. They are still stuck in melodrama so they do this very seriously.
Once the stunned geckos have been hauled away and dispersed across the countryside, at long last breaking the curse, they all have a party.
Under the influence of herbal punch, the male villagers decide to have one final competition to see who is best at taking his shirt off. Sexy baddie is forlorn, and unable to compete, as he hasn’t seen his in days. He always secretly hoped he might be a lakorn lead some day.
Pingpong suggests James, the herbalist and the cook open a cafe together. No one knows what a cafe is, they haven’t been invented yet, but they agree to do it anyway.
Some of their refreshments turn Jennie and the village chief, who ideally would be played by someone like Lukkade Metinee so they can be magnificent goddesses together, into divas with sequined gowns, spotlights and an anthemic duet. They’ve become friends along the way, bonding over affectionate complaints about the difficulties of leading their chaotic boys and kathoeys.
The movie ends with Sexy Baddie whipping off his trouser cloth, full frontal to Pompam, who makes a very Pompam expression and fall backwards in shock.
During the end credits Sexy Baddie is knelt over Pompam, fanning je campishly and trying to revive his friend. He’s going to have to try that mouth thing. He doesn’t know how it works, but he saw it once. Pompam wakes up, sees Sexy Baddie up close and about to get very personal, and faints again.
Except je briefly turns to the camera, making a very Pompam expression before turning back to the faint, ready to face whatever comes next.
But we never find out because that's the actual end.
There are two groups who are initially at odds with each other, but eventually work together. One is a band of kathoey martial artists, not exactly straight out of a wuxia film. The other is a village steeped in melodrama and historical lakorn.
The first two main characters are riffing off of Tales of the Grandmaster because they really missed a trick in not making their fan-waving attitudinal 2nd male lead a kathoey, which is why I thought about it enough to realise who would be excellent in these roles. Which led to the others. Using the actors' names for the characters to help anyone reading this visualise the comedy more readily.
Just imagine:
Pingpong Thongchai camping it up with a wicked fan and potentially deadly AtTiTude. Probably not actually deadly, but je really wishes someone would reply with “I’m dead,” except no one else speaks English and the internet hasn’t been invented yet.
Pompam Niti as a hereditary swordmaster afraid of swords, along with anything sharp, pointy and dangerous. This turns out to be understandable, given a martial skill which causes a sword to glow brightly and zing and zip around of its own accord, with Pompam hanging on for dear life.
Jennie Panhan as a magnificent and powerful sorceress, head of the guild and the one most likely to make sense.
James Rusameekae as a barista of sorts, creating a wondrous variety of drinks which have interesting but unknown effects as this martial art is being invented as we go along. No one is ever sure how any of them will turn out.
The villagers are right out of a historical lakorn in every way possible - lakorn soundtrack, lakorn-experienced cast and crew. Except for the writing, which throws in more and more winks and finds humour in the contrast between melodrama and the rest of what’s going on.
Our band of travelling wuxia kathoeys are forced to stop near the village when a wheel on their very over-loaded cart breaks. Tensions arise between the kathoeys and the villagers and it seems that the villagers are the villains in the movie, several of them are played by actors typically typecast as such after all.
But they’re not. They have a problem - they are under a curse and unable to party or frolic and must live melodramatically day in and day out. They’re only cross with the kathoeys because they were trying to sleep - living this way is exhausting - and the curse made the request to quiet things down come out wrong.
Before this happens however, there is spying, arguing and possibly even some combat. The kathoeys quite enjoy spying on the lakorn villagers because the men take their shirts off a lot. Pompam the hereditary swordmaster who is afraid of swords takes a fancy to a particular lakorn baddie, who takes his shirt off even more than the others, and wants to find out how sharp and pointy his blade is. He’s dangerous, Pingpong reminds je. Pompam is very conflicted. Je really wants to see his sword.
Sexy baddie does have a sword. It’s a good one. He is very proud of it and keeps it polished and shiny, but hidden away. Its location is a secret.
James experiments with new herbal drinks to calm and soothe the lakorn baddies. Pingpong tests them, with various results which are never calm or soothing. Jennie is trying to figure out what sorcery will fix the wheel. She turned it into a tree but fortunately the spell wore off overnight so at least it is a wheel again.
Pingpong’s catch-phrase is “Talk to the fan” but no one else speaks English so the response is always a confused “ehh.” Pingpong does not like this at all.
On one narratively significant occasion however, the other person is an opponent in combat and Pingpong advances on them full of indignantly camp attitude and poking them with the folded fan. With a final “Talk to the fan”, Pingpong makes the winning poke while the other person is confused. It takes a moment for this to become clear, however, as the other person is bewildered by both the catch phrase and the fan’s martial power and unable to move.
This probably means they then tie the stunned villager up and try to figure out what to do with him while also foiling rescue attempts by the rest of the villagers. Mostly they feed him, argue over whose turn it is to keep an eye on him, and feel frustrated that all of is this is far less thrilling than the ancient tales make out.
Jennie gets into an argument with a lakorn villager who thinks the jianghu is in China, or maybe Chiang Rai. “No, not that north. The east north,” Jennie retorts, followed by a lively mor lam interlude. Maybe this should happen early though, so we can have lots of mor lam.
The lakorn villagers live in low, slightly-raised huts - maybe 60-80 centimtetres from the ground. Just enough for our kathoeys to hide underneath to peer up through gaps in the floorboards and attempt to spy, send intoxicating fumes to help them sleep, or whatever other plan they have come up with.
Pompam is under the hut of his favourite baddie one night, hoping to see his sword and learn its mysteries. Sexy baddie polishes it every night as it relaxes him and helps him fall asleep.
He returns from bathing wearing his cloth wrapped as a sarong. He looks around, sensing something is amiss. He kneels in front of the box where he keeps his shiny sword and carefully unwraps his most treasured possession. The tension is thick - surely our kathoey will be caught and skewered. Sexy baddie stands directly over the gap in the floor, weapon in hand. A gasp and a bump below startle him. He knows that ghosts have been seen in the area just last week. Could this be one? He dives into bed, shaking, clutching his sword. And perhaps leaving his sarong trailing behind him.
And various things like that.
Perhaps there should be lots of ghosts too. Maybe they are part of the curse. Or is a wuxia spoof -kathoey comedy-lakorn-Isaan-ghost mashup a step too far?
Eventually everyone settles down enough to talk. They come to understand each other's problems, realise they have no reason to fight and agree to help each other. The villagers give the kathoeys huts to live in and fix the wheel on their cart.
The curse began when the lakorn the villagers were in was cancelled and the screenwriter abandoned the story half-way through, just after the village had been over run with geckos, leaving them mired in melodrama and small reptiles.
Jennie, who is as wise as she is magnificent, realises that reducing the gecko population is the key to breaking the curse and freeing the villagers from their perpetual melodrama. It will also help them sleep better at night and be more relaxed during the day.
Despite continued chaotic misunderstandings and culture clashes as they begin working together, the rivalries turn into friendships. All of the kathoeys have at least one.
We also learn that the reason the men in the lakorn village take their shirts off a lot is because the male lead was turned into a gecko by the curse at a crucial point in the romance arc and ever since they’ve all been locked into competition to take his place. Logically, this reverses the order of the curse/abandonment of the lakorn mid-story and the arrival of the geckos but logic is one of many options and it may turn out to have an entirely reasonable explanation after all if only we could think of it.
Sexy baddie teaches Pompam how to fight with a sword. This does nothing to help break the curse of course, or reduce the gecko population. The ghost of Pompam’s paa, played by Chai Chatayadom, appears. He apologises for not being able to teach Pompam these things, leaving his luk rak with the hereditary power but not the skill to wield it.
Assisted by the village’s primary cook and herbalist, James attempts to get the geckos to leave, or at least intoxicate them long enough they can be gathered up and hauled away, through various concoctions, some noxious and digusting, some delicious and appealing. None of these work, the geckos just hang out on the walls being geckos.
Except when they fall from the ceiling. That is particularly shocking and shriek-inducing. The lakorn villagers have had much practice with this.
Jennie is able to turn geckos into different things, both animate and inanimate. This is a very slow process however and they turn back into geckos the next morning. One gecko becomes a handsome lakorn lead who is abundantly grateful at being restored, vowing to serve his wise and magnificent rescuer. The villagers are all delighted to see him return, they knew he was around here somewhere but no one remembered where they’d left him.
He takes his shirt off at least once, because that is what the men of this village do and he is very happy to no longer be a gecko.
Pingpong’s martial skill, channeled through a fan, is able to stun the geckos. This is a very tedious and boring process however, and a waste of martial energy. The villagers form a fanclub, bring food support and generally pamper Pingpong, who quite likes that part of it. They assume “talk to the fan” is a wise and ancient teaching from a wise and ancient culture and take to saying it to each other. They are still stuck in melodrama so they do this very seriously.
Once the stunned geckos have been hauled away and dispersed across the countryside, at long last breaking the curse, they all have a party.
Under the influence of herbal punch, the male villagers decide to have one final competition to see who is best at taking his shirt off. Sexy baddie is forlorn, and unable to compete, as he hasn’t seen his in days. He always secretly hoped he might be a lakorn lead some day.
Pingpong suggests James, the herbalist and the cook open a cafe together. No one knows what a cafe is, they haven’t been invented yet, but they agree to do it anyway.
Some of their refreshments turn Jennie and the village chief, who ideally would be played by someone like Lukkade Metinee so they can be magnificent goddesses together, into divas with sequined gowns, spotlights and an anthemic duet. They’ve become friends along the way, bonding over affectionate complaints about the difficulties of leading their chaotic boys and kathoeys.
The movie ends with Sexy Baddie whipping off his trouser cloth, full frontal to Pompam, who makes a very Pompam expression and fall backwards in shock.
During the end credits Sexy Baddie is knelt over Pompam, fanning je campishly and trying to revive his friend. He’s going to have to try that mouth thing. He doesn’t know how it works, but he saw it once. Pompam wakes up, sees Sexy Baddie up close and about to get very personal, and faints again.
Except je briefly turns to the camera, making a very Pompam expression before turning back to the faint, ready to face whatever comes next.
But we never find out because that's the actual end.
