Tewada Ta Ja Teng, - Starring Pongsak "Teng" Pongsuwan, Charoenporn "Kohtee" Onlamai, Bongkod Kongmalai,.Directed by Wiroj Thongchew,.In Thai with English subtitles
Television comedians have found the movie screen a new outlet for their buffoonery. Prized joker Teng Terdterng, or Pongsak Pongsuwan, appears in a handful of films every year in addition to his weekly exposure on TV variety shows watched by millions across the nation; and Kohtee Aramaboy, or Charoenporn Onlamai, a chubby man-boy, a cuddly hobbit whose purpose in life is to tickle himself and us, is the most popular movie actor in the Kingdom. In the four months of 2008 Kohtee has had three movies; in 2007 he had at least four; in 2006 he had at least eight (I lost count). And he's game for every role: an idiot, a ghost, a transvestite, a transvestite ghost, a lead, a sidekick, a cameo. That his slapstick is sometimes rude and low-brow is indisputable, but so is his dedication to the art of balderdash and his weird, frivolous charm.
Both Teng and Kohtee star in the new movie Tewada Ta Ja Teng, which has no English title and is impossible to translate, because, really, I don't know if it even means anything in Thai. The last syllable, Teng, refers to its leading joker, Teng Terdterng, in an unsubtle sales pitch that this is nothing but a 90-minute demonstration of Teng's clowning around. That alone is enough to guarantee that this low-budget film, patched together from half-baked gags and hasty deliveries, will attract enough viewers who've seen him on TV every week and now expect a higher-voltage laugh.
Kohtee plays the sidekick here, though I always find this thirtysomething man, who looks like an obese pre-teen (as far as I know, he's not suffering from any medical condition), more watchable and entertaining than Teng, the lean leading buffoon whose favourite persona is that of a bumbling, hapless victim of luck.
In Tewada Ta Ja Teng, Koh Tee plays a genie out of the bottle, an overweight angel who resides in an ancient tree and comes out to grant the wishes of Gluay (the Teng character), a poor likay actor in a small village in Nakhon Pathom.
Their wisecracks are almost instinctive, highly organic, steeped in street slang and working class sensibilities, but they're not as sharp as on TV. The genius of Teng and Kohtee is tailored to fit 30-minute tube stints performed on a gaudy stage, with a Brechtian quality of exposed cameras, manually movable sets, and hosts who wander into the play to give comments. On the movie screen, the jokers' mobility is limited to the strict framing and cutting. The larger-than-life nature of cinema initially accents their fluidity, but after a few minutes it actually restricts them, and even highlights their limitations.
It could have helped if the movie had aspired to be something a little more than just a colourless carnival of gags strung together haphazardly. We're not talking Chaplin - of course that would be unrealistic - but since a movie ticket can cost as much as 180 baht at the weekend, we are right to expect more than simply a protracted variety show with Teng as the centrepiece.
Presumably, a number of people (city people?) will flout cheap Thai comedies as garbage. Sometimes I do that too. But I wonder whether the same people would dismiss idiotic Hollywood fare like, say, 10,000 BC, or the remake of Shutter, as worse than garbage, or whether imported junk is somehow more tolerable than homemade junk. Let the debate continue, but I'll root for the chubby Kohtee any day.
