6ixtynin9
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C+
Layoffs are enough to drive many people over the edge, and
you never know how those who are affected by it will react. Sometimes it is delayed, especially when it
is as unexpected as it is in the opening of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s dark
comedy-gone-thriller 6ixtynin9 (1999).
In a kid’s game, three women get the number that their boss says is the
best way to decide who gets laid off.
Tum (Lalita panyopas, yes the last name is not capitalized) is the only
one not to immediately react at all.
When she gets home, she starts to think about drinking
several gallons of bleach and then shooting herself in the head point blank
with a handgun. Then, because the
address number on her apartment flips from 6 to 9, 25 million in Thai’s
equivalent of the dollar is left to her by accident. When the Thai Boxer gangsters who realize the mistake come to
correct that mistake, they push her around.
Denying she has it, they attack, not knowing her state of mind. She kills them, takes the money and runs.
Though the story does not go as far as I would like to
have seen it, with the ending a problem, the film is still worth seeing because
it has good editing, pacing, acting, camerawork and working overall more often
than it does not. Part of the problem
is that we have seen some of this before, but I liked all the new things and
ideas, the culture that was brought into the situation you would have never
seen otherwise in most American and especially Hollywood variants. 6ixtynin9 is an ambitious enough
thriller I enjoyed, even if it was not as good as the sometimes-similar
apartment-bound thriller 301/302.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 image may have
soft points, but it makes up for it in some fine focus in other shots and color
fidelity I enjoyed. Cinematographer
Chankit Chamnivikaipong does not use too much handheld work, which is a plus,
and has a fine sense of image. Kodak
stocks were used and I like the way he pushed them. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has some Pro Logic surrounds and
sounds good for a recent recording.
Weblinks, the original theatrical trailer and previews for Palm DVDs are
the only extras. Too bad, because I
would have loved to hear Ratanaruang and Chamnivikaipong discuss their
filmmaking approach. Maybe next time.
- Nicholas Sheffo
