Bits and pieces of veteran director Yuthlert Sippapak’s own life are mixed into Tukkae Rak Pang Mak (ตุ๊กแกรักแป้งมาก, Chiang Khan Story).

A romantic comedy, representing yet another genre shift for the prolific director who’s tackled action, comedy, horror and melodrama – often all in the same film – the story is set 25 years ago in Loei’s historic Mekong River port city. Jirayu La-ongmanee is a kid with the rather odd name of Tukkae – named after the chirping house lizard. As a kid, his best friend was the district chief’s daughter Pang. She (Chonthida “Pleng” Asavahame) moves away and returns much changed, and does not remember Tukkae at all. He’s always had a thing for her, but doesn’t tell her who he is.

Chiang Khan Story ตุ๊กแกรักแป้งมาก (2014) PAL DVD5
Subtitle: No

imdb.com/title/tt3868492/

Interestingly, much of the story takes place in a small-town movie theater, the likes of which have mostly disappeared from the landscape. In addition to views from the projection booth, there are also depictions of the old hand-painted movie billboards that used to be common in Thailand but have been mostly replaced by photos printed on giant plastic sheets.

Chiang Khan Story marks a comeback of sorts for Yuthlert. The Loei native who drifted off to New York and came back to Thailand in the early Aughts to make movies like the action-comedy Tattoo Killer, the New York-set melodrama February, Pattaya Maniac and Buppha Rahtree, which he made a franchise. Since then, he’s done more than a dozen films over around half as many years, but lately he’s taken a break after his potentially controversial Deep South drama Fatherland (ปิตุภูมิ พรมแดนแห่งรัก, Pitupoom) was yanked from release by the film’s producer.

His new film is the first release from a new studio Transformation Films, a joint venture of M Pictures, Bangkok Film Studio (formerly Film Bangkok), True I-Content and Matching Studio. Rated 15+