While most debut feature filmmakers seeks perfection in the craft and technique, Tan is focused and guided by what she wants to portray in Pop Aye – which is essentially what makes the heart and soul of a film.
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For many budding filmmakers, the first feature is one of the most important career milestones that will eventually help to define a filmmaker. It is therefore baffling to learn that Singaporean first feature filmmaker Kirsten Tan shot her film courageously in a foreign land and language with a cast of varying species.
Set in Thailand, Pop Aye depicts the road trip made by a man and an elephant from the country’s bustling capital to the rural regions. Rejected architect by the tide of time, Thana (Thaneth Warakulnukroh) has faded from his past glory as the man behind what used to be an iconic landmark in Bangkok.
Thana is further depressed by his deficient relationship with his estranged wife Bo (Penpak Sirikul) at home. With nothing to look forward to both at work and at home, Thana realises that he needs an escape – one that moves him backwards into nostalgic bliss.
It’s interesting how Tan’s film chooses to depict the film’s road trip as a healing process by indulging in elements of the past while picking up valuable life lessons from each and every encounter. Both Thana and Pop Aye the elephant are running away from their present state towards somewhere – possibly to find a place of solace where they belong.
Pop Aye is always on the loose, after breaking away from Thana on multiple occasions throughout the road trip. The elephant simply doesn’t belong in the city and among mankind. Thana is being let loose by the society and loses his sense of belonging among his fellow kind.
Somehow, Thana and Pop Aye find themselves capable of bringing delight to fellow downward-spiralling characters they meet along the way. Thana encouraged a desolated homeless man to get his act together and fulfill his dream of riding a motorcycle with his lady of his life around the countryside. When everyone is putting down an aged transgender at a rural karaoke pub, Thana gave her a much-needed lift by singing a duet with her.
Tan brings a lot of potential and positive values into her film and screenplay. While most debut feature filmmakers seeks perfection in the craft and technique, Tan is focused and guided by what she wants to portray in Pop Aye – which is essentially what makes the heart and soul of a film.
While the journey is captivating to sit through despite the film’s unhurried pace and approach, it is the end of the road that brings the film to a conclusive purpose and definition. Tan nudges her audience and encourages them to retreat from the noisy city into the countryside to indulge in simple life. A busy urban life might just be an illusion to trick a happy person into believing that they are a depressed loser in life.
Pop Aye reminds us that while we cannot stop time and the changes it brings about, we can choose and change what we do with the time given.
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