Elephant White, 2011

Elephant White, 2011
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Cast: Djimon Hounsou, Kevin Bacon, Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul



Elephant White in short: In Bangkok, the assassin Curtie Church (Djimon Hounsou) is hired by a businessman to kill six men. Job done, the employer proposes another contract to Curtie to kill the lord of the traffickers that had addicted, prostituted and murdered his daughter. Curtie seeks out the Englishman Jimmy that is an arm dealer and he rents heavy weapons. Then Curtie provokes a war between gangs to eliminate the greatest number of white slave traders. Meanwhile, the young prostitute Mae meets Church and helps him to release other girls. When Mae vanishes, Curtie seeks her out and finds the truth about Mae.


Stage: Home theatre

Preps: Well, trying to see this one for a while now, because I have heard the topic is devastating and I absolutely admire movies that are coping with social aspects or issues.

Reality: The Thai prostitution vehicle is truly something that can tore your heart. Young girls, being dragged to clubs (to make them dance and sleep with the customers), making sure they are attached to their kidnappers by giving them drugs and making them addicts - the story reveals only the surface of this great issue this "love country" posesses. And sadly enough, while being on drugs, the girls are addicted to these relationships also and don't want to flee or be free at all. The piece gives an insight into one of the stories, as Hounsou plays the role of a killer on a mission, trying to find (and to make a revenge on behalf of the father) a girl that is missing like millions of them.

He finds a girl but it isn't until the end the viewer is absolutely sure this was the girl he was seeking and that she came in a spiritual way, in order to make others survive, be a mind leader, a bad conscious to the killer, call her whatever you please. But the person isn't real, the killer for sure is. You are dragged right into the mob centre, where gangs are trying to fight their placement in the society, by taking control in a weapon manner, and taking control over the girls as well. A sad story, sadly enough it's also a true one. The movie serves with some statistics on the fact that we have trade with humans still active in this part of the world. That the parents cannot survive themselves, yet alone their children. So they sell them away. The way it's described in the piece, will give you the chills.

Now, for the act - it could be done in a smoother, better way. Not all of us are Bruce Willis and yes, if you get loads of fire upon yourself, something should hit you. And after a while, when you get hit, you should also be wounded. You cannot go around in the scene five minutes after this, like nothing happened. So, some serious abuse for the viewer, if you don't pay attention. And the layout could be better. More black/white picturesque images for the viewer. Because this world is rotten and you get the feeling sometimes that the director is trying to share a romantic perspective on this issue. Well, no romance in human trade. In slaves, I mean girls. The issue is alive and would maybe deserve a better execution. Even though Hounsou and Bacon are a good pair, they don't make it up for what the director messed up.


My personal rate: 5,5 (see it for the conscious reasons. And as a live threat).

Elephant White on IMDB