Nonzee Nimibutr – OK baytong AKA Baytong (2003)

Plot:
On hearing the news of the death of his sister, a Buddhist monk leaves the temple where he has lived for childhood and struggles to adjust to life on the outside as an uncle to a young niece and as a businessman running a hair slaon in a small Thai town in a southern province. He even must learn to ride a bicycle and zip up his trousers without injuring himself. He is confronted by a flood of feelings – sexual, for a woman and family friend across the street; as well as fear and hatred for the Muslims, who he believes is repsonsible for his sisters death and other sorrows in his life.

Review:
In turning to contemporary times, Nonzee gives his most thought-provoking film yet in the story about a monk who leaves the temple where he has lived since he was a child and moves to Muslim-dominated South Thailand to care for the daughter of his sister, who was killed in a terrorist attack on a train.

Despite the heavy handed subject about the growing spectre of Muslim extremism (one of his nightmare visions is of a trainload of bearded Kalishnikov-toting terrorists), the film is pretty light-hearted. He must first adjust to wearing something other than monk’s robes and must take extra care with that zipper. He takes over his dead sister’s business – a hair salon catering to a bevy of beautiful women who work in a karaoke parlor. He experiences his first hard-on while riding on the back of a motor scooter driving by his attractive new neighbor Lynn. He must learn to ride a bike and deal with his feelings – or are they really his feelings?