Private elephant sales … does this happen a lot in Thailand? Normally, I’d assume that Thai circus entertainers are not roaming the backstreets on a daily basis looking to pawn their elephants, but here we are. Of course, I can imagine all sorts of things happening in the dark alleys of Bangkok, but among them, I did not -until now- imagine a guy saying, “Psst! Hey buddy! Wanna buy an elephant?” What’s the next move? Do you bring your friend along who has a degree in zoology to “check out the goods?” Do you get all coy for bargaining purposes? “Well, I dunno. *Asian* Elephant? The guy on the next block has an *African* Elephant. I don’t think I need an *Asian* Elephant.” Is there a bait-and-switch possibility? “Hey, I bought an elephant. This is a rhinoceros! What are you tryin’ to pull?” The Thailand of my imagination is a most peculiar place; I hope never to visit and dispel my notions.
Married architect Thana (Thaneth Warakulnukroh) is on the ugly side of middle age. He looks like he’s 60 going on 100. I’m taking for granted that other things are bothering the man, cuz it seems like he has a low threshold for going off the deep end. I mean, sure finding his wife’s vibrator and playing an impromptu game of show-n-tell with the missus might give one pause and having a minor career setback might also give one pause, but I’m not sure these actions directly lead to “I gotta buy an elephant.” And yet, that is exactly what Thana does.
Recognizing “Pop Aye,” a pachyderm from his youth unfortunately named after a crappy cartoon from his youth, Thana makes an on-the-spot offer. I know. Why? and How? were my first two questions as well. It was simply a guy walking an elephant down the streets of Bangkok looking to sell the novelty: “Feed my elephant, $1” So Thana, remembering fondly a childhood friend, buys the thing and vows to take it back to the village where he grew up. And if you think it’s hard to get around with an elephant, try doing so in rural Thailand. I’m a little bit floored at the moment where Pop Aye wakes up Thana’s napping wife while being “curious.” Even if you and you wife are not on speaking terms, you should probably mention the part where you bought an elephant today. This is just common sense Marriage 101 stuff: Don’t let your wife wake up to a strange elephant in your house.
At that point in the narrative, this is a buddy road pic. The buddies just happen to include one who is also a vehicle. It would be an easy comparison here to Bill Murray’s dead comedy Larger than Life. Pop Aye is a different film. There’s a big difference between a man who acquires an elephant by accident v. one who acquires one on purpose. And there’s a huge difference between an elephant film insisting it’s a comedy and an elephant
film reflecting a mid-life crisis. Pop Aye understands that comedy is going to happen when you travel with an elephant; you don’t have to contrive it. Take, for instance, the scene where police stop Thana, find his papers lacking, and insist he and the elephant are coming downtown with them. Well, how exactly do you make that happen? And how do you instruct an elephant to stop eating?
Pop Aye isn’t for all audiences; it’s not a comedy and there’s a strange amount of mature subject matter in the film, including some exploration of Thailand’s not-so-urban ladyboys. The mere mention of the latter makes for American box office poison, especially if you give one ladyboy (Yukontorn Sukkijja) depth and a POV *gasp!* This is, of course, what I liked most about the film — an exploration of the type of culture highly suppressed in my country rather than an indulgence in “What if we show the elephant to Matthew McConaughey?” Great art this ain’t, but I can certainly get behind mid-life crisis and a man fondly, perhaps too fondly, remembering his childhood.
♪It’s Pop Aye the elephant
I got him cuz life I resent
I haggled no prices
He’s my mid-life crisis
If you do not like it, get bent♫
Not Rated, 104 Minutes
Director: Kirsten Tan
Writer: Kirsten Tan
Genre: A boy and his elephant
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Elephant whisperers
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Thai police
♪ Parody Inspired by “Popeye the Sailorman”
