Life after SEX
The indie romance film 'Love, Not Yet' takes a light-hearted look at teenage pregnancies
One of the most harrowing experiences a young person faces, a teen pregnancy usually appears on both big and small screen as a serious social drama.
When Bioscope film magazine editor Suparb Rimthepatip was mulling over the issue for the upcoming production "Rak Jad Nak" ("Love, Not Yet"), he opted to address the problem as a comedy, realising that it was more likely to draw young people to watch and take note of the messages contained in the film.
"Love, Not Yet" is made up of three shorts depicting unexpected pregnancies from three different viewpoints.
The first short "Pai Samed" ("Go to Samed Island") tells the story of a young couple who head to the island with friends to celebrate their high-school graduation then discover a few weeks later that the girl is pregnant.
In "Pen Mae Pen Mia" ("Being a Mother and Wife"), a young couple unwilling to leave their dreams and school behind start living together once they find out the girl is pregnant only to question if they still really love each other.
The last one is "Tom Hang" and it focuses on a tomboy - a girl with lesbian tendencies. Thinking of herself as "one of the boys", she goes to a heavy drinking party with her boy pals, wakes up in the same bed as a male friend and later discovers she's pregnant.
The omnibus stars young actors and actress led by Rachpol "Music AF 4" Yaemsaeng in "Pen Mae Pen Mia" and Sikharin Pholyong from "Cheun" ("Slice") in "Pai Samed". Veteran actress Sinjai Plengpanich also stars, playing a worried mum in "Pen Mae Pen Mia".
Young people and their parents will have no problem associating with the underlying premises of these shorts, especially "Going to Samet". The island has long been popular with young people and a venue for first-time sex.
The tomboy tale is common enough too, especially at all-girl schools, where "girly" girls go crazy for the tomboys with the result that the toms behave carelessly when spending time with boys and fail to realise that they are still different mentally and physically.
Suparb started working with teenagers on short films, mostly campaigns for government agencies and NGOs, and discovered that teen pregnancies were continuing to increase at an alarming rate despite improved sex education,
"The movie idea has started years ago. At first I didn't plan to make the movie on my own, I proposed the idea to filmmaker friends and companies but none were interested," he says.
But while he came up with the concept, he had no aspiration to sit in the director's chair. Instead, he searched for short filmmakers with whom he had worked before and asked them to create the stories.
Six directors responded including young film critic and short filmmaker Chakorn Chaipreecha and actress Inthira "Sai" Charoenpura who studied at an all-girls school and co-directs "Tom Hang".
"When I was in school, my classmates thought I was a tomboy because of my personality. But we are still women and have to be careful when spending time with boys," she says.
The other directors are Pas Pattanakamjorn and Pairat Khumwan on "Pai Samed" and Anuchit Mualprom on "Pen Mae Pen Mia" . A sixth director, Methas Chaichayanon, helmed an intro segment that ties all the stories together.
Suparb says one aim of the film is to address the generational divide between parents and teens.
"When problems happen, we shouldn't desert them and let them deal with the problems alone. We should help each other. The easiest way to start is to have a conversation," he says.
After working in a film magazine for decades and witnessing the failure of many film writers when they stepped into filmmaking, Suparb says he's not looking to became a major producer,
"I am not ambitious to be a director either. I made this film because I wanted to bring this issue to the big screen," he explains.
"As they are all new filmmakers, I am satisfied with their work in blending serious content with entertaining dialogue. For me, the movie works well."
"Love, Not Yet" should have been released last October but financial problems put paid to that idea. Suparb regrets the delay, saying the timing would have been perfect since it coincided with the discovery of 2,000 foetus corpses from an illegal abortion clinic frequented by schoolgirls.
"Though the movie trailers are edgy and suggest there'll be sex scenes in the films, they are just the trailers. The movie talks about the problems young people deal with but in an entertaining way. I hope it will have an impact."
A low-budget film, the promotion strategy has been planned carefully with little advertising on mainstream media like television or newspaper. Advertising has been limited to trailers in the theatres, generating word-of-mouth buzz through Facebook and other Internet social networks, plus lots of fun activities online.
"Whether it's successful or a flop doesn't really matter to me. If it flops, I'll just go back to making the magazine and the loss of money will be like the fee I paid for my filmmaking experience," says Suparb.
RIGHT NOW
"Rak Jad Nak" ("Love, Not Yet") opened in cinemas yesterday. It's rated 15+.
