Karaoke Girl
Every year there is one week in which I keep my calendar free of any work: the week that I can immerse myself in movies, the week of the Rotterdam Film Festival. This year I was less fortunate: I only saw seven films in two days. Qualitatively the score was better, though. Žižek’s ‘Perverts Guide to Ideology’ was absolutely hilarious and the North Korean film ‘Komrad Kim Goes Flying’ was a weird treat. Amongst the seven films there was one true pearl: Tiger Award Nominee ‘Karaoke Girl’.
Karaoke Girl is an engaging portrait of a Thai Karaoke girl, Sa Sittijun. As a teenager Sa left the little village where she was born and raised in order to earn money in Bangkok. Initially toiling in a factory, the attractive girl found more rewarding employment as a "hostess" in one of the city's dark karaoke bars, where the male customers expect more than just a song for their money. At the age of 23 Sa has become an experienced Karaoke hostess.
Debuting filmmaker director Visra Vichit Vadakan (Us/Thai) met Sa Sittijun in Bangkok. The two women spent a few weeks together before Visra Vichit Vadakan started to write her script. In the meantime the two women had become good friends.
This friendship resulted in an intimate portrait in which Sa Sittijun is not only the subject of the film, but also the main 'actress'. In the film, documentary and fiction are effortlessly combined. Scenes in which Sa Sittijan is interviewed are loosely intertwined with scenes in which Sa Sittijan is playing a fictionalized version of herself.
Still from 'Karaoke Girl'
The freedom Visra dared to take mixing documentary and fictional storylines makes this film an extraordinary portrait. Often, when documentary and fictional elements are so explicitly combined, the medium itself becomes too dominant and rather distracting. This is not the case with ‘Karaoke Girl’. Visra manages to use this in her favor. By combining fiction and documentary elements Sa Sittijuns portrait gets to be even more intimate.
That this film and the combination of fictional and documentary elements within the film did not become a huge mess is partially due to the work of the very experienced cinematographer Sandi Sissel (US). She managed to keep the camera work exactly similar during the documentary and the fictional parts of the film. Therefore all the storylines easily blend in with each other. The care with which Sandy framed the movie and the use of colors make the film a treat to watch.
Sa’s story and emotions dictate the medium Visra used and the way in which the movie is shot. In this way the filmmaker stays loyal her goal: translating the protagonist’s story and emotional life in the most sincere way.
At the end of the movie another level of fiction is added: where most of the film is rather low-key, the epilogue is over the top and extremely fictious. Visra visualizes Sa’s biggest dream: to become a famous singer. In this scène it is as if the protagonist has learned how the camera works in order to use it herself. It is as if she directed the end of the movie, not Visra. In this way she manages to truly break out of her own world.
'Karaoke Girl' is not the edgiest or most innovative film among the Tiger Awards nominees I saw at the IFFR. But the beguiling way it combines documentary and fiction elements and the astonishing way the movie was framed certainly ranks this film among the most inspiring ones I saw.
Mirka Duijn
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Read more about director Visra Vichit Vadakan on the IFFR website