SYNOPSIS:
Khao
Chon Kai is a military training camp where Thai boys who apply
for military lessons will face the challenges of the training
during their senior year of high school. A group of boys meet
at the camp and begin their training together, encountering
many obstacles during the rigorous training regimes. Despite
the hardships, they discover that friendship and true friends
are the most precious things they've found in Khao Chon Kai.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Army movies… there are so many of them, especially in
the Asia region that it could almost be identified as a genre.
From
Singapore, we got the Army Daze the movie to the popular Taiwan
franchise of “No Sir” which starred the likes
of Takeshi Kaneshiro, Nicky Wu and Jimmy Lin (back in the
80s and 90s) and even the Japanese got their Umizaru movie
about Coast Guard officers which technically is not from the
military but basically still follows the same formula.
That
right, after so different countries had churn up different
version of such genre, the formula remains mostly unchanged.
The lead character will commence his army life with some worries
initially. There likely the early treatment of light punishment
to set the right mindset of certain personal who does not
understand the mentally of working as an unit yet. There will
be some male bonding among the bunch of newbies and at least
there will be one who will not play well with the group. The
amazing bit of this formula would be that during the rigors
training and exercise, at least one of the army boys will
have the time and energy to woo a pretty lass. It sure didn’t
happen to me during my stint in the military service.
And
then there will be the communal bathing, the sissy recruit,
the ultra strict officer who actually has a heart of gold.
The fist fight among recruits that likely to land them in
detention or some kind of punishment such as expulsion or
some major form of
There
actually nothing wrong with following the tried and proven
formulas. It’s winsome and will most likely appeal to
guys of all categories (those who have yet to attend their
military service, those who are serving and those who don’t
mind reminiscing about their sweaty past in field camps).
Of course the ladies get their fare share of eye candies and
a chance to experience the military life that they are likely
not to have the chance to try.
So
how does our Thailand friend fare with their dose of army
movies?
It
definitely lack the star power compared to movies such as
No Sir 3, the comedy effect of Army Daze and the male bonding
gung-ho that was found in Umizaru (even though it uses plenty
of soundtracks sample from Braveheart, it just can’t
drum up the same emotions from it). But most importantly,
it lacks a strong singular story to see this movie through.
This
story of growing came in episodic format, dishing all those
military clichés one right after another and there
wasn’t much of a link to build the characters up or
the story. This film also lacked direction and most importantly
a climatic finish for the formulaic payout for staying with
this film.
It’s
mildly entertaining with some of its comedic moments and there
some good looking young Thai guys in it so that’s your
cup of tea, perhaps Khao Chon Kai is worth a spin or two.
Otherwise there are no good reasons to go down this path again.
MOVIE RATING:
 
Review
by Richard Lim Jr
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