Shambala

I was so impressed with this film. Only once in a while there would be a Thai movie of superb quality, one that I think deserve to be nominated to international film festivals. This film has a message to tell and it is told so beautifully. The story started with two brothers, with very different personality, embarking on a journey to Thibet. Excellent cinematography captures the beauty of this faraway land and the mood of the film. The use of "Shambala" as a symbol of something that the characters are searching for is a great idea and was successful done, in my opinion. Ananda Everingham shines brightly in his role of drunken playboy with a hidden wounded heart. Sunny was fine in his role of a guilty young man who is about to lose his lover by cancer. The movie is slow-pace but it's not boring. We watch these two brothers struggling with something inside of themselves, knowing deeply that there is something hidden beyond the surface. As the story unfolds, I was deeply touched and moved, and the conclusion at the end is just perfect.

This movie doesn't only make me want to visit Thibet, but it makes me feel that Shambala, or the New Kingdom of Heaven, or Utopia, or whatever name one may call, it is actually a place existing in the soul of men, and we all have a pathway that will lead us to it, no matter what religion or nationality we are. Everyone has a darkness inside, a sin that needs to confess, let go, so that our life can start over again.

Highly recommended, if you ask me.