AFS Essentials: 6IXTYNIN9

AFS Global Comedy Series Presents 6IXTYNIN9
Tuesday, July 15
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar (1120 S. Lamar)
$4 / Free for AFS members, 7pm
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Stinkin' home repairs are a real pain in the tuchus, especially when they are as small and insignificant as a missing nail in one of your street address numbers. So what if the six sometimes swings around to a nine; what's the worst that could happen, right? A bloody noodle box full of possibilities is what could, and does happen in tonight's Austin Film Society presentation of the Thai film 6IXTYNIN9, the seventh offering in their series Making the World Laugh: Global Comedy.

Tum (Lalita Panyopas) is having a totally crap week. She has lost her job as a bank teller, but can't bring herself to tell her family, as they are all depending on her for survival. For a brief moment, Tum contemplates pulling the trigger on her hopeless life, but thinks better of it, and soon thereafter discovers a noodle box on her doorstep, filled with cold hard cash. Now, you would think that the first thing she would do with her windfall is fix that stupid number on her door that keeps swinging around, but she is soon distracted by more, um, pressing matters.

One would hope that this box of jack would be the gift of some benevolent philanthropist, but as is typically the case with these types of cinematic situations, the money has blood all over it. People, nobody wants to just give you $25,000 in take-out! Trust us on this one! Needless to say, the two gangsters who dropped the money in the first place realize their error and return to claim their mistakenly placed kick-back, but instead of a box-o-baht, they find an empty stoop, and a woman who isn't willing to part peacefully with her new found financial security. The body count quickly adds up, as Tum slashes her way through a long series of wacky coincidences linking the dirty money with the people she so innocently snuffs.

Written and Directed by Thai visionary Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, 6IXTYNIN9 (the title in Thailand being A Funny Story About 6 and 9), is sure to be full of dry, black humor, stylized cinematography and a uniquely southeast Asian soundtrack. Of course, after you see it, you'll think twice about procrastinating on that little home repair job that you've been ignoring. We suggest buying a hammer and a nail, and avoiding any future bloodstain cleaning expenditures.

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