ARCHIN PANJABHAN
FAILED
EXPELLED
SECOND YEAR FINAL EXAMINATION RESULTS FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
That was me.
A young man who was expelled from university
in 1949.
I was penniless, unemployed,
hopeless, timid,
and nearly broken-hearted.
YOU'LL BE A MESS IF YOU KEEP SMOKING AND DRINKING.
YOU WANT TO WORK? I'LL SEND YOU TO A MINE IN PHANG NGA.
That piece of paper
was the most valuable thing
among all of my worthless possessions...
although it could only boast the knowledge
of a second-year engineering student.
No one knew that,
on that day,
I put all of my hopes there.
The tin mine
was to be my last chance
in keeping my hopes high and my stomach full.
When I was a little kid,
the district of Takua Thung
was a small area with so little importance
that map-makers gave it no interest.
And the sub-district of Krasom
wasn't even important enough to be placed on maps.
Hey! What the hell is that? Help!
But that day,
Krasom became a reformatory
my father was sending me to.
Of course, it wasn't a place meant for holidays
or adventures,
where you would savor the good things in life.
KRASOM
We're finally here.
-Can you tell me where the office is? -That way.
Again? Are you using it for work or are you selling it?
You use too much. Now go.
What do you want?
Is the manager here?
No. Do you need anything?
-I'm looking for a job. -No. No jobs here.
Hey, I said no jobs, got it?
-Any kind of job. -No. I said no jobs!
Go away. Don't hang around here.
Go away. All positions are full.
Can you handle manual labor, university boy?
Can you handle manual labor?
Well?
Yes, sir.
For a miner's standard monthly wage?
Yes, sir.
And why is that?
Okay, then.
Come.
I like people who work.
And you like to work.
So I like you.
You mean I'm hired?
As a laborer, okay?
Your place is close to the cemetery.
If you're not afraid of ghosts,
you'll find it quite comfy.
But if you can't handle it,
you can stay with me at the market.
We're both from Bangkok, after all.
Now, you're good to go.
Good luck, then.
I mean, it's nice.
Lights off at 11, okay?
That marked the beginning of the months and years of laborious work.
FRESHMAN
A part of me was feeling valiant
to grind away like a man in the intense and grueling work.
I just ran off. I kept telling myself, "Don't stop!"
But the other part of me
was yearning and begging to go back to Bangkok.
Hey. Look at the Bangkok boy.
Hey!
Oh, I'm sorry! Sorry.
-That rice reeked of gasoline. -I see.
Hey.
I saw the dog chewing on this. I thought it might be yours.
That was hot.
This southern-style soup tastes bland.
Oh, I added some water.
Hey.
What are you doing out here in these woods, anyway?
You would get better food in prison.
There aren't any movies
or girls to see.
I came here to save up some money.
Save money for what?
I'm going to get married.
You're getting married?
That's good. Just don't get into debt later on.
What's that?
What?
Oh, your sweetheart.
Yes, she's a looker. You should hang on to that.
You know,
there's an old saying.
"If a man goes away to China,
to sea,
to Java,
or to Phang Nga,
his girl should wait three years for him.
But after three years,
she can take a lover
without being blamed."
-Get on the pickup truck. -Hurry.
Get on. Now.
Hey, you.
Have you seen them yet? At your house?
-The ghosts? -Yes.
No, not yet.
Where are you off to this morning?
The Singaporean clerk is sending me to get the mail.
Take this one. And this one, too.
Has Office Boy come back?
Is Office Boy back yet?
Where is he off to, anyway?
He went to town.
Waiting for a letter from your girl, aren't you?
A round trip is 50 kilometers!
Why didn't he take a car?
None of them are available.
It's a small task. No big deal.
But he's already old.
About your mail,
there wasn't any.
No mail for you.
-No mail! -It's a pity.
In that house at nighttime,
a girl would come walking,
stark naked, with her tongue flapping and eyes bulging.
Her hair is up to her shoulders.
People say she's the ghost of Choom's late wife,
who died with the baby in her womb.
One night, Aom went out for some coffee
and left his wife there alone.
She saw her with her own eyes.
Jong and Joi saw her too.
They were scared half to death.
Actually,
I'm not afraid of ghosts.
It's the sound of her walking that scares me.
Want to make a bet?
Ten bottles of hooch to one.
You'll see her tonight for sure!
A woman. Hair up to her shoulders.
No clothes.
With a belly ready to burst!
That's Mrs. Cham, all right.
The previous chief's wife.
She died while she was pregnant.
-Dang. -What did you say then?
I prayed and told her
that I had come from far away.
I asked her to let me stay because I needed a job.
What did she say?
She just nodded her head.
That's one scary encounter.
Unbelievable!
And then,
my first task came in the shape of an oil drum.
They wanted to make a trash can out of it.
And I was assigned to do it.
Shit!
What happened?
Let me see it.
Don't pull away. Hold still!
It's okay. Let it go.
Here.
Oh, shit!
Hey, it's not shit. You'll get better.
Daydreaming, are you?
Thinking about your girl?
For me, the tin mine
seemed like an entirely new world.
It was cut off from the outside world,
with tens of kilometers between it and the highway.
Who's that?
How the hell should I know?
My first real test came
when the dredging engineer went on holiday.
The boss
let me work as his substitute
and write request forms in English.
One day, you'll become an engineer for sure.
All right.
Building materials, accounting, English.
I had studied all of that back in school.
The only thing that went wrong was that I didn't manage to graduate.
Hey.
Hey!
Where are the requested materials?
The boss is checking the dredger.
So?
Where are the materials?
Have you been dallying?
The man at the warehouse said that,
"A bolt is male and a nut is female.
You can't just ask for nuts.
You need both nuts and bolts together."
What about the 30 nails I requested?
Don't tell me they only come with hammers.
Nails are requested by the pound,
not by the piece.
You were wrong from the beginning.
Sorry, chief. Give me another chance.
Chief, the light in the steam room went out.
One frosted light bulb.
Don't request them by the dozen.
Understood.
A pearl light bulb.
P-E-A, is that right?
I really began to like my Australian boss.
He opened the tin mine's gates for me.
I wanted to show him
that he could always count on me.
"Why don't we take the belt off
when the steam pressure is at its highest?"
Well...
Oh, they're so cute.
Here, little one, buy yourself a new shirt, okay?
Hi, little one!
The boss's name was Mr. Sam.
-He was 56 years old. -Spend it on a shirt.
He is the role model that I aspire to be.
-Three-nine. -He loved to have fun.
Seven-two. Twenty baht.
-That's enough -Eight-five. Twenty baht.
That's enough.
He's generous and kind.
His own car is used freely
-as if it was for charity. -Please get on.
Stop. Chai, stop!
Hey.
How dare you treat human remains this way?
Put down the drink and take good care of it.
His fellow Australians wouldn't know
how proud Thai people were of him.
Whenever he had too much to drink,
he would show us the souvenir
-he got in the war. -I, Corporal Sam,
wore this anklet while building the bridge on the Kwai River.
It's called a shackle, boss.
-What? -It's called a shackle!
Right. I see.
Oh, look!
The baby's got one too!
The boss's younger brother,
Mr. Tom, worked here too.
He worked outside of the office
and was the dredger's chief engineer.
All right.
Push hard!
But there's one thing
the brothers could never agree on.
Which was
the older brother would hire anyone under the influence of alcohol,
while the younger brother would be the one to fire them one by one.
The two bosses were every working man's heroes.
They taught me the meaning of the phrase,
"duty unto death."
When the dredger's roller fell into the water
and stopped working,
we had to take turns working nine shifts,
while Mr. Sam stayed up for 72 hours straight
and never took a break.
We got the dredger up and running again,
thanks to this Australian commander
and another leader of the mineworkers,
John,
the foreman of our dredger crew.
The chief is here!
Fuck! You always get the bike! Wait until it's my turn.
The way John stood,
there was a show of power and dignity,
-a chief who is in control. -He's here.
In an instant,
he would let you know he was in charge.
Huan! Black coffee.
-Double bitter! -Yes, Mr. John.
Tomorrow,
Mr. Henry, the big boss from Penang, will come to check the dredger!
If you don't wear a shirt tomorrow, I won't sign your time card!
Hey!
Mr. Henry, the big boss from Penang is coming tomorrow to check the dredger!
Whoever comes to work without a shirt will not get his time card signed!
Pook.
No shirt, no time card signed!
John spoke so fast and so fluently in so many languages,
you would think a fan was blowing the words out of his mouth.
He's a foreigner.
Don't let him look down on you and call you jungle savages,
who work naked under the sun!
He's a foreigner.
Don't let him come over and say
that we are a bunch of illiterates
who work naked!
Attention!
John drank even more than we did.
He smoked more, too.
And he ate so much food...
So it took him a longer time to take a dump.
Wow, I just took a big shit!
Must have been a foot long! And in one piece!
There was just no stopping his craziness,
especially when he had his team of loyal warriors with him.
Like Kong the Mechanic.
And Weng the Tinsmith.
I was only hoping they would let me join them as their d'Artagnan.
-Hey, how's it going, Mard? -Just fine, chief.
What is this? Where are you going?
All you do is disturb people.
Are you in this too? Why are you doing this? This is wrong.
He can ask me nicely if he wants me to work.
Hey!
You want to go blind?
Put your mask on!
You've got to write "cotton waste,"
not "waste cotton."
Heaven might have sent John to our tin mine,
but it sent Ying too,
to give John a taste of Hell.
Ying, how many pounds exactly is this?
Getting senile, are you?
I'm not an expert on the steaming machine.
What kind of mechanic foreman are you?
The foreman has to know everything.
I do know everything.
-I know Thai boxing, too. -Don't push me, Ying.
I'll push you more than that, John.
I may not be the gangster I once was,
but I can still teach you a thing or two!
-You want to fight me? You're on! -Hey, guys! It's a fight!
The chiefs are going to fight!
Shit! Everybody, back to work!
TO ARCHIN ALWAYS THINKING OF YOU
Oh, Jieng.
I'm cloud gazing, like you.
I might see a lucky number up there.
At the tin mine,
any dry place to sleep in when it rains is considered home.
I've got the runs!
Our toilet was the nearest bush,
and our kitchen was the boiled rice noodle stand.
-I'm out, go that way. -Then don't eat. Give us some.
Our lounge and living room
were set up in the local coffee shop.
Can I put this bottle on my tab?
Sure, whatever.
-It was also our clubhouse. -Hey.
Have a drink with us?
No, me and alcohol don't get along too well.
I thought it was you and your wife that didn't get along!
The shop owner was tight-fisted,
but he was the president of the club.
The shop was our recreation center...
Pretty.
...and our office of public affairs.
This newspaper says that
the Korean War was the fiercest war yet.
If they fought here,
near our home and our mine,
we would be filthy rich!
And why is that?
They're shooting up everything in sight
and they're using lead bullets to do it.
Our mine is a lead mine, right?
So if we wouldn't get rich,
who would?
Sometimes, the coffee shop became our courthouse as well.
The mine here sure looks small to me.
The mine might be small,
but the people here aren't.
What's that?
The mine might not be so big,
but the miners here are big enough.
Right.
What's so great about digging a little hole in the ground?
You might use a ten-baht shovel to dig your holes,
but here,
we use a ten million-baht dredger to dig ours.
-Yes, that's right! -And what about that?
-Don't go out, stay behind me. -Oh, no! My shop!
Stop!
-Stop! -Come here!
I'm doing my job to feed all of you. Leave me alone!
But the shop's most important function
was to serve as our casino.
And the shop owner was the one
who initiated it, reeled people in,
and dealt the cards.
Man!
Wait and see. Win or lose.
The hottest games were
the "guess the number of durian seeds" game...
Seven, eight.
Okay, pay up! Everyone, pay up!
The "smash the sardine can" game...
Will he break it or not?
-No! -Yes!
Break it!
It's not broken! Pay the dealer!
The "guess the number of petals under the mangosteen" game...
Pay the dealer!
-Two baht on 500 grams! -Place a bet.
I say 700 grams.
-Are you sure? -Bet on it!
The "how heavy is the milk can" game...
Five hundred grams!
-Seven hundred. -Five hundred.
Five hundred!
And the "guess the height of the candle" game.
It's 7.9!
No, it's 8!
You're looking at it sideways.
Dude, one shot of whiskey over here.
Pien has been having labor pains since this morning,
but the baby is still not out.
Stillborn, you think?
Okay, let's bet on it.
Pien's having a baby today.
Will the baby be dead or alive?
Place your bets!
-Alive! -Hold on.
-Alive! -Okay, give it to me.
Hey!
Here's your cut.
The coffee shop was also
like a sanitarium
when I needed a cure for my homesickness.
Go away! Hey, go away!
What?
Catch the thieves tonight at 3 a.m.
Catch the thieves.
Me?
Come on.
Make it snappy! Hurry it up!
Are you the one stealing our tin?
Well, I wouldn't put it that way.
Just give me a minute.
What are you waiting for? Go ahead!
What are you afraid of?
Move it!
Get going.
Hold on.
Stop right there.
The boss's orders. Everything goes back to the dredger!
Hey,
you had better remember who's in charge here.
Oh, you're the senior man here, all right.
But this is the boss's direct order.
And what country is he from?
And which country did you come from?
This is Thai tin.
And the land you're standing on is Thailand.
The tin beneath Thai soil belongs to the Thai people!
And what about the permit,
the dredger,
the tools, and the machines?
They belong to the boss, don't they?
And the wages you get, who pays them?
Who hired you to work here?
What kind of asshole steals from the man
who puts a roof over his head?
I don't care about that foreigner.
Try and stop me if you can.
Go back and suck on your milk bottle, boy.
You got pampered by a foreigner, and now you forgot your roots.
Wait.
Hey.
What? You got a problem?
Don't get in my way or you'll get in trouble!
-Then so be it! -Hey!
-He made you a foreman, -Well, who wants to work
-and you repay him like this? -for him forever?
Piss off!
Guys.
Maybe we should all talk this over together.
John?
Look,
it wasn't all for myself.
We split it up among us.
The money goes around, no matter how little we get.
Joi, Jerm, Tab, Hued, Huan, and Kong.
A little bit for each of us.
How are they supposed to feed their families?
You think getting ten baht a day is enough?
We're only getting a few more baht from this.
What's the big deal?
After a few years,
when the mine shuts down,
who will care about us?
What about the taxes the boss pays for mining this land?
How could you still steal from him?
Why shouldn't we steal it?
Because it's illegal!
Illegal?
You're mixing up our laws with that foreigner's.
Working men go by the laws of life!
Move it!
Boss.
I'm going to resign.
I'm going back to Bangkok to drive a taxi.
Are you really quitting?
Doing honest work for you
makes me a traitor to my country.
Here.
Tell you what,
how about I give you a raise?
Come here.
I have to apologize.
This is how I test every worker who is going to...
get a raise.
Archin,
that school must have taught you pretty well.
Most of the guys who got tested
only cared about how much they're paid.
Here.
Eat with no shame.
Die with no fear.
Strive with no tears.
If you die, you're out!
Your university taught you to love your country,
but this tin mine
taught you to love your life.
From that day on,
I was proud to be part of the tin mine.
We had all come from different regions and schools.
And also...
I do everything. I don't pick my job.
We had all heard different stories as kids.
The things that led each of us to this tin mine
are all different too.
If I were a soldier, I would wear a lieutenant's cap
and sit straight, but I'm not.
But we lived together like a family,
rather than a bunch of workers.
You smelly ass, you drank yourself silly again.
-So we go... -Are we all up?
Under the harsh words we spoke were familial bonds.
And we could feel the honesty, the sincerity,
-and the goodwill -Pull!
in the effort
that each of us put in the work.
SOPHOMORE
I progressed so quickly during my first year at the tin mine
that some of the workers envied my rapid promotion.
But what they didn't know was that loneliness itself
was taking its place in my hopeless heart.
Young guys like you
shouldn't work in a place like this.
No vacation
for New Year's.
The sun sure is bright today.
Would you like to bet?
When the sun's this bright,
there's sure to be a storm by noon.
Want to bet on it?
Sure.
I'll bet you two bottles of whiskey.
This New Year,
there's no celebrating,
peeing on a building wall while drunk,
or lying on the ground and stargazing, as I had done in years past.
Well,
it looks like you lost.
Look, it's raining.
I only said it minutes ago.
It's raining.
Hey, you.
Is the New Year this much fun in Bangkok?
Regardless of what day it was at the tin mine,
we were more concerned with ourselves than with nature.
We didn't have time to watch the sunrise or the sunset.
We only worried about getting to work each day.
Looks like you've had enough.
If you're still planning on going to work tomorrow.
Here.
For us, the moon itself was meaningless.
It was only the waning moon
at the end of each calendar month
that we cared about.
We didn't have time to look at the moon in the sky.
Instead, we looked for it at the bottom of a glass.
Days, months, years, life at the tin mine
became a bigger part of my body each day.
No mail for you today.
The love letters from Bangkok
grew fewer and fewer.
Old Man Dang, why is the soup so cold?
Just eat it! Your stomach will warm it up.
Cold and flavorless.
I slept in a lonely hut at night
with the sound of the dredger as my only lullaby.
I worked on the ground sprinkled with dust
from the tin we mined below.
And the rain that fell down on my head
was mixed with the ashes of that tin as well.
That day,
I felt ready to face any challenge the mine could give me.
And on that same day, the same rain
dropped a new friend onto my head as well.
Hands are up to greet, head down to feet Saying hello to both men and women
Hello, brothers and sisters
That was Kai,
a teenager with nothing
but his brawn to call his own.
A guy who knew no sorrow.
Hey, that umbrella's for the camera!
Hey!
-I just set the mark with that! -He had a smile
as big as a pond.
Hey, Kai!
Your father will hear about this.
As a surveyor,
every square meter of the forest was my concern.
We were there to map the terrain,
not go on a camping trip.
Kai!
You go back down there
and find the boundary mark.
Again?
-Come on. -I have been working since morning.
-This last one will only take a minute. -I'm really tired.
Please!
And we weren't there
to pick the most scenic spot in the woods.
I'm so tired.
That one meal wasn't enough for this.
It's time to clock-out. I'm off.
-I'm hungry. -Hey, gather up the gear before you go!
Hey!
Every day,
the locals would see how democratically we worked together.
Kai carried the gear into the woods...
I say we are here, Norah I love her so much
...and I carried it back out again.
Kai.
Give me a hand here.
Working hours are over.
Kai, do you know what time it is?
I ran as fast as I could.
Even so, working with Kai
-had its delights as well. -Hey.
Try some of this grain with coconut.
Go on, it will spoil soon.
Come on, try it.
How is it?
Good, right?
Kai?
Archin! Look out below!
Kai, are you trying to kill me?
Kai was my assistant by day...
and my massage therapist by night.
I always thought of him as a bit like my son,
even if he seemed like my father sometimes.
But more than anything, we were like brothers in the mine.
-Kai. -Yes.
Pull it up.
Based on the map,
it looks like that old Kleum moved this marker 20 feet further in.
What?
That's not right.
He's trying to cheat us.
Hey, you!
Get away from there!
Don't mess with my boundary markers.
-Get lost or I will kill you! -Boss, get over here.
-I'll chop your head off. -You moved the markers.
You're cheating the company.
Why should I care?
Just let me move the marker back.
An old guy like you
shouldn't waste your breath on this.
Are you mocking me?
-Are you mocking me, boy? -He isn't.
-He's cursing you. -I'll cut you!
-Stupid brats! -Follow us if you can!
-I'll kill you! -Follow me. I dare you!
Kai,
pull it up!
Do it and I'll cut you!
Then I'll shoot you.
Boss, I'm afraid.
I'll do it myself.
You're dead!
My sacred Buddha amulet has protected me!
Not even bullets can harm me now!
His holy power is watching over me.
He has protected my life.
Blessed guardian.
-Let me see that. -Bullets cannot harm me.
I've never seen an amulet that can stop bullets.
-Let me see. -This is Phra Ruang.
-Here. -This is an old and sacred relic.
He has taken the amulet off.
Kai, go move that marker.
You tricksters, give me my amulet back.
-Give it back. -Move the marker and I'll give it back.
I'll kill you first.
I'll cut you.
The amulet's with me now. Do you dare try it?
Okay then, let's give it a try!
I'll cut his head clean off!
Those who wear sacred images
-Don't! -should know that cheating is a sin.
Sacred amulets won't protect sinful people.
If I'm so sinful, why isn't there a bullet inside me right now?
Because I didn't load the gun!
All right, move the marker and give me my amulet back.
Boss.
As a reward for my bravery,
can I ride in the big boss's car to watch a movie in town?
-That's not up to me. -What?
Then how come you get to ride it?
Not a chance!
Archin and I sit in the front.
The big boss
and his woman sit in the back, so how can you come along?
But, please, sir!
No! Not a chance.
I'll sit between the big boss and the madam.
You're not their son.
Sitting in the middle won't mean that I'm their son.
What about those two hookers I saw sitting on either side of you?
Are you their son?
You want a ride?
Ride in the trunk!
Kai, we've got trouble.
Kai,
how did you get here?
Come lend a hand with these durians.
I took the bus.
I rode in the trunk.
You said you came by bus.
Were you lying to me?
I was afraid you would be angry with me.
Well, why are you telling the truth now?
Aren't you afraid anymore?
I don't want to walk back.
If you come in the trunk, you go back in the trunk.
He who lies,
rides in the trunk
along with the durian.
-Is that a good idea? -It's a good idea, sir.
No, I'm just kidding.
You can ride at the front.
That's okay, I like it back there.
-Hey, Kai. -That hurts!
These kinds of bruises,
I can treat them at my clinic. They'll be gone in two days.
Come to the cemetery.
The cemetery? You go first.
With your age, you're most likely to go there first.
Hey, where's your bike?
The tires blew out,
so the clerk told me to walk.
-That ass... -Here's your mail.
TO ARCHIN PANJABHAN
Hello.
One, two, three.
The crying sound is calling me Through the wind
It's like it wants me to sway by
It must be yours
-Is that your voice? -Tong!
Tong, get home this instant!
-Wait. Why? -Head back now!
It soothes my heart
-Come drink with me! -No, thanks.
Archin, come up and dance with us! The band's from Bangkok.
The crying sound is calling me Through the wind
It seems like a promise You'll love me forever
But when I really listen to it,
It seems like You're just playing with my heart
WEDDING INVITATION
THE WEDDING OF WORAPHOL AND TIDAWAN
Hey, just burn it.
No!
I'll keep it,
just like how I've kept a lock of her hair.
Forget about her.
Never.
I want to remember.
This will be a memento of a woman's wicked ways.
Wicked ways don't need to be remembered.
You think I've kept mementos
of your wicked ways?
What have I done to you?
You complained about my soup and threw it away.
That letter will only make you miserable.
Why would you keep it?
That night,
the reason I haven't gotten any mail from Bangkok for months
finally became clear.
On that night, I thought
that love was the only thing I had to look forward to.
I felt as if my future
had been smashed to bits.
STARVE NOW, DIE TOMORROW
"Dreamt in the past.
Starve now,
die tomorrow."
Why so much heartache, young man?
DREAMT IN THE PAST.
STRIVE NOW.
ENDURE.
Together, and without either of us realizing it,
the relationship between that old man from the countryside
and this messed-up university boy
became an unbreakable bond
in that hut deep in the woods.
That's how time went by for the miners.
Days, months, and years
were scooped in at the front
and dumped out through the back of the dredger.
JUNIOR
Boss, it's the New Year. Aren't you going anywhere?
I don't have money for that.
I hate you. Clean that up, asshole.
The earth that we dug up each day
would become letters on the report tomorrow.
What's up? Your wife ran away?
Huan!
Black coffee. Double bitter!
Months and years of ups and downs
gradually made me charred and coarse.
I toiled away at work every day
so I could tell myself that I wasn't an idler.
I pulled silly acts
for occasional amusement.
Too lonely to stay at home.
And I kept drinking liquor
-to soothe my dry throat. -My glass is empty.
And your tab is full.
And you're not paying again.
The debts I had from all that drinking
soon turned into a large hand
that gripped me tight and kept me from escaping.
-Hey! -Oh, you fuckers!
You begged for drinks,
and now you're acting like thieves?
Whenever I drank,
it was like a magic spell would come over me.
It made elephants look as tiny as pigs.
If you can't drink, why be born at all?
What you ought to say is,
"If you can't get a free drink,
why be born at all?"
If you don't respect the elders,
you'll get an old woman as a wife.
Booze was the rural folks' main source of entertainment,
a vitamin
for their tired bodies
and a ray of light from an angel's halo
-that brightened their lonely hearts. -Five, four.
The sound of you calling me Comes along with the wind,
Like wanting to take me...
Hey, watch out.
I know the voice comes from you
Just like what they say The beauty's words can soothe the heart
-Of those who need it... -Hey.
Hey, the boss is here.
What is it?
My wife's not around.
-So, no worries. -It's party time.
Keep it
for when you're cold.
I mean, for when you're lonely.
No.
I mean cold.
No! Lonely!
Let's drink!
Cheese?
Only rats eat cheese!
Which one is the most expensive?
This one.
Solid gold from Switzerland.
A real leather strap.
It's 4,500 baht. Interested?
Isn't it beautiful, Archin?
Yes, it is.
I'll take it for 4,500 baht.
And I'm buying it for you.
The best watch
for the best watch seller!
Hey, stop.
Archin.
Give...
this little boy 100 baht.
For what?
He's got no shirt.
Give him the 100 baht.
Here, keep it.
I'll hold it. The kid will only lose it.
Get in line.
Go buy yourself a shirt.
How do Southerners say, "I love you"?
We say,
"I love you."
-Yes, "I love you." -"I love you."
"I love you."
The slobs in the front office
aren't worth a miner's spit.
While they're out buying lottery tickets in Phuket,
we're working our asses off, digging for tin.
Say something! Come on!
At least, the people at the reception
are graduates from Penang.
Which school did you graduate from?
Archin, you finished school
or did school finish you?
I finished.
No brawling!
Remember who the boss is here.
Working hours are over!
You're right,
but this is my land,
and this is my house.
And your clothes
were bought with the money I paid you.
-Yes, that's right. -Go on.
Why not take off your pants, too?
I paid for them, too.
I'm here to resign.
I crossed the line last night.
If you quit, then I had better quit too.
I was supposed to set a good example,
not get you boys drunk.
Hey! Wait.
I've got to get going.
To where?
-I want to get my hair cut in town. -No need! Let's drink first.
No, it will be dark soon. What if I see a ghost?
No need to go.
I'll cut your hair for you.
I can do it.
I used to be a good barber.
Drink!
Another one!
Bloody hell! Madam's here!
Oh, shit! She's here.
She's here.
Hey!
The boss told us to bring firewood.
Hey, Kai.
Where are you?
Give me a hand with the wood!
A bottle of whiskey, please.
Kai, who's that guy?
A local tribesman.
Come and sit! We're all humans.
I need medicine for a wound. Someone got stabbed.
What's your name?
I don't know. You?
I'm Kai.
This is my boss, Archin.
This old drunkard is Tamah.
How old are you?
-Don't know. -What?
Your folks never told you?
I don't have any.
"Don't have any"? How were you born, then?
Well, how were you born?
Moron!
I'll kick your ass!
Hey.
Those went bad ages ago, why didn't you toss them out?
Toss them out? Are you nuts?
What are you, a public health officer?
A stab wound's likely to develop tetanus.
Hey, look.
He wants medicine. This is Merbromin.
These people are too scared to go to a hospital.
-I would be crazy not to sell them to him. -Have you eaten?
I only see you drinking.
What food are you talking about?
PRASART THONG MERBROMIN
Tomorrow, I'll bring you corn in exchange.
I won't accept spoiled ones, okay?
Okay!
You're rich enough to get the floor done.
Why are you so stingy?
You'll go to hell for sure.
In business,
there's no heaven and hell.
In business,
there's only profit and loss.
Hurry up, bring it in.
You carried it all this way?
Come on. You're almost there.
Oh, the corn looks nice and ripe.
Come on in.
Where was that guy stabbed?
In the arm, but it has stopped bleeding now.
The medicine worked so well.
We cleaned the wound with the first bottle
and let him drink the rest.
He drank the Merbromin?
Yes.
You are definitely going to hell now.
You should be praying to God, not the rain.
You're hoping it'll wash away your sins?
You know what I'm praying for?
That they don't send you to prison?
That the medicine's so old.
It's as harmless as rainwater.
And that was the greedy merchant's morality.
The owner of a miserable shop in the middle of nowhere,
in one desperate moment of remorse,
suddenly felt all his greed
fall away.
Go over there. Faster!
Hey, could you write a letter for me?
Sure,
I'm all ears.
Who's it for? The boss?
No.
It's for a woman.
I want it written in a sophisticated style.
This Southern tongue doesn't have enough syllables to charm a girl.
This girl,
does she know you're married?
You scoundrel.
-She doesn't? -You!
Mind your own business. Back to work!
No, of course not.
She's very pretty. Her name's Laied.
She just moved in nearby with her brother.
Mister.
Who's out there?
It's me.
Mister.
I got this letter last night.
It's from Mr. John.
Can you read it for me?
I can't read.
Did you know
my brother's from Baytong?
He's my cousin, actually.
Guess what?
I'll be 20 years old this year.
We've got scars in the same place.
Hey, Kai!
Stay here and watch these things.
I'll go get the car and come pick you up.
One, two, three!
Shit!
We're screwed!
The wood is swollen.
The boss loves this one so much. It's bloody expensive, too.
When is he getting back from Phuket?
I'd better get back to work.
That was quite a storm last night.
Yes.
I'm glad you made it across the river.
With half of my bachelor's degree completed,
I had learned about work from the miners...
And I learned about empathy from the boss.
So I, who had once been a careless kid,
was now a very detail-oriented man
who was studying every inch of the maps.
I had to work hard
to prove to myself
that I was not just a leech in the mine.
SENIOR
That was the fourth year
I had become like a missing person
to my friends and family in Bangkok.
Any letters for me?
-No. -In the fourth year,
my face and my life became so familiar in that town
that it was as if I had always been its native son.
Looks like it'll rain during the New Year.
If you can stop the rain from falling,
then you won't have to worry when it falls.
Happy New Year!
Those four years,
We didn't have any bus to ride to and from work.
When in the doctor's hands, Norah is no longer worried
Under the burning sun and the pouring rain,
we would walk to the dredger,
-which inched forward every hour, -Drunk Archin scrubbing off his dead skin
and then back to the crumbling hut.
What the hell?
Sometimes, the rain would pour down for ten days straight.
It was too much that we got fed up.
The mountains got so soaked that they crumbled,
and the tree leaves wouldn't lift their heads.
Stop now!
What's the rush, fucker?
Those Southern rains came down so hard,
that I realized, if we had been mining for rainwater,
we would all be rich by now.
Finally,
we surrendered to the forces of nature.
We must learn to be people of the forest,
children of the cold,
and friends to the constant rain.
Down in this valley, with mountains around us
and a ceiling of clouds that kept pouring rain,
our destinies
fused together,
like separate paths that merged into one.
The lifeline of the tin mine
had once again been stretched to its limit
when we reached a challenging area.
-The dredger got stuck for a month, -To the right.
two months,
and then three.
We lost all hope of finding tin.
All we were mining was mud.
The money in the office was running out.
We were forced to dig through our waste dump,
searching for tin scraps to sell as salvaged pieces.
Mr. Sam became best friends with liquor and loneliness.
And his brother grew quieter
and quieter,
until he eventually resigned.
I later found out
it was the map-maker's negligence that had done us in.
What he should have noted
in Western measurements
as "0.01 tin per cubic foot"
was accidentally noted as "6.01."
Finally,
we could free the dredger from the mountain fork.
But the home office needed a new engineer.
Fall in!
Attention!
His name was Mr. Norman.
This is the new engineer they've sent us?
The insurance company in Penang decided
they would only cover us if we had two non-Thai bosses on the books.
Well,
you'll have your work cut out for you, training this guy.
As if.
When I'm looking for another job, that is.
If I don't quit now,
people down here will spit in my face.
They'll think,
"John has sold himself out,
taking orders from a clown like this just for a pittance."
Don't worry, I won't die!
I'm Lert.
The foreign boss sent me over from Ranong.
I'm your new chief of staff.
I'm the chief of the staff here...
but I'm resigning today.
The name's John.
Oh, John.
I've heard about you.
Why are you quitting?
A guy like me can find work anywhere.
I would say the same about myself.
I can fit in anywhere.
Where are you planning to stay?
You might as well use my place.
I won't be using it anymore.
If I won't work here, I won't sleep here either.
Me neither.
If I'm not working here yet,
I'm not sleeping here either.
As for the place you're offering me,
why not leave it for the termites instead?
We haven't exchanged any blows yet.
Too bad the bell already rang.
Here's your black coffee.
Double bitter, right?
That asshole Lert needs a kick in the teeth.
No.
If I were a stranger in a new place,
I would have done the same thing.
Anyway, no matter what happens,
be sure to take care of Laied for me.
Time went by, following the undeterred course of the sun.
My senior year courses proved to be
the most difficult yet.
After John showed us
the vicissitudes of life
by quitting,
Huan got caught in the jaws of the dredger
and had to sacrifice one of his legs to the mine.
And Jieng,
that cloud-watching pal of mine,
dreamt himself right into the middle of a flash flood.
But it was Lert
who was the biggest problem I had to solve.
You guys need to remeasure out here every day?
If I want to.
Be careful, that compass's strap is wearing thin.
Everything here is old.
The dredger's starting to sink as well.
Then we need to start fixing things.
Whenever you say so.
I had decided to act on my wish
for John to return by surveying the area in complete detail.
I was searching for anything that might prove
that John was a better foreman than Lert.
Archin,
didn't we just measure this section yesterday?
Yes, but I have to prove that Lert is the wrong man for this job.
If he finds less tin than John finds in a week,
I'll make sure everyone else knows about it.
I want this area completely clean, got it?
Be efficient.
Take last night's diggings to the dredger first, then come pick me up.
Fifteen barrels, sir.
-Is that all? -Yes.
Oh, shit!
What the hell are you doing?
My compass fell in the water. I have to get it.
Get out! Do you want to get yourself killed?
The engine is running and the drill pipe is right down there.
Even an elephant could get sucked down that hole!
Guys, stop the engine!
I can't find it.
I remember that moment vividly,
the moment Lert dove down
to find the weapon I had planned to kill him with.
Those were the days
when everything seemed to be hanging desperately.
Although we were getting smaller amounts of tin each day,
Lert...
seemed to be gradually winning over everyone's hearts...
You better wear this helmet instead.
It'll give your thick skull more protection than that tweed cap.
-Fine. I'll wear it. -Stop using this.
Good. I'll wear this instead.
...even the tough-hearted Kong
began to call our new foreman "Chief."
You want a smack to your head?
Weng, you're showing off!
How many?
-Fifty. -Fifty?
Double yesterday's haul.
I can't remember the last time
-I could fully breathe like this. -Finally!
Haul it!
Hey! The ladder! The dredging ladder has snapped!
Stop the engine!
We are doomed.
It was an accident none of us saw coming.
As we waited for the reaction from the Penang office,
you could hear every miner's heart beating heavily with hope.
I've received a reply from Penang.
Close down the mine.
We're out of business.
Our tin mine was broken down and sold off for scrap.
The dredger became forsaken
and as empty as a giant metal coffin.
We opened less office windows with each passing day.
Eventually, only the night watchman remained.
We had all worked together for so many years
only to go our separate ways again.
We were all wanderers once more.
We'll head for this address in Surat
and wait for you there.
Okay,
but I'm waiting for a certificate from the boss to put up at home.
It might take a few days.
Archin,
even if you killed me,
I would love you just the same.
Your certificate has to be better than others'.
I woke up at the tin mine that final morning.
I felt that the same old days
-have ended. -Got any black coffee?
I already packed up the coffee pot.
Want to chew on some dry coffee grounds?
Mr. Sam bought me a plane ticket back to Bangkok
as a last token of his appreciation.
Hey, kid. I guess I'll head off first.
With only that?
I came here with only this.
Might as well go the way I came.
Besides, I'm proud of my uniform. I wear it with honor.
So long.
Well...
What?
Old Man Dang's right, you know.
I like it.
Well said.
He said he would go the way he came.
Maybe you should do the same.
You came here without debt.
How about paying for your tab before you go?
Look here.
Here.
-Take it all. -Thanks, kid.
-That's all I've got. -I left the tin mine
with the same amount of money I came with.
Not a single baht.
Good luck!
The tin mine had become a memory of my precious past,
and it would remain a part of my inner life forever.
Hey, take a look.
Stop here for a minute.
I guess this is goodbye.
Archin.
How much does it cost to get to Bangkok?
You've got plenty of time to think about that.
Bangkok's so far away.
I don't think I might reach it.
I would no longer exist here.
Even my shadow
followed me home to Bangkok.
My unfinished future seemed to have collapsed once again
just as I had seen it happen once or twice in the past.
In the four years I had spent at the tin mine,
freshmen at regular universities
would have graduated by then.
As for me, I had no diploma
to carry home from the tin mine.
Instead, my hand held something
that could never be taken away from me,
from a school no one knew about.
IN 1953, ARCHIN FINALLY WENT HOME TO BANGKOK
AFTER SPENDING 3 YEARS AND 11 MONTHS OF HIS LIFE AT THE KRASOM TIN MINE.
IN 1954, ARCHIN'S FIRST TIN MINE SHORT STORY
BECAME A FAVORITE AMONG THAI READERS.
IN 1984, ARCHIN'S BOOK OF TIN MINE STORIES
HAD AROUND 142 CHAPTERS.
IN 1991, ARCHIN WAS NAMED A NATIONAL ARTIST
BY THAILAND'S MINISTRY OF CULTURE.
IN 2005, THE SHORT STORIES WERE ADAPTED INTO A MOTION PICTURE,
WHICH ALLOWED FOR A REUNION FOR THOSE PEOPLE WHO WERE STILL ALIVE.
Where did you work during the past few years?
-At a private company. -For the Tawee Brothers?
-Right, that one. -I know it.
-That big company in Phuket. -Yes.
Let's go.
Give me a hand, I've gotten old.
You too, but you've still got to take care of me.
-Let me do it. -Okay.
-Let me take your hand. -Okay.
I'm 77 years old now.
-I am... -You're 75.
-You're 75. A few years younger. -I'm 73.
-Right, 73. -Yes, 73.
Well, we met again because of that book I wrote.
That's right.
Remember when you helped me with the survey?
I do.
Subtitle translation by Pachaya Disthaamnarj