Gohan Review: Bring Tissues For This Heartwarming Thai Drama About A Stray Dog

Gohan (PG13)

Starring Yasushi Kitajima, Poe Mamhe Thar, Jaonaay Jinjett Wattanasin, Tontawan Tantivejakul

Directed by Chayanop Boonprakob, Baz Poonpiriya, Atta Hemwadee

Boy, this doggie is so adorable, who wouldn't wanna take him home?

What the Thai film company did with an old lady in the big hit How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, they try to repeat it here with a dog.

Actually three real, un-CGI dogs. Gohan, a white-furred stray, is portrayed in different stages of its life — puppy, pooch and senior dog — under a bunch of unconnected owners. They talk to it in Japanese, Burmese and Thai over a span of 10 good and bad years as it's passed around in heart-wrenching scenes.

You'll be moved by the canine waiting at a train station for a best friend who's never coming back. A cliche. But it always gets you.

This is an anthology of three four-footed tales about belonging, identity, affection and profound loss which brings you from close companionship to caged peril to heartwarming love. You need to reset your emotions each time the scenario changes. Tough.

Gohan moves you. The way a three-part play toys with your feelings. Me? The second story, where it befriends a gutsy illegal Burmese worker, made me cry.

Three Thai directors take turns to depict this stray's uncertain plight. They don't keep a continuous tone. So we get a Japanese-style comedy, a serious drama, and then, a YP (Young People) finale with fantasy moments.

The thread is the doggie, unlike Grandma, isn't aware of its fate as it depends on the kindness of strangers. The consequence is seen in the humans being transformed utterly by its non-human presence. “Can you not die?” one despondent owner pleads.

Gohan, “rice” in Japanese due to its white fur, is picked from the streets by Hiro (Yasushi Kitajima). An expat engineer returning to Japan to retire who needs to find someone to adopt the puppy.

But the man, quirky in a Japanese way, can't bear to part with his frisky buddy. Just this segment alone is worth its own movie as Kitajima (a Thai-based actor), his co-workers and the little cutie carried in a beer box make great comedy.

Following a tragedy, Gohan is caged up at a decrepit dog shelter run by a wicked scammer who drugs him for online donations. He's saved by the pound's humane, newly-arrived Burmese employee, Namcha (a superb Poe Mamhe Thar who's apparently an actual doctor in Myanmar). She renames it, “Brownie”.

This part, directed by Baz Poonpiriya (Bad Genius), contains the pic's most poignant bonding and separation as girl and best friend face danger and adventure together.

Here's the thing. An itinerant dog isn't the same as a dying granny. Gohan doesn't have the emotional pull of someone you feel you've always known.

But it grabs you as the loyal companion you seek. You'd wanna take this brave pooch home. It deserves a permanent home. At least an unchanging name.

“If you love him, give him a last name for the rest of his life,” Namcha writes on an attached note as she, powerless, abandons him sadly onboard a train.

Leading to the final act here which is the most Thai segment. The dog finds timeless love in bittersweet time-limiting circumstances as a train-station stray with a young Thai couple — bad boy Pele (Thai singer Jaonaay Jinjett Wattanasin) and responsible Jaidee (Tontawan Tantivejakul from How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies).

From their student days to adult life, the pair's love for each other devolves as their care for Gohan, now renamed Hima (Thai for “snow”), evolves. Hima, the ageing, frail in-betweener, becomes the common joy in their unhappily strained relationship.

Now, this section seems rushed, cramming too many upheavals. Not just for the old dog but also for the audience.

But there's something very sweet and innocent in the way two young people relate to an animal as well as themselves to become more human, kind and compassionate in their shared universe marked by doggie birthdays and Kodak moments.

“Time slows when I'm with you,” Pele tells Hima/Gohan as his most introspective, unlikely friend.

In Gohan, it's another touching reason to cry. (3.5/5 stars) in cinemas now

Photos: GV Pictures