Thai film Hunger satiates Filipino appetite

Another film from Thailand is making waves in the Philippines, but this time around, it is not of the Boys Love (BL) genre. It is the thriller drama Hunger, which climbed to the top spot in the country this week.

It also has been the talk of the town in the local showbiz beat as many are very entertained and satisfied by the offering of producers Kongdech Jaturanrasamee and Soros Sukhum. If Kongdech’s name rings a bell, it is because he also produced the hit Thai series that also topped the charts in the Philippines that is Girl from Nowhere, with seasons one and two.

Going back to the film, we had the chance to watch it during the Reflections Of Me International Women’s Month celebration of Netflix in Indonesia last March. I already had a hunch that the film would appeal to our market. The social status game and economic dichotomy in Thailand mirror our situation very much. The class divide in cuisine is very evident, whichever city you go in the metro, most especially.

Hunger tells the story of Aoy, a woman in her 20s, who runs her family’s local stir-fried noodles restaurant in the old quarter of Bangkok. One day, she receives an invitation to leave the family business and join team “Hunger,” Thailand’s No. 1 luxury chef’s table team, led by the famously ingenious and infamously nasty, Chef Paul.

In the recent months, we had seen greater effort in regional content marketing and so, we had the opportunity to chat with the Thai main cast of Hunger online, led by supermodel and award-winning actress Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying (Aokbab); actor-director Nopachai Jayanama (Peter), best known for his role in the Legend of King Naresuan films; and actor Gunn Svasti, who is Tone, the sous chef for the “Hunger” team, under Chef Paul; with director Sitisiri Mongkolsiri and producer Kongdech.

Aokbab plays the role of Aoy, who impressed us with her actual kitchen skills that couldn’t be tricked on camera. The supermodel actress really spent time at an actual stir-fried noodles stall under the tutelage of its owner.

She was also committed to a serious workout routine to boost her physical strength for the role and told us jokingly, “Lucky me. I didn’t need to chop myself.”

Aokbab, who has won many awards, added, “What I like the most are the difficult scenes — like cooking scenes with real flames. It’s challenging. Cooking is usually the last thing I would do. Personally, I prefer baking because it’s not hot. With cooking, I had to learn how to use a wok (a Chinese pan) and relearn everything from using a knife to slicing fish. I learned a lot. Every time I’m in character as Aoy, I felt like I could overcome anything and do whatever she could do.”

“It’s like Aoy has taken me to places I’ve never been before — in a good way,” she shared. “All of the struggle(s), effort, sincerity and other aspects of this character have really given me a lift and pushed me forward.”

Director Sitisiri told us why it was crucial that they went for a female lead. “It is going to be more interesting to throw in a female character and throw her in the kitchen. A Thai young lady, it is deliberate, and it is not common to see a Thai lady speaking her mind. She represents the generation having her coming out. It needed to be something special that tells something to the audience that is Hunger.”

When it comes to the main topic of food as the film’s instrument to mirror important societal issues such as class divide, poverty and inequality, Kongdech said, “Simply put, Thailand is a country of food and food varieties. We have street food (and) fine dining. When you come to Thailand, there (is a) series of price ranges in the same place. I think using food, it represents lives of people and class and economically and what not, it can reach the vast majority through food.”

Aokbab added, “Hunger is a really well-rounded movie. I think the movie will hit viewers pretty hard in many different ways. Most people have experienced the things in this story before — from the food and the differences in social class to the reality of our society and everything that’s been happening, or even relationships with friends and family or the sacrifice needed to get something you really want.”

“All of this is in the movie — and at first I didn’t see it that clearly when I was going through the script and the dialogue. Once I was on set, it all became clear — and that was when I told myself again that this movie is really cool,” she concluded.

Hunger is now showing on Netflix.