Hmm…I can’t say this is Tata Young’s film, she is not even part of the main cast, she is probably just doing a less than 10 minute cameo to boost interest for the film.
Also, it is an Indie flick, so we might never get a chance to see it, if we don’t live near a major Film festival city.
Cast
The real stars for this film are Kip Pardue and Napakprapa ‘Mamee’ Nakprasit (from the “Art of the Devil”, Thai horror film franchise). Kip is from that really terrible car racing movie “Driven” with Sylvester “Steroids” Stallone and Burt “Too many face lifts” Reynolds. Even on cable TV, I didn’t want to watch it.
Gof Akara is once again portraying a Muay Thai boxer, he was a boxer in the award winning film “Muay Thai Chaiya”. There is a part of me that suspects that the casting director saw him in “Muay Thai Chaiya” and decided to typecast him as a boxer in this film. Singer and nang’ek in many lakorns Tong Pakkaramai will be portraying his gf.
Production info:
BITTER SWEET (Feature – 2008)
Gentre : Romantic Comedy
Location : (Krabi, Bangkok) Thailand
Time : Present Day
Writer/Director : Jeff Hare
Producer : Urs Brunner and Jon Karas
Synopsis:
‘BITTER/SWEET’ is a character-driven romantic comedy, while at the same time, also a classic, ‘fish-out-of-water’ story. The movie is the story of American executive and coffee expert Brian Chandler (Kip Pardue), who seemingly has a ‘perfect’ life. However, things begin to change for Brian after his boss, renegade coffee mogul Calvert Jenkins (James Brolin) sends him to Thailand to inspect a crop for purchase.
Upon arrival, Brian meets Ticha (Napakprapa ‘Mamee’ Nakprasit), a Bangkok PR executive who takes care of Thailand’s glamorous multi-talent diva Tata Young (Tata Young.) Busy herself with work, Ticha has long-since given up on the prospects of finding true love. At the urging of her coffee farmer parents with the hopes that Brian will purchase his coffee there and save the village from cutthroat middlemen, Ticha takes on the task of bringing Brian to the coffee fields of Southern Krabi, and reconciling with her past.
Ticha’s fierce sister Mint (Pakaramai ‘Tong’ Potranan) and her handsome boxing boyfriend Komane (Akara ‘Gof’ Amatayakul), her outgoing best friend Mook (Kalorin ‘Kal’ Nemayothin) and Mook’s outrageously funny expatriate boyfriend Werner (Spencer Garrett), not to speak of Brian’s fiancee Amanda (Laura Sorenson) give interesting sub plots to the story.
Brain and Ticha are the ‘same sides of a different coin’ so they butt heads constantly, to great comic effect. However, as their journey leads them from the cosmopolitan bustle of Bangkok to the picturesque limestones surrounded coffee plantations of Krabi, both Brian and Ticha begin to realize they were made for each other.
Source: www.tatayoungworld.com and Pantip forum
From their website:
Enchanted by Thai charms and Thailand’s delicious coffee, Hollywood aims to depict the Land of Smiles in a major motion picture called ‘BITTER/SWEET’ — a romantic comedy set in the unspoiled coffee plantations of Krabi and the vibrant city of Bangkok.
Directed by an award-winning writer/director Jeff Hare (“Checking Out”), the movie is filled with big names from both sides of the Pacific Ocean, with heartthrob Kip Pardue (“Remember the Titans”, “Driven”) and mesmerizing Napakprapa “Mamee” Nakprasit (“Butterfly Man”, “Long Khong”, “Mae Bia”) being the romantic leads and James Brolin (“Catch Me if You Can”, “Traffic”, “The Hunting Party”) providing a strong charismatic presence.
Supporting cast is equally powerful, led by Spencer Garrett (“21”, “Air Force One”) and Laura Sorenson (“Bewitched”), with hot Thai singers Pakaramai “Tong” Potrananda (“Kwan Riam”) and Supalak “Cal” Neemyothin (“Long Khong 2”) along with multi-talent Akara “Golf” Amarttayakul (“Necromancer”, “Muay Thai Chaiya”) as Thai counterparts.
The movie is being produced by Urs T. Brunner and Jon Karas as a Thai/Swiss/US co-production for Angel & Bear Productions Ltd., in association with independent Hollywood production companies Capitol Motion Pictures and Eighth Wonder Entertainment. The Picture aims for both US and Thai theatrical releases.
With Thailand’s growing coffee business as a background, the movie seeks close coffee know-how from Boncafe (Thailand) Ltd., Thailand’s leading gourmet coffee manufacturer and exporter, in order to provide a most accurate picture of the world of coffee, from farm to cup.
The production is scheduled to start shooting on June 2, 2008, in Southern Krabi, where acclaimed Thai Director of Photography Sayombhu “Song” Mukdeeprom (“Muay Thai Chaiya”, “Soi Cowboy”) is looking forward to paint Thailand’s beautiful coffee plantations into paradise.
No one can sum the movie up better than Hare. When asked what this film is about he said, “This film is a love letter to Thailand; its people, its places, its amazing charms and, last, not least, its tasty coffee.”
“BITTER/SWEET” is a character-driven romantic comedy, while at the same time, also a classic, “fish-out-of-water” story. The movie is the story of an American businessman Brian Chandler (Kip Pardue), who seemingly has a “perfect” life. However, things begin to change for Brian after his boss, renegade coffee mogul Calvert Jenkins (James Brolin) sends him to Thailand to inspect a crop for purchase.Upon arrival, Brian meets Ticha (Napakprapa “Mamee” Nakprasit), a Bangkok corporate executive, who has long-since given up on the prospects of finding love. At the urging of her old coffee farmer parents with the hopes that Brian will purchase his coffee there and save the village from corrupted middlemen, Ticha takes on the task of bringing Brian to the coffee fields of Southern Krabi, and reconciling with her past.
Ticha’s fierce sister Mint (Pakaramai “Tong” Potrananda) and her handsome boxing boyfriend Komane (Akara “Golf” Amarttayakul), her outgoing best friend Mook (Supalak “Cal” Neemyothin) and Mook’s outrageously funny expatriate boyfriend Werner (Spencer Garrett), not to speak of Brian’s fiancee Amanda (Laura Sorensen) give interesting sub plots to the story.
Brain and Ticha are essentially “same sides of a different coin” so they butt heads constantly, to great comic effect. However, as their journey leads them from the cosmopolitan bustle of Bangkok to the pristine, white sands beaches of Krabi, both Brian and Ticha slowly begin to realize that they were made for each other.
source: Angel and Bear Productions
Pictures:
More Cast pictures:
my mom has a coffe franchise near seattle and she earns a lot from it:~;
Is Laura Sorenson the daughter of Gary Sorenson of Merendon Mining based in Taguchigalpa, Honduras. If she is, Laura needs to tell her father to pay his bills.
Ivan
Hi-
Just heard that ‘Bitter Sweet’ won 2 awards,at the 42nd Annual Worldfest Houston International Film & Video Festival -the Grand Jury Award for Best Picture,and the Gold Remi Award for Best Director.
American director Jeff Hare is not a cricket-fan,but is happy about his ‘hat-trick’-after all,two of his earlier films had won prizes at the same festival!
As for first-time producer Urs Brunner,he’s delighted to take home his first trophy,& plans a big celebratory party,with more frothy drinks than than just the Thai robusta!
And his big Thai cast will sure relish the high spirits!
The love-story has been very ‘sweet’ till now, no ‘bitter’
tinges as yet–and Brunner hopes the movie will be as palatable in Bangkok,as his ‘Boncafe’ coffee–
I want to watch it. The main characters are pretty cute and the story is cute.
hehehehe…just wanted to add that Tata’s “role” can go 1 of 2 ways…1-exaggrated, spoiled pop star (you know some of us what to see that) or 2-world’s best boss who just happens to be very busy and therefore requires alot of her assistant’s time…just like J-zay…hehehe…it’ll be interesting to see.
awww…it’s Krabi…man, if the indie film makes an appearance where i live, i may just check it out to see the sights…it’s beautiful there…
hmm.. I’m not too fond of indie films.. nor Tata Young… but I’m happy that Thai/Lao celebs are being showed in the western part of the world.
this looks interesting!
the female lead looks really familiar. i don’t rmbr which movie or lakorn she was in.
Plot sounds interesting. I would watch it.