The sheer amount of exposition "Mom Noi" tries to pack into his movie, as well as the melodrama he attempts to squeeze out of it, ultimately turns the proceedings into farce. That's a lot to try to squeeze into a 2-hr movie, but "Mom Noi" is even more ambitious than that – so aside from what we've already mentioned, there's also Jan's romance with a Muslim girl from school, Hyacinth (Pinky Savika), as well as Wisanan's marriage of convenience with an old flame Boon Lueng (Ratha "Ying" Pho-Ngam) he runs into while on business in Singapore (yes, our island state is mentioned thrice in the movie). The fallout from that setup essentially caps the end of the first movie, and sets things up for the second, as Jan and Ken embark on a new chapter of their lives apart from the place they had grown up in. Filled with vengeance after catching Ken having sex with one of the other servants in the household, Kaew entraps him by getting him to tie her up in bed and then accusing him of rape. Fortunately, Jan has a friend in Ken (Chaiyaphol Poupart), the son of one of the many housemaids (Chudapa Chantakhet) – though the latter's voracious appetite for sex eventually gets the both of them into trouble. Jan is also verbally abused by his half-sister Kaew (Cho Nishino), whom he fathered with Waad.
Skipping ahead where convenient, "Mom Noi" shows Jan maturing into a young boy and then a teenager, all the while living in fear and deference to his imposing father. Apparently all the housemaids are immediately mesmerised by his 'endowment' the moment he opens his sarong – and that includes the head manservant of the house, who to be exact is really more a ladyboy than a manservant. Yes, it does sound ridiculous – and the worse part is "Mom Noi" appears too daft to realise it. Despite promising over his wife's deathbed that he will stay faithful to her, Wisanan takes Waad as his mistress, and beds the rest of the servants in the house to win over their loyalty. Wisanan blames Jan for causing the death of his wife or Jan's mother during childbirth, and only agrees to spare the child after his guardian Aunt Waad (Bongkoch "Tak" Kongmalai) agrees to have sex with him. Unfolding through the eyes of our titular character in his twilight years, it begins right from the day of his birth when his father, Lord Wisanan (Sakarat Rithamrong), gives him the name 'Jan' - short for 'janrai' or scum. Touted as a remake of Nonsi Nimibutr's 2001 version which starred Christy Chung, Mom Noi goes back to the original 1966 book by Usana Plerngtham to deliver a faithful, if ultimately too slavish, recreation of the story of love, lust and consequences set in period Thai society. Does sex really sell? We certainly hope so for 'Jan Dara: The Beginning's' own benefit, for there is really little else that this ham- fisted adaptation by writer/ director M.L.
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