06/09/2025 - VENICE 2025: Roderick Warich’s nocturnal love story travels between genres – and all over Bangkok

Night life, neon lights, the big city – everything screams “noir” in Roderick Warich’s classy Funeral Casino Blues, shown in Venice’s Orizzonti strand. Let it scream, but there’s much more to this Bangkok-set story that jumps from one genre to another, evading easy definitions and faceless villains.

That being said, there’s no talking about it without mentioning its central love story, which develops between two hopeless people in a hopeless place. Jen (Jutamat Lamoon) is trying to make some extra money by “dating” interchangeable foreigners – Wason (Wason Dokkathum) helps her out when one situationship turns dire. He becomes her bodyguard for a while, then a friend and a proper companion. They might be lying to everyone else, especially those who always want something from them, but they visibly calm down when together. They talk about families in the country that demand way too much and about the mistakes following them around this unforgiving city. But Bangkok is listening.

It's a dark movie, even with these scenes, because all Jen and Wason really know is the struggle. Dividing it into chapters, Warich names one of them after a line in that Carpenters’ song that’s unbearably sweet (“Why do birds suddenly appear”), but it feels almost ironic. Meetings with men can go wrong, and often do, and violent debt collectors keep asking for money. You can either try to escape it all or hope to win big in the lottery, wondering if you should “buy land first” or travel abroad – even though Wason is so scared of planes.

The idea of combining various genres with slow cinema – because Funeral Casino Blues changes pace, too – is a tricky one to pull off successfully. But once you accept and embrace it, it simply forces the audience to decelerate, listen to stories and observe these two. As well as some mad supporting characters, one of whom delivers a true master class in eating crisps.

Cinematographer Roland Stuprich shows a universe that goes from instantly recognisable to nightmarish, with ominous signs on every street corner, hiding even more secrets. The same goes for the unsettling text messages or security footage that no one dares to look at. This stylish mystery takes its time to unravel, but it’s pleasantly dense – and disturbing.

Funeral Casino Blues was produced by Germany’s The Barricades and 2557-Films. It is sold internationally by Pluto Film.