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Staying Single When is a Cambodian 100-minute romantic comedy released in March 2007 and premiered on CTN. It was released on the popular Cambodian TV channel, in October 2007, and was produced by Khmer Mekong Films (KMF).
In Staying Single When, KMF pioneered the use of "real voices". The normal Khmer movie-making practice is to overdub all actors' lines with Phnom Penhs staple of six voice-over performers, regardless of suitability of age and emotional performance.[citation needed]
Staying Single When has English subtitles.
Plot
At the launch party of Kep's luxury Beach House Hotel, Sarun, the handsome manager, celebrates a milestone. He has just earned a big pay raise and can now afford to get married. However, he is unsure of who to marry.[citation needed]
Sarun's career has left him with no time for a personal life. The closest women in his life are his waitresses at restaurants and his assistant manager, Somalie, who is also his boss's daughter. Somalie is already arranged to be wed to Neang, a family friend.[citation needed]
Aunt Towen and Aunt Lye step in. They lift Sarun's spirits after promising his mother on her deathbed that they would organize his life. At first they appear to have struck gold when they introduce Sarun to a rich friend's alluring daughter, Rythika. Rythika appears to reciprocate Sarun's instant attraction. However, she turns out to be a disaster, marking the beginning of a series of unsuitable matches for Sarun.[citation needed]
Sarun's accident-prone friend Otdom, the maintenance man at the hotel, is a self-proclaimed expert in marriage; he has two wives of his own. With the aunts’ efforts backfiring, Otdom takes it upon himself to find the perfect wife for his friend, employing increasingly desperate measures along the way, but none succeed. Sarun takes matters into his hands, but to no avail.[citation needed]
Somalie watches from the sidelines, trying to help Sarun find happiness, but at the same time hiding hesitations about her own wedding. Gradually, she falls in love with Sarun while still being expected to marry Neang. While Suran's attraction for Somalie begins to grow, he never allows himself to completely fall for her because of her looming marriage.[citation needed]
Sarun meets Vanny, who is perfect for him, but he still isn't interested. When the truth dawns on him, that he truly loves Somalie, he realizes he has to flee the town of Kep before her wedding because if he sees her become the wife of another man, he will be heartbroken.[citation needed]
The original title - "Finding a Wife" (Khmer: តាមរកប្រពន្ធ) - was changed to "Staying Single When" after the producers realised the parallels between the movie's plotline and a 1960s song of the same name by a famous Cambodian singer, later a victim of the Khmer Rouge.[1] The movie was first scheduled for production in August 2006, but due to appalling weather in Kep— a small Cambodian seaside town in which half the story is set, shooting was abandoned after two days. The production was rescheduled for October and November 2006 and continued to completion without further obstacles.[1]
References
12"នៅកម្លោះដល់ណាខ្ញុំ" (in Khmer). Naraths Blog. Archived from the original on 30 June 2011.
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