Staying Single When

Last updated
Staying Single When
Singlestaywhen.jpg
Cinema poster
Directed by Tom Som
Written byAnji Lowman Field
Produced by Matthew Robinson
Starring Meng Bunlo
Duch Sophea
CinematographyBill Broomfield & In Ath
Edited bySao Yoeun
Music bySimon Etchell
Jerry T Jones
Distributed by Khmer Mekong Films
Release date
  • March 2007 (2007-03)
Running time
100 minutes
Country Cambodia
LanguageKhmer
Budget$45,000

Staying Single When is a Cambodian romantic comedy released in March 2007. Produced by Khmer Mekong Films (KMF), the film premiered on the popular Cambodian TV channel CTN in October 2007.

Contents

In Staying Single When, KMF utilized the practice of "real voices". This contrasted with the standard Cambodian filmmaking practice of overdubbing all actors' lines with a staple group of six Phnom Penh voice-over performers, regardless of their suitability for the characters' ages or emotional performances.[ citation needed ]

The film also includes English subtitles.

Plot

Beach House Hotel Manager, Sarun, attended the grand opening for the hotel in Kep. Darin just earned a big pay raise and can now afford to get married. However, he is unsure of whom to marry.

Sarun's career is all-consuming, he has little free time for dating or even meeting new women. Other than waitresses at restaurants and the assistant manager at the hotel, Somalie, he has few women in his life. Somalie is already arranged to be wed to Neang, a family friend.

Aunt Towen and Aunt Lye step in. They lift Sarun's spirits after promising his mother on her deathbed that they would find him true love. 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.

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.

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 Sarun's attraction for Somalie begins to grow, he never allows himself to completely fall for her because of her looming marriage.

Sarun meets Vanny, who is perfect for him, but he still isn't interested. When it 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.

Cast

Production

The original title - "Finding a Wife" (Khmer : តាមរកប្រពន្ធ) - was changed to "Staying Single When" after the producers realized the parallels between the movie's plot line 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 climate challenges in Kep, 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

  1. 1 2 "នៅកម្លោះដល់ណាខ្ញុំ" (in Khmer). Naraths Blog. Archived from the original on 30 June 2011.

Staying Single When information on Khmer Mekong Films website Staying Single When IMDb page

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.