I got this screener a few weeks before the military, once more, took over power in Myanmar, formerly Burma. I'm a typical American in that my knowledge of international politics isn't much, but this looks like a devastating setback for the country. The Road To Mandalay, written and directed by Midi Z, a Myanmar-born director now living and working in Taiwan, depicts a long-running practice, dating back considerably before this latest military coup.
Young people come over the border from that country into Thailand, looking for better lives. They want to make money. Some want to escape hopeless situations back home. But most of them look to make money and to send some of what they make back home. To make this work, though, you need money. And you need it in Thai baht; the smugglers who work the border loading escapees into their trucks won't take the Myanmar kyat. You'll pay every single time someone wants you to pay, for whatever reason. If you want to ride up front in the truck or the van, that'll cost extra. If you don't have extra, you ride in the trunk, taking your chances on the motor asphyxiating you.
The film follows two such adventurers, Lianqing (played by Wu Ke-xi), and Guo (Kai Ko). They look stressed and fatigued, as befits such a situation. Having no rights in a new land, they quickly learn, equals bouncing around bottom-of-the-barrel jobs, and staying one step ahead of the police, all while trying, and sometimes succeeding, at keeping one's senses of humor and sense of worth. Lianquing seems the stronger of the two; on the way to yet another meeting with yet another party promising the ID cards they need, she stands up in the back of the truck as it pulls in. She's in a hurry, and she's in no mood to take any guff.
In the end, it's Guo who breaks and destroys them both. The ending seemed jarring and blood-spattered but it reminded me: Some people break. It's the nature of the situation that some people break. Meanwhile, my fellow Americans stand around in building lobbies, some of them without anti-virus masks, even, and get upset when their grocery bags give out, or when someone wants to borrow twenty bucks. And some of them resemble me, I admit. Watch this and get hit with a heady dose of perspective. Highly recommended.