For the director, Country Hotel was an experiment in almost every respect. Simply shooting on 35mm was challenge enough, so everything needed to be kept as simple as possible. Country Hotel has perhaps the most relaxed approach to narrative you will ever see. Almost the full first hour is taken up with a succession of comic sketches and appearances by various singers and musicians, almost none of which actually advances the plot. Overall the film is quite adept at disguising its home-made roots. The editing isn′t perfect, the fight sequences are more enthusiastic than convincing, and some of the music is excessively fervent, but the genial humour of the film′s first half and the capable performances of its second are highly appealing. The film is largely carried by Prajuab Reukyamdee as the bartender, a performance which is all the more winning for its care-free theatricality. (Chalida Uabumrungjit)