The Lost Lotteries

In Prueksa Amaruji’s goofy heist film, luck only gets you so far.

“To the ridiculous and improbable plan.”

Tay (Wongravee Nateetorn) is a down on his luck guy living in the city with his mother, who sells lottery tickets. He takes over her shift for a bit, but runs into trouble with the loan sharks his mother has gotten in deep with, and they take the stubs for what turns out to be winning tickets. Tay is immediately confronted by the four other winners: locksmith Beat (Phantira Pipiyakorn), former boxer Kung (Somjit Jongjohor), salesgirl Zoe (Napapa Tantrakul) and failed actor Wen (Padung Songsang). They realise there is only way to get what is theirs: A heist.

The Lost Lotteries is a movie that holds its sense of humour high, and while not every punchline lands, the rate at which it throws jokes at the audience is impressive, ensuring that at least something will elicit a good reaction from time to time. Humour is subjective, of course, and watching a comedy in a language you don’t speak doesn’t always translate well, but thankfully writer-director Prueksa Amaruji mixes it up between cultural, physical and verbal humour to ensure that something gets through to most audiences.

Not that it needs all that much humour in order to remain entertaining. The cast is fun to watch, and everyone brings in plenty of energy to keep things going, even when the story is a bit daft and inconsistently toned. There are plenty of twists and turns, as expected in this kind of movie, but nothing worthy of the greats of the genre. The over the top comedy does mean that the stakes do feel ultimately lower, but it makes for a fun change of pace. This film expects you to understand that it doesn’t really matter how the characters get from point A to point B, because, well, the explanation is probably kind of stupid.

After all, it’s a film where the entire story hinges on the fact that one of the characters looks exactly like a world-famous boxer. It’s dumb, it’s very dumb, but it also knows this and never tries to be anything it isn’t. Even the bit at the beginning that threatens a character’s death is hardly resolved with any sense of satisfaction. It’s the sort of film that doesn’t worry about Zoe or Beat getting smacked around by henchmen for a joke, which is the sort of slapstick that’s boringly only reserved for men.

There’s only one thing that really struck me: the soundtrack. It’s usually something I bring up when it’s so good you can’t help but notice. The Lost Lotteries, for the most part, has a pretty generic score that serves its purpose perfectly fine, but it has this extremely annoying habit of shoving obnoxious, overheard musical cues where they really don’t ned to be. For some reason Auld Lang Syne becomes the movie’s main theme (a running gag that only sort of pays off near the end with the fireworks), and Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus is used in some of the most predictable, uninspired ways I’ve ever seen. It probably bugged me more than it might most anyone else, but it did take some of the wind out of the fun.

In the end, The Lost Lotteries is a film you’ll enjoy if you take none of it seriously. For the most part, I was able to turn my brain off and just laugh at some of the situations and gags. Not every heist movie is a jackpot of laughs, high-end jokes and clever story beats but it doesn’t mean there isn’t a decent payoff.

Verdict: Bolstered by a good cast, The Lost Lotteries could have been a dud ticket, but has enough winning numbers to keep going.

Overall entertainment: 6/10
Violence: 3/10, slapstick mostly
Sex: 0/10
Record scratches: At least one. Probably more.
Baffling jokes: The one about mothers drinking bleach.

The Lost Lotteries (2022)
Thai

Director: Prueksa Amaruji
Writer: Prueksa Amaruji

CAST

Wongravee Nateetorn – Tay
Somjit Jongjohor – Kung
Napapa Tantrakul – Zoe
Phantira Pipiyakorn – Beat
Padung Songsang – Wen
Thanaporn Wagprayoon – Tay’s mother
Anusorn Pinyopojanee – Boss Chuye
Torphong Kul-On – Mee
Somyos Matures – Doe
Sutthirak Subvijitra – Sek