The Reels of the Game
JOSH KIM’S HOW TO WIN AT CHECKERS is a different kind of gay film, one that focuses less on love and more on what we do because of love. Our narrator, Oat, is a young boy who lives in Bangkok with his brother, aunt, and niece, and acts as the audience’s introduction to what it takes to survive the game of checkers and the game of life. The film opens on an adult Oat dreaming about his brother Ek twisting and burning in an alley with a bottle in his hand. From there, we go back to when Oat was younger and unschooled in the lessons of life.
O’Brian Gunn
Oat and Ek’s father died as the result of a construction accident, and we’re never told what became of their mother. The catalyst of the film is whether Ek will be drafted into the military and forced to leave his family and boyfriend Jai. Oat learns that just as there are two colors in checkers, there are also two colors in life: the clinging black of the poverty he and his brother live in, and the pristine white of privilege in which Jai resides. Oddly enough, it’s their differences that make the relationship between Ek and Jai work.
But it’s also what tears them apart.
One day, while playing video games over Jai’s house, Oat witnesses a meeting between Jai’s father and the local black market boss who seems to have his finger in every illegal pie in town, including fixing the draft lottery. It’s here that Oat receives his first lesson in what it takes to win and stack the odds in your favor. He also learns that no matter what game you’re playing, the game piece is always money.
Where Ek seems to have already accepted the fact that he’ll be drafted into the military, Oat resorts to smashing the black market boss’s car window and stealing the money Jai’s father originally gave him. From there, he mirrors the move he witnessed earlier and attempts to buy his brother’s freedom. Here, Oat learns his second lesson: The house always wins. The boss threatens to cut off Oat’s thumb for stealing from him and punishes Ek, who is also one of his employees.
It’s at this point in the film that the light of love dims enough that Ek and Jai start to see that even though neither of them have become soldiers, they’re still standing on opposite sides of the battlefield. After the draft lottery, both Oat and the audience start to see what kind of player Ek truly is and how he chooses to play the hand life has dealt him.
Kim shuffles the deck near the end of the movie and takes the audience deeper into the game when he reveals what Ek does to support his family and what he’s willing to do to provide for his brother. One can’t help but wonder if he’s doing it for Oat or simply because he’s given up on any chance of winning. The final scenes of the film reveal Ek’s fate and rubber band back to the older and more hard-bitten Oat we were introduced to at the beginning.
How to Win at Checkers advances at a gradual pace, like a game of chess. There are several players and stories being shuffled across the board, each with their own part to play. While some members of the audience may not be impressed with how the final score turns out, they can at least enjoy the fact they learned a new way to play an old game.
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