Poor Folk

Arranged by a smuggling syndicate, A-Hong and his young teen sister along with a group of Burmese youngsters sneak across the Myanmar/Thailand border and arrive in a remote town called Dagudi in Northern Thailand. A-Hong's sister is taken away by the gangs as her mother has sold her to them. A-Hong goes to Bangkok and works under a tour guide, a wildcatter from Myanmar who has lived in Thailand illegally for years. The flood has killed the tourism business. A-Hong followed this big brother back to Dagudi, trying to sell a batch of medicine that could be made into profitable drugs to local gang leaders. All A-Hong wants is to get the cash quickly and redeem his sister, but he cannot reach the smuggling ring anymore as the phone number never works. San Mei, a young Burmese woman who is assigned a job by the smuggling syndicate to fetch A-Hong's sister, has been taking her risk by smuggling Burmese teenage girls overseas, hoping to get the Taiwanese Identity Card promised by the gang leader for years. After accomplishing the last assignment, she realizes the dream to gain the sense of security is hopeless. Unfolded through two parallel narratives, this is a border town story woven between Tolstoy, amphetamines and Durian.