Best of Times 2009

Two high school friends, Keng and Ohm, recorded a love song on a CD. Ohm asks who Keng meant to send it to, but Keng doesn’t give an answer. Working up his courage, Keng sends the CD to the girl at their cram school, Fai, who sadly declines because she already has a boyfriend. That boyfriend turns out to be Ohm, who is completely unaware of Keng’s long-cherished crush. Keng keeps this secret and gradually moves on.

In the present, Keng runs a veterinarian clinic, while Ohm is married to Fai, who works as a nurseryman. After a high school reunion, Ohm tells Keng that Fai discovered his affair and they are getting a divorce. The two men end up at a DUI checkpoint, drunk, but Fai bails them out and they receive community-service sentences instead. On the drive home, Fai finds a wounded stray dog and the trio brings it to Keng’s clinic. Fai stays with the dog overnight while Ohm calls his new girlfriend, hinting at a fresh start for him, and Fai’s sadness lingers.

Keng is assigned to teach computer classes to a group of elderly students and befriends two of them: a sly but kind-hearted man and a sweet lady. In class, Keng demonstrates MSN Messenger, while Jamrus—indulgent and practical—sees it differently, and Sompit, who writes every step in her notebook, believes the program can bridge distances and keep memories alive. After the lesson, Jamrus misplaces his car key, and Keng offers a ride home for Jamrus and Sompit.

Keng discovers that Jamrus and Sompit are not husband and wife, though they are both widowed. Jamrus runs a farm and travels six hours from Chumphon to Bangkok each weekend to visit Sompit; their budding romance is known to the class. Jamrus invites Sompit to visit his farm in Chumphon, and she agrees after a date, though Krit, Sompit’s son, does not welcome this new relationship for his mother.

Meanwhile, Fai adopts the wounded dog and names it Saphan-Loi, or “bridge.” She returns to Keng’s clinic with posters of Saphan-Loi, hoping to locate its owner. Their reunion reveals Keng is the boy who gave her the love song, as his signature on the CD’s cover and the medical gown she recalls connect the dots. Fai remembers him, but he pretends to have met her only two years earlier at Ohm’s wedding when he was Ohm’s best man. Fai still regards him as a friend, though she is now divorced from Ohm. She also glances at Ohm’s Hi5 page, where he posts pictures with his new girlfriend’s family, signaling a new life.

One morning, Jamrus comes to Sompit’s house. To spare Krit, Keng fibs about a retreat to Chumphon, and Fai offers to drive Keng there. They stay a few days, and Sompit learns that Krit and his wife are moving to the United States soon. She accepts Jamrus’s invitation to stay, while Jamrus experiences memory trouble at his farm and worries everyone.

The next day, Jamrus shares the backstory of his long-held hope: a 1989 typhoon named Gay ripped through Chumphon, destroying his farm except for the old Malay rose apple tree, which he has treated as a family member ever since. Alone, Sompit tells Jamrus about her move to the United States with her family, and Jamrus proposes to Sompit under the tall tree, which she tenderly accepts.

Keng and Fai later take a fishing trip at night, get drunk, and reminisce. Keng reveals that once he learned of Fai’s relationship with Ohm, he moved his classes to avoid their circle and stopped seeing Fai for a long time. Fai calls Ohm to vent, then impulsively kisses Keng. He confesses that she was his first love and that he has never forgotten her, but Fai does not reciprocate and apologizes for the moment of impulse.

Back in Bangkok, Krit is furious with his mother’s choice, while Sompit pleads to stay in Thailand. Krit laments that she loves Jamrus more than the family, and Sompit eventually embraces him, tearfully vowing she will remain, though the path ahead is hard. Ohm and Keng finish their DUI probation, and Keng musters the courage to tell Ohm about his feelings for Fai; Ohm responds with a calm, pragmatic shrug, saying he plans to marry again and that Fai isn’t the right person for him—she’s more of a fun companion than a life partner.

Jamrus’s condition worsens when he misses a date with Sompit and is found at a gas station, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. His son plans to move him to a care facility, sparking tension as Jamrus resists the change and longs for the farm.

With care in mind, they move Jamrus’s cherished tree to Bangkok as a keepsake. Fai worries about the tree’s survival but helps ensure its relocation. Sompit bids a heartfelt farewell, and Jamrus consoles her that it’s better to part with memories intact. Sompit eventually leaves for the United States.

Keng and Fai find a path forward together, deciding to keep Saphan-Loi as their own pet. Jamrus discovers Sompit’s notebook with MSN instructions and signs in to reconnect with her in the United States. He even sends a file via MSN to Keng and Fai—a photo of the Malay rose apple tree sprouting again in Jamrus’s new home—reaffirming that love and memory can endure across distances.