NewEnglandFilm.com

This film explores the lives of five motorcycle taxi drivers in Bangkok, Thailand. These young men, many of whom grew up on rice paddies, have left the country and taken up the lethal vocation of driving motorcycle taxis in one of the world's most famously congested cities. They work around the clock with 120 other drivers out of a courtyard in the Huay Kwang district of Bangkok - a tough but lively neighborhood; one where drugs, gambling and corruption disappear into the bustle of a huge fresh market and lines of street stalls. The drivers clip past exhaust pipes, shave the sides of buses and maneuver agilely through a metallic sea of traffic. To survive the brutality of the roads, one driver takes refuge in memories of his upcountry childhood, another draws upon the protective power of magic amulets and ritual tattoos. bangkok zigzag is an intimate portrayal of how these men are negotiating their lives in a rapidly transforming social environment and creating a unique urban subculture as they do so.