The mystery begins when we follow Thai police officer Sonchai Jitpleecheep as he and his partner tail an American marine. After losing their quarry, Sonchai and Pichai catch up with the marine, just in time to find him dead, in his car, which is now filled with overly aggressive poisonous snakes. When Pichai is killed by one of these insane snakes, the case takes on a new meaning for Sonchai. Although devoutly Buddhist, Sonchai vows revenge for the person who is responsible for the death of his spiritual brother. The investigation focuses on the woman the marine had been with just prior to his death. In tracking down this mystery woman, we follow Sonchai through the seedier areas of Bangkok, and learn how the rest of the police department is corrupt, how the sex trade supports a great number of Thai families, and of the drug trade in Southeast Asia. Sonchai is a likeable character – he is full of sarcasm, earnestness, and fatalism, but he is unlike any character I’ve come across before. He is frequently revealing portions of the past lives of other characters. I don’t know whether I am supposed to laugh or not when he says things like “Nape was a woman, a housewife who poisoned her husband. Jones was a man, a gangster and womanizer of enormous appetite. He was the one Nape poisoned, which is why they have come across each other again this time around, with much of the previous hostility.” While Bangkok 8 is full up on dark humor, it is also filled with scenes of sex, corruption, brutality, and despair, and is not your typical mystery.