Pen-Ek studied from 1977 to 1985 in New York at the Pratt Institute and worked as freelance illustrator and designer with Designframe Incorporate. In Thailand he worked for five years as art director, before making his début with Fun Bar Karaoke, that was screened at many festivals after its première in Berlin.
All Thai names have meanings. 'Pen-ek' literally means 'is the best'. 'Pen' is the verb 'to be' but since Thai has no conjugations, it can mean anything from the present singular 'is' to 'are' to 'being'. 'Ek' is 'first' or 'the best'.In each of the first five films he directed, he included a character named Noi. The word "noi" in Thai means "few" or "less.".
This Thai crime noir tells the story of Tul, a hitman who wakes up from a coma to realize that he's now seeing everything upside down. Tul wants to quit but in instead recruited to join a secret organization that gets ride of crooked politicians untouched by the law.