Ma-Mha

Ma-Mha
The Thai movie poster.
Directed by	Pantham Thongsang Somkiet Vituranich
Produced by	Naruemon Sutusanajinda Pantham Thongsang
Written by	Somkiet Vituranich
Starring	Golf Pichaya Pirachaya Pinmueng-nyam Suthep Po-ngam
Cinematography	Wardhana Vunchuplou
Edited by	Karun Komanuwong
Distributed by	NGR
Release date	April 5, 2007
Running time	90 min.
Country	Thailand
Language	Thai

Ma-Mha (Thai: มะหมา 4 ขาครับ, or Ma-Mha 4 Ka Krub, also Mid-Road Gang) is a 2007 Thai comedy-drama film directed by Pantham Thongsang and Somkiet Vituranich about a pack of stray dogs in suburban Bangkok who want to cross a busy highway in hopes of finding a better life on the other side of the road. It is the first Thai live-action feature film to feature main characters that are animals.

Makham is a Thai Ridgeback living with his middle-class owner and girlfriend and the girlfriend's white Persian cat. After the cat tricks Makham into chewing on her master's shoes, the girlfriend becomes furious and when her boyfriend is gone, sneaks the dog off to a suburban Bangkok Buddhist temple, and leaves the dog.

Makham falls in a pack of five stray dogs who live in a burned out neighborhood. An illustrated sequence during the opening credits shows the lives of the strays and how their village came to be burned down. The five strays are led by an old mixed breed hound named Luang Kaffee. The other dogs are mostly mixed breed as well, except for a poodle named Sexy. The dogs are starving. They cannot forage for food in the nearby temple because of a rival pack of strays. A neighboring orchard is off limits because of some fierce guard dogs. And there is a gated, high-class housing estate, but the dogs are stopped from entering by a kindly young security guard.

Makham manages to sneak his way into the estate anyway, and his eyes are captured by a female collie, Nam Kang. A rich neighbor is after Nam Kang's female owner, and brings in his own collie, Tommy, as a potential companion for Nam Kang to woo Nam Kang's owner. The man is angry with Makham because Makham had earlier disrupted a lavish birthday party. The man reveals himself as a cruel person, wanting to poison the strays or shoot them with a pistol.

Hope for the strays comes from Makham, who knows of a "Dogtopia", where all dogs are well fed and cared for. It is across a busy highway that no dog has survived the crossing. The older dog, Luang Kaffee, is injured in an initial attempt at crossing. So the strays pool their resources to try and cross the road. They find a wagon to pull Luang Kaffee in, and determine that on the full moon, there is a temple fair when traffic will be stopped and they can cross.