2003 Thai film roundup

The Nation put together a decent roundup of the Thai box-office scene in 2003. It's here. I'll go down the list of the top 10 releases and try to make sense of them:

1. Fan Chan (Bt137 million) - Deserves the top spot. It's a great little film, looking back nostagically on growing up in a small Thai town in the 1980s. Great characters, great job by the kid actors. There's a Chinese fantasy sequence involving the boys that made Fan Chan one I want to watch again. Rating: 4/5
2. Ong-Bak (Bt115 million) - An action comedy with hard-hitting stunts by Thai kickboxer Tony Jaa. Very entertaining. Rating: 5/5
3. Satree Lek 2 (Iron Ladies 2) (Bt70 million) - I haven't seen the first one, so I gave this one a pass as well, but from what I gather, it's nowhere near as good as the original.
4. Hian (The Mother) (Bt60 million) - I'm not familiar with this one. Sounds pretty ominous, though.
5. Buppha Rahtree (Bt45 million) - I caught the previews for this Thai horror film and it looks pretty good. Fans of the Asian horror genre might want to try and see this one. I'm not a big fan of scary movies, but the posters around town had a nice comic book quality to them. I wanted to get ahold of one.
6. Pan Rock Na Yon (Bt43.1 million) - Or, Rock Not Die, a comedy about some heavy metal guys from the 70s getting their act back together. The cast are a bunch of veteran comedians from Thai television. Probably the closest the local industry will come to making its own version of Spinal Tap, but it still has a long way to go.
7. Kumphapan (February) (Bt31.45 million) - Not sure about this one.
8. Wai Buem Cheer Krahuem Loke (Bt30 million) - Nor this one.
9. The Park (Bt30 million) - A horror film that I think had some help from Hong Kong production houses.
10. Sex Phone...The Lonely Wave (Bt26.85 million) - A teen comedy. Not a big fan of those, either, so I didn't see it.