Chatrichalerm, Nonzee busy this year

Suriyothai director MC Chatrichalerm Yukol is working on a followup to that royal epic, Naresuan, covering the life of King Naresuan the Great, a 16th centuary monarch and a nephew of Queen Suriyothai. The movie is scheduled for completion this year and should be released in time for His Majesty the King’s Birthday on December 5. ThaiCinema.org has more.

Meanwhile, director Nonzee Nimibutr will be kept busy throughout 2005, according to the Bangkok Post. He will produce a live-action feature, Nuu Hin: The Movie, based on a Thai comic series about a house maid's adventures. It will be directed by Komkrit Treewimonl.

Nonzee also is working on an epic, Pue Yai Jom Salat or the Queen of Pattani, a big-budget sea adventure set in the 16th century. He's hoping to make it a trilogy. It could even be controversial, given its subject matter concerning Pattani, which used to be an independent sultanate in southern Thailand, which is now a center of much unrest among the predominantly Muslim population. The south seems to be a subject near and dear to Nonzee. His last film, OK Baytong, touched on Buddhist vs Muslim themes.

The Nation's Parinyaporn Pajee recently did a roundup of other Thai film projects for 2005. In addition to Jira Malikool's Tin Mine and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Invisible Waves, here's a few others I'm looking out for:

• Midnight My Love (Cherm) -- a comedy by Kongdet Jaturunrasmi, who co-directed the hilarious and frank sexual comedy, Sayew with Kiat Songsanan, is about a relationship between a taxi driver and a massage parlour girl. Phetchai Wongkamlao, better known as Mum Jok Mok (or Dirty Balls from Ong Bak) stars as the driver opposite TV soap actress Woranuch Wongsawan, who’s debuting on the big screen with this film.
• Yam Yasothorn -- A busy guy, Mum Jok Mok directs this one, a followup to his The Bodyguard. It's a look thung (Thai country music) love story.
• Mah Khang Thanon (Street Dogs) -- By Somkiet Murathathit, the screenwriter for Ai-Fak (The Judgement). It's his directorial debut and is about street dogs.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)