Thai films at World Film Festival of Bangkok

The 3rd World Film Festival of Bangkok is organized by The Nation. Which is where I am employed. So you'll excuse me for not getting into the reasons why the Thai Night program at the festival has been dropped this year.

Anyway, there are some Thai films at this festival.

Among them are a collection of shorts made in memory of the December 26, 2004 tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean. One of them is made by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who's also showing his tsunami segment at the Vancouver film festival.

There will also be two Thai short film packages.

Former Miss Thailand Universe (13th place, 1994), Areeya Chumsai, will show her film, Innocence. It'll be the Thailand premiere. The film, about some Northern Thailand hilltribe children who are taken to see the ocean, is scheduled at Pusan.

There's the documentary, Sua Rong Hai.

And there's Remaker, directed by Mona Nahm and produced by Oxide Pang. I'm not too excited about this film's inclusion in the festival. It opens commercially in Thailand this week, so having it in the festival isn't a very big deal.

I have to say I'm bummed. Not enough Thai films. Nothing exclusive or making a premiere. No Thai Night. No restored Thai film from the archives as in past years. There are reasons for it, but getting into it would probably get me in trouble.

Anyway, KFC Cinema has more about Remaker.

It's the story of Tom (Andrew Gregson) an antiques dealer on his way to deliver a Buddha statue when his car plunges off a bridge and into the river. bridge and plunges into a river. He is rescued by a girl named Pim (Phiyada Akkraseranee), who happens to be passing by the scene of the accident. He is rushed to hospital and recovers quickly. His savior, however, inexplicably falls into a coma. And then more freaky stuff happens.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)