Tabunfire gets a name change

One of the things I've been seeing when I check out Deknang is a poster image for something called Tabunfire, featuring a couple of water buffalo on a collision course. It's a pretty cool image, but there's no link to tell me anything about it (of course, Twitch had something about this months ago, but it's news to me).

But on Wednesday in The Nation's Soopsip column, there was the news about Chalerm Wongpim's upcoming action comedy, Taban Fai Talai Pherng -- Tabunfire.

Chalerm is the director of the action comedy's, 7 Prajan Baan (Heaven’s Seven) and its sequel, (Seven Street Fighters).

According to Soopsip, the new movie is set about 100 years ago in northeast Thailand and has a "Wild West" flavor.

The movie stars Dan Choopong as a buffalo-rustling masked bandit, with former boxer Samart Phayakarun and Panna Ritthikrai taking a rare role in front of the camera.

Now, confusingly, the name might not actually be Tabunfire. According to Soopsip, the name's been changed to Kon Fai Bin, literally, "flying man of fire", which is similar to the Thai title of Chen Kaige's The Promise - Kon Ma Bin ("flying horseman").

"With such an obvious marketing ploy, it comes as no surprise to learn who is behind the name change," Soopsip says. "Sahamongkol Film Company’s head honcho, Somsak 'Sia Jiang' Techaratanaprasert gave the flick its new title while he was still in hospital."

Huh? Sia Jiang has been in hospital? Where can I send flowers? Seriously.

Kon Fai Bin will be released in Thai cinemas on December 12.


(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes | (public)