Belatedly following up on the contest I ran for free tickets to the screenings of King Naresuan I and King Naresuan II at the New York Asian Film Festival, there were just two winners.Congratulations to Lizardcha, who got to see Naresuan I and Melvin who won a pair of tickets to Naresuan II.
They were the only ones to send e-mails in response to the contest question: What is the name of the actor who portrays the monk-mentor figure of Naresuan?
The answer is, of course: Sorapong Chatree. He's the longtime leading leading man of many of director MC Chatrichalerm Yukol's films.
Courtesy of the festival, I actually had six pairs of tickets in all to give away. Perhaps the question was too hard? Truth be told, I suppose any e-mail with at least a guess might have been a winner. Hopefully there will be a next time.
Naresuan I was shown on June 25 and 29, which the sequel, Naresuan II was shown June 29 and 30.
I've come across one review of Naresuan I, which was making its North American premiere at the festival. Here's an excerpt from the review by Keith Uhlich on Ugo.com:
Much like his previous genesis-of-Thailand epic Suriyothai, Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol's King Naresuan 1, the first installment in a trilogy of films about the 16th-century ruler of Siam, is something of a dull slog, both an extended checklist and (one also senses) a scrubbed-up journey through a should-be-fascinating historical moment. This could be due to Naresuan 1's placement as the trilogy's originating episode - there are plot threads and objects of interest (most especially a six foot long, precious-stones encrusted rifle) that will obviously come to the fore in future films - while its numerous political and social machinations would probably only stoke the fires of those more in the cultural know.
Meanwhile, the Subway Cinema blog has been spotlighting the dry-erase marker Rembrandt who has been making elaborate, ephemeral artwork to direct NYAFF patrons to their cinemas. The renderings of the various films have taken on a more elaborate, epic-like quality as the festival has progressed. So the blood-spattered face of King Naresuan is more detailed, but I still like the fact that gun-toting Mum Jokmok from The Bodyguard and Bodyguard 2 was captured as well.The New York Asian Film Festival is running until July 6.
More information:
That's an easy one... but I can't go, so I won't kill the fun for everyone else. :P
ReplyDeleteThis is Lizardcha, thank you for the tickets!!! I can't wait to see it! I noticed the ad for Citizen Dog, if you can recommend any other movies like that I'd love it. It was one of the best movies I've ever seen!!!
ReplyDeleteThe reviews may be harsh on KING NARESUAN 1 and 2, but audiences have loved them. True, the audiences have been smaller than we'd have liked (in the 50 - 60 range mostly) but our Thai films never do that well for some reason. And, the audiences have been fanatical about these two movies. Even after a projection problem causes a 50 minute delay in the start of NARESUAN 2 on Sunday night, 2/3 of the audience stuck it out and stayed till after midnight wallowing in the film, and KING N 1&2 are currently leading our Audience Award poll. In fact, no other movies have gotten so many "10" ratings on a scale of 1 - 10 as KING N 2.
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