After making its premiere in the Cannes Film Market in May, Nonzee Nimibutr's Queens of Langkasuka will be screened at the 65th Venice Film Festival.
This one is a very atmospheric film, and the cinematographer knew just how to light the scenes, film the angles and use all the tricks of the trade to give it an uneasy and very off kilter feel very much complementary to the story. The acting is good…. particularly by Nuttamonkan Srinikornchot, who plays her role seriously, but without the melodramatic excesses that often come with such characters in Asian cinema. The overall direction and pacing are good as well, director Tharatap Thewsomboon tells a simple story without overly embellishing the plot with any superfluous elements that would distract you from the story.
The sixth Bangkok International Film Festival will be held from September 23 to 30, organizers announced yesterday at a press conference, held in the Crown Atrium of the King Power duty-free complex. While journalists and film-industry players feasted on tuna sandwiches, the Aksra Theatre puppet troupe mingled with the crowd, and a group of umbrella-spinning, golden-paint-flecked dancers put on a show.The Tourism Authority of Thailand has organized the Bangkok International Film Festival for five years, and now in its sixth year it will be presented for the first time as a result of co-operation and collaboration between all parties. It is a great opportunity for Thailand to support the film industry and establish a position as the cultural and entertainment hub of the region."
This year our emphasis is on films and filmmakers from the ASEAN region. As the film industries of the region develop and strengthen, Thailand has an important role to play in this growing film culture. New technologies present new opportunities for filmmakers to present their visions. One of the challenges is how to accept international techniques and influences and to achieve success in a global marketplace without losing the unique cultural voice of the region.
He denies he’s superstitious.
“It’s untrue,” he says. Rumours are widespread the actor is involved in black magic. “I know what I am doing. I am a director. I have to research what’s in the film,” he says.
[...]
Jaa’s absence sparked rumours he’s obsessed with black magic and had been “exhibiting strange behaviour on the set”. He is reported to dress as a shaman and meditates while cast and crew are ready to shoot. He has suddenly cancelled shooting for days.
[Jaa] was “shocked” to learn there’s no more money and went away to work out his “frustration” in a “quiet place”.
He vows to return and finish the film. “But, I have to meet Sia Jiang first,” he says. “I still respect Sia Jiang, Panna and Prachya.”
Sia Jiang says he loves Jaa and “forgives” him. But, Jaa says “different filmmaking philosophies” might cause further delay.
He said success has not changed him. “I’ve never forgotten that I came from nothing.”
“I consider film as an art created by the soul, not business, so anything I do has to be perfect. But I apologise for the problem. I will go to see Sia Jiang to find the way out and finish the film."
“The Princess has always enjoyed helping people. Since losing her son in the tsunami, she wants to do something bigger,” he explains.
[...]
“I hope the film will help the audience understand more about the Princess and the project,” he says.
“I realise some people might have preconceived ideas and refuse to see the film. I would ask them to keep an open mind, to come to theatres and if they don’t like the movie, to blame me.”
The director attempts to add credibility to the Princess’ acting abilities by adding some dramatic scenes, such as the one where Nil shouts at the older Pimdao.
“I want to break down some walls. The Princess has worked very hard at her acting. These scenes could not happen unless she believed she was Pimdao at that moment,” says the director.
[Note: I'm updating this post to include a report by Variety.]For those not familiar with Thai movies, Panom is the most popular Thai action star of his generation. His films, Ong Bak in particular, became international hits. He was once considered the "next big thing" in international martial-arts movies.
While Panom is obviously a potential action star, it might have been too soon for him to take the director's chair, especially for a movie with a budget on this scale. Bt200 million is considered a massive budget for a Thai movie.
Panom said in March that he received Bt117 million from Sahamongkol Film, which was short of the Bt232 million of the estimated budget.Panom said he nonetheless managed to shoot 80 per cent of the movie. But now Panom said he didn't feel like working anymore, and would rather wait to straighten out the budget issues with Sahamongkol first.
We hope that the actor-turned-director will be able to sort out the differences with Sahamongkol soon because audiences can hardly wait for the sequel to Ong Bak to hit the screens.
"I guarantee that this is not a case of financial fraud, and I have no intention of pursuing any legal action against [Jaa]," Techaratanaprasert said. "We're running behind schedule, and some of our international contracts have been cancelled because of that. I know he loves this film very much, so I just want him to finish the film because there's only a little work left."Prachya Pinkaew, who directed the first Ong-bak and Tom-yum-goong (shown as The Protector in the U.S.), confirmed that he will step in to edit the footage and maybe direct the rest of the movie.
"Jaa has little experience directing," said Pinkaew. "He's spent nearly $7.8 million. The film is almost finished, so I'll try to see what I can do with the footage that he's shot."
Bangkok of the Mind chronicles the latest episode in the Tony Jaa meltdown, summarizing yesterday's Thai media coverage from a press conference given on Friday night by Sahamongkol Film International boss Somsak "Sia Jiang" Techaratanaprasert, son Akarapol, director Prachya Pinkaew and Jaa's mentor, martial-arts choreographer Panna Rittikrai.Thai actor/director Tony Jaa is lucky his bosses at Sahamongkol Films (SF) - which is financing his period martial arts epic, Ong-Bak 2 - are so accommodating.
Sia Jiang, the firm's boss, says he regards Tony Jaa as his son. He had no intention of taking legal action against him for fleeing the set of the big-budget movie. He just wanted him to come back and finish the film.
According to some Thai press reports, tears welled in Sia Jiang's eyes as he talked about Tony Jaa, the young man from Surin with whom he entrusted the job of making the sequel to his 2003 martial arts spectacular, Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior.
Sia was accompanied by his son Akarapol Techaratanaprasert, Ong-Bak 2's producer, Panna Rittikrai, and the director of the first Ong Bak movie, Prachya Pinkaew, whom Sia has asked to finish work on the movie in time for a Dec 5 release date.
'He is like my son. What good would suing him do? He claims he loves this movie. In that case, why doesn't he come back and finish it,' asked Sia Jiang.
I've not heard much about Soi Cowboy since it premiered in the Un Certain Regard program at the Cannes Film Festival back in May.Thomas Clay’s Soi Cowboy dilutes and rejects the conventional narrative and straightforward realism. It does not delve in a simplistic causality and neither uses the term of ‘beginning’ or ‘end’. The protagonists and personages exist and act with complete uncertainty like they would do in real life. There are no simple explanations given to us or any formulae of logic. The ‘pseudo realism’ of commercial cinema is left aside for poetic interpretation and modern visual art. Soi Cowboy destroys the hegemony of the plot and the linear narrative structure.
More stories about Tony Jaa and his troubles with Ong-Bak 2 have emerged in the Thai press today, and Bangkok of the Mind has an epic series of postings about the issue (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).
But Bangkok of the Mind has a more sensational report from Thai Rath, Thailand's biggest mass-circulation daily, which has a reporter meeting Jaa at a "safe house". A newspaper photo has Tony looking grim-faced, clutching a bundle of documents, I guess as proof of his money troubles.
I'm very glad and felt relief when the audience applauded and greeted us when the film finished," he said. "They were eager to ask questions about the film."
Chok Dee: The Kickboxer is a 2005 French film that was shot in France and in Bangkok.He has to start at the bottom, cleaning toilets before he can earn the respect of his teachers and peers, who are evidently suspicious of a foreigner in their midst. What do you reckon the chances are that he’ll gain that respect and go on to greater things? You can admire the smooth efficiency of the film’s as the storyline falls into place, but at the same time it’s predictable and consequently it holds no dramatic tension whatsoever – you know that despite the minor setbacks he suffers along the way, his determination and dedication, not to mention his vow to his poor mother, will see him through.
The 2003 Midnight Madness screening of Ong-Bak Muay Thai Warrior heralded action superstar Tony Jaa as the first internationally recognized celebrity from Thailand – an overdue feat considering the nation’s long cinematic history.
Director Prachya Pinkaew and action choreographer Panna Rittikrai ushered in a new era of action cinema featuring no-holds-barred, full-contact fight sequences matched with death-defying stunts, and left bruises all over the genre. Five years later, Pinkaew and Rittikrai unveil a new action discovery: twenty-four-year-old Jija Yanin, the delicate yet deadly star of Chocolate, who seems destined to join other “femmes of fury” like Angela Mao, Michelle Yeoh and Kara Hui.
[...]
With fluid combat moves that emerge as second nature, Zen leaves a trail of cracked and broken limbs, placing her in sight of the vicious gang that her mother has tried to leave behind.
In a manner that echoes Ong-Bak, the plot serves to propel Jija through creative set pieces and acrobatic razzle-dazzle. Already a black belt in taekwondo, which she began studying at the age of eleven, Jija trained in Muay Thai boxing for two years even prior to filming Chocolate. Tackling the role chanting the “no stunt double” mantra, she endured nasty bruises and cuts during the arduous filming regimen, as is revealed in a montage of wince-inducing outtakes at the film’s conclusion.
Prepare to cheer the return of Muay Thai Midnight Madness, but be ready to duck from Jija’s flurry of feet, knees, shins and fists.
Wonderful Town continues its successful festival run, receiving a Silver Apricot at the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevian, Armenia.
From one of my close friends, I was told that these past three months Tony Jaa has been so miserable that he decided to relieve his stress in temple or in shaman house.
What his stress is all about? Shouldn’t he feel free after Sia Jiang opened Iyara Film Company for him to spend time on administration and to manage his directorial affairs?
[...]
What makes the honest heart of this guy from Surin bear with great misery?
I heard that he has been bored and tired of people who came to exploit him or dishonestly use him. The situation lasts for a very long time. Therefore, he finally turns to those things he considers sacred.
I think of a popular boxer in the past, Saeb Saensak Muang Surin (aka the Hard Left Fist), who used to be in this situation.
It will be so regrettable if Tony Jaa walks the same track of that boxer.
Sia Jiang, please turn to help this beloved son again!
Art of the Devil 3 is playing in cinemas in Singapore, and it's reviewed by Stefan on A Nutshell Review.But watching Long Khong 2, I felt one would be better off in having no background knowledge from the previous film, and approach this clean.
Unfortunately for us in Singapore, despite its R21 rating, we still get this in edited format. Worse, these jarring cuts were made usually at the final moments of a black magic delivery, cutting away most of the gore that audiences turned up in droves for. Even the movie's climatic scene as suggested in the trailers, the one involving pins and the human eye, doesn't get spared the censor's scissors, and what's left intact of course were the more tamer sequences that even made Final Destination look better. And you'd have to wait quite a while before sorcery gets used, and when it got delivered in edited mode, you can't help but to feel short changed. Some deja-vu moments courtesy from scenes covered in the earlier movie didn't help too, making this feel like it's running on repeat.
This is one movie that the trailer had made it to be more frightening that it actually was, but for those curious to want to see this despite the edits, heed my advice - if you've watched Long Khong, rent the DVD to watch it again just before you watch Long Khong 2, but if you haven't, then forget it and watch this first, before the previous movie.
Friendship, which is Mario's second movie, appears to have bombed. The company which made it, Right Beyond Films, will say it clashed with big Hollywood titles such as Hancock, so did not have a chance to shine. The truth may be more prosaic: audiences just didn't like it.
The film met with lukewarm reviews. More importantly, it created almost no Internet buzz. I can find half a dozen posts at the popular Pantip board, written by Thais who have seen it. Compare that with the hundreds written in praise of Mario's first film, the gay coming-of-age drama, Love of Siam.
It is a story that I was keen to tell as it deals with one of my greatest fears – death. Not so much my death but the death of my loved ones,” explained Ekachai, who also directed Beautiful Boxer.
His intrigue with the ritual began three years ago when he read an article in a Thai newspaper about thousands of people attending a death ritual for the living.
“How was it possible that you have to go so ‘near’ to death in order to prolong your life? It seems like a contradiction,” he said, adding that at that time he also had difficulties in dealing with his father’s death.
Many participants felt as if they were reborn after the ritual – with all their bad karma buried behind them,” Ekachai said. “Some claimed that the ritual helped fool the spirits that they’re already dead so they could start their new lives afresh like newborns.”
In his interviews with believers, Ekachai said some told him that they met the spirit of their dead loved ones while they were lying in the coffin. “They told me that they made a connection with the dead,” he said.
The scriptwriter also went through the archives of a Thai TV station, watching a documentary of a man – with a serious heart problem – who even his doctor gave up on his chances for recovery.
“The man claimed after going through the ritual he recovered gradually. And since then he performed the ritual annually,” he added.
The coming months are going to busy ones for film lovers in Thailand. There are festivals, festivals and more festivals. August has the Thai Short Film & Video Festival. September has the Bangkok International Film Festival. And the World Film Festival of Bangkok is being held at the end of October.
Mr. Assarat shelters this budding romance with surpassingly lovely filmmaking, easing into and out of scenes with an unrushed tempo that lets each emotion, thought and subtle effect flower, then fade away. His frames are meticulous without being fussy and his camera movements suave and suggestive, delineating the sentiment of the moment with precision and grace.
You could call such camerawork Jamesian, for the elegance with which it traces the contours of experience — or perhaps, given the context, Apichatpongian is the better term. The mellow bliss and aesthetic delicacy of Wonderful Town recall the work of the ingenious Thai cinéaste Apichatpong Weerasethakul, creator of idiosyncratic romances like Tropical Malady and Syndromes and a Century. Mr. Assarat shares with his compatriot an elegant, intuitive ease coupled with prodigious formal control, though of a less experimental bent than his better-known colleague.
As in one of Mr. Weerasethakul’s beguiling narratives, where time and space are mercurial creatures and mythical beasts pad through the forest, the air in Wonderful Town feels charged with weird energies, as if something strange and possibly menacing is about to erupt. And so it does, in a single word, uttered by Na in pillow talk with Ton: “Tsunami.”
In an article in the Bangkok Post's Real Time section today, Kong Rithdee profiles Gertjan Zuilhof, programmer of the International Film Festival Rotterdam who's been responsible for the festival's strong Asian cinema sections.To me the specific quality of Southeast Asian horrors is the fact that the people who make them and the people who watch them actually believe in ghosts - not necessarily the ghosts on the screen, but the ghosts in their daily lives, or from childhood experiences, or from a story they've been told," says Zuilhof, who tours the region every year looking for new movies.
"This is a huge different from the European and American audiences, who see horror films for their stories, but it's not in the culture and actually traditionally forbidden by the religion. The Christian Church, for example, doesn't allow you to believe in anything else besides Jesus Christ and God - maybe in angels and saints. The devil is not a ghost in the same sense as an Asian ghost - the idea that your dead ancestors are still present. It's a very important idea, and it's totally absent in the West."
"The Hollywood remakes always change the ending, and the ghost is either conquered or gone, and there's a hope at the end," he says. "But if you believe in ghosts, they don't go away, and at best you can only live in peace with them.
"The excitement of Asian people when they watch ghost films, I believe, is connected to their inner beliefs. For Western audiences, it's all about action and violence. It's all about getting scared."
In short, the TAT will take a back seat and let the industry people, through FNFAT and the directors' association, handle the country's biggest, and most historically troubled, movie event.
In fact, extra effort needs to be put now into overcoming our biases and taking risks. Despite the multi-genre nature of these festivals, most of us stuck to the venues and types of performances with which we were already familiar. Movie buffs went to the film festival component held at a famous cinema; classical music and dance aficionados attended symphony concerts and dance performances at Thailand Cultural Centre; and little less. I usually arrived at the latter venue about an hour ahead of curtain time to make sure there was a parking space. As such, during these festivals, I wish I had better options open for me to kill time, like a relevant visual arts exhibition to browse at my leisure, rather than chatting and socialising.
The festival organiser could have further pitched in by holding more than one event genre at one single venue on one day. It may sound like a buffet, but with the fuel price rising indefinitely as it is, we need to see as many selections as possible before making a decision and without feeling overstuffed. And this has already happened - not at an arts centre, but at a shopping centre which has both movie houses and open areas for concerts and visual arts exhibitions, as well as other commercial distractions.
After their appearance at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Art of the Devil 3 and Muay Thai Chaiya are making their way south to Austin, Texas, for Fantastic Fest.
Set on the Thai-Burmese border, Vampire follows a refugee from Shan State as he hunts the nok phii – the ghost bird – which is believed to feed on other animals’ blood.
It’s 19 minutes of crawling through a jungle illuminated only by flashlight, with varying perceptions emerging of the hunter and his prey.
Apichatpong says he took the point of view of Vuitton as a modern colonist, although “that doesn’t mean I judge them as good or evil”.
The company executives took his critical view in stride.
“They separate the brand from the institution that supports artists. They have a spirit of acceptance that proved to be a good experience for me.”
Vampire ties in with the installation project Apichatpong is developing in Isaan. It symbolises the communism that is now extinct in Thailand, he says, and of course the Northeast was the focus for the government’s anti-communist efforts during the Cold War.
“Conceptually communism is good,” he says. “I’m interested in what happened in Thai society during that era, when communism was widely seen as an evil.”
What the!!! And they call themselves villains? The one dude looks like he has a rag over his head and the other guy just looks mentally retarded with his triangular face tattoos. Umm ... you don’t scare me. You just look like a guy who totally got wasted one night and decided to get a stupid tattoo. Smart villains want to blend in with society and stupid villains just get face tattoos that makes it look obvious.
