Thai cinema comes full circle with A-Nueng

This week's new Thai romantic comedy, A-Nueng Kidthueng Pen Yang Ying, is a blast from the past.

Directed for Five Star by veteran helmer Bhandit Rittakol, it's the third entry in a teen-oriented romantic comedy series the director started in 1992 with A-nueng Kidthueng Por Sangkeb (I Miss You), which starred soap-opera queen Anne Thongprasom (making her debut) and Chrakkrit Ammarat. Then there was I Miss You 2 in 1996, starring Santisuk Promsiri, Kateina Kloss and Dome Pakorn.

A-Nueng Kidthueng Pen Yang Ying has the gang returning to their old-timey school after learning that it is going to be razed to make way for an international superstore.

It stars a bunch of fresh faces, like Ratchawin Wongviriya, the Subhanahongsa-winning actress from last year's weepy romance Rak/Sam/Sao, along with actors Namo Tongkumnerd from Art of the Devil 3 and The Screen at Kamchanod and Thanachat Tulayachat from the Five Star romantic comedies Boonchu 9 and Before Valentine.

The English title for A-Nueng Kidthueng Pen Yang Ying (อนึ่ง...คิดถึงเป็นอย่างยิ่ง) has been stated in various places as Miss You Again (or maybe Miss You Once More). They apparently aren't official -- probably just one English-language news outlet or website picking an English title as a placeholder and the rest bandwagoning.

Literally, the title is something like "And another thing ... I am missing you very much." Now, doesn't that make you gag?

The movie isn't even playing with English subtitles, according to a scan of MovieSeer's listings, which is unusual, especially for a film from a major studio like Five Star.

Kong Rithdee reviews it in today's Bangkok Post. Here's an excerpt (cache):

It's not very funny or touching, the acting stagey and amateurish, and despite the contemporary setting, the movie feels like something warped through the gap of time from 20 years ago. Yet in a way, viewing the film as a piece of cultural artefact, there's something refreshing about this mild anachronism, about the way Bandit consciously continues to make films the way he has been for 30 years, unperturbed by the pressure of up-to-date hipsterism that seems to be the priority of most Thai cinema about teenagers.

It's as if Bhandit is willfully trying to drag Thai cinema back to a time before Nonzee Nimibutr's Nang Nak and before the Pang Bros.' (original) Bangkok Dangerous, before Pen-ek Ratanaruang and before Wisit Sasanatieng, before Thai cinema had seriously taken the world stage and before foreigners started paying attention to Thai cinema, to a time when A-Nueng was the best that Thai cinema had to offer and only Thais watched those films.

The trailer is at YouTube, and just for kicks, I've embedded it below.



Update: Limitless Cinemas has thoughts about this.

See also:

• A-nueng official website
• Set photos by Vardhana at Flickr