Big-name directors in nine-segment omnibus, Charming Bangkok

While Once Upon a Time in Bangkok, an omnibus by 17 indie directors, recently premiered, and following other city omnibus films like Paris je t'aime, New York, I Love You and Tokyo!, there's another Bangkok omnibus project in the works featuring more-established directors.

It's called -- tentatively -- Charming Bangkok or Saneh Bangkok, and is being produced by Saksiri Chantarangsi for public-television station TV Thai, formerly known as Thai PBS.

Kong Rithdee has more about the project in yesterday's Bangkok Post
(cache):

Saksiri has invited nine film directors to each create a 20-minute short about Bangkok as they see, dream, reflect, or imagine it. TV Thai plans to air the episodes in late June, and the possibility of releasing them in the cinemas is very likely.

What makes the ensemble a fine catch is the unprecedented gathering of nine filmmakers whose credits are largely formidable. Their mere names would actually spark interest even among international film distributors: Prachya Pinkaew (Ong-Bak, Tom Yum Goong); Wisit Sasanatieng (Tears of the Black Tiger, Citizen Dog); Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Invisible Waves, Ploy); Aditya Assarat (Wonderful Town); Chookiat Sakveerakul (Love of Siam); Kongdej Jaturanrasamee (Handle Me With Care and screenwriter of Me ... Myself and Happy Birthday); Bandit Rittakol (the Boonchu movies); Ruethaiwan Wongsirasawas (Wai Olawon 4); and Santi Taepanich (Crying Tigers, Bangkok Time).

Wisit's short, Sightseeing, stars "Tak" Bongkot Kongmalai as a blind women who lives under a bridge who's helped out by a man (Tantai Prasertkul). Aditya has real-life friends Ananda Everingham and Louis Scott recalling their memories of Bangkok and New York City. And Pen-ek is working on a short with the star of his upcoming feature Nymph, "Peter" Noppachai Jaiyanama.

Given last weekend's violent "Black Songkran" clashes between the government and the red-shirt protesters in Bangkok, the filmmakers and the producer are all pretty wary of the project being used as a commercial fluff piece to burnish the damaged city's image. The majority of the pieces, I think, will be pretty gritty and true-to-life. So yeah, maybe there's a better English title than Charming Bangkok.

Read the rest of Kong's story for many more details.

He also has a sidebar interview (cache) with Thai PBS managing director Thepchai Yong about TV Thai's history and its possible future.