In a welcome move by GTH, the 2003 mega-hit childhood comedy-drama Fan Chan (แฟนฉัน, My Girl) has been re-released on DVD in Thailand, with, get this, English subtitles.Could this be the first in a trend by Thailand's major studios, to re-release their older films with English subs?
Probably not. After all, Five Star Production, Sahamongkol and GTH are all releasing their older classics for home video in bare bones packages, with no English subs.
So the English-friendly Fan Chan is probably just a fluke.
Fan Chan was released on DVD in Thailand in 2003, which despite an elaborate package that resembled the typical Thai schoolbag, had no English subs.
An English-friendly release came from Hong Kong.
Fan Chan was the movie that laid the foundations for the GTH studio, which was formed from the 2004 merger of the movie's three production companies, GMM Pictures, Tai Entertainment and Hub Ho Hin.
It was also the debut for six rookie filmmakers: Songyos Sugmakanan (Dorm, Hormones, Phobia 2), Nithiwat Tharathorn (Seasons Change, Dear Galileo), Witthaya Thongyooyong (The Little Comedian, The Possible), Adisorn Trisirikasem (Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story), Komgrit Triwimol (Dear Dakanda, Bedside Detective, Noo Hin: The Movie) and Vitcha Gojiew (film editor on many GTH movies).
It's still one of my favorite movies. Set during the 1980s in a small Thai town, and when I watch it, it still makes me nostalgic for that time, even though I didn't grow up in 1980s Thailand.
Special features, none of which are subtitled but all are fun to watch, include video footage of the cast and crew's travels to film festivals in Berlin and Tokyo. There's a layer of confusing advertising screens that have to navigated through before the main menu comes up. But it’s bargain priced, in shops for around 109 baht.
It's at eThaiCD.com for $10.
I noticed this on eThaiCD.com a few weeks ago actually. Despite the low price, I'm a little hesitant to repurchase it. Do you have it and can confirm that the image of the movie has been enhanced for widescreen TVs? Or is it still just letterboxed?
ReplyDeleteActually, I finally got the chance to show somebody else the Taiwanese DVD of "Fan Chan" last week. She thought it was a great movie.
Darn it. I was earlier looking for it on eThaiCD and could not find it. But there it is.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any way of verifying the formatting on the disc. I'm still using a regular TV. Need to upgrade for the sake of doing things like this.
The box says "Letter box" and "4.3 Transfer Digital Source". Which I think is a fancy way of saying it's just letterboxed.
If you're a fan, I'd say pick it up anyway for the special features. Maybe add it to your cart when you're ordering something else.
Nice to see this one come out with subs... I always prefer to grab the Thai disc for a Thai film whenever I can.
ReplyDeleteThis probably wont be a rush to sub all old films, but I'm thinking that any reissues of an older film that has already been released subbed elsewhere will get them as there's nothing to lose by not including them on a new disc.
However... I see plenty of older Thai films popping up in newer Malay releases that are now getting subs, even some rather goofy stinkers, so who knows?
Either way, thanks for the heads up... it gives me the excuse to pick up some stuff from ethai that I've been waffling on.
i bought this dvd last week off ebay and am DYING to find out the name of the song included in the special features [2nd last item in the special features menu]...
ReplyDeletei even tried opening bloody character map and tried spelling out the name/title as it appeared in on the dvd so i could do a google search on it, but failed miserably... a google and youtube search of songs from the movie only gave me the artists/titles of other songs in the film
it's played really briefly and quietly as adult jaeb is speaking with his mother while driving, just as she mentions noi nah's wedding
any help at all?
i'd been on the lookout for this dvd for ages [couldnt even find it when i was in thailand a few years back]... only downside would be that the susbtitles seem dodgy in a few scenes
I bought it from yesasia.com and didn't realize it was 4:3 format! does have the English subtitles, but also very low quality video and on a DVD5? would love to find a real widescreen version of this eventually. boomerang doesn't list it and the version on ethaicd.com looks the same as the one i bought.
ReplyDelete