Pop stars, nude starlets, prisoners and big-breasted drag queens

Nude starlets and large-breasted drag queens fill the big screens of Thailand this week, with the release of two Thai films, Pop Star, about a pop singer, and 8E88 Fan Lanla, a prison comedy.

Actress "Tak" Bongkote Kongmalai takes it all off in Pop Star (ดวงอันตราย, Duang Antarai). You can catch a glimpse of her(?) nudity in the English subtitled trailer (thanks to Deknang), embedded above.

The movie stars musician "Jay" Montonn Jira, star of the road-trip romance That Sounds Good (เรา สองสาม คน, Rao Song Sam Khon), which is still playing in cinemas.

In Pop Star, Jay makes a big stretch as a pop singer named Jay. As he looks to "go inter" and take his recording career to the U.S., he's struggling with family and mental problems as he's confronted by a past he thought he'd hidden.

Tak plays a young woman named Nui and veteran actor Nirut Sirichanya (Ong-Bak 3) plays Jay's father and manager.

The director is Robert La Force. The movie, long in production, was initially under Sahamongkol. Tak and Nirut are part of the Sahamongkol stock-company players. But it's now being released by the T Movie label.

There's probably a juicy story behind all that, but I don't know the details.

As for 8E88 Fan Lanla (8E88 แฟนลั้ลลา ), Wiroj Thongsiew (วิโรจน์ ทองชิว, Teng's Angel) directs this comedy about a guy named Kun (Jaturong "Mokjok" Ornnorm) who is thrown in prison for a crime he didn't commit. There, the stripe-suited inmates perform a parody of the Thai Life Insurance commercial with the kids-singing "Que Sera, Sera" that surely must now annoy the heck out of everyone who sees it.

And somehow a gang of cross-dressing criminals fits into the story, even if one of them barely fits into "her" dress because her breast implants are so freakishly huge. Along with the usual comedians who act in these Thai comedies, Atthama Chiwanitxaphan also stars as Kun's suffering fiancee Busaba.

The trailer is at YouTube and it's embedded below.

8E88 is the first release from a new production shingle, Saga Studio.