Pen-ek made a movie that you can only watch on TV

When Pen-ek Ratanaruang makes a new feature, it's usually the cause of much anticipation by festival programmers, Thai film fans and world cinema lovers.

However, most outside of Thailand will probably never (legally) see his latest effort, the romantic comedy-drama The Life of Gravity (แรงดึงดูด, Raeng Dueng Dood), unless they subscribe to Thai cable-TV company TrueVisions.

Starring two of Pen-ek's regular cast members – Cris Horwang and Peter Nopachai Chaiyanam from Headshot – the TrueVisions Original Picture was broadcast on Valentine's Day last Friday on TrueVisions Channel 45, the Thaifilm channel. It's produced by Rasarin Tanalerttararom.

The story is about a young woman who ends up on an island inhabited by just one man, and the two are drawn closer together.

The Bangkok Post has more:

A film director usually enjoys (or endures) a longer period of shooting, as well as a bigger team and budget. For this telemovie, the budget was limited to 10 days of filming in a remote location at at a navy base in Sattahip, Chon Buri, where Pen-ek and his team were like a group of castaways as much as the lead characters.

“Normally, we work eight to five like office workers when shooting a movie, which takes months. But we incredibly managed to shoot a 90-minute movie within 10 days, which was physically exhausting for us,” he said. “The intensive filming however brought a big burst of energy and commitment as we concentrated on completing the production within the short time frame.”

The Bangkok Post further notes that TrueVisions proposed releasing The Life of Gravity in cinemas, but Pen-ek balked at that idea, saying "you can't blow up what's made for TV on a 40-foot movie screen".

You'll have to be a TrueVisions subscriber to figure out when the movie will be rebroadcast. But you can get a glimpse of it on your own little screen, with the trailer (embedded below).