Looking for the next Crouching Tiger

Critics at Cannes are looking for the next Crouching Tiger from Asian filmmakers, according to an Agence France-Presse article, but have been disappointed so far by the Thai film, Tropical Malady, and the late arrival of Wong Kar Wai's 2046.

But showing out of competition is Zhang Yimou's House of the Flying Daggers, which stars Zhang Ziyi, Takashi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau. It has picked up some good comments from Hollywood Reporter and Variety.

Both the reviews call attention to the fact that Zhang's Hero, with North American distribution rights held by Miramax, has yet to be shown in the US. House of Flying Daggers won't suffer the same fate, as it has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics. This is great news, as Sony did a classy job with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Legend of Suriyothai. Miramax, by the way, also has the US distribution rights to Tears of the Black Tiger. It'd be nice if they showed that film as well. I guess they are still trying to figure out how to chop it by 30 minutes.

As an aside to this story, from a BBC article says China is temporarily banning foreign films during the opening month for House of Flying Daggers, so the film won't have any competition from such titles as Shrek 2 and Spider-Man 2. I think that's stupid. It'll just increase business for the movie pirates dealing in those titles. I wonder how it will affect the local theater operators?

Getting back to Tropical Malady, I wanted to highlight some helpful comments left on yesterday's posting about Ong-Bak. "I watched the Tropical Malady press conference on TV and was really ashamed about the lack of interest from the international press," the commentator wrote, adding that the "room was quite empty."

The commentator said the French daily Liberation wrote that "a lot of stupid persons left noisily the screening room" during the movie showing and that "he considers the Apichatpong Weerasethakul's film as a masterpiece". Many other critics share his thoughts, according to Le Film Francais, which compiles several ratings.

I can't read French, but if I understand the system at the latter site, it seems the ratings are about 50:50, with five extremely positive reviews, four extremely negative reviews and two mediums.

When Blissfully Yours was released two years ago, a lot of the press I read about it was negative. Friends who saw it were also negative, saying the movie was slow and didn't make sense. Then I actually saw it, and I liked it. So, I'm anxious to see Tropical Malady. I hope it plays somewhere where I can see it.

A kick out of Ong-Bak in France

With Tropical Malady getting a rough reception at Cannes, it's nice to know there's another film in France making a good representation for Thailand, lamentable as this situation might seem for fans of "serious" films.

Ong-Bak, the kickboxing action flick, has been playing in commercial theatres in France. In a commentary piece in The Nation, a Thai writer relates the pride he felt in seeing the movie play there.

A picture accompanying the article showed a huge poster for Ong-Bak adorning the front of a French multiplex, where it was playing alongside such other films as Hidalgo, Monster and Starsky & Hutch.

For a Thai person it was thrilling to see billboards of Ong-Bak all over Paris. I got goosebumps as the logo of Sahamongkol Film appeared at the beginning of the film while watching it in a French theatre. Admittedly, I was slightly disappointed when I realised that the film had been dubbed into French. As for the French audience, although they will get the wrong ideas about Muay Thai, maybe they will also learn a bit about our values.

The writer closes by taking a moment to get preachy about ancient artifacts. "I hope this film will cause them some pain of regret when they see all the Buddha heads displayed at the Guimet National Museum of Asian Art, which possesses a large collection of ancient Thai Buddha statues which are mostly just disembodied heads."

Tropical Malady elicits boos and bewilderment

When Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Blissfully Yours was shown at Cannes in 2002, half the audience walked out, the other half remained and cheered wildly.

His new movie, Tropical Malady, in competition for the Palm d'Or this year, has received a chillier response, with some critics walking out and others booing the film at the end, according to a story by Reuters.

In a review for Variety, Deborah Young said:

As exceedingly strange as its predecessors Mysterious Object at Noon and cult fave Blissfully Yours but even more incomprehensible, Tropical Malady takes the viewer on a mysterious and sporadically fascinating trip into the darkness of the human heart and Thai legend, but only after an hour of a weakly structured story about two young men who are attracted to each other. Pic will find its admirers chiefly among those who appreciated director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's earlier cinematic experiments. Outside fests, pic's loosely connected scenes will sorely try the patience of most arthouse viewers.

Kirk Honeycutt, for the Hollywood Reporter, was baffled as well:

The film comes in two parts. In the first, a young soldier Keng (Banlop Lomnoi) falls for a country boy named Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee). They sit around with his Tong's mother, listening to the sounds of the night air. Away from his home, Keng kisses and fondles Tong's hand. (Whatever does that mean? one wonders.)

The Reuters reporter attended "a sparsely attended press conference", where the director acknowledged that his movie could be a tough call for some.

"The audience has a confusion about what is reality," he said of the movie, which is told in two contrasting sections. It starts with a gay love affair in a small town and then switches to the hunt for a mystical tiger figure in the jungle.

In an interview with The Nation, given before he jetted off to France, Apichatpong said he thinks local audiences might like his new film.

“Unlike Blissfully, which distanced the audience with its voyeurism and was boring for the general audience, Tropical may be more entertaining and enjoyable for an audience used to conventional storytelling, as related through folktales,” he says.

Film industry strategizes

I was looking for news from Cannes about Apichatpong's Tropical Malady when I came across a Variety article about the Thai film biz.

GMM Pictures, a subsidiary of music mogul GMM Grammy, has formed a joint venture with Tai Entertainment and Hub Ho Hin Films to establish GMM Tai Hub, Variety said. The partnership is the country's biggest integrated film producer.

Tai is best known for its transvestite volleyball comedy Iron Ladies.

Hub Ho Hin got its start in 2002 with Mekong Full Moon Party about the mysterious "Naga fireballs" that rise from the Mekong River. It was co-produced with GMM.

GMM Grammy will be a local and foreign distributor for Tropical Malady, the article said.

Grammy has only recently gotten into films, having made most of its money in Thai pop music, television and radio.

The company's offerings include Pimpaka Towira's thriller, One Night Husband and Yuthlert Sippapak's romantic drama February. Those two weren't so successful at the box office, but Hub Ho Hin's Fan Chan (My Girl) was a huge hit for Grammy in 2003. Fan Chan, which earned 140 million baht (about US$3 million) according to the Bangkok Post, was produced under a loose partnership between Hub Ho Hin, Tai and Grammy.

Grammy was also behind Ai Fak (The Judgment), which did good business, bringing in $1.01 million in ticket sales, Variety said.

Paiboon Damrongchaitham, the chairman and founder of Grammy, will chair the joint-venture company while day-to-day operations will be overseen by Visute Poolvoralaks, the owner of Tai Entertainment, who has been appointed chief executive officer, according to a followup article in the Bangkok Post. Jina Osothsilp, the managing director of Hub Ho Hin, will be GTH's managing director.

"The idea of a joint venture came about after the success of Fan Chan," Visute told the Post. "We think we should combine our strengths to achieve the highest efficiency in the business. GMM is strong in media, Tai Entertainment in marketing, and Hub Ho Hin in production. That becomes a perfect blend of elements for our new firm.

"For the industry, the direction now is to aim for long-term benefits. The number of Thai films will be reduced, but they will be more professionally done. Established studios will develop screenplays, manage distribution and hire staff with a clearer direction."

Meanwhile, BEC Tero is rethinking its film venture after the historical romance drama Siam Renaissance proved to be a critical and commercial flop, earning only $500,000.

Like Grammy, BEC Tero is primarily in the music business, but also has a large stake in television (operating Thailand's Channel 3) and radio. It also runs Thaiticketmaster and has been promoting a lot of concerts. It was the promoter of the failed Rolling Stones gig in Bangkok, but also has been behind successful concerts (successful meaning in my book that the artists actually showed up!) by the likes of Bryan Ferry and the Pretenders. Upcoming will be a show by Black Eyed Peas at the company's own venue, BEC Tero Hall.

As for film, BEC Tero says it will concentrate on the distribution end under its Film Bangkok label.

Several of BEC Tero's films have earned good reputations, including Oxide Pang's Bangkok Dangerous and Tears of the Black Tiger.

Also from Variety was a story about a Thai tourism official at Cannes to promote the Bangkok International Film Festival. They also were promoting Thailand as a location, offering a 30 percent tax break to foreign companies who come make films in the Kingdom.

Among the movies already lined up to film in Thailand is Star Wars III, Variety said. News to me. George Lucas in Thailand? Where? Oliver Stone's Alexander recently wrapped up a shoot in Thailand.

New arthouse in Bangkok

My current favorite place to watch movies in Bangkok is at the Apex theatres in Siam Square. Actually, they've been my favorite ever since I discovered them in July 1999, when I saw Star Wars I.

Since then, I've seen some much better movies there. They play some off-beat movies that aren't shown in any of the mainstream multiplexes around town. For example, this week, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, starring Audrey Tautou is playing. Films I've seen there in the past include Amelie, Dirty Pretty Things, the experimental Thai film I-san Special and Battle Royale 2. Upcoming will be Audition. Just the preview for that movie creeps me out.

The Apex complex consists of the Lido multiplex (where most of the stuff I consider arthouse is shown) and the Siam and Scala theatres. The latter two are single-screen venues that show mostly first-run, mainstream stuff. They are my first choice when catching a new movie, as they make the movie experience much better than any of the cookie-cutter mall cineplexes with postage-stamp screens, high prices and inconsiderate audiences.

Now, a new arthouse theatre called House is in the works, according to an article by Kong Rithdee in Friday's Bangkok Post (Real.Time, page 1)

A partnership of four young rich Thais plans to turn the older UMG RCA multiplex into an arthouse haven. This move comes at a perfect time, as the Royal City Avenue (RCA) neighborhood of nightclubs will be a hotter spot in the coming months. This is for a couple of reasons. First, a new subway line will be opening there in August, making the area much more accessible. And second RCA is one of the areas that the government has named an "entertainment zone", where presumably nightlife can continue well past the current midnight or 1am or 2am curfew.

The four partners are: Chomsajee Techaratanaprasert, 24, daughter of Somsak Techaratanaprasert of Sahamongkol Film, one of Thailand's biggest distributors of foreign films; "Ted" Yuthana Boon-om, 37, a promoter of the indie music scene, organiser of Bangkok's Fat Festival for indie bands and now with the television producing company Polyplus; Arunee Srisuk, 34, movie publicist, event organiser, all-round freelancer in all chores relating to Thai cinema; and Pongnarin U-lit, 33, Chulalongkorn University film department graduate, host of a cinema talk radio shows and film critic.

"I've had an idea to open a cinema house with a theme, with a clear scope of the films we show, but I just don't have the manpower," Chomsajee told the Post.

"Meanwhile," added Yuthana, "we've long wanted to see a cinema that shows the kind of movies that regular theatres have no interested in showing. But we don't know how to start. My original idea was to rent one of those old, abandoned cinemas and renovate it into a kind of arthouse theatre. But hey, that requires such huge investment that I knew it was impossible."

Now, with the deep pockets of Sahamongkol, it's possible. The group has renovated two 200-seat theatres that will include a coffee bar and later an art gallery and a bookshop.

And despite being a project of Sahamongkol, House will function as an independent theatre that welcomes movies from all film importers (currently only Lido comes close to that status).

Sahamongkol failed in a previous attempt to create an exclusive arthouse at the former World Trade Centre. A problem with non-mainstream films in Bangkok is their short shelf-life. When a movie, for example, The Triplets of Belleville (currently on show at Lido), opens in the first week and the audience's response is not impressive, the theatre will reduce the showtimes and gradually fade the title out after two or three weeks. This puts added pressure on film-buffs to try to attend the screenings. Meanwhile, marketers know that sometimes a good film needs a longer period to build up word-of-mouth and generate interest.

House vows to fix that glitch: It intends to run each title for at least a month or longer regardless of the audience's reception.

To celebrate its grand opening next month, House plans to show 150 films during the first two weeks.

"We've selected 150 movies of the past few years that might have had a short run at Bangkok theatres or that never got a release, from Chinese classic like Zhang Yimou's Story of Qi Ju to City of God and everything in between. All you have to do is pay a membership fee of just 100 baht, then you can watch as many films as you want within these first three weeks."

Well, I'm excited. I've been thinking about the Story of Qi Ju and would like to see that again. Until the subway opens, RCA is hard to get to with the traffic situation in Bangkok, but I might make an effort depending on the movies they're showing.

Tropical Malady director 'shocked'

Thai director Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul says he was shocked to learn that his latest work, Tropical Malady, is in contention for the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He says it is "too simple a film" in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

After reading about it, it doesn't sound so simple, though.

"So simple that it is not really a festival kind of film, which usually has to have some dramatic value," Apichatpong told the French news agency. "I am kind of surprised because nothing much happens (in the film) and I am really curious to know the people's reaction."

"Tropical Malady" is actually two separate stories grafted together, he said. The two halves "are of a completely different style, different colors, different pace," he says, yet the audience should still be able to connect the dots.

The first story revolves around two men in a passionate relationship bordering between intense friendship and love. They are "lovers, but we never show them kiss, just hold hands," he says.

The second focuses on a man who ventures into the jungle in search of a tiger, or more specifically a shaman or man who has been transformed into a tiger. "At the end, the man has the choice of killing the tiger or letting it kill him."

The first, faster-paced half was inspired by classical Thai cinema, while the second resembles the slow-burn pace of the jungle love story, Blissfully Yours, AFP's article states. It adds: "Slow, meditative, and at times coarsely sexual, Blissfully Yours is no longer available in Thailand as even its censored version was banned recently by the government."

Another feature he directed, The Adventure of Iron Pussy, was shown earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival and has yet to be screened in Thailand. Given its gay-themed subject matter, about a transvestite secret agent, it's questionable that it will be shown at all, even though movies featuring transvestites are a major staple of the Thai film industry.

With his latest feature, Apichatpong says he has delivered an essay on the search for the self.

"There is a lot of metaphor on same-sex relationships, on the confusion of finding identity.

"It is unpredictable, it doesn't have a classical structure," and it's "semi-experimental," he adds.

Apichatpong told AFP that the odds are against him in the competition. "I don't think I can win the Palm, my movie is too personal. Tropical Malady is just representing myself, not Thailand."

Yet he says he feels the intense pressure brought by the expectations of a nation that in the past few years has churned out several delightful arthouse films that have the international market paying rapt attention - and expecting more than exotic novelty.

"Many people will not be proud to have this little movie, which is not technically perfect, and whose story is nothing!"

He is optimistic about the future of moviemaking in his country, with the emergence of a new generation of young directors such as Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Monrak Transistor, Last Life in the Universe) and Pimpaka Towira (One Night Husband) whose originality have begun winning prizes at international festivals.

"We are starting to hear more personal views," he says. "We have been opening up in the past years and I am sure we will move on to become more successful."

Asian films at Cannes

In addition to Apitchapong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady and Wong Kar Wai's 2046 up for the Palm d'Or at Cannes this year, quite a few more Asian films are featured.

One that I'm pretty excited about is House of Flying Daggers, the second martial arts film from Zhang Yimou. Featured out of competition, House of Flying Daggers is about a blind girl (Zhang Ziyi) who falls in love with a policeman (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Andy Lau is also in the cast. Singer-actress Anita Mui died while the movie was in production. Her role was written out of the movie.

More period martial arts action can be found in Sword in the Moon from Korea, which is in the Un Certain Regard category.

Back over in the Palm d'Or competition are two more Korean films: the kidnapping thriller, Old Boy, by JSA director Park Chan Wook, and the romantic comedy Woman is the Future of Man by Hang Sang-Soo.

The first anime feature to be shown at Cannes, Innocence (Ghost in the Shell 2) by Oshii Mamoru, is in the main competition, as well as Hirokazu Kore-eda's Nobody Knows.

Also in the Un Certain Regard category is Passages, the debut film by China's Yang Chao. It's about some twentysomething characters as they cope with China's fast-changing society.

With Quentin Tarantino as jury president, the jury includes Hong Kong producer-director Tsui Hark. I wonder if those two will compare notes?

Suriyothai director visits Rings workshop; planning sequel

In preparing for his next film, veteran Thai director M.C. Chatrichalerm Yukol has been visiting the Weta Workshops in New Zealand, according to Stuff.com.

Weta was responsible for the special effects in the epic adaptation of the fantasy trilogy, Lord of the Rings, directed by Peter Jackson.

Chatrichalerm, who directed the sprawling historical epic, Suriyothai as well as dozens of other films, is looking for new ideas as he plans to make an ambitious follow-up to the biggest movie ever made in Thailand.

According to an article by Kong Rithdee in today's Bangkok Post (Real Time, page 7), the prince is in pre-production for a new historical epic based on the life of King Naraesuan, the 16th century ruler who fought for Siamese independence during a Burmese occupation.

While Suriyothai featured a cast of 3,000 extras, plans are to have 10,000 extras in the followup, the New Zealand-based Stuff.com reported.

In Suriyothai, the actors wore authentic steel armor, which was heavy. Chatrichalerm was checking out the lightweight but authentic-looking armor hand-crafted by the Weta Workshop and used in The Lord of the Rings.

The prince and his crew have been learning how Weta used molds to create landscape features, and build miniature trees and miniature ships, Stuff.com reported, citing statements from Weta manager Jenny Morgan. They also spent time with weapons experts, who with other Weta staff had previously visited the prince's production company in Thailand.

Chatrichalerm first visited Weta seven months ago and met Peter Jackson, who is now in the midst of filming a remake of King Kong. By coincidence, Chatrichalerm, 61, was an intern for producer Merian Cooper, who produced and co-directed the original King Kong in 1933 - the version that Jackson is basing his remake on.

Another project that Chatrichalerm is considering is a fantasy-adventure, Peth Pra Uma, from a novel by Thai author Panom Thien, the Post reported. An epic bigger than Lord of the Rings and Suriyothai put together, Peth Pra Uma is a 50-volume series that narrates the trek of a ranger through a land of humans and monsters.

On Suriyothai, Chatichalerm collaborated with Francis Ford Coppola - a classmate from film school at UCLA - to re-edit a shorter-version of the original three-hour film for international audiences.

Last Life, OK Baytong, the Tessaract at Seattle film fest

For days I've been trying to access the Seattle International Film Festival site to see if any Thai movies are playing, but I haven't figured out how to access the program.

No matter. Some people on the Rotten Tomatoes Critics' Discussion forum have.

Anyway, according to the thread, Pen-Ek Ratanruang's Last Life in the Universe and Nonzee Nimibutr's OK Baytong will be shown at the festival.

Also, Oxide Pang's adaptation of the Alex Garland crime novel, The Tessaract, will be shown. Though filmed in Bangkok, The Tessaract hasn't even been seen in Thailand, for reasons unknown to me. Interest in the film has picked up. But it seems the Thai distributors had reason to shy away from it, writes Sam Adams of the Philadelphia City Paper. He had occasion to see The Tessaract at the recent Philadelphia Film Festival:

Lame attempt at an existential non-genre thriller by director Oxide Pang (The Eye, Bangkok Dangerous), filming in English for the first time. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Saskia Reeves are foreigners doing time in a Bangkok flophouse: He, a drug dealer waiting on a deal; she, a budding filmmaker interviewing street children. The plot twists desperately but only ties itself in knots, and the practically arbitrary insertion of gunplay indicates that Pang isn't yet ready to make the leap.

Hey, that's only one review. I'm still interested in checking it out.

In addition for Seattle festgoers, cinematographer Christopher Doyle (Last Life, Hero, In the Mood for Love, et. al.) will be on hand to give a master class. An appearance by Pen-ek is being mentioned as well.

Review: Duel of Fists

• Directed by Chang Cheh
• Starring David Chiang, Ti Lung, Pawana Chanajit, Chan Sing
  
• A Shaw Brothers Production, released in 1971, filmed on location in Bangkok; DVD release in 2004 by Celestial
• Rating: 4/5

Another great Shaw Brothers title has been released on DVD by Celestial. Directed by Chang Cheh, David Chiang and Ti Lung star in this contemporary urban drama, set around the Thai boxing underworld of the 1970s.

Chiang plays an engineer in Hong Kong, who finds out he has a half brother in Thailand, and is implored to go find him by his dying father.

The dapper Chiang then jets off to Bangkok, landing during the water-splashing Thai New Year Songkran holiday. As he begins his search for his half-brother, he meets a helpful Thai woman, played by Thai leading lady Pawana Chanajit.

There is some cool footage of a less-congested, greener Bangkok. Landmarks including the Dusit Thani Hotel and the soon-to-be-demolished Siam Intercontinental Hotel. But Chiang makes up for the pollution by wearing some loud get ups. I'm sure they were styling threads for the times, but wow. A red cowboy hat? Nice scarves, boys.

The best fight scenes are in the boxing ring, with Ti Lung against a guy named Cannon who kills all his oppenents.

This isn't quite Ong-Bak, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Many of Celestial's remastered Shaw Bros titles are now available for around US$5 from United in Thailand. They have Thai and Mandarin soundtracks with Thai and English subtitles. They are missing the special features of the Hong Kong releases, but the picture and sound qualities are excellent, which is all I need to enjoy these kung-fu cult classics.