Apichatpong-a-rama: Quattro Hong Kong 2, Heterdox Award nomination

Apichatpong Weerasethakul has joined Filipino director Brillante Mendoza, Malaysia's Ho Yuhang and Hong Kong's Stanley Kwan in contributing segments to Quattro Hong Kong 2, an omnibus project commissioned by Brand Hong Kong and produced by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society.

The film will have its world premiere at the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival, running March 20 to April 5.

Quattro Hong Kong was inaugurated last year with contributions by Clara Law, Fruit Chan, Herman Yau and Heiward Mak. The omnibus also screened at the Taipei Film Festival, Cinema Digital Seoul and the Venice Film Festival.

So this year's Quattro project is expanded to include celebrated Southeast Asian directors – Apichatpong, riding high on his Palme d'Or win at last year's Cannes Film Festival for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives; Mendoza, the Cannes best director winner for 2009’s Kinatay; and Ho Yuhang, whose At the End of Daybreak surprised the heck out of me at the World Film Festival of Bangkok.

The Quattro 2 shorts are all being made in Hong Kong, says Jacob Wong, Hong Kong International Film Festival programmer.

Wong enthuses in a press statement released yesterday:

"Hong Kong is an amazing city – physically beautiful and psychologically complex. This omnibus series has been getting a very warm reception from audiences and participating filmmakers worldwide. Both Brillante and Stanley have finished shooting, and Apichatpong has just wrapped today. We are really looking forward to seeing the results, especially when this time we have three very exciting directors from Southeast Asia."

In other recent news, Uncle Boonmee is a nominee for the inaugural Heterodox Award in the Cinema Eye Honors at the Museum of the Moving Image. The new Heterdox Award is sponsored by Filmmaker Magazine.

The other nominees are Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio’s Alamar, Matt Porterfield’s Putty Hill, Michelangelo Frammartino’s Le Quattro Volte and Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture.

Here's the obligatory blurbs:

Filmmaker Magazine is “honored to celebrate with Cinema Eye the five narrative films this year that have most adventurously burst through the boundaries separating art and life,” said editor Scott Macaulay.

Cinema Eye co-chair Esther Robinson stated: “Filmmakers have always been at the forefront of raising important questions about the construction of truth, but the borders between fiction and non-fiction film are both slippery and oft times guarded with provincial and outmoded thinking.” The Heterodox Award “hopes to puncture this border, by honoring a narrative film that best illuminates the beauty and importance of creating new territories of cinema - inhabitable by both fiction and nonfiction films alike.”

Boonmee is already nominated for the Independent Spirit Awards and on January 20 we could learn whether it made the short list for the Academy Awards.

As a reminder, Apichatpong will be in Singapore this weekend for a charity screening for Uncle Boonmee to benefit the Asian Film Archive.

And Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is set for the inaugural Lifescapes South East Asian Film Festival put on by Payap University in Chiang Mai. It'll be the hometown premiere for the Chiang Mai-based filmmaker. Lifescapes runs from February 3 to 6 at the city's Major Cineplex branch.

Thai audiences charmed by romances in 2010

Once again, GTH made the No. 1 Thai movie at the box office. Media giant GMM Grammy's movie studio followed up the success of 2009's Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story with the South Korean travel romance Guan Muen Ho (Hello Stranger), earning 131 million baht.

That was followed by another youth-oriented romance, Sahamongkol's Sing Lek Lek Thee Riak Wa … Ruk (First Love), the sweet story of an awkward high-school girl who goes from ugly duckling to beauty queen. It was a surprisingly sweet summer sleeper hit that gave Guan Muen Ho a run for its money.

Here's the top 11 Thai films at the box office in 2010:

1. Guan Meun Ho (กวน มึน โฮ, Hello Stranger) – 131 million baht
2. Sing Lek Lek Thee Riak Wa … Ruk (สิ่งเล็กๆ ที่เรียกว่า...รัก, First Love) – 80 million baht
3. Saranae Sip Lor (สาระแนสิบล้อ, literally "Saranae 10 wheeler") – 70 million baht
4. Tukky Jao Ying Kai Kob (ตุ๊กกี้เจ้าหญิงขายกบ, literally "Tukky, the princess who sold frogs") – 67 million baht
5. Baan Chan ... Talok Wai Gon (Por Son Wai) (บ้านฉัน...ตลกไว้ก่อน (พ่อสอนไว้), The Little Comedian) – 50 million baht
5. Po Taek (โป๊ะแตก) – 50 million baht
7. Ong Bak 3 (องค์บาก 3) – 46 million baht.
8. Luangphee Teng 3 (หลวงพี่เท่ง 3 รุ่นฮา เขย่าโลก, The Holy Man 3) – 37 million baht
9. Nak Prok (นาคปรก, Shadow of the Naga) – 36 million baht
10. Chua Fah Din Salai (ชั่วฟ้าดินสลาย, Eternity) – 35 million baht
11. Tai Hong (ตายโหง, Still, a.k.a. Die a Violent Death) – 31.43 million baht

Popularity-wise, according to the ABAC Poll Research Center, the favorite movie of last year was Sing Lek Lek with a 19.2% share, followed by Guan Muen Ho with 18.3%. Ubiquitous comedienne Tukky and her fairytale frog-princess movie were in third place with 11.2%. Phranakorn's monastic comedy Luangphee Teng 3 was fourth at 9% and rounding out the top five was the lush period romantic melodrama Chua Fah Din Salai with 7.5%

Of 2010's 11 top-grossing films, seven were released by market leader Sahamongkol Film International, two were by GTH (Guan Muen Ho and The Little Comedian) and two by Phranakorn (Luangphee Teng 3 and Tai Hong).

Most were romance or comedies, the exceptions being the controversial "monks with guns" crime thriller Nak Prok, Tony Jaa's martial-arts drama Ong-Bak 3 – released in the midst of Bangkok's red-shirt protests – and the horror shorts compilation Tai Hong.

So the action and horror genres aren't completely dead. Yet.

But with Thai audiences eating up the romance films for the past couple of years, the studios will be increasingly formula-driven and offer more and more of those in 2011.


(Via Lyn's Lakorn Blog)

Review: Yes or No? So, I Love You

• Directed by Sarasawadee Wongsompetch
• Starring Sucharat Manaying, Supanat Jittaleela
• Released in Thai cinemas on December 16, 2010; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

Cloyingly cute and so light it's almost inconsequential, Yes or No, Yak Rak Kor Rak Loei (Yes or No อยากรัก ก็รักเลย, also Yes or No, So I Love You) is distinguished from most other youth-oriented romantic comedies by being "that lesbian film".

Beneath the surface there are at least a couple of meaningful messages. One is that love is pretty confusing, even moreso if you are unsure of your sexuality. The other is that entering into a relationship takes courage, and you need double the usual amount of bravery if such a relationship goes against what is deemed normal.

The girly-type girl is Pie, a sweet college co-ed who's just moved into her dorm room. While she's taking a shower, her roommate comes in. Upon leaving the bathroom, the towel-wrapped Pie is surprised by the new arrival, who looks like a young man. Then a cockroach runs over the short-haired person's foot and the "guy" screams like a girl, and jumps into the arms of the terry-cloth swaddled Pie.

The tomboy's name is Kim, and Pie doesn't like her. She lays a line of red tape down the middle of the room, one that Kim shall not pass.

But eventually the roommates become friends, bonding over meals Kim prepares in her rice cooker. Kim serenades Pie with her ukulele and these best friends forever pass the time playing shadow puppets. Tentative friendship gradually becomes something more, and that red line is ignored as the roommates' two beds are pushed together.


Both hold out, though, on the question of whether they are gay. Kim swears she's not a "tom" even as she gives Pie long, significant, puppy-dog-eye glances.

The first half of Yes or No clips along at an enjoyable and humor-filled pace. There's the stock stereotypical supporting characters, like a wise-cracking effeminate gay male friend and a weird girl named Nerd who steals scenes in her strange, quiet way. Pie has a bland boyfriend who wishes he could be more to her. The slower-paced melodramatic last half is filled with tears, misunderstandings involving a pushy "dee"-type lesbian neighbor girl and running in the rain.

As with the celebrated gay-teen romantic drama Love of Siam, Yes or No has a parental figure disapproving of the relationship. The finger-wagging mother is there to raise the stakes for the two girls and act as a surrogate for Thailand's cultural watchdogs who worry about the immorality and disturbance to public order that films might pose. Who knows, without that disapproving mother to give her little speech, everyone who watches Yes or No might turn gay and bring Thai society to ruin.

So it's up to Pie and Kim to show they have the courage to go against that message. But will they? Yes or no?


Previous posts:

• Are they or aren't they? Yes or no?

Agrarian Utopia, Baby Arabia in 1st Salaya International Documentary Film Festival

The Film Archive (Public Organization) in cooperation with the Thai Film Foundation organizes the first Salaya International Documentary Film Festival offering more than 20 Asian documentaries from January 13 to 23 at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom.

Part of the festival will feature documentaries that were supported by the Asian Network of Documentary of the Pusan International Film Festival.

For the opening, the festival will pay homage to Ogawa Shinsuke, one of the most influential independent documentary filmmakers in post-war Japan, with the screening his most acclaimed work, 1968's Summer in Narita, which records the protest by farmers against the building of Tokyo's Narita International Airport. The fest will also screen Ogawa's 210-minute epic from 1982, A Japanese Village.

Other festival highlights include screenings of Uruphong Raksasad's highly acclaimed film on rural Thailand, Agrarian Utopia and Baby Arabia, the musical by Muslim filmmakers Panu Aree, Kong Rithdee and Kaweenipon Ketprasit, about a band that's well-known in Bangkok's Islamic community. Baby Arabia will give a concert after the 5pm screening on January 14.

The full festival schedule is at Bangkok Cinema Scene.

For more details, check the websites www.FAPOT.org or www.ThaiFilm.com or check the Facebook events page.

Immortal Woman added to Rotterdam competition

The International Film Festival Rotterdam has announced its complete competition lineup, including its short films, and among those is Immortal Woman by Jakrawal Nilthamrong (จักรวาล นิลธำรงค์).

It's the European premiere for Jakrawal's 9-minute work, which is an intimate yet haunting landscape study of an elderly woman. It's previously been exhibited as an art installation in Bangkok and was screened at the Singapore Art Museum.

That's in addition to previously announced Thai titles in the IFFR's 40th edition, Sivaroj Kongsakul's Eternity (Tee Rak) in competition and out-of-competition slots for Wisit Sasanatieng's The Red Eagle and the pan-Asian shorts trilogy Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner by Wang Jing, Anocha Suwichakornpong and Kaz Cai.

Wisit and Anocha are on the Tiger Awards jury, and Wisit is also taking part in CineMart.

IFFR runs from January 26 to February 6.

Uruphong's Dad's Picture in Clermont-Ferrand competition

The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival has traditionally been an important platform for Thai indie filmmakers to be launched on the world stage.

However, the 33rd annual fest's international competition has just one Thai short.

It's a good one though – Dad's Picture (รูปของพ่อ ) by Uruphong Raksasad.

Returning to the same rice paddies of his award-winning feature Agrarian Utopia (recently nominated for the Kom Chad Luek Awards and set to open Chiang Mai's Lifescapes Southeast Asian Film Festival), Uruphong's short depicts a daughter who's come home to spend a day with her father on his farm, talking with him as he prepares seeds for tree saplings and taking up a slingshot to help him forage for food.

The short won the top prize at last year's Film Expo Asia.

Dad's Picture is part of the 80-title international competition at Clermont-Ferrand. Others include 3 Days Grace by Singapore's Kenny Tan, Inhalation by Malaysia's Edmund Yeo and Boca by Alistaire Christian Chan from the Philippines.

The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival runs from February 4 to 12.

(Via John Badadlu)

Christopher Doyle and Nonzee Nimibutr on the case of Bangkok Noir

Making a documentary for the German TV series Durch die Nacht mit... (Into the Night with ...), Bangkok-based filmmaker Marco Wilms got together with a wild pair, Nang Nak director Nonzee Nimibutr and In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who also worked with Thai helmer Pen-ek Ratanaruang on Last Life in the Universe (which Nonzee produced) and Invisible Waves.

During their one night in Bangkok, Nonzee and Doyle visited the scenes and sources of inspirations for their films, including Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love, which is set in 1960s Hong Kong but was actually shot in Bangkok.

Broadcast on German television last year, the episode will be screened at 6pm on Wednesday, January 12 at Bangkok's National Gallery as part of the "Bangkok Noir" photo exhibition mounted by the Goethe Institut, running from January 6 to 30.

Three Thai projects in HAF 2011 selection

Films by Sivaroj Kongsakul, Phuttipong Aroongpheng and Nithiwat Tharatorn are among the 28 projects selected for participation in this year's Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF).

Sivaroj, who made his feature debut last year with the existential drama Eternity (Tee Rak) has Arun Karn, which is being developed by his producers at Pop Pictures – Aditya Assarat, Umpornpol Yugala and Soros Sukhum. According to the Pop Pictures website, it's about "two soldiers whose last days were intertwined with their loved ones". Sivaroj, by the way, was recently accepted for this year's Cannes Cinefondation Residency.

Departure Day by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, which is in the works over at Extra Virgin with producers Pimpaka Towira and Mai Maksuwan, won a script-development award from the Asian Cinema Fund at last year's Pusan International Film Festival. Here's what they have on the project:

The Rohingya, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have been fleeing their country in rickety boats for years in search of a better life. In January of 2009 in Thailand, six boatloads of Rohingya were towed out to sea by Thai authorities, and five of them sank. Three hundred people went missing. Departure Day is a project dedicated to these victims.

The theme is the obscurity of identity, in the face of the fundamental right that all people have to inhabit their own identity, be it in the form of an official ID card or not. Everyone exists in the same world, and a single name can be shared by many – be they a refugee, a newborn baby, an unknown stranger, or even a celebrity.

The story concerns four main characters: a stateless woman in her ninth month of pregnancy, a Thai woman who has recently lost her five-day-old baby, an unknown man washed up from the sea and a Thai fisherman who rescues him.

And Dear Galileo director Nithiwat is working on something called Double Life of China Town, produced by Yongyoot Thongkongtoon at GTH.

Previous successes at HAF include Anocha Suwichakornpong's Tiger AWard-winning Mundane History, which went through HAF 2007. Other past recipients of HAF funds include Nonzee Nimibutr and Chartchai Ketnust.

The full list of this year's projects is at the HAF website (PDF).

HAF runs from March 21 to 23 in Hong Kong.

(Via Extra Virgin, John Badalu)

Ghostly white briefs of Hor Taew Taek come back to haunt us

Poj Arnon mixes the gay-icon vampires and shirtless werewolves of the Twilight franchise with Gothic horror in Hor Taew Taek Waek Chi-Mi (หอแต๋วแตก แหกชิมิ), the third installment of his transvestite ghost-comedy franchise.

Here, the cross-dressing owners of a college dormitory visit a fraternity house.

Poj's production faced controversy in November when the movie poster was censored by the Culture Ministry, which had determined that the shirtless vampire was showing too much skin wearing just a pair of white bikini briefs.

The solution was to put some trousers on the bare-chested young man, while the hefty comedians in revealing women's bathing suits went unchanged. Later versions of the poster have the guys looking positively dowdy, in dark-colored high-collared Victorian-style blouses.

Meanwhile, there's a trailer at YouTube (embedded below), and it shows plenty of skin, though it's mainly the protruding belly of rotund little funnyman Kohtee Aramboy.

The film's original title, Hor Taew Taek Haek Chi-Mi was also deemed inappropriate by MiniCult, so the vulgar and violent "haek" (to rip apart) became the more gentle and polite "waek" (to pull apart).

Whatever. Apparently, even fluent Thai speakers have trouble translating the film's title.

Further, the cultural watchdogs were wringing their hands over the use of the colloquial Thai expression "chi-mi", but I guess they relented on that.

Also starring Jaturong "Mokjok" Ornnorm, Ekachai Srivichai and Yingsak Jonglertjessadawong, the movie opens tomorrow.

Apichatpong-a-rama: Boonmee in Singapore and Japan, more lists and on the radio

Apichatpong Weerasethakul and his Palme d'Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives head into 2011 with theatrical releases in Singapore and Japan.

Uncle Boonmee opens in Singapore on January 27, for an exclusive run at the Cathay Cineplex's Picturehouse.

Passed without cuts by the Singaporean censors, the movie is rated PG. It's distributed in Singapore by Lighthouse Pictures.

Singapore will also have a charity screening of Uncle Boonmee on January 15, to benefit the Asian Film Archive, with Apichatpong there to introduce the screening and answer questions afterward.

In Japan, Uncle Boonmee opens in March. There's a a website and a downloadable trailer.

Or you can watch the Japanese trailer for Uncle Boonmee on YouTube and right here. It's a cool trailer, which makes interesting use of the Penguin Villa music from the closing credits and causes me to wonder about the many different ways Boonmee can be remixed and mashed. For example, what if Boonmee were being sold as a romantic comedy, or as an action movie?



As a reminder, Uncle Boonmee is due for its theatrical and DVD debuts in the U.S. by Strand Releasing this spring.

It's already on DVD in some territories. And that leads to other things, unfortunately.

But I would urge you, if you really want to see Uncle Boonmee, just wait a bit, and look for it at a cinema near you.

Boonmee on the radio:

• Apichatpong's interview with CBC's Eleanor Wachtel is available for download from the CBC website. It was recorded back during the Toronto International Film Festival and covers just about everything, from Joei's upbringing in small-town Khon Kaen, his time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, his first film Mysterious Object at Noon, his sexuality, the dark, angry undercurrent of Tropical Malady and life for Apichatpong post-Palme d'Or.
• Wachtel also spoke with Cinematheque Ontario senior programmer James Quandt, the editor of the Apichatpong "pink book". He offers a critique of the criticism about Apichatpong, saying words like "hallucinatory" or "dreamlike" are a cop-out when it comes to describing Apichatpong's films. "He's a much more structured and controlling director than he's been given credit for," Quandt says.

Year-end lists:

• Minneapolis-St. Paul film blogger Kathie Smith picked Boonmee as her No. 1. "Uncle Boonmee requires a certain leap of faith from the viewer, but the rewards that are paid out are far beyond anything you are ever going to get out of any other movie. For real."
• Boonmee also tops the list by Michael J. Anderson of Tativille. And he writes more about 2010 in cinema.
• Toronto Globe and Mail critics Rick Groen and Liam Lacey's best films of 2010 also includes the "tone poem" Boonmee.
• Dublin-based Sunday Tribune film critic Paul Lynch has Boonmee at No. 2 and Apichatpong as a runner-up for best director of 2010 for his "flagrant abuse of film convention".

Finally, just in case you missed it, Lekha Shankar wrote recently about Apichatpong and Boonmee at the film festivals in Kerala and Goa in India.