BKKIFF 2005 review: Pisaj (Evil)

• Directed by Chukiat Sakweerakul
• Starring: Ammara Assawanon, Pumwaree Yodkamol, Theeranai Suwanhom, Alexander Simon Randell
• Released in Thailand cinemas in 2004; in the Asean Competition at the 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival

With the Thai government's drug war as a subtext, Pisaj (Evil) is a far smarter thriller than it appears.

The story involves Oui (Pumwaree Yodkamol), a big-eyed young woman who turns up at the door of her aunt Bua. The aunt lives in a shophouse and runs a printing plant in the building. She lives upstairs on the third floor. Bua is given the job of caring for her nephew, Bua's grandson, Arm, as well as cleaning the place. There's a fourth floor, but nobody lives up there, because, well you know, it might be haunted.

Arm (Simon Randell) is a tough little kid, but he seems kind of strange. Turns out he sees - what else? - dead people. He forbids Oui from using a cabinet to store her things because ghosts live there.

Things go bump in the night. "We must have cats again," says Auntie Bua when the three of them are eating and something makes noise on the vacant floor above.

Oui is haunted by the vision of her parents being killed, which she witnessed on the roadside when the family had stopped to change a tire. A couple guys on a motorcycle walked up. Now Oui sees one of the motorcycle men. She needs to take tranquilizers to get some sleep, but even those don't seem to help. The motorcycle man slits her throat and she lays bleeding on the floor.

The tale gets weirder and weirder. Auntie Bua wants Arm to finish all the liver on the plate. Arm can't stomach it. He eats a piece of liver and pukes it up in the sink. What the heck is that all about? Arm has some strange scars on his back. He had a nanny before, who locked him in the bathroom and left him there. So now he's scared to use the toilet at night. He uses the cabinet instead. Did she put those scars on his back? What is he scared of?

Well, Arm has acknowledged that there are ghosts in the building. But if you see them, he advises, do not acknowledge that they exist, because they don't know they exist. Understand? Also, there are some spooky noises being made. Oooooooooo.

Auntie Bua has something weird going on. Turns out she's a mystic or a physic, involved in some sort of Indian mysticism. She has a whole shrine set up in her house, which is not unusual in Thailand. But as is noted later, there's not a Buddha image to be found in the room.

The suspense ratchets up when one day Oui and Arm are locked in the house with no way to get out. They do get some help from one of the print-shop workers (Theeranai Suwanhom, from Goal Club), who brings them some food. Later, he breaks into the place, though it is unclear how he got in.

It seems there are ghosts in the print shop. One of them gets in a cabinet Arm is hiding in, and he can't ignore her because she's all bloody and has blood drooling from her mouth. Then granny, Auntie Bua, comes home. She's in her full Indian Goddess regalia. She seems to be in some sort of trance and pulls out a sword and starts stabbing things. The print shop guy (can't remember his character's name) climbs in the cabinet and tries to use his phone. He calls the print shop and the ghosts answer. He tries to call the cops and his phone dies, of course. Why didn't he call the cops first? Well, Auntie Bua is stabbing the cabinet.

When the story resolved itself, I was left wondering what the heck I'd just seen. Was it all an illusion, a dream, a nightmare? Very strange. But I enjoyed it.

I especially enjoyed watching Pumwaree Yodkamol, a slight young woman with an expressive face. She was the female lead in Ong-Bak, and played a one-dimensional character. Here, she had a chance to show her acting chops. There was another actress, too, who I believe portrays a Karen hilltribe woman in the comedy, Jaew, who I enjoyed was well.

What really struck me was how there would be a television or radio playing the background and news about the 2003-04 drug war would come on, citing deaths and concerns by human rights groups. I can't help but wonder if this was a statement by the filmmakers, branding the drug war as "evil" by virtue of it being mentioned in a movie titled "evil". Maybe the ghosts on the fourth floor were victims of the drug war.

I've been thinking about this movie since watching it. I now feel that it didn't go far enough. Though there's a subtext about the drug war, it didn't directly have anything to do with the action on the screen. This connection should have been made, and made strong. As it was, the action was all goofy, with people running around, and that Indian mystic waving her sword around. But it still didn't go far enough either way - being a campy comedy, or a serious, scary thriller.

Though confusing at times, I did feel a pretty high level of suspense, and was entertained as well. It appears this film has gone to VCD without so much as a peep (or English subtitles). I hope it gets more international recognition, though.



(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

French Muay Thai

Likely hoping to building on the success of Ong-Bak's 1-million-served theatre run in France, there's now a French kickboxing movie called Chok Dee, according to Kung Fu Cinema.

Opening on February 16, the movie stars Dida Diafat, one of the France's top Muay Thai competitors. He plays a convict named Rayane who is introduced to Muay Thai while in prison and upon his release travels to Thailand to join a Muay Thai training camp where he undergoes strenuous conditioning and must prove himself as a foreigner. He eventually ends up fighting in an underground circuit.

Kung Fu Cinema says that from the trailer, Chok Dee appears to be a more serious film about Muay Thai fighting than Ong Bak. While it may lack the insane action, it looks promising nevertheless, the website says.

This is at least the second French Thai boxing film I know of. There's another one out there called Fureur, which I thought was horrible. Avoid that one.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Top 5 Thai films of 2004

1. Tropical Malady

As a frequent contributor to this site, Sebu, has said, this film has revolutionized storytelling. It's taken me awhile to come around to the greatness of this film, which won a jury prize at Cannes. Now out on DVD, I was able to fully appreciate the film. I'm still unable to pinpoint what it means to me personally, but I recognize its greatness and especially think the performances by the two actors, Sakda Kaewbuadee (the country boy and the tiger shaman) and Banlop Lomnoi (the soldier), were especially superb.



2. Citizen Dog

It didn't seem possible that Wisit Sasanatieng could top his first effort, the visually stunning homage to westerns and classic Thai melodramas, Tears of the Black Tiger. And he didn't quite, as Citizen Dog bogs down somewhat with narrative. But visually and conceptually, it's even more of a feast than Tears of the Black Tiger because it reimagines contemporary Bangkok's urban scene and has some insightful moments of great satire. It has a great soundtrack as well. Hopefully it will be picked up for the festival circuit in the next year. I also have my fingers crossed that the DVD release will have English subtitles, but then I might buy it anyway, just for the music.



3. Ai Fak

Though it starts out light, Ai Fak, or The Judgement, moves into heavy, depressing drama, but is still well acted (especially by Pitisak Yaowanon, in his feature debut) and beautifully filmed. I was very disappointed that the DVD release didn't have English subs, but I have been chided by more literary types that the source material, the S.E.A. Write Award-winning novel by Chart Korbjitti, Khamphiphaksa, is available in English translation. I hope to see this film get some attention on the festival circuit in the coming years.



4. The Adventure of Iron Pussy

Apichatpong Weerasethakul has had a busy year. When funding mechanisms bogged down for Tropical Malady, he switched to this campy low-budget musical, which is co-directed by the star, Michael Shaowanasai, who portrays the title character, a transvestite secret agent. He tackles the role with relish, even in his alter ego as a male 7-Eleven clerk. All the dialogue and songs in the digitally photographed movie were post-dubbed by famed Thai voiceover actors. The effect is highly entertaining. This is one to pick up on DVD!



5. Shutter

I'm not a big fan of horror, and admittedly, I'm scraping the bottom of my barrel here. There were 43 Thai films released last year, and I only saw about six or seven of them. But I did honestly enjoy Shutter, though I recognize that it is pretty much a stock thriller that relies on music cues to make you jump at the right (and wrong) moments. Still, great visuals and a decent performance by Ananda Everingham make this film. It was the top box office earner among Thai films and is being exported to other Asian countries, including Hong Kong and Singapore. I expect it will be picked up by film festivals in the coming year.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Urging the industry

The Bangkok Post sent a business reporter to attend a discussion on Thailand's film industry at a film market exhibition that was part of the Bangkok International Film Festival. Not surprisingly, the experts said more needs to be done.

The industry needs to not only address its local obstacles to growth but also look for opportunities abroad. They noted that other countries, particularly China, are opening their doors to investment in the movie industry, with Hollywood studios such as Columbia TriStar already having set up a studio on the mainland.

Christopher Knight, a senior manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers (Thailand) Co, said that Thai producers should form ties with producers in China and Hong Kong to position themselves for future growth.

At the same time, Thai producers needed to team up to lobby for stronger incentives from the government if they were to compete with other countries.

Film standards also needed to be improved to meet international levels, while more had to be done to crack down on piracy.

Rick Griffiths, partner in technology, information communications, entertainment and media group of PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada, said the Thai industry had lost opportunities to produce films for foreign studios due to the lack of bilateral treaties with other countries.

Canada, for instance, maintained treaties with both Hong Kong and China to allow production crews of the two countries to take advantage of financial aid for film projects.

Mr Griffiths said developed nations would play a supporting role in promoting the local industry by providing financial support for independent filmmakers.

Pantham Thongsang, producer of Tifa Co, a production house wholly-owned by GMM Grammy Plc, said that Thai independent film producers faced difficulty in the market due to the lack of state support.

''Last year was a diamond year for the Thai film industry, with many films like Cannes-winner Tropical Malady, Beautiful Boxer or Ong Bak succeeding in the international market,'' Mr Pantham said.

''But what next? I worry that the industry will not have quality films to go abroad.''

The government should offer state subsidies to local independent filmmakers, and thus support industry growth, Mr Pantham said.

He pointed to countries such as South Korea, France, Australia and Canada as good examples of how state support helped spur industry growth.

More examples how tough it is for filmmakers, especially indie directors, can be found in the documentary Malady Diary, which chronicles Apichatpong Weerasethakul's struggles in getting Tropical Malady made.

Of course, some business is getting done at the festival, the Bangkok Post reports. Film deals worth at least US$250 million are expected to be concluded during the five-day trade show.

Last year $100 million of film deals were done at the film market. The number of exhibitors this year - 300 - and attendance - 500 - is triple last year's.

The largest foreign delegations are from China, India, Japan and the US.

"Bangkok has quietly and quickly become what I believe to be the premier film capital of Southeast Asia. Some of that is because of the brilliance of the independent films that are made here," film market organizer Christine Rush told the Bangkok Post.

She said Bangkok featured some of the most advanced production facilities in the world and Thailand had become a favourite shooting location.

Here's more on the deals from the Post:

Tae Sung Jeong, chief operating officer of Mediaplex Inc, a movie production house in South Korea, said the company was in talks with partners from Japan, China, Thailand and Hong Kong to set up a company to finance films that would be released worldwide.

The move would tap the growing popularity of Asian movies, with $30 million injected into the company to finance about 15 films a year within the next five years.

The Thai partner would be Matching Studio Plc, he said.

Director Nonzee Nimubutr (Nang Nak, Jan Dara) said a $6-million movie project called Queen of Pattani was in a pipeline by partners from Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. The Thai investor would chip in around $1.5 million on the film based on the history of Pattani and due to be released in late 2006.

Nonzee said the films would be released in Asian countries and western markets. There would be more collaboration between Asian partners in the film industry in the future to expand the target audiences and share expertise between film makers.

However, Nonzee suggested that the government should exclusively promote the film market instead of connecting the event with tourism.

In another development, Matching Motion Pictures has joined with Universe International (HK) Co in a 200-million-baht production of a thriller entitled Re-cycle, featuring Thai movie star Jetrin Wattanasin and Hong Kong starlet Lee Sinje.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Elephant boy

Yuya Yagira, the young star of the Japanese drama Nobody Knows, for which he won the best actor nod at Cannes last year, has been in Thailand, making his next film. The movie is about a boy who has developed an empathy for elephants, and in order to make the film, the crew came to Thailand. The Bangkok Post was on the scene.

Yagira comes across as a rather quiet teenager, his shyness accentuated by those deep, mournful eyes, which struck a chord to many cinema-goers.

This undeniable appeal is probably the reason why he's landed himself a role in another touching drama called Little Randy and Shining Boy, due to be released in Japan around May. The movie was inspired by the real-life story of Tetsumu Sakamoto, a boy born into a Japanese family with an animal-import business. Painfully withdrawn, Tetsumu had major problems socialising with his peers. Then one day he encountered elephants for the first time and realised that he had the ability to communicate with them.

"Elephants are forced to come to Japan. They try their best to heal the human spirit but they have to live and die in small concrete pens,'' the boy wrote at some later point.

After he graduated from primary school, Tetsumu's parents agreed to send him to Thailand to be trained as a mahout. And the task of portraying this latter-day Dr Doolittle is Yagira's latest cinematic challenge. The young actor was recently in Mae Sa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai for a location shoot.

"One, two, three, down," he orders in broken Thai. Wanpen, the two-year-old female elephant he's been working with the whole day, responds to the awkward command and kneels, lowering her enormous bulk to the ground. She then lifts her trunk to support the teenager as he climbs down from her back. They've practised the manoeuvre umpteen times already so it goes off relatively smoothly. Up on her back again Yagira gives every appearance of being the professional mahout, controlling Wanpen skilfully, showing no sign of discouragement or exhaustion.

After the training session ends, he rewards the animal by hand-feeding her some bananas.

The interview gets off to a slow start, the actor initially coming across as nearly as painfully shy as the character he's playing. "I'm enjoying this very much,'' he allows.

So what attracted him to the film?

Well, the story is so inspiring. I almost cried after reading the script.''

For this is ultimately a tragic story. Tetsumu Sakamoto's dream was to find a place where elephants could live out the last years of their lives after they had become too old to work. But before he got a chance to put the plan into action he was killed in a car accident. He was only 20 years old.

Sayuri, his mother, later set up an elephant camp in Japan in remembrance of her son. It now houses nine elephants and Tetsumu's younger brother, Taka-aki, has become a mahout [an elephant handler]. Now the same age as Tetsumu was when he died, Taka-aki is helping to train Yagira for the elephant-handling scenes. His mother, now 50, has travelled to Chiang Mai to act as a consultant for Little Randy and Shining Boy.

"This is the story of a hero. Tetsumu was a real hero with a big heart," said Chunsaku Kawake, best known in his native Japan for directing TV drama series. This, his cinematic debut, is being co-produced by Fuji TV and Toho Film.

"We plan to use Thailand as a base location to produce more projects -- such as a samurai film and an action film -- in the near future," said producer Hiroyoshi Koiwai.

"Professional teams. Superb service. All the standard equipment. We can get everything we want here," he added.

The Japanese title of the film could be literally translated as The Boy From a Star, a reference, perhaps, to a belief in life after death. Well, if that is the case, perhaps Tetsumu is looking down on us now, proud that his dream of an elephant refuge has materialised but also pleased, perhaps, that his life, short as it was, has inspired a full-length feature film.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

6ixtynin9 in 6eattl9 - and beyond

Ruang Talok 69, or 6ixtynin9, a 1999 crime thriller by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, has been playing in the Seattle area. It's encouraging to see a resurgence in interest in this film, before it is remade.

I'm hoping my local arthouse cinema here in Bangkok will screen it, along with Fun Bar Karaoke - two Pen-Ek films I've not yet seen.

And now, it's available on DVD from Amazon.

Here's what Seattle Weekly had to say about it:

"I'm lucky," says Tum (Lalita Panyopas), an attractive young Bangkok secretary, but she's being ironic, having just been fired from her job. Returning home, however, she discovers a box full of cash that changes her fortunes and creates a growing number of corpses in her apartment. Who's the killer? Surely not the meek, mousy Tum, right? Well . . . let's just say the girl discovers some hidden resources while caught between two incompetent criminal gangs. This low-key 1999 black comedy by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang recalls Into the Night and Apartment Zero as Tum is led into darker and darker territory during the course of one long day. It's "just like a movie," exclaims one friend, and 6ixtynin9 does indeed feels assembled from other movies. (The title of this SIFF favorite from 2001 refers to Tum's flipping apartment number, not to your smutty thoughts.) While lacking one outstanding scene or a big climax, the leisurely film does maintain an amusingly drab, deadpan comic tone throughout, plus a wealth of colorful supporting characters.

And the Seattle Times:

Bangkok is in an economic crisis at the beginning of "6ixtynin9," a stylish, deadpan thriller from director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. A group of blue-blazered secretaries at an unnamed financial corporation draw straws to find out which three are being laid off; an elevator at the apartment building of Ms. Tum (Lalita Panyopas), the last woman fired, is out of order (even the "Out of Order" sign, which lies dirty on the floor, is out of order); and the number on her apartment door, "6," keeps slipping into a "9."

It's this last detail that proves the most important. Shocked by her sudden dismissal, Tum walks dazed through the rest of her day. The economy stinks, she doesn't have much money, she resorts to shoplifting. At home, she contemplates suicide by drinking cleaning supplies. The next morning, she finds a noodle box filled with 1 million baht outside her door — left there, we find out later, because of the 6/9 mix-up.

At first she doesn't know what to do; the money's obviously not legit. This becomes painfully clear when two bruisers show up — one young and good-looking in a neck brace, the other pockmarked and pony-tailed, both wearing warm-up suits emblazoned with "Kanchit's Thai Boxing" on the back.

When the two deadpan thugs begin to argue over which brand of noodles is imprinted on the box, you suddenly realize we're verging into Pulp Fiction territory. These are the quirky-but-deadly variety of crooks. Less proficient than Quentin Tarantino's bad guys, they are just as prone to calamitous happenstance.

Before long, they're dead. Before long, more bodies are piling up in Tum's apartment.

Their boss is Kanchit (Black Phomtong), a fat Buddhist who lovingly combs his long hair and runs a kickboxing dojo where his students/gangsters, all clad in the same warm-up suit, sport bloody bandages. The next two flunkies he sends to Tum's apartment include a deaf kickboxer who answers phones.

Although everyone around Tum is absurd in some fashion, she is not, and that's one of the movie's strengths. Her stunned, halting reactions, as she finds herself in the middle of a gang war, ground the picture. Her point of view is often surreal, but in a real way.

But it's Ratanaruang's stylish direction that recommends the movie. From the first shot, a silent close-up of a woman's face, we know we're in the hands of someone talented and assured. Ratanaruang knows which detail to place in the foreground (a ringing phone) and which to let us search for in the background (a Princess Di coffee mug). His colors are vivid and pure under "natural" lighting and sickly under low-grade fluorescence. The soundtrack is uncluttered. Clocks tick. Birds chirp sweetly after people die. The pace is unhurried.

There is a plan to remake "6ixtynin9" in Hollywood, with Jim Fall (The Lizzie McGuire Movie) directing. Be the coolest person on your block and see this one first.

And the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

The critical success of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's lovely Last Life in the Universe has encouraged the belated release of his sophomore feature (which played at SIFF back in 2001). 6ixtynin9 has been described as Tarantino-esque and it's an apt comparison. Ingeniously engineered, self-consciously clever and directed with snazzy style, it's played as a violent black comedy with often-gruesome punch lines.

Mousy, meek Tum (Lalita Panyopas) has just been downsized from her secretarial job practically at random (she drew the short straw) and reduced to shoplifting her dinner from a local market. Just as randomly, a small fortune in small bills stuffed in a suitcase is dropped off at her door.

It's a mistake, of course. The number 6 on her apartment door keeps slipping down into a 9, which just happens to be the apartment number of a shady fight promoter and a pair of thugs returns to rectify their mistake. They bat her around until the mouse roars and fights back, improbably killing the two and frantically searching for some place in her little room to stash the corpses.

As she makes plans to flee the country with her fortune, a parade of brutal gangsters, corrupt cops and nosy neighbors converge on her tiny studio. Tum transforms from retiring victim to ferocious survivor as she masters the art of scrubbing a murder scene clean of blood and corpses and her apartment gets a lot more crowded.

Ratanaruang never quite reconciles the jaunty tone with the ruthless nihilism and Panyopas' Tum remains something of a blank, a corrupted innocent at the center of a cast of larger-than-life eccentrics.

More interesting is the culture around it -- a depressed, desperate world that makes this fortune all the more attractive. It's Tum's way out of an existence that has beaten the hope out of her, but as each casualty makes her more desperate and determined, it also saps a little life from her.

Although 6ixtynin9 doesn't really offer the audience anyone to root for, the vivid figures in an overcrowded, underemployed, bleak urban landscape remain fascinating, if only for the cruel humor of their fates.

6ixtynin9 is also available in New York, notes the New York Post:

There are multiple references to Psycho, but the director, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, whose Last Life in the Universe had a theatrical run here last year, told Cine File that he was more influenced by the Coens' Fargo.

Oh, yes. The title has to do with the number on the door of the unfortunate woman's apartment, not what you might think.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

BKKIFF 2005 review: Wai Onlawon

• Directed by Piak Poster
• Starring Pairoj Sangworiboot, Lalana Surawan, Jirawadee Issarangkool na Ayuthaya, Somkuan Krachangsatr, Somjit Subsamruai
• Originally released in Thailand in 1976; reviewed at 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival
• Rating: 4/5

According to a Thai co-worker the title can be loosely translated as "time of confusion", which is certainly apt, because confusion reigns in this story of a young man named Tum and his struggles in courting a young neighbor girl, Oh, and working his way through college.

If there were such a thing as a metrasexual Thai man back in the 1970s, it would been this character. He's a country boy and can do hard, physical labor, like farming or construction, but he can also make tasty desserts and can sew. A real renaissance man, you'd think he'd be a cinch to pass the university exams and get into the Faculty of Architecture. He doesn't get in, though, and has to sit out a year before trying again.

In the meantime, he takes on some young students as a tutor. Not only is the guy a regular handyman at anything, he's a math whiz as well. His troubles begin when his landlady brings over her youngest daughter for help with her schoolwork.

A nosey neighbor is watching Tum and sees something going on and lets her imagination run wild. Soon, the neighbor lady and her husband are at Oh's parent's house, blabbing about what they thought they saw. It's all a big misunderstanding, but face has been lost. Oh's old man forbids her from seeing Tum again.

The eldest daughter, whom Tum had taken a liking to earlier in the film, goes over to try and patch things up and get Tum to move out. Tum refuses and drives a wedge between him and the older girl.

A rivalry then develops between Tum and Oh's domineering, drama-prone father.

Tums goes over to the family's home and confronts the father, declaring that "someday I will marry your daughter", which was just plain weird.

Tum grows obsessed with the younger girl, angling for ways to meet her and talk to her and help her with her schoolwork. It's kind of sick, really -- at least while she was wearing a junior high uniform and the short hair. Later in the film, she's a college student and the relationship seems more natural. Anyway, by then it's a given -- Tum and Oh are destined for each other.

Another co-worker briefly bumped into me after the film and said "everything about that film was morally wrong".

But it was funny.

Tum devises a plan to spy on Oh and help her with her schoolwork by crawling under her house and slipping notes up through the crack in the floor where she sits to watch TV. In order to do so, he needs to bribe the dog with some meat. The smiling, happy, friendly dog with its tongue wagging got some of the biggest laughs.

But the plan goes awry when Oh's mother sits on the floor to watch some television and feels Tum's pencil poking at her from underneath. Think it was some "bugs" that Oh fibbed about earlier when she was seen fooling around with the crack in the floor, the mother gets a pot of boiling water and pours it through the crack. That took care of the bugs.

Other notes:

• The restored print seemed choppy, like it was several films spliced together. It seemed like it be five or six episodes from a well-done television sitcom.
• When Oh is celebrating her birthday, Tum devises a plan to wrap her present up in plastic, swim in the canal to her house using a makeshift snorkel and somehow give her the gift. The Jaws motif is used while Tum is swimming.
• At the party, Tum is mistaken for a thief and the shotguns come out. Oh's father and the neighbor across the canal are blasting away. To escape, Tum runs through some debris and steps on a board with a nail sticking up. He is seen limping the next day but nothing ever comes of it. The injury is forgotten about.
• Oh spends a lot of time learning how to dance for Tum's big graduation ball. Tum instead gets drunk and doesn't want to dance. This is another bit that seemed to go nowhere after a big buildup.
• The multi-talented Tum gets into the university play. He's playing Kowalski in Streetcar Named Desire. Oh plants herself onstage and refuses to budge because she's upset about Tum's intimate interactions with the actress portraying Stella. A school official gets Oh to leave the stage by promising the play would be canceled. But the play goes on anyway.

Tum eventually gets into the university to study law. So suddenly he's a legal expert and starts quoting the law to Oh to help her argue against her father.

Eventually, the father, seeing that he can't keep Tum and Oh apart, stops being confrontational, and tries to psychologically pit Oh against Tum. It almost works, but not quite.

They get married, but the old man still has the last laugh.

Wai Onlawon was a revolutionary film for its time. A huge hit, it was the start of a string of youth-based films from director Piak Poster and others. With some hit pop songs (performed by Tum of course; being a multi-talented guy, he can sing and play guitar), it was one of the first films to attract Thai teen-agers to the movies.

Before the festival screening, the lead actor was chatting in a press conference as part of a promotion for a new sequel to this film, Tum and Oh Return.

( Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Translations found

When Hollywood films play in Thailand, the titles are often changed to make them more marketable. SmartLife, a weekly teen supplement to The Nation recently did a rundown of these titles, translating them back to English:

Hollywood may make great movies, but its titles aren't always up to snuff. So the Thai film industry employs an army of experts who tweak English-language titles to make them more palatable.

Kill Bill becomes Samurai Angel. Ocean's Twelve morphs into Twelve Crowns Robbing the World. And White Chicks is renamed The Crazy Couple Dressed in Big, Sexy Bodies.

Conjuring up new titles is a tough job, especially since Thai marketers rarely see the movies before they pen their names.

"We have to come up with the Thai titles three to five months before the movies are released, but the films only arrive a month before they're show on the screen," says Pratoun Dithiphan, marketing director for Columbia Tri-Star Thailand.

Pratoun relies on a brief synopsis, a list of stars and a 30- to 90-second trailer supplied by the studio to formulate five to 10 titles. His titles are then submitted to an in-house board that votes for the best one. He says some of the best titles use words that raise curiosity among moviegoers. "I renamed Anacondas as Crawling, Shocking the World. I think it catches the eyes and ears of Thais who see or hear it," Pratoun says.

Other marketers do extensive research to devise titles. "We read film reviews in overseas magazines and surf the Web for information," says Supakorn Terasetpisal, planning supervisor for BNT Entertainment.

Based on the synopsis, trailers and research, I, Robot - a thriller about a robot rebellion - became Killing Plan of the Machines Trying to Swallow the World. And Ladder 49 - a tale of firefighters risking their lives - was re-titled Wild Unit Fighting the Fire of Hell.

"Many filmgoers, particularly those living upcountry, pay more attention to the Thai title than the original title because they lack English-language skills," explains Chavana Pavaganun of Mongkol Films. "So we search for the movie's strength and emphasise it in the title."

Often that strength is the movie's star. Arnold Schwarzenegger is known as Iron Man, the Thai title for Terminator. Bruce Willis is called Tough, the Thai moniker for Die Hard. Mel Gibson is Dangerous Man (Lethal Weapon), and Jackie Chan is Fight, which is what he does in movies.

But the strategy sometimes backfires. Julie Roberts has long been known as Blossom Woman, from the title of her first hit, Pretty Woman. When Notting Hill was released in Thailand, it became Blossom Love in Notting Hill.

"But Julia Roberts isn't a ban-cham [blossom] anymore. She has become ban-chae [withered] now that she has two kids," says Chavana. So, her pet name has been dropped.

Similarly, Richard Gere's appeal as an American Gigolo (his first hit movie) has long waned.

"Gere used to be so attractive, especially to girls, that I called him 'Prince Charming' [Theb-Pha-But] in his movies.

"But times change and the phrase Theb-Pha-But doesn't fit him anymore," observes Henry Tran, the Thailand general manager for Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp and Warner Bros.

The elements that make a good title remain elusive. "But if there's a criteria for renaming English titles, then it should describe the movie and convey its context and theme," says Chavana, a lecturer in journalism at Thammasat University. "Just reading or listening to the movie title, viewers should know what the movie is about."

So, Blade Trinity is billed as Blade 3: Cold-Blooded Immortal Species. Finding Nemo is Nemo: Tiny Fish with a Giant Heart. And Freddy vs Jason is Freddy vs Jason: The Night of Bursting Hell.

Other titles are simply transliterated into Thai. Troy and Shrek 2 use Thai characters that sound exactly like spoken English.

"Thirty years ago, all movie titles had to renamed because so few Thais spoke English," says Tran of Fox and Warner. "But now more Thais speak English, so the importance of Thai titles has decreased ever so slightly and transliterations are being used more.

In the future, it's possible there will be no more renaming of movie titles and we'll just use English titles."

( Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

BKKIFF 2005 review: The Beautiful Washing Machine

• Written and directed by James Lee
• Starring Loh Bok Lai, Len Siew Mee
• Reviewed at the 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival
• Rating: 4/5

I had heard good things about this film by James Lee, set in Malaysia. But after it was all over, I kind of wondered what all the fuss was about. Perhaps I should have stayed for the Q&A with the producer, but I didn't, as I was in a rush to get to another film at the festival. Had I stayed, I would have learned more about indie filmmaking in Malaysia.

My first reaction to this quiet, meditative film is that it was cute. It's about a guy, a bespectacled cubicle drone who has just lost his girlfriend. She's either taken all his possessions, or maybe he was such a shit that he made her do all the housechores. Whatever, he's in the market for a new washing machine. He settles for a second-hand machine, a green, front-loading Electrolux. He gets it and sits around watching the clothes go around.

A single guy, he has no clue how to get by in life. At the supermarket, he has to follow a single woman around, buying what she buys. Some stuff here, some stuff there, a 2-liter bottle of Sarsi. He's so clueless, he even follows her into the sanitary napkin aisle and actually picks up a pack of Tampax but throws it back on the shelf.

At home, the machine seems to have a mind of its own. One day, it simply stops mid cycle. There was no warranty from the store and the company that makes the machine says it's obsolete. An electrician comes over to fix it, but it works just fine.

Then one night, out of nowhere, a woman appears. She's crouched down by the machine slurping noodles and the noises of her rustling in the kitchen/utility room wake the guy up.

He promptly starts ordering her around. Do this, do that, mop the floor, wash the clothes, make me dinner. She has to handwash the clothes because the machine is still broken. He takes her out and gets her a sexy short dress, and that's all she's allowed to wear.

What happens next is even weirder, and I don't really want to go into it.

On that trip to the supermarket, another character is introduced - an old man whose has an oblique connection to the young loser.

The last half of the film focuses on him. He has the same kind of washing machine and by a twist of fate, the girl - did I mention she doesn't speak at all? - ends up with him. The old man's daughter is very suspicious. And the old man's son takes a liking to the girl.

I guess this movie is making a statement about the role and the repression of women in society, especially Asian society? I guess there are guys out there who would dream of a mute woman who was fairly attractive, put up no fuss or fight and did all the housework. The only thing missing, I guess, was that she should turn into a pizza after sex - for the total misogynist!

But it all went over my head at first. A couple of weeks later, I began to appreciate the film.

The first guy - the young loser - was a horrible character. I didn't like him at all. And the old man had some weird traits that were just laughable. Won't say too much about them, though. I supposed I'll really come to appreciate this movie if my washing machine starts acting up. But then, I have a manual washer and don't mind doing my own chores.

An anomaly at this film festival showing: during the grocery store scene, some random music by a boy band kicked in at ear-bleeding levels. Some people thought it was part of the movie, but I knew something was wrong. It didn't match the tone of the film, even if the song - crap that it was - seemed to go with the scene. It wasn't until dialogue started up (subtitles but the crap boyband sounds were still coming out) that the projectionist realized something was wrong with the soundtrack. They had to start the film over again. Very embarrassing, as the producer of the film was present at the screening.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

BKKIFF 2005 review: Malady Diary

• Directed by Teekhadet Vucharadhanin
• Starring Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• Reviewed at the 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival
• Rating: 5/5

A documentary that should be a companion piece on the DVD reveals the how hard it is to be a working, independent filmmaker.

Self produced by Apichatpong Weerasethakul's aptly named Kick the Machine production marque, Malady Diary follows the talented Thai new wave director as he tries to make Tropical Malady, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2004 and has received accolades from critics worldwide for its revolution in storytelling. However, the film has been all but shunned in Thailand, where it received only limited screenings and is all the more conspicuous in its absence from the line-up of the 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival, given that two other films that received prizes at Cannes - Palm d'Or winner Old Boy and Clean (best actress for Maggie Cheung) are in the main competition at BKKIFF.

Apichatpong, or Joei as his crew calls him, started out trying to make the film with money from Thai mainstream studio, Sahamongkol Film. But typical flakiness when it comes to business dealings in Thailand forced Joei to look for money elsewhere, in fact from a consortium of various European sources, which was a very difficult process as well. Once shooting Malady had started, it had to stop for a week because money didn't come from France.

But the project, planned as a sequel to Blissfully Yours (indeed, Malady was partly inspired by Joei's meeting a forest ranger during the making of the earlier film), almost didn't get off the ground at all. The documentary chronicles the crew brainstorming sessions. Joei had a vision, but without the funding, it would have to be scaled back -- no tiger, no dead cow.

Time was critical, because a crew was amassed, actors' schedules were tight and the foilage in the jungle was changing. Eventually, the project was abandoned and Apitchatpong went to work for Ray Productions to make The Adventure of Iron Pussy, a campy, low-budget farce which was co-directed with Michael Shaowanasai, who starred as a drag-queen secret agent.

However, Joei was considering making a zombie movie, Zombie Truck, possibly for Sahamongkol. Hey, I'd like to see that happen at some point.

The Iron Pussy out of his system, and the funds lined up to wrap the film, they started shooting. The documentary covers the first day of shooting (the tiger) and the last day of shooting (the dead or dying cow, which was a model with two guys underneath making it appear to breath).

Other elements to the admittedly serendipituous doc are wardrobe planning, with the cast members trying on outfits and a long interview with the two main actors.

Iron Pussy herself, in character as Michael Shaowanasai was on hand with the director of the documentary for a Q&A session. This revealed even more trouble. The doc wasn't included as a DVD extra because those rights went to European producers, which put their own extras on the disc (a puff-piece, glamorous look at Joei in Cannes, though there's also a Thai commentary track by Joei). The Europeans also did not permit their visits to be filmed for the documentary. So some pieces are missing. I detected some bitterness from Michael about the Europeans' involvement. And the big question: why was Tropical Malady itself not in the Bangkok film fest? That went unanswered.

I didn't come up with a question of my own until later. I wonder if a firm like the Criterion Collection could possible sort out all the rights issues and put together a comprehensive edition of Tropical Malady, with Malady Diary, as well as an English commentary track from Joei? I'd be one of the proud owners of that DVD if it existed.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

BKKIFF 2005 review: Her Name is Boonrawd

• Directed by Vichet Kounavudhi
• Starring Linda Bancharoen
• Originally released in Thailand in 1985; reviewed at the 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival as part of the Vichet Kounavudhi Tribute
• Rating: 3/5

Set in Thailand during the Vietnam War era, Boonrawd (Linda Bancharoen) is a young woman living on the fringes of the prostitution scene outside an air base used by US Air Force troops stationed in Thailand.

The film opens with her enduring long hours and hard work washing dishes. Then one night her boss appears beside her bed. He takes off his Buddha amulet, prays to it and lifts the mosquito net. Boonrawd awakens but can't stop him. The two roll around under the netting and Boonrawd is left dishevelled, nauseated and emotionally scarred. The mere mention of her boss' name makes her vomit.

She runs off. A local teacher takes Boonrawd back to her home, where Boonrawd works as a maid. She gets a few baht in her pocket and goes home to the rural northeast to visit her mother. There, her lottery-addicted mother wonders why more money can't be sent. The right numbers just aren't coming up in the spots on the gecko's back. The water buffalo has run off. The farm is in debt to its landlord. There has been a drought for two years. Sister has shown up with a half-African-American (negro is the term used in this film), half-Thai baby. And she's planning on going back to the airbase and leaving the baby behind for mom to take care of.

Despite the hardships, Boonrawd refuses to go the way of her sister. She returns to her maid's job at the teacher's home. She has fallen in love with the maid's son. She gets her hair permed in the popular style of the time and wears bright-colored clothes to call attention to herself. But nothing develops. Then the teacher informs Boonrawd that she and her family have to move to Bangkok. She offers Boonrawd a job making dresses, but it will be hard work and she recognizes Boonrawd is more ambitious. Boonrawd wants her family to stand on its own. She has brought her brother to live with her and has found him work.

So she ends up having to move near the airbase at U-Tapao and starts work in a restaurant. There she is confronted by soldiers who think she's a prostitute. Aren't all Thai girls prostitutes? Even other Thais who work around the base think she's a prostitute, from the way she looks, dresses and acts. But she's not and she doesn't.

However, she strikes up a friendship with an Air Force officer, a guy who speaks fluent Thai. He likes her style, but they only remain friends. The officer goes to other girls for his pressure release. Gradually, though, Boonrawd develops feelings for the guy, which sets her up in a shrill confrontation with the alpha of the prostitute dog pack.

While delving into the Vietnam War's effect on Thailand, Her Name is Boonrawd, is overly long, too melodramatic and somewhat stale. It displays decent production values, but still had a low budget. There was little attention to anachronisms, such as the presence of vehicles newer than the 1970s and newer clothing and hairstyles on some of the extras (a Carabao T-shirt was spotted). Also, some of the "American" soldiers spoke with Aussie or Brit accents. And I don't know about some of the military materiel, whether the jets and bombs shown were the types used in the Vietnam War. I suspect not.

The scenes involving the top-dog prostitute were really annoying, as the actress overplayed her part and screamed her lines. Hmph!

But the actress portraying Boonrawd was solid all the way through. As the movie went on (and on and on and on - it was definitely more than the 104 minutes listed in the film catalog, more like 2 hours, 15 minutes), I began to appreciate her more and more.

( Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

BKKIFF 2005 review: Born to Fight

• Directed by Panna Rittikrai
• Starring Dan Chupong, Santisuk Promsiri, Kessarin Ektawatkul, Nappon Gomarachun
• Released in 2004 in Thailand cinemas; reviewed at 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival
• Rating: 4/5

With a fine low-budget sheen to it, this ultra-violent action flick is akin to the movies made by the likes of Jean Claude van Damme or Steven Seagal.

But this is better, because neither of those guys are in it.

Instead, there's a charismatic kickboxer-stuntman as the star, backed up by Thai national athletes of varying sports.

Directed by Panna Rittikrai, the action choreographer for Ong-Bak and a B-movie director in Thailand for decades, Born to Fight, is his bigger-budget debut. But the action is all seat-of-the pants stuff - hard hits, long falls, bone-jarring crashes, big explosions - and it's all real.

The story involves a young police officer who helps capture a Burmese drug lord but loses his superior officer and mentor in the raid.

Grieving, he accompanies his sister, a star Tae Kwon Do team member (Kessarin Ektawatkul), on a trip out to a rural village, where the national athletes are donating goods to a local school.

At the village, the older brother gets into a fight with a local troublemaker (Somluck Kamsing). Then, all hell breaks loose, as villagers are cut down by gunfire. It's pretty shocking and bloody action.

It's the drug lord's army, and they are going to kidnap the village and hold them for ransom until their leader is released. They wire the village up with webcams and broadcast their demands to the Cabinet and the media.

And, they have a nuclear missile, aimed at Bangkok (there is a CGI sequence, depicting a nuclear strike on the City of Angels).

The young cop, the athletes and the villagers aren't going to take it. Soon they are using all their abilities. A number of actual national athletes take part in the action. Among them is a male gymnast, who conveniently finds parallel bars where he needs them to place kicks against bad guys. There's a takraw player (it's like volleyball, only with the feet) who kicks a grenade. The Tae Kwon Do girl gets some. There's a female kickboxer who plays a villain and so there's a girlfight. There's a little girl Muay Thai boxer who kicks some head as well. A rugby guy knocks down a wall. And an aging soccer star shows he can still score. And an even older Muay Thai man has some action left in his limbs as well. There's even an amputee, who must be a paralympic athlete, showing he can use his one leg and crutch to kick takraw balls.

When there's action going on, it's great. Born to Fight's weakness is a display of overwrought melodrama (fathers being shot while kids are watching, old monk lying dead with villagers weaping profusely, hero rushing in to defuse bomb and redeem himself for his superior's death, etc).

Also, it was hard to suspend disbelief. Why would the drug lord's army indiscriminantly shoot the elderly, women and children, but only disable the fine young strapping lads of the village with a rifle butt to the head?

Still, for fans of Van Damme or Seagal, or even better for fans of Ong-Bak, this is a fun film, just for the stunt work and action sequences.

It opened in August 2004 in Bangkok, but I missed it then. But I caught it at the Bangkok International Film Festival. It will likely be out on DVD, but am unsure about the subtitles, which are helpful when the villagers are caught up with flag-waving, nationalistic fervor singing the Royal Anthem and then rushing forward to fight for their freedom. Yaaaaaaaah!




( Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Bearish on Thai film

The Bangkok Post today ran a financial analysis of the past year in Thai film. The article by Christopher E Knight of PricewaterhouseCoopers Thailand noted that the Asia-Pacific region will be the spot that will see the fastest growth in the entertainment and media industries over the next five years.

However, he questioned whether Thailand's local film industry would reflect similar growth.

An indicator used for measuring growth in the filmed entertainment industry is box office revenues. In most countries, US films are consistently predominant in generating box office revenue. The exception to this is primarily in countries, such as China, that impose quotas to restrict the number of foreign movies that may be exhibited.

Local films are a variable component and the key to box office revenue growth. Improving local product should therefore increase audience interest and generate box office revenue growth. Note that the emphasis is placed on improvement of the quality of local product rather than increased quantity. In 2004, the number of Thai feature films released increase to 47, but only two Thai films managed to place in the top 10 (see chart).

In contrast, only 13 Thai films were released in 2001, but two of these films, Suriyothai and Bang Rajan, were in the top five and generated more than 240 million baht in box office revenue. Only eight Thai films, a low for modern Thai cinema, were released in 2000, but the number one film for that year was Satree Lek (Iron Ladies).

Despite the importance placed on box office revenue, it should not be equated with profitability. Of the 47 Thai releases in 2004, it is estimated that the average box office return per film was approximately 16 million baht. The average cost to produce and release a movie is Thailand is approximately 25 million baht. It doesn't take a chartered accountant to determine the sustainability of the industry given these numbers. The growing trend of shorter theatrical-to-video release windows, as well as film piracy, further impair theatrical box office returns.

Given the creative and artistic elements involved in film, it can often be overlooked that film making is a business, and like other businesses it must to profitable to grow and survive. What strategies should producers be looking at to get a fistful of dollars? There are many and as each picture is different, so too are the models and strategies used.

Product placement does not necessarily create an additional revenue stream, but it can generate funds allowing a producer to reduce production costs. Outside of Hollywood, product placement appears to be underutilised.

Merchandising rights, which include the manufacturing, distribution and sale of items such as posters, T-shirts and toys bearing the names of film characters, movie stars, film company logos and still photos from a movie, are licensed by production companies creating additional revenue from a movie. With Thai movies getting broader releases, there is a greater potential to exploit these rights successfully as musical rights and compact disc sales have been successfully exploited.

DVD and home video sales are changing the way studios view their returns. Hollywood studios have realised that theatrical flops as well as blockbusters stand to make greater returns in DVD and home video sales. Studios are therefore offering home video and DVDs sooner to increase revenues and piggyback on the marketing investment made for the film's theatrical release. With consistent enforcement of intellectual property rights in Thailand, the home video window could turn out to be more lucrative than the theatrical window.

I have to agree wholeheartedly on the merchandising aspect. For example, Citizen Dog boasted an eye-catching series of ads. But that was about it. Some cartoon characters were designed along with the campaign, but underutilized. They could have been given away at the theaters or offered as free gifts at petrol stations or fast-food restaurants. Also, where was the soundtrack album for Citizen Dog? Music was integral to the film. I would have been interested in a soundtrack CD, but it wasn't released. Seems there isn't enough interest in the old songs used in the film. But I feel more merchandising would have helped sell this film to the Thai public.

Oh, and I'm still looking for a figurine of Boonlueng, the water buffalo from Bang Rajan. That would have been cool.

Here's a look at the overall top 10 at Thailand's box offices last year. It gives a better reflection of the state of the Thai movie industry (figures in millions of Thai baht):

1. Spider-Man 2 157.4
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 148.8
3. Shutter 115.8
4. The Day After Tomorrow 109.4
5. Anaconda 2 94.9
6. The Bodyguard 78.5
7. Troy 77.9
8. Resident Evil 2 67.5
9. Van Helsing 67.3
10. I, Robot 65.2

( Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Tony Jaa injured

Tony Jaa has been injured during the filming of Tom Yum Goong in Australia, according to some press reports I can't put my hands on right now. I'm unaware of the extent of his injuries, though I am led to believe they are minor. However, completion of the followup to Ong Bak has been put off until April.

In the meantime, Tom Yum Goong is expected to be the closing film of the 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival, something I didn't think was going to happen anyway, since the film was due to be released until March. Festival officials are going to be doing some fast talking for this gala closing event, which will really amount to no more than a screening of a preview reel or maybe some daily rushes from the set.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

2005 Bangkok International Film Festival preview

Glitzy and overdone as it is, this year's Bangkok International Film Festival from January 13 to 24 still has some good stuff in store. What's most exciting is a great line-up of Thai films.

In addition to bunch of Thai films from last year, including Ai Fak and Citizen Dog, there's a retrospective category for the late Vichit Kounavudhi, who will have four of his films shown. There's also a 1976 film by Piak Poster.

Shutter is in the main competition, which is somewhat embarrassing. Yes, Shutter was the top Thai film at the box office last year, but I think a stronger film could have been chosen to go up against these heavy hitters - like maybe Tropical Malady?

Ai Fak is in the Asean competition, along with a good one I missed called Pisaj, or Evil. More embarrassment comes in the form of the exploitive sports comedy Sagai United and the melodramatic tear-jerker The Letter are also in the Asean slot from Thailand. Why isn't Citizen Dog being put up for competition?

International Competition:

• Being Julia, directed by István Szabó, Canada/USA/Hungary/UK
• Clean, directed by Olivier Assayas, France/UK
• Don’t Move (Non ti muovere), directed by Sergio Castellitto, Italy
• Les Choristes, directed by Christophe Barratier, France/Switzerland
• Innocent Voices (Voces innocents), directed by Luis Mandoki, Mexico
• The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta), directed by Walter Salles, Argentina/UK/USA/Germany/Peru
• Old Boy, directed by Park Chan-Wook, South Korea
• Red Dust, directed by Tom Hooper, South Africa/UK (Opening Night film)
• The Sea Inside (Mar adentro), directed by Alejandro Amenábar, Spain
• Shutter, directed by Pakpoom Wongpoom and Banjong Pisanthanakun, Thailand
• The Syrian Bride, directed by Eran Riklis, France/Germany/Israel
• Vera Drake, directed by Mike Leigh, UK
• Zelary, directed by Ondrej Trojan, Czech Republic

ASEAN competition

• The Beautiful Washing Machine, directed by James Lee, Malaysia
• Buffalo Boy (Muoa Len Trau), directed by Minh Nguyen-Vo, Vietnam
• Crying Ladies, directed by Mark Meily, The Philippines
• Homecoming, directed by Gil Portes, The Philippines
• The Judgement (Ai-Fak), directed by Patham Thonsang, Thailand
• Keka, directed by Quark Henares, The Philippines
• The Letter, directed by Phaoon Chandrasiri, Thailand
• Perth, directed by Djinn, Singapore
• Pisaj (Evil), directed by Chookiat Sakvirakul, Thailand
• Princess of Mount Ledang (Puteri Gunung Ledang), directed by Saw Teong Hin, Malaysia
• Rainmaker, directed by Ravi Bharwani, Indonesia
• Sagai United, directed by Somching Srisuphab, Thailand
• Spirits, directed by Victor Vu, Vietnam
• True Love, directed by Kyi Soe Tun, Myanmar
• Women of Breakwater, directed by Mario O'Hara, The Philippines

Out of that, I'm interested in seeing the Vietnamese film, Buffalo Boy. I am curious to see what Burma, otherwise known as Myanmar, has to offer in the way of cinema. I also have heard good things about the Philippine movies, Keka, The Crying Ladies and Women of the Breakwater. And for sheer epic scale, Princess of Mount Ledang, will be hard to beat. Malaysia's answer to Suriyothai, it's the most expensive film mounted by that country. I also hope to catch up with Pisaj, or Evil, which I 've heard good things about.

And more Thai films in the schedule. Many of these I have not seen and know nothing about_:

• ART OF THE DEVIL - Supernatural thriller directed by Thanit Jitnukul.
• BE VERY QUIET - Directed by Mona Nahm, it's the story of a young man who witnessed the rape and murder of his prostitute mom when he was a child.
• BICYCLES & RADIOS - Directed by O Nathapon, it's about two wounded souls meet on a radio talk show.
• BIRTH OF THE SEANEMA - Directed by SASITHORN ARIYAVICHA, I have no idea what this is about.
• BORN TO FIGHT - Directed by Panna Rittikrai, the action choroegrapher for Ong Bak, it's about a team of national athletes (portrayed by real athletes) who use their various skills to save a small village from bad guys. I want to see this!
• CITIZEN DOG - Wisit Sasanatieng's urban love story is told with the colorful, comic style he introduced in Tears of the Black Tiger.
• DOWN THE RIVER - Directed ANUCHA BOONYAWATANA, a young gay guy searches for the truth of his love life.
• ENLIGHTENMENT - Directed by TANON SATTARUJAWONG, a monk attempts to retrieve his meagre possessions when his bag is stolen.
• IS AM ARE - Directed by CHANATIP KUNASAYEAMPORN, two strangers cross paths while discovering the other dimension of life through the mysterious palm reader.
• MAID - By the director of the slapstick gay volleyball movie Iron Ladies, Maid or Jeaw is a comedy about secret-agent maids.
• MY FIRST BOYFRIEND - Directed by ISSARA MANEEWAT, it's about a gay guy with aspirations of making a movie and being in love.
• MY SPACE - By WITIT KUMSAKAEW and RITHICHAI SIRIPRASITPONG, students at Thammasat University, it's about a guy and a girl living in the same apartment building who break out of their isolated routines and actually talk to one another.
• OUR FILM - Directed by ATTHASIT SOMCHOB, a wife brings her husband for rest in Pattaya. Well, I know that doesn't make any sense, but that's what the synpopsis says.
• PATTAYA MANIAC - The latest crime comedy from Killer Tattoo director Yuthlert Sippapak.
• PIK-BAAN-HAO - Directed by SUPAWUT BOONMAHATHANAKORN, it's about Odd, who wishes there would be something better for his family and beloved, Yao.
• ROOM NUMBER 3 - A mother comes to visit her daughter in Bangkok and finds that her daughter has a new roommate.
• SARS WAR - Fluent Thai-speaking Australian TV presenter Anthony Biggs is a zombie!
• SOOTH - Directed by PATANA CHIRAWONG. I have no idea.
• THE ATTEMPTS - Directed by DEJA PIYARHTKUL, a mother with her newborn son desperately waits for her husband.
• TOM-YUM-GOONG: MUAY THAI FIGHTER - I'll believe it when I see it, mostly likely not at the festival. It will be in the multiplexes soon.
• WAI ONLAWON - From 1976, as far as I can tell, this is the debut film by Piak Poster, who made a string of (mostly youth-based?) movies throughout the 1980s. Certainly, this was the first film that really got Thai audiences and the movie industry interested in making movies about teens.

And the retrospective to Vichit Kounavudhi (PDF).

• FIRST WIFE - From 1978. Stars Jatupol Phuapirom, Wongdeaun Indharavud and Wiyada Aumarin. Husband-and-wife, both doctors,
  Dr Vikanda has to face her husband’s unfaithfulness.
• HER NAME IS BOONROD - From 1985. Set during the Vietnam War era, it depicts the burgeoning sex trade that developed in Thailand to service the US military. Boonrod is labeled as one of them just because of her rough appearance. However, she proves herself to be a virtuous woman.
• SON OF THE NORTH-EAST - From 1982. Stars Tongparn Phontong, Chanpen Siritep, Krailad Kriang-krai and Pailin Somnapa. This iconic film is a semi-documentary film derived from the work of award-winning author Kampoon Boontawee, who wrote from first-hand experience of life in rural Isaan - northeast Thailand.
• MOUNTAIN PEOPLE - From 1980. Stars Montree Jenaksorn, Walaikorn Paovarat, Supavadee Thiensuwan and Petcharat Indharakamhaeng. In another semi-documentary, Vichet focuses on hilltribe life along the Burmese border. Ayo, a young man of the Egor tribe, and his wife as they are driven away after she gives birth to twins who, according to Egor folklore, will bring bad luck to the village. Adventures lead to Ayo's involvement with a Chinese opium trafficking gang.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Blissfully Spongebob in Hartford

Oh, that crazy Colin McEnroe of the Hartford Courant. Like a good movie critic, went to his local cineplex to see Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2002 film, Blissfully Yours, which was released in the US last year. He walked into the wrong theater, though.

You have probably never even heard of this movie but Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Blissfully Yours was finally released in America this year, and its story of lovers who play hooky from their humdrum existence by taking a picnic into a verdant forest is regarded, by us film buffs, as a small masterpiece. When I saw it, I was surprised by the vivid colors, the playful dialogue and by the heavy reliance on seafood imagery until, after 30 minutes, it sank in that I had accidentally walked into the theater where the SpongeBob SquarePants movie was playing, because the ticket-tearing woman had said, Theater 12, last one on the left, which was wrong. The Sponge Bob movie (I stayed, because I was caught up in the plot, by that time) was actually pretty good but whoever directed it is certainly no Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

I guess he saw it eventually. Blissfully Yours was at No 9 on the Hartford Courant's Top 10 films of 2004.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Blissfully Yours tied for No 12 on Village Voice poll

2004 was Apitchatpong Weerasethakul's year. He won the jury prize at Cannes for his Tropical Malady. His co-directed campy comedy The Adventure of Iron Pussy wowed festival audiences. And his 2002 film, Blissfully Yours, opened in New York and gained the attention of the Village Voice, which listed it in its annual critics poll.

Overall, it tied for 12th with Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education. Pretty good company, I say.

Here's the Take 6 Top 15 films:

1. Before Sunset
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Dogville
4. Sideways
5. Goodbye Dragon Inn
6. Notre Musique
7. Crimson Gold
8. I Heart Huckabees
9. Vera Drake
10. Moolaadé
11. Million Dollar Baby
12. Bad Education
    Blissfully Yours
13. Los Angeles Plays Itself
14. Kill Bill Vol. 2

Of the three critics, Dennis Lim rated Blissfully the highest. He had it at No 5 on his list. J. Hoberman listed it in his runners-up. Michael Atkinson didn't mention it but had many other choices.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Wisit's influences

In surfing for information about film conservation in Thailand, I came across an article about Tears of the Black Tiger (and now Citizen Dog) director Wisit Sasanatieng, who got his start making television commercials.

The article mentioned Dome Sukwong, head of film conservation at the ambitious but underfunded Thai Film Archive. Dome gave the sobering and saddening statistic that some 70 percent of all Thai films of past have been lost to official indifference and climate-accelerated decay.

Nonetheless, Khun Dome's center provided inspiration for Tears of the Black Tiger (or Fah Talai Jone, which is literally translated as Heaven Strikes the Thief).

Whenever the Film Archive screened an old film," Wisit said, "I'd be there. Usually, I'd be the only one there. Most Thai audiences dislike Thai movies, especially the old ones, which they consider nam nao ["stinky water," i.e., stagnant and cliched]. But what I saw in them was a way to stay true to the spirit of those old styles of Thai filmmaking, as well as a way to make them new again. And none of the older generation of filmmakers impressed me more than Rattana Pestonji."

Rattana, the leading Thai filmmaker of the 1950s, was born to Persian parents and educated in England. He produced and directed a series of color-coded but at first blush creakily archaic melodramas on a limited assortment of minimalist sets. As it turns out, Rattana's films were in fact satires of still more archaic and impoverished Thai films of an even earlier generation.

No wonder Wisit took note. "For me, Rattana is our greatest filmmaker," admits Wisit, who funded his passion for film history by convincing Wrangler jeans to finance a television ad that served as the stylistic trial run for his film's vibrant visual design. "I knew all along that I wanted Tears of the Black Tiger to be more than just an old-fashioned film. And the first thing I knew was that the action scenes would have to be a lot faster and more cleverly choreographed than they were in the old days."

Another article makes the Rattana connection and also cites the Thai action films of the 1960's (known locally as 'Bomb-the-mountain, burn-the-huts' movies) as an influence.

The Bangkok Post recently included film preservation in its annual Holiday Time roundup of worthy causes. Thailand needs an independent body to preserve the Kingdom's old films as national heritage.

To help, contact Khun Chalida Uabumrungjit, National Film Archives c/o Thai Film Foundation, PO Box 6, Phutthamonthon Sub Post Office, Nakhon Pathom, 73170. Tel: 66 2 800 2716. Fax: 66 2 800 2717. Bank info: Kasikorn Bank Phaholyothin branch, account name Thai Film Foundation, savings account number 799-2-42333-6.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Chuck Stephens' Top 10 for 2004

Film critic and subtitlist Chuck Stephens offers his look back at 2004's year in cinema in a recent article in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Writing from Bangkok, he relates the unique experience of shopping at a local supermarket and finding the new DVD for Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady in an impuse-buy display.

He writes more about his neighborhood on Soi Thonglor in Bangkok:

Of course, the street I live on, Soi Thonglor, isn't anywhere remotely near southern California. It's half a planet away, deep in the heart of Bangkok, on the eastern edge of the neighborhood traditionally inhabited by the city's sizable community of expat Japanese. The only Hollywood nearby is the consortium of go-go bars – Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Carousel, and Hollywood 2 – where a few months back I think I might have spotted Oliver Stone, the Alexander auteur, roaming alone on an all-night odyssey that might easily have ended in the enormous local disco known as Coliseum. Not that Thonglor doesn't have its fair share of homegrown cineastes. Filmmaker Pen-ek Ratanaruang, contemporary Thai cinema's reigning social satirist, has lived for most of his life in a house quite nearby, as did the fictional hero of his latest film, Last Life in the Universe – a disaffected Japanese librarian, played by Asano Tadanobu, whose apparent hobby is deciding how best to kill himself. And director Wisit Sasanatieng asked me to meet him a few months ago at one of those two Starbucks, to discuss subtitling his new film Citizen Dog; in fact, the filmmaker spends so much time in that coffee joint that they ought to name one of their high-caffeine confections Tears of the Black Tiger – after the title of his best-known film.

So it's not exactly surprising that the DVD of Tropical Malady should be so conveniently available in my local grocery store, even though American audiences will have to wait to see the film – a two-part invention wherein a forest ranger and an unemployed country boy quickly fall in love, then just as quickly drift apart as the story shifts from sunny romance to spooky parable about tiger spirits, talking monkeys, and a tree that emits extraterrestrial bleeps in the night – until Strand Releasing begins allowing American theatrical runs some time later in 2005. After all, Tropical Malady already enjoyed its local theatrical run in Bangkok, a modest but surprisingly successful four-week stint that constituted a first for Apichatpong, whose internationally acclaimed films are only just beginning to find an audience at home. What may be surprising, though – particularly for anyone who's never traveled to Thailand, Malaysia, or any of the many places throughout Southeast Asia where intellectual property rights aren't exactly chief among local law enforcement's concerns – is the degree to which so much of up-to-the-minute cinema from the rest of the world is available almost everywhere here.

Not just last weekend's Hollywood blockbusters, either; Wong Kar-wai's 2046, Olivier Assayas's Clean, and the entire fifth season of The Sopranos – the residents of Kuala Lumpur, Kowloon, and Krung Thep can pick up those and a hundred other recent titles from sidewalk vendors and at makeshift stalls in any local shopping mall for as little as $2.50 a disc.

The most important thing to point out about all this – before Jack Valenti comes bursting through these pages like a freshly incubated alien fetus, spewing acid-rich invective and righteous indignation – is that very few of these obviously illegal entertainments originate from the sources the American film industry tends to worry most about_: those seasonal video-screeners intended for Academy members. Nor is the cabal of American film critics – whom the Motion Picture Association of America last year tried to insinuate were less prone to use the year-end screeners sent them by aggressive studio flacks as aids in compiling their annual top 10 rankings than as black-market booty to buoy their eBay accounts – behind this international free-for-all of forged fictions (and, as in the case of that global bootleg blockbuster Fahrenheit 9/11, the occasional doc). Nope. It's the paying theatergoer with the camcorder in her backpack – setting up as the houselights dim and zooming in on her local multiplex screen, and jacking audio direct to tape from those state-of-the-art hearing-impaired audio outputs – who's doing most of the dirty work. And the longer that fans like her are left fed up by distributors too lazy to release the films they've got languishing in their vaults, or who refuse to release those films uncut, undubbed, and otherwise unmauled by their regional marketing department's meat hooks – the longer this market will flourish. And that's before the black market begins to shade into gray. There's no beverage called Tears of the Black Tiger available at Starbucks; nor is there a film with that title available for purchase on DVD in the U.S. of A. – despite Miramax having licensed it for American distribution nearly five years ago. But there are still plenty of available copies, and they're only a Web search away. And as the world grows ever smaller, and the possibility of mistaking Soi Thonglor for a boulevard in Santa Monica becomes ever easier, so too does the temptation to bypass Miramax with a mouse click grow stronger day by day.

Chuck Stephens' 10 best films of 2004

1. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand)
2. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong)
3. Nobody Knows (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)
4. Woman Is the Future of Man (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)
5. 6horts (Amir Muhammad, Malaysia)
6. The World (Jia Zhang-ke, China)
7. Collateral (Michael Mann, USA)
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, USA)
9. Primer (Shane Carruth, USA)
10. Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette, USA)

(Photo: Chuck Stephens as Peter/Andre in Citizen Dog; cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

2004 in review

Bangkok's two English dailies, The Nation and the Bangkok Post have recently taken a look back at the year in Thai film, which saw 44 or 45 releases, with some notable films, but mainly a lot of junk.

A surprise hit, according to The Nation's Parinyaporn Payee was Hoam Rong (The Overture).

If ever a film was doomed to failure, it was this tale of Thai society in transition, as told through the rivalry of two players of the ranad-ek, or traditional xylophone.

Directed by Itthisunthorn Wichailak, it screened for almost empty theatres for the first few days and was about to be withdrawn when, almost overnight - thanks to the website pantip.com and its Chalermthai chat room - it reached cult status.

The Education Ministry got in on the act and started promoting the movie as a must-see for anyone who cared about Thai culture. Banks and mobile-phone companies offered tickets in special promotions. “The Overture” stayed in the cinema for three months, grossed 52 million baht and even had youngsters swapping guitars for ranad-ek at its peak.

A bigger surprise was Shutter, a debut film by two young directors. But the bump-in-the-night ghost story scared audiences out of their wits and grossed 110 million baht, making it the biggest financial success of the year. However, this is modest compared to 2003, which saw the two top-ranking movies raking in 120 million and 145 million baht (the martial arts hit Ong-bak and the kid flick Fan Chan, respectively), points out the Post's Wut Homcheun.

Controversy came in the form of I-Fak (The Judgement). Critics panned it because it was considered disrespectful of its source material, the SeaWrite-award-winning novel Kham Phiphaksa by Chat Khobjitti. Previews billed the film as a kind of screwball sexy comedy. And audiences flocked in for the erotic interpretation of the love scenes. Overall, it was actually a charming film that deserves more international recognition. Unfortunately the only headlines it made were when an anonymous tip about the cutting of a nude scene erupted into a conflict between leading lady Bongkot Kongmalai and the entertainment giant GMM Grammy. Later on, some nude still photos from the set were posted on a popular local online forum with the suspected poster arrested. The charges against him were later dropped.

Thailand's film industry got a big boost in May when Tropical Malady won a Special Jury Prize in the main competition of the Cannes International Film Festival. Ironically, the attention was lavished on an indie director, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who has had to work outside the Thai studio system to get his films made. And, when the movie finally returned home to Thailand, it played in a limited engagement for a few weeks at only a couple of theaters. Another of Apichatpong's films, The Adventure of Iron Pussy, a low-budget parody of spy films and old-time Thai melodramas that featured a transvestite as its lead, finally was screened in Bangkok (albeit in an also limited engagement) after rolling around the film festival circuit for nearly a year. Still, both films did quite well, considering their limited screenings. But Tropical Malady remained ignored by the government, which embraced bland melodrama of The Overture and submitted to the Academy Awards for consideration as the Best Foreign Language Feature.

Writes Wut Homcheun:

Above all, the studios' prevailing attitude -- perhaps characteristic of businessmen following the doctrine of Thaksinomics [and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra] -- is to make quick bucks, with a focus on short-term goals, relying on the belief that a marketing blitz can make up for poor quality product. Investors pay attention to which type of films they should make (horror, comedy, action, historical drama) but not to how a film should be made (Is it original? Does it have a good script?). Thai cinema has become just a giant screen television.

True, we've come past the point of accepting that show business is a business, but that doesn't necessarily have to mean a total sacrifice of art and creativity.

That's why horror and comedy continue to be bankable genres, and no matter how fatuous films are it's okay -- if they fill the theatres for a few weeks. A prime example being the second highest-grossing movie of 2004, The Bodyguard, starring TV comedian [and Ong-Bak sidekick] Petthai Wongkamlao, which took 75 million baht. Meanwhile the fifth-highest earner, Sai Lor Fah (47 million baht), proved that a cool ad could be much smarter than the film it plugged.

Fortunately, quality mainstream films were not entirely absent. Early in the year, The Overture energised the industry, as this xylophone flick bounced back from poor first-week earnings to gross 52 million baht, ranking it third in the earnings league table. In June, The Letter, burst the floodgates holding back viewer's tears with its emotional narrative, coming in fourth when it bagged almost 50 million baht. But fate was much harsher to other films with strong vision but smaller promotional budgets. First-time director Chookiat Sakweerakul made the smarter-than-average horror Khon Pee Pisaj, an impressive debut that took only about 10 million baht, while Wisit Sasanatieng's Mah Nakorn (Citizen Dog) was the year's most strikingly visual film but earned only a meagre five million baht.

Citizen Dog's failure at the box office made Five Star Entertainment, one of Thailand's oldest film studios, struggle even harder. Things weren't going smoothly over at Sahamongkol Films either; it may remain the biggest local studio, but it sustained a major setback when its flagship movie of the year, the daredevil Kerd Ma Lui (Born to Fight), didn't break any records. However, a new player going from strength to strength is GTH (a company formed by GMM Pictures, Tai Entertainment and Hub Ho Hin). Last year the studio hit the jackpot with Fan Chan and repeated the feat this year with Shutter. This is the company to keep an eye on.

In general, the situation has been more upbeat on the experimental/independent film scene. The success of Sud Pralad is a boost to the morale of the indie crowd, long frustrated by the dominance of mindless studio flicks. Apart from his Cannes-award winning movie, Apichatpong had another film released. His campy The Adventure of Iron Pussy (co-directed with Michael Shaowanasai) is the year's most hilarious movie. And the fact that the Rotterdam International Film Festival, a major European film fest, selected four local short films to screen next year means Thai shorts may have more of a future than the long ones.

Here's a rundown of the box-office stats for the year, from The Nation (figures are in Thai baht):

1. Shutter - 110,000,000
2. The Bodyguard - 74,000,000
3. The Overture - 52,000,000
4. The Letter - 48,000,000
5. Sai Lor Fah - 48,000,000
6. Spicy Beauty Queen In Bangkok - 42,000,000
7. I-Fak - 38,000,000
8. The Extern - 33,000,000
9. Garuda - 32,000,000
10. Born To Fight - 23,000,000
11. The Sisters - 22,000,000
12. Art of the Devil - 20,500,000
13. Bangkok Robbery - 20,000,000
14. Sagai United - 18,500,000
15. The Commitment - 13,500,000
16. Siam Renaissance - 12,900,000
17. Six - 12,600,000
18. Headless Hero 2 - 12,000,000
19. The Lizard Woman - 11,000,000
20. Xtreme Limit - 9,500,000
21. Evil - 9,000,000
22. Bangkok Loco - 8,200,000
23. The Sin - 8,000,000
24. The Story of X-Circle - 7,000,000
25. Sar Wars - 6,500,000
26. Zee-Oui - 6,100,000
27. Siamese Outlaws - 6,050,000
28. Citizen Dog - 6,000,000
29. Unhuman - 5,500,000
30. Jumbo Queen - 5,100,000
31. My Space - 4,800,000
32. Cholestoral...Love - 4,000,000
33. The Grone - 2,500,000
34. Woak Wak - 2,300,000
35. Formalin Man - 2,000,000
36. The Meteor - 1,900,000
37. Pad Thai Story - 1,350,000
38. Tropical Malady - 1,300,000
39. The Adventure of Iron Pussy - 1,000,000
40. Be True - 800,000
41. The Shadow Lovers - 620,000
42. Mon Rak Roi Ran - 430,000
43. Curse of The Sun - 280,000

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)