Guest post: Assassin strikes nine times at Asian Film Awards

Shu Qui won best actress for The Assassin, which won nine prizes in all.

Keith Barclay is editor of the New Zealand film industry publication Screenz. A sponsored journalist covering Filmart, he offers Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal tailored coverage of Filmart, the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum and the Asian Film Awards.

Story and photos by Keith Barclay

Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Assassin was a favorite going into the evening, and left the Asian Film Awards with nine awards including Best Picture, Director and Actress.

The film has been a regular awardee at festivals since it premiered at Cannes last year, where Hou took the Best Director award. the winner of the Lifetime Achievement award at the Asian Film Awards two years ago, Hou wasn't present at the AFA ceremony in Macau, although impressively he was the evening's only absent winner.

Thirty-six films from 10 countries had gone into the AFA ceremony clutching 77 nominations for the 15 juried awards. Coming out at the end of the evening, seven titles had won something, with only The Assassin and Hong Kong feature Port of Call left clutching more than one gong.

Speaking before the event, Best Actor winner Lee Hyung-bun was asked about the diversity challenges facing the Academy in America. Lee said, "It's not only African Americans' problem. I think respect should be given to all races."

The only Thai nominee, Waruntorn Paonil, was up for the Newcomer award for her lead performance in Snap but missed out to Jessie Li from Port of Call. On the red carpet, Paonil had a brief chat with the Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal correspondent. She shared that since the premiere of Snap at the Tokyo International Film Festival late last year, she's been strongly focused on her singing, and releasing single "Insomnia", without any film projects in the near future.

While Snap has now completed its theatrical release, a book of behind-the-scenes images and information about the film will be published next month.

Musician-actress Waruntorn Paonil was a best newcomer nominee for Snap.

On the 10th edition of the AFAs, there were more honorary awards presented than usual. While they're not competitive, the selections contributed to a sense that the region's three major players hold a pretty tight grip on the trophies. Including the honorary gongs only one of over 20 awards went to someone from beyond China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), Japan and South Korea.

Korean actress Clara Lee, named a Rising Star the previous evening by the AFAA, hosted the awards.

Begun in 2007 by the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Asian Film Awards is now run by the Asian Film Awards Academy, founded by three of the region's major festivals – Busan, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Here are the winners:

• Best film: The Assassin
• Best director: Hou Hsiao-hsien, The Assassin
• Best screenplay: Jia Zhang-Ke, Mountains May Depart (France/Japan/China)
• Best actor: Lee Byung-hun, Inside Men (South Korea)
• Best actress: Shu Qi, The Assassin
• Best newcomer: Jessie Li, Port of Call (Hong Kong)
• Best supporting actor: Asano Tadanobu, Journey to the Shore (France/Japan)
• Best supporting actress: Zhou Yun, The Assassin
• Best production design: Hwarng Wern-Ying, The Assassin
• Best costume design: Lee Ji-yeon, Shim Hyun-seob, The Throne (South Korea)
• Best original music: Lim Giong, The Assassin
• Best sound:  Chu Shih-Yi, Tu Duu-Chih, Wu Shu-Yao, The Assassin
• Best visual effects: Prasad Sutar,Bajirao Mastani (India)
• Best editing: Port of Call (Hong Kong)
• Best cinematography: Mark Lee Ping-Bing,  The Assassin (Hong Kong/China/Taiwan)
• Lifetime achievement award: Kirin Kiki and Yuen Wo-ping
• Asian Box Office Award: Monster Hunt, directed by Raman Hui (China)
• Rising Stars: Clara Lee (South Korea) and Pakho Chau (Hong Kong)
• New Generation: Yoo Ah-in (South Korea)
• Outstanding Contribution to Asian Cinema: Li Qian-kuan (China)
• AFA 10th Anniversary Special Award: Feng Xiaogang (China)

Japanese actress Kirin Kiki received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

In Thai cinemas: Luk Thung Signature and the return of The Act of Killing

Star-studded stories unfold to the toe-tapping beat of Thai country songs in Luk Thung Signature (ลูกทุ่ง ซิกเนเจอร์, a.k.a. Love Beat), a sprawling musical drama by producer-director Prachya Pinkaew. Best known for directing the Tony Jaa martial-arts dramas Ong-Bak and Tom-Yum-Goong, Prachya has long wanted to make a luk thung musical.

Featuring 13 songs, the stories include a brooding business executive (Krissada Sukosol Clapp) who is searching for the cleaning lady he heard singing while he was in the toilet. She's played by Rungrat Mengphanit, a singer who is best known as "Khai Mook The Voice", thanks to her winning appearance on a Thai TV talent show.

Another story centers on a washed-up overweight pop singer (singer-actor Chalitit "Ben" Tantiwut) who finds new popularity when he puts on a glittering rhinestone suit and switches to luk thung.

Other stars include The Voice Thailand Season 1 winner Tanon Jamroen as well as Siraphan Wattanajinda, Chaiyathat Lampoon, Sombat Metanee and Pitsamai Wilaisak, Sumet Ong-art, Su Boonliang and luk thung songwriter Sala Khunawut.

Read more about it in a story in The Nation.

Also in cinemas is a revival run for the 2012 documentary The Act of Killing, which has the perpetrators of genocide in Indonesia in the 1960s re-enacting their gruesome deeds in often self-aggrandizing fashion, in scenes from their favorite types of movies – westerns, film-noir mysteries and lavishly staged musical numbers.

The Act of Killing rubbed me the wrong way when I saw it in a one-off special screening in Bangkok a few years ago. I felt it let those colorful politicians and military figures mostly off the hook for their wave of politically motivated killings in 1965-66. But it was part of a one-two punch by director Joshua Oppenheimer and his "anonymous" team of filmmakers, who followed up the The Act of Killing with the powerful and essential counter-punch, The Look of Silence, which focused on one gentle survivor's personal search for truth and justice.

Brought back by the Documentary Club, this is the 159-minute "director's cut" of The Act of Killing. It won many awards, including the European Film Award for Best Documentary and the Asia Pacific Screen Award. It was also a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The Act of Killing opens this week, and the must-see followup The Look of Silence is released next Thursday. There's a special screening of both films from 6pm on Saturday in an event put together by the Documentary Club and Film Kawan, an academic group that specializes in Southeast Asian films. It's at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld.

Apart from that special screening, regular venues for The Act of Killing are SF World, SFX Central Rama 9, SFX Central Lad Phrao and SFX Maya Chiang Mai. For further details, check the Documentary Club Facebook page or SF Cinemas booking site

Departing first-run cinemas after of two-week run is Khon Muay Kab Rak Thee Taektaang (ฅนมวยกับรักที่แตกต่าง, a.k.a. Boxing in Love), in which former childhood sweethearts – traditional dancer Roong and boxer Yord – are reacquainted years later in Bangkok, where Yord gets mixed up with mobsters and is tasked with going undercover in a police sting. Roengsak Misiri and Kriangsak Phinthutrasi direct.

Other new movies this week include Deadpool and Carol. There's more details on the other blog.

In Thai cinemas: Kyushu the Movie, Snap sneaks in

Multi-hyphenate entertainer Worawech “Dan” Danuwong joins with his musician pal Pongjak “Aeh” Pitthanaporn for Kyushu the Movie, a road-trip comedy about the Thai singing duo SanQ on a busking tour of Kyushu Island, Japan.

They have 30 days to survive with no money; their only currency is 999 CDs of their songs, which they can sell or trade. It's at SF cinemas.

And making its bow in a wide sneak-preview run this week is Snap (แค่..ได้คิดถึง, Kae .. Dai Kit Tung), writer-director Kongdej Jaturanrasmee's latest sharp observations about contemporary Thai society.

A romantic comedy-drama, Snap premiered in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival and opened the 13th World Film Festival of Bangkok. Set just as the military declared martial law last year, the story follows a young woman who is about to be married to a military officer. She returns to her provincial-capital hometown of Chanthaburi for a wedding of high-school friends and becomes nostalgic as she reconnects with her old boyfriend, who is the wedding photographer.

You can read more about it in an article in The Nation. There's also a nice review in the newspaper.

It's in sneak previews from around 8 nightly at the Apex cinemas in Siam Square and most other multiplexes, and then moves to a wider release next week.

Other new releases in Thai cinemas this week include the Jack Black family comedy Goosebumps and the Will Ferrell comedy Daddy's Home, as well as a final Documentary Club entry for the year, Iris. And Star Wars: The Force Awakens is held over for a second week at the Scala in Siam Square. Go see it there if you haven't already.

GTH to disband amid stock market conflict

Surprising news to report today as GTH, the eminently successful Thai movie studio, is set to dissolve amid conflict between partners over whether to take the company public.

A statement was posted on the company's website, and Khaosod English has a translation:

According to the online statement, Hub Ho Hin “believes the company is not yet ready to enter stock market within the next 1-3 years” because doing so may cause a financial pressure that affects the company’s creativity and work quality.

“Every side has tried to initiate dialogue and negotiation to find a solution for a long time, but cannot reach a conclusion on the shared objective of the company,” the statement says. “Therefore, we unanimously agree that if our works continue without finding a conclusion, it will cause damages to all sides involved.”

It went on, “GMM Tai Hub Ltd (GTH) subsequently agreed jointly to cease all operations of the company, effective on 31 December 2015 onward.”

Formed in 2004, GTH was a merger of three companies – GMM Pictures, Tai Entertainment and Hub Ho Hin. They came together as GMM Tai Hub, with the massive success of a co-production, the hit 2003 childhood friendship drama Fan Chan (My Girl). It set the formula that GTH films more or less followed, with hallmarks that included "feel good" stories, squeaky clean characters, polished production values and an easily recognizable roster of attractive, bankable stars.

Subsequent features included the horror smash Shutter, the critically acclaimed romance Puen Sanit (Dear Dakanda) and the coming-of-age epic The Tin Mine.

Recent hits include the box-office record-setter Pee Mak Phra Khanong, and this year's indie-feel romantic comedy-drama Freelance and the teen comedy May Who?

At the heart of the conflict is the company's domineering honcho, veteran show-business executive Visute Poolvoralaks, whose Tai Entertainment forms the "T" in GTH, and producer, writer and director Jira Maligool, who brought his more indie-leaning Hub-Ho-Hin into the corporate fold.

This story just broke! There is further coverage in the Thai press, including Thai Rath and entertainment website Sanook.

Update: Film Business Asia now has the story.

In Thai cinemas: May Who? and Shnit fest

Teenage angst takes the form of electricity in the Thai teen romance May Nhai .. Fai Raeng Fer (เมย์ไหน..ไฟแรงเฟร่อ, a.k.a. May Who?), which is about a schoolgirl who is afflicted with a powerful electrical charge, which she releases when her heartbeat reaches 120 beats per second. This makes it difficult for her to get close to anyone.

Sutatta Udomsilp stars as May. She keeps a low profile at school in order to keep her shocking condition a secret, but her heart gets racing whenever she sees the star athlete Fame (Thanapob Leeratanakajorn). Her superpower is discovered by classmate Pong (Thiti Mahayotharak), a shy guy who also keeps to himself but has a crush on the school's most popular girl (Nareekul Katepraphakorn). So May agrees to help Pong score with his crush if he keeps her secret and helps her hook up with Fame.




May Who? has movie studio GTH doubling down on the last few months of the year, as the film is being released less than a month after the studio's current hit Freelance. Usually the studio makes just two or maybe three films a year, and spreads them out more. Sure to also do well at the box office, May Who? is directed by Chayanop Boonpakob, a former indie filmmaker who got his big commercial break with the 2011 hit SuckSeed, about a teenage rock band. Along with the special effects related to the girl's superpower, May Who? also includes animated segments, inspired by notebooks Chayanop drew in when he was in high school.

The new film has been accompanied by the usual promotional blitz by GTH, but it's been a bit awkward because talented young actress "PunPun" Sutatta has been suspended from working by the company after she and members of the cast of Hormones the Series misbehaved on a train while visiting Japan. They posted a clip of their rowdy behavior on social networks, not realizing that being disruptive on public transport is seriously frowned upon in orderly Japan. To prevent the breach in etiquette from becoming a major international incident, GTH made all involved issue apologies, and they punished PunPun and the others by banning them from social media and suspending them from work. And PunPun's suspension doesn't end until sometime next week, too late to support her new film before its release.

You can read more about the movie in an article in The Nation.

Next week is the third Bangkok edition of the Shnit International Short Film Festival, which runs from Wednesday until October 11 at the Lido multiplex in Siam Square.

Now in its 13th year, the Switzerland-based Shnit fest is held simultaneously in several cities, with Bangkok joining Bern, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Cape Town, Moscow, San José and Hong Kong.

The selection includes new short-film entries from around the world plus a special bloc of "Made in Thailand" shorts.

Find out more at the festival's Facebook events page.

Other new releases in Thai cinemas this week include the The Tribe, the troublemaking entry at Cannes last year. For more, please see the other blog.

Review: SPL 2: A Time for Consequences

• Directed by Cheang Pou-soi
• Starring Tony Jaa, Wu Jing, Simon Yam, Zhang Jin, Louis Koo
• Released in Thai cinemas on September 19, 2015; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

You know SPL 2: A Time for Consequences is going to be a different kind of Tony Jaa movie when the stern Thai martial-arts star is introduced wearing ice skates, and he promptly falls on his ass.

Indeed, the reinvention of Jaa's career, post-Sahamongkol, continues apace with SPL 2, Jaa's first, and much-anticipated, foray into Hong Kong action films.

In a supporting role alongside a cast of Hong Kong and Chinese stars, here's a Jaa who takes a page from Jackie Chan's playbook, playing the nice guy. He's immediately a sympathetic character, taking his young daughter to a Bangkok ice rink. After he falls down and is helpfully brought a comical penguin-shaped skating aid to stay upright, his character Chatchai's cute little girl turns around and has blood streaming from her nose. She is, of course, very ill, and in need of a rare type of bone marrow.

The only match, according to the movie medical database, is a Hong Kong police officer named Kit. And because this is a Hong Kong movie, a crazily elaborate plot must be constructed to put Kit and Chatchai on a collision course.

Kit has gone deep undercover in an operation to bring down Hung, a notorious trafficker in human organs who, perhaps not ironically, needs an organ transplant himself. Louis Koo milks his credit as "guest star" for all its worth, brandishing an evil cane and wearing a surgical mask as he orders his minions to do his bidding. On the verge of death, the Hong Kong kingpin is preparing to head to Thailand for an operation that will swap out his heart for the ticker of his own brother.

In Thailand, the Hung operation is overseen by a perfectly coiffed, three-piece-suited prison warden (Zhang Jin). He has an entire secret wing of his prison, where he keeps the victims of human trafficking under lock and key until their organs are needed on the black market. That seems to be a constant with foreign co-productions made in Thailand – there's often some angle involving organ trafficking or people smuggling.

Anyway, it's that very prison where Jaa's Chatchai works. To earn more money for his daughter's hospitalization, he agrees to get on the payroll of the corrupt warden, which sets him up for the meeting with Kit.

SPL 2 is a sequel-in-name-only to a terrific 2005 crime thriller that had Donnie Yen as a tough cop throwing down against the formidable Sammo Hung. The SPL sequel has been in development ever since then, and what has finally emerged is a completely different story. There's no Donnie or Sammo, but Wu Jing was in the first one, in a memorable supporting role as a blade-wielding thug, as was Simon Yam, as the head of the undercover police squad. Yam is back as a senior cop, but it's different character, overseeing the operation that sent Kit down the rabbit hole.

After a bit of running around in Hong Kong, and a big shoot-out at a cruise-ship terminal, the action shifts to Thailand, where Wu Jing ends up in prison, face to face with the guard who wants his bone marrow. Only Chatchai doesn't know that Kit is the potential donor. So a lot of time is eaten up getting the two to realize they have a much deeper connection than they ever imagined.

In the Thai-dubbed version screening in Bangkok, there was an added layer of unintended hilarity as Chatchai, in a prison cell with the bone-marrow donor he's seeking, uses an app on his phone to translate between Thai and Cantonese, to get Wu Jing's character to call the guy Chatchai thinks is still in Hong Kong. Because it's dubbed, even the Cantonese parts are in Thai, so all the lines are spoken the same twice. Hey, the audience needed a good laugh about then.

SPL 2 fares better when there's no CGI wolves or bits of bone marrow to clutter things up, because that's when the action takes place.

Aside from the Hong Kong shootout, there's a great scene in a doctor's office where cops have Hung's injured brother on lockdown. Here, a blade-wielding thug (Zhang Chi) is introduced to great effect.

Back in Thailand, there's a prison riot, giving the evil warden a chance to show off his martial-arts prowess.

Later, Yam's character is trussed up and taken to a scuzzy warehouse where bodies are hacked up. People in various states of disrepair are hanging around, as if they sold off a limb to be able to survive one more day.

In a scene that might have made his late mentor Panna Rittikrai proud, Jaa uses a prison bus to smash the place, and he acquires chains that he wraps around his arms, to add even more heft to his Muay Thai punches.

The big climactic setpiece takes place in a ritzy five-star resort hospital where Hung is to have his operation. Here's where the blade-wielding dude from Hong Kong comes back and joins in the mayhem along with the fierce warden. Wu Jing does his kung fu thing, with lightning-fast punches and sweeping kicks, while Jaa flies back and forth, all knees and elbows, as if he's being shot out of a cannon.

SPL 2 is the third in a trio of Tony Jaa movies this year, following his separation from the Thai studio Sahamongkol, where he made Ong-Bak and Tom-Yum-Goong. First was his big Hollywood debut in Fast and Furious 7, which featured him in short but crucial scenes with Paul Walker. Next to be released was the local co-production Skin Trade, which had Jaa in a leading role alongside action star Dolph Lundgren, as two rogue cops facing off a human-smuggling mobster played by Ron Perlman.

And though I enjoyed Furious 7 and Skin Trade, SPL 2 is my favorite of the three, and it's the type of thing I'd hope to see more of from the Thai action star.

Related posts:

• In Thai cinemas: Behind the Painting, No Escape, SPL 2

Apichatpong-a-rama: Ovation for Cemetery of Splendour

Masterpiece.

That's the word being tossed around, and not lightly, to describe Apichatpong Weerasethakul's latest feature, Cemetery of Splendour (รักที่ขอนแก่น, Rak Ti Khon Kaen), which had its world premiere on Monday at the Cannes Film Festival, and was warmly received with a 10-minute standing ovation.

Following the film's screening in the Un Certain Regard competition, pundits at Cannes are calling Cemetery of Splendour one of the best films in the fest, and some wonder why it wasn't included in the main Palme d'Or competition, especially since Apichatpong is a past Palme d'Or and Jury Prize winner. Adding to the feeling of irk is the fact that Splendour wasn't included in the fest's original line-up announcement – it wasn't added until about a week later.

A number-crunching critics rating ranks Splendour with a strong score of 8.45, making it second overall to Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's main competition title The Assassin, and ahead of Todd Haynes' much-buzzed-about Carol.

In an article in The Nation today, Apichatpong downplayed concerns about the Un Certain Regard slot. Here's the quote:

“Cemetery of Splendour is another step forward for me, but I understand why the film was chosen for Un Certain Regard. As I said on the stage, Un Certain Regard is the section for real discovery and excitement, and I am happy that the film is being shown with other titles from new directors who will be the future of cinema.”

Further coverage of the premiere was included earlier in the week in The Nation's Soopsip gossip column, where World Film Festival of Bangkok chief Kriengsak "Victor" Silakong was quoted:

"It is a truly Thai film and uses the Isaan dialect throughout," Victor observes. "It's an unbelievable mix of belief, the spiritual world and fact. Yet the film is simple and thought-provoking. Joe still has it, and I salute him!"

There were loud cheers as the credits rolled in Cannes. "The applause went on for a long time, like 10 minutes" Victor says. "It was fantastic!"

Anyway, to recap, Cemetery of Splendour is about a lonely middle-aged woman (Apichatpong's frequent actress Jejira Pongpas) who is caring for soldiers in a rural clinic who have been stricken with a mysterious sleeping sickness. She forms a bond with a patient named Itt (Banlop Lomnoi from Tropical Malady) while also forming a friendship with a spirit medium (Jarinpattra Rueangram), who says the slumbering malady was caused by a disturbance to "an ancient cemetery of kings".

A frequently used still image has Apichatpong's trademark fluorescent lights. Here, they are used in the treatment of the snoozing soldiers, and add a surreal science-fiction element to spiritual tale.

So let's get to those reviews. First up, Jessica Kiang from IndieWire's The Playlist:

"It is also because the mood 'Cemetery' evokes, a sense of alien wonder that seems not to sink in from the outside but to spring from the bass-deep pit of your own stomach, came to me as perhaps the purest expression of cinema as it was meant to be seen: in a theater, in the dark, in the quiet, inspiring and requiring a quality of distraction-free attention that is simply disappearing as a mode of interaction with art."

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian:

"This is another of his unique imagist cine-poems: an essay in psychogeography and a meditation on death, the presence of the spirit world in nature and the unquiet ghosts of guilt and pain in the Thai nation, as symbolised by the military - a recurrent trope in his work."

Justin Chang at Variety:

"While his tale of a hospital volunteer who bonds with an infected soldier emerges from the same mythic worlds explored in Tropical Malady (2004) and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), the surreal visitations here occur at a more subdued, almost subterranean level; this is an eerily becalmed work in which spiritual possessions and mysterious deities come to seem virtually indistinguishable from ordinary reality.

Screen Daily's Allan Hunter:

Working through a largely linear narrative creates a more approachable piece than many of his previous films, suggesting the potential to broaden his core arthouse audience. “ Slow cinema” lovers and devoted followers of the director should also find enough to mull over in this mysterious, melancholic feature to feel that none of his distinctive vision has been compromised for the sake of accessibility.

And Jordan Mintzer in The Hollywood Reporter:

"Past lives and ancient ancestors are evoked through conversations that are both cryptic and oddly matter-of-fact, in a work that has the realistic vibe of a documentary but the unearthly qualities of a sustained reverie. This is nothing new for Weerasethakul, who in previous films has transformed men into tigers and ignored narrative conventions as much as possible, though there are moments here that seem more drawn out than before. A few surprises are nonetheless in store, especially when Itt wakes up and begins a sort-of mother-son relationship with Jen, even if his moments of consciousness are short lived."

The social media has more than its share of reviews. Here's one that recommends Cemetery of Splendour as a balm to those who overindulged:

Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong) was two blissful hours of cooling forest poetry. Rinsed my soul, cured my hangover. 👍 #Cannes2015

— Robbie Collin (@robbiereviews) May 18, 2015

There are also lots of interviews with the director. Among the most-cited I've come across is one he did with The Isaan Record, an online journalism effort that's headquartered in the film's location (and Apichatpong's native hometown), Khon Kaen. He reflects a lot on the northeastern Thailand city:

"I feel sorry to say that Khon Kaen is becoming very similar to other cities around the country that have no identity anymore. The best that city planners can come up with is placing dinosaurs around the city. We also feature that in the film. I think the film looks at the city with the eyes of sadness."

Other Q-and-A articles are at The Hollywood Reporter and Huffington Post.

IndieWire drew an unlikely connection between Cemetery of Splendour and Pixar's newest animated feature Inside Out.

And, there's good news for viewers in North America, who can relax in knowing that Cemetery of Splendour will get there thanks to Strand Releasing. Variety had that scoop. Strand had previously handled Apichatpong's 2010 Palme d'Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

As for a Thai release, The Nation article today by indie film producer and freelance film-festival correspondent Donsaron Kovitvanitcha ends with a bummer, saying "it seems unlikely that it will be seen in Thailand".

Of course that could be a bit of reverse psychology to make cinema-goers in Thailand suddenly want something they've been told they can't have.

Apichatpong-a-rama: A splendiferous poster for Cemetery of Splendour

Feast your eyes upon the poster for Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Cemetery of Splendour (รักที่ขอนแก่น, Rak Ti Khon Kaen), which is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, in the Un Certain Regard competition.

It features Jenjira of the Jungle, that is Jenjira Pongpas, the director's longtime leading lady and collaborator, in what looks to be a tour-de-force for the unassumingly domineering actress.

Not only does the poster sum up everything that is Apichatpong about the film, Jenjira's jungle frock makes it appear as she is wearing camouflage. It fits with the story of Cemetery of Splendour, which is about a lonely middle-aged woman caring for a soldier with sleeping sickness.

Anyway, in the run-up to the Cannes premiere, Apichatpong has kicked his machinery into high gear, releasing the poster on Facebook and noting the premiere dates on Twitter:

--- Cemetery of Splendour --- World Premiere @ Cannes Film Festival, May 18th ,11 am & 5 pm @ the Debussy... http://t.co/nVc6SRtuOW

— Apichatpong W. (@kickthemachine) May 4, 2015

He'll be there in Cannes, along with three teams of producers and directors (including Wisit Sasanatieng) taking part in Thai Pitch 2015.

Cannes 2015: Wisit's Suriya back in the ring at Thai Pitch

Wisit Sasanatieng's long-in-development Suriya is among a trio of projects vying for backers at the second edition of the relaunched Thai Pitch, which takes place on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival.

Others taking part in Thai Pitch 2015 will be veteran helmer Sananjit Bangsapan with Uncle Ho and indie talent Wasunan Hutawet with Sydney.

Suriya is a biographical drama about an infamous Muay Thai fighter whose ingeniousness in the ring was contrasted by personal struggles outside. It could potentially be a Thai boxing version of Raging Bull, and would be Wisit's first feature since 2010's Red Eagle. It also marks a return to Cannes for the Thai New Wave veteran. Wisit's directorial debut, 2000's Tears of the Black Tiger, was the first Thai film to be officially selected for Cannes; it competed in the Un Certain Regard line-up. Athimes Arunroj-angkul (Phobia 2, Karaoke Girl) is producing Suriya, which has been pitched at other project markets over the years.

Sananjit, meanwhile, is seeking to make his return in the film industry. He previously did the gritty gunman tale Hit Man File in 2005 and the women-in-prison drama Butterfly in Grey in 2002. His Uncle Ho follows the exploits of a young Ho Chi Minh, who briefly lived in the northeastern city of Nakhon Phanom in the 1920s. While doing some organizing for the Communist Party in Thailand, the young Ho is targeted by a French assassin. Supong Javanasundara (Hit Man File) and Nakorn Veerapavati are producing.

And with Sydney, Wasunan, an alumnae of the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2012, seeks to make her feature directorial debut. It's the story of a young woman from the countryside who moves to Bangkok full of hope but soon falls into despair. Soros Sokhum (Wonderful Town, So Be It) and Parinee Buthrasri are the producers.

The Thai Pitch was relaunched in 2013 after a five-year absence from the Croisette.  It is coordinated by producer Raymond Phathanavirangoon (Headshot, Tokyo Sonata) and will be held at the Thai Pavilion.

The three film projects will bolster a growing Thai presence at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which is headlined by the return of the 2010 Palme d'Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul with his new feature Cemetery of Splendour. It is in the official selection for the Un Certain Regard program. It will be Apichatpong's fourth time in competition in Cannes, where he won the Un Certain Regard in 2002 with Blissfully Yours, the jury prize in 2004 with Tropical Malady and the Golden Palm in 2010 with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

And actress-model "Chompoo" Araya A. Hargate returns for her third consecutive year as camera fodder for the red carpet. Among the many products she pitches, Chompoo is a spokesmodel for cosmetics brand L'Oreal, which has sponsored her trips and handled her designer wardrobe for appearances at Cannes since 2013.

More coverage of this year's Thai Pitch can be found at The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Daily and Film Business Asia.

Review: Skin Trade

• Directed Ekachai Uekrongtham
• Starring Tony Jaa, Dolph Lundgren, Ron Perlman, Michael Jai White, Celina Jade, Peter Weller, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 23, 2015; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

In order to have fight scenes, you must first have enemies, and Skin Trade gives Phanom “Tony Jaa” Yeerum plenty of those to deal with.

Along with roomfuls of anonymous henchmen to mow down, the Ong-Bak star also gets featured fights with experienced stars, something fans always clamor for. In Skin Trade, Jaa tangles with his much-taller co-star, action veteran Dolph Lundgren, a guy who has gone toe-to-toe with Rocky. And there’s Michael Jai White, the martial-artist and general bad-you-know-what. The Black Dynamite star gets into a knock-down, drag-out scene with Jaa.

The story is the barest of set-ups, standard Bangkok-noir elements that make up the canon of English-language Thai productions, in which foreigner gangsters are somehow allowed to operate without impunity. In Skin Trade (คู่ซัดอันตราย, Koo Sat Antarai), it’s a sleazebag family of Serbians who are trafficking young women through their network of gentlemen’s clubs, brothels and porn studios.

But unusually for a Thai film, some of the action is filmed overseas, with Vancouver, British Columbia, standing in for Newark, New Jersey, where a police officer (Lundgren) is leading an investigation against a former Serbian war criminal and current gangland kingpin. He’s played by Hollywood character actor Ron Perlman, who luxuriates in this thick bad accent.

The opening deftly toggles back and forth between Bangkok and the Garden State. On one side of the world, Royal Thai Police special branch officer Tony twirls around a luxury hotel room full of bad guys, to rescue a farmgirl from a life as a sex slave. Meanwhile, in Newark, there’s the discovery of a shipping container full of dead women, a scene that should resonate with fans of Season 2 of The Wire. Officer Nick gets into a dockland shoot-out, and ends up plugging the favorite son of the Serbian mobster. He retaliates by blowing up Nick’s house with a rocket, which leaves his wife and daughter dead and Nick with a facial scar.

The action then shifts back to Thailand, where a fugitive Nick arrives to a police welcome at Suvarnabhumi airport. A dodgy carpark shootout leaves Tony’s Thai cop partner dead and makes Nick an even bigger target, thanks to dirty double dealing by White’s character.

From there, Skin Trade proceeds at a mostly breakneck pace, running and gunning from tin-shack riverside slums to dusty warehouses to finally bring together to the two stars and turn them from enemies to friends. In the melee, Nick, in pursuit of the gangster Viktor, grabs a dirtbike and busts through a Chinese opera stage, while Tony pursues on foot. Of course, it's a chance to use his trademark acrobatic running and somersaulting through crowded market lanes, always a thrill.

There’s the featured fight with Lundgren, beautifully staged in a rice warehouse, and another with White. And in addition to the punch-ups, there are plenty of explosions, including a retaliatory rocket-launcher firing that brings down a helicopter.

Each actor gets their moment to shine. For Jaa, it’s a chance to try out new English-language skills. He’s always been a man of few words, mostly having to do with the location of a missing elephant. But he now has quips like “negotiation is over” or “you will rot in hell”, best said with a menacing hiss as someone is being dangled off the ledge of a five-star hotel.

Lundgren, with a polished granite exterior, is an big old softie inside, and his character is given just enough of a family life to make him someone with whom the audience can sympathize.

As the Serbian crime boss Viktor, Perlman sinks deep into that Eastern European accent, rolling off such phrases as “you have a strong heartbeat … there is a musicality to the rhythm”. The Hellboy star even gets to puff on one of his beloved cigars while dishing out punishment.

A handful of supporting characters also stand out. Celina Jade from TV’s Arrow is Tony’s girlfriend and playful sparring partner. A former sex-trafficking victim, she dons angel wings to work as an undercover informant in the Serbian club.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a veteran of Showdown in Little Tokyo and other Lundgren pictures, turns up as a local polician, who has just enough influence to keep the cops away from Viktor's rackets.

And RoboCop himself, Peter Weller, is Lundgren’s police chief back home. He gets a healthy bit of exposition to deliver, and a possibility of seeing more action in a sequel.

Even seasoned Thai character actor Sahajak “Puu” Boonthanakit gets his licks in. He’s played cops and bad guys in countless English-language productions here, but his perverted porn director this time around is especially memorable. Hopefully, he received counseling after the cameras stopped rolling.

It’s all held together thanks to execution by director Ekachai Uekrongtham, a helmer who is known for theater productions, such as Chang and Eng, about the original Siamese twins, and arthouse movies like Pleasure Factory, about Singapore’s Geylang red-light district. But his work on the 2003 transgender-fighter biopic Beautiful Boxer and his current Muay Thai Live stage show in Bangkok made him a natural choice to help showcase Jaa’s first headline effort as an international star. There’s no muss and no fuss, and the style is consistent, whether the action is taking place in a New Jersey police station or a bar on Sukhumvit Soi 7/1. Framing is still and steady, allowing viewers to take in the full picture of the action and feel the impact.

Talents behind the scenes who surely aided those efforts include cinematographer Ben Nott (Daybreakers), veteran production designer Ek Iemchuan (Tears of the Black Tiger and Ong-Bak 2) and stunt coordinator and second-unit director Dian Hristov (Expendables 2).

Produced by Craig Baumgarten, Lundgren and Jaa’s Bangkok-based manager and producer Michael Selby, Skin Trade is a project that Lundgren helped write and has been trying to get made for many years. It came to fruition when he met Jaa while working on a Thai film called Ai Noon Gangnam (A Man Will Rise), an intriguing "Eastern western" that was set up at Sahamongkol Film.

Much of the news about Skin Trade has been overshadowed by a contract dispute between Jaa and Sahamongkol, where he made Ong-Bak, Tom-Yum-Goong and the aborted A Man Will Rise. The studio went to court to try and to prevent the Thai release of Fast and Furious 7, Jaa’s Hollywood debut in which he has a small but memorable turn as a villain who tangles with Paul Walker.

Skin Trade gives Jaa a chance to prove himself as a leading man alongside Hollywood heavyweights, and he acquits himself well. Coming up next is Jaa’s Hong Kong debut in Sha Po Leng II. But perhaps a sequel to Skin Trade ought to also be in the works?

Related posts:

• Hi-Jaa! Skin Trade opens in Thai cinemas

Hi-Jaa! Skin Trade opens in Thai cinemas

Well, no sign of an injunction.

And so the career rehabilitation of Thai action star Tony Jaa continues uninterrupted in Thailand, with today's release of Skin Trade, a gritty crime drama that has Jaa teaming up with Swedish bruiser Dolph Lundgren to go after human traffickers in Bangkok.

The movie comes hot off the success of the worldwide blockbuster Fast and Furious 7, which had Jaa making his Hollywood debut as a fearsome enemy operative who briefly trades blows and action-movie quips with hero Paul Walker. It's fun stuff. He's even mentioned in reviews.

But Skin Trade is Jaa's big star vehicle as he embarks on this new international phase of his career. The movie was developed with the help of Lundgren and Jaa's new manager, Bangkok-based businessman and movie producer Michael Selby.

It's directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham, a filmmaker and theater director who has been celebrating some of his own success lately, with the nightly stage show Muay Thai Live: The Legend Lives marking one year of drawing crowds to the tourist-ensnaring Asiatique the Riverside Bangkok. Ekachai previously won widespread acclaim for his work on the fact-based transgender drama Beautiful Boxer, which was a winning mix of Muay Thai action and art-house sensibilities. Not exactly an action-movie fan, he talks more about his work on Skin Trade and being initially shaken by the explosions in an article in The Nation.

Skin Trade has Jaa as a Thai policeman who teams up with a vengeance-seeking New York cop (Lundgren) to go after Serbian mobsters who are running a human-trafficking ring in Bangkok. A heavily accented Ron Perlman also stars, along with Celina Jade, Michael Jai White and Peter Weller.

The project is something Lundgren had been trying to produce for a long time. The fair-haired birch of an actor made his breakthrough as an imposing Russian boxer in Rocky IV and is among the cast of Stallone's Expendables movies. He met Jaa when the two were at work in Thailand on movie called A Man Will Rise, which was set up at Jaa's former studio, Sahamongkol Film. At the time, Jaa's career was going through a transition, and he decamped from A Man Will Rise amid a still-boiling contract dispute.

He set to work on Skin Trade after filming his scenes for Fast and Furious 7.

Sahamongkol, which contends that Jaa has another 10-year contract to work off and owes them for the money they spent on the unfinished A Man Will Rise, had sought an injunction to block the release of Furious 7 in Thailand, and though that didn't work out for them, there was still a bit of concern they might try to pull a similar stunt to get Skin Trade banned.

Meanwhile, Jaa has another movie on the docket, the Hong Kong martial-arts drama Sha Po Leng II. A Thai release for that one is still in the works.

Check out the Thai trailer for Skin Trade, embedded below. The Thai title is Koo Sat Antarai (คู่ซัดอันตราย), which I'm guessing very roughly translates as A Dangerous Pair Accused. Maybe more-Thai-savvy readers can do a better job with that.

Hi-Jaa! Fast and Furious 7 is back on in Thailand

Fast and Furious 7, featuring the long-awaited Hollywood debut of Thai action star Tony Jaa, had been blocked from screening in Thailand by a court injunction, but now seems likely to screen here after all, opening on, no joke, April Fool's Day.

The story of this goes back to last week, just after Jaa finished a press conference to talk to Thai reporters about his own movie Skin Trade as well as his work in Fast and Furious 7 and the Hong Kong martial-arts flick SPL II. That same day, lawyers for Jaa's former employer Sahamongkol Film International, had obtained an injunction from the Civil Court, blocking the film's release.

Talk about bad timing for Jaa and his manager-producer Michael Selby, and by the time reporters at the press conference heard about it, Jaa was already in the air, jetting back to Los Angeles.

Sahamongkol's move to block Fast and Furious 7 was widely reported in the local and international press, but the reality of the situation seemed vague, and gave me pause, which is why I've waited until now to write about it. The supposed injunction seemed to have no effect, other than to get people talking about the film, probably the opposite of what Sahamongkol's domineering boss Somsak "Sia Jiang" Techarattanaprasert intended.

Thai fans of Vin Diesel's car-chase franchise took to the social networks to speak out against the injunction and called for a boycott of Sahamongkol films. That prompted prominent director MC Chatrichalerm Yukol to issue a plea to Thais to not boycott his upcoming film, The Legend of King Naresuan Part VI, which is distributed through Sahamongkol. Film Business Asia had more on that.

Meanwhile, Fast and Furious 7 posters that had been up for weeks still adorned the coming attractions boxes at cinemas, the trailers were still playing and multiplex websites were still touting advance ticket sales ahead of the April 1 release.

It seemed likely that Fast and Furious 7 – that really is what they are calling it in Thailand – was going to go ahead and play, in spite of the court's ruling. Indeed, one multiplex chain, SF Cinema City, said it planned to defy the injunction and show the movie anyway.

Then yesterday afternoon, word quickly spread that lawyers for Furious 7 distributor UIP had succeeded in getting the injunction lifted. So the initial court ruling seemed like an April Fool's prank by Sia Jiang that backfired.

Anyway, fans will get to see Jaa's villain Kiat tangle on the big screen with the late Furious star Paul Walker, in one of his last performances. Of course, there's a clip of the fight on YouTube, and it's embedded below.



At the heart of Sahamongkol's moves is a long-simmering contract dispute. Sia Jiang, recipient of a lifetime achievement honor at the recent Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards, insists that Jaa is under contract with his studio until 2023, as the result of an extension of his first 10-year contract, which kept him tied to Sahamongkol and only Sahamongkol. However, the contract extension was supposedly mailed to Jaa's old home address and apparently signed by a random family member. Jaa, who has become estranged from his family over various disputes (they don't much like his wife), insists the contract is not valid.

In filing for the injunction, Sahamongkol's lawyer named Jaa, Fast and Furious producer Universal and movie distributor UIP as defendants, and demanded 1.60 billion baht, or about $50 million, with 7.5 percent interest until payment is made. That's the amount of money Sahamongkol says it has invested in Jaa over the years, and includes 26 million baht given to Jaa to make the aborted "Eastern western" Ai Noom Gangnam, a.k.a. A Man Will Rise, which had Jaa co-starring with Dolph Lundgren. Those two apparently hit it off big time, declared mutual admiration and set off to work on Skin Trade. According to a story in The Nation today (generated from last Thursday's press conference), only about 20 percent of A Man Will Rise was completed.

Other sore spots with Sahamongkol over the years have included Jaa's infamous meltdown during the making of Ong-Bak 2 and the lackluster performance of 2013's Tom-Yum-Goong 2, which flopped in a local release that wasn't supported in the least by Jaa because he was already on the outs with the studio.

Meanwhile, Skin Trade is due in Thai cinemas on April 23. Selby produced it, and it's directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham, the helmer of the critically acclaimed Beautiful Boxer. In addition to Lundgren, the cast also had Ron Perlman, Peter Weller, Michael Jai White and Celina Jade in a story about an Interpol officer (Jaa) and a New York cop (Lundgren) fighting the Russian mob over human trafficking in Bangkok. Jaa also thinks that SPL II might be shown in Thailand, maybe sometime in June. I hope it does get a good release here. It looks fantastic. I wait with bated breath for more injunctions to be sought by Sahamongkol.

By the way, Jaa has stopped using his new Thai name Thatchakorn Yeerum, and has gone back to telling people his name is Phanom Yeerum, or better yet Jaa Phanom Yeerum, but only in Thailand where the new name never really stuck anyway. Elsewhere, he's just plain old Tony Jaa, international action-movie star.

Last Executioner pops up in Bangkok

If you missed seeing The Last Executioner (เพชฌฆาต, Petchakat) last year (and lots did, given how it whirled in and out of cinemas) then here's a chance sighting in an unusual location, Bangkok's stately Neilson Hays Library.

Starring Shanghai film fest award-winner Vithaya Pansringarm as Thai prison death-row rifleman Chavoret Jaruboon, it's a biopic and psychological study about a man conflicted by his faith and his lethal profession.

The screening is set for this Thursday, February 26 at 7pm. Tickets are 400 baht (300bt for members/students).  Book here.

On hand afterward will be director Tom Waller, screenwriter Don Linder and star "Phu" Vithaya. A signed copy of the screenplay will be a raffled off.

Review: Fin Sugoi

• Directed by Tanwarin Sukkhapisit
• Starring Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Makoto Koshinaka, Settapong Piangpor, Supanart Jittaleela, Nawapol Lampoon
• Released in Thai cinemas on September 25, 2014; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 4/5

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any cases where directors and their lead actresses might have shared the same shade of lipstick. But if there have been any such cinematic cosmetic collaborations, it's unlikely they were as fruitful as Love Sud Fin Sugoi (ฟินสุโค่ย), an eye-poppingly slick romantic comedy by Tanwarin Sukkahpisit and starring Apinya Sakuljaroensuk.

"Saipan" Apinya, who memorably made her debut in 2007 with an Afro hairstyle in Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Ploy, has long been a favorite actress of Thailand's indie directors, turning in solidly dramatic performances in such films as I Carried You Home and most recently in Concrete Clouds. She's had supporting roles in a dozen or so Thai mainstream comedies and romances, but none have allowed her to stretch her talents like she does in Fin Sugoi.

Working for the first time with popular director "Golf" Tanwarin, Saipan and the transgender director seem to have inspired each other.

With bright red lipstick, long straight black hair and a goth-rock wardrobe possibly borrowed from Golf, Saipan gives a force-of-nature performance as Noona, a domineering young Thai woman who is obsessed with Japanese rock star Makoto. But when her screaming-schoolgirl devotion to the hair-metal singer goes too far, her long-time boyfriend, the jealous judo-practicing Khrong (Tao Settapong) calls it quits. Noona then wins a chance to star in a music video with Makato, but she's torn by her feelings for Khrong and misgivings when romance with her rock idol becomes all too real.

Meanwhile, everyone in Noona's close circle of friends is looking for love in all the wrong places. Noona's best friend, the tomboy folksinger and pub owner Ham (Yes or No star Tina Suppanart) has attracted the attention of platonic guy pal Tong (Guy Nawapol), but lesbian Ham has long held a hidden torch for the glamorous Noona. And the hot-headed Khrong is tentatively crushed on by stepbrother Noi, who is still unsure about his sexuality, even as his best friend Toh good-naturedly flirts with him. And an orange-haired girl (Chicha Ammartyakun) who's always hanging around Ham's music pub is on the sidelines, waiting to scoop up whatever guy is left broken-hearted by Noona and Ham.

Fans of the cult-hit lesbian romance Yes or No get a scene made just for them, with a dream sequence involving Tina Suppanart that demonstrates just how sexually flexible Noona and her friends might be.

Fin Sugoi touches on several trends and issues in contemporary Thai culture. The backdrop is Thai society's continuing fascination with Japanese culture, especially J-rock, the '90s-style hair metal that's been popular in Thailand a lot longer and seems way cooler than the more-recent South Korean pop imports.

The romance is also a relaxed look at sexuality and the fluid nature of relationships with family and friends. And there's a look at how the media are manipulated into reporting on scandals by unscrupulous managers hoping to drum up publicity for their celebrities.

The film hooks audiences in with a fast and furious first half, punctuated by tasty licks of Japanese rock. The soundtrack then turns to quiet piano and guitar ballads for a slower second half that has Khong trying to win back Noona's heart and Noona feeling conflicted about her romance with the much-older Makoto. Portrayed by the actual musician, the frontman for Lucifer and now the Trick Band, Makoto turns out to be a bit creepy even if he seems geniunely sweet. The pace slackens a bit too much toward the end, leaving me to wonder if a bit of tightening here and there could have trimmed the 110-minute running time. But that's my only quibble.

It's an attractive production, offering a glimpse of the colorful cos-play scene in Bangkok's Siam Square, lounging for drinks and music in one of the city's trendy Thai pubs (the kind with antiques and weird stuff on the walls) and taking in the energy of a J-rock show, where the screaming fans are as big a part as what's onstage. There's even a beautifully framed dream journey or flashback to Japan, where Noona and Khong first fell in love.

A music-video shoot offers more chances for Saipan to don different costumes and wigs, each a jaw-dropping revelation. As a humorous aside, the music video's grumpy director is actual music-video director Alongod "Book" Uabhaibool.

At the local box office, Fin Sugoi hasn't performed all that strong, earning just around 5 million baht at last count. However, the film had its world premiere in Japan, back in March at the Osaka Film Festival, and it's at fests like that where Fin Sugoi will likely be most appreciated.

See also:

• Fin Sugoi trailer English sub

In memoriam: Panna Rittikrai, 1961-2014

Panna Rittikrai (พันนา ฤทธิไกร), the martial-arts choreographer who put Thai action movies on the world cinema map, has died.

According to The Nation, Panna died from liver disease on Sunday afternoon in a Bangkok hospital. He was 53, and had been battling illness since last November. Other reports can be found at Bangkok Post, Film Business Asia, Twitch and Film Combat Syndicate.

Tributes poured in on Twitter, most notably from Panna's former protégé Tony Jaa, who worked with Panna on B-movie action flicks for a decade before they made Ong-Bak in 2003, and kicked the Thai movie industry into high gear:

No matter the difficulties in relationships, people should be happy at the end of the day. Rest In Peace old friend. pic.twitter.com/maSiStKeX9
— Tony Jaa (@tonyjaaofficial) July 20, 2014

Another fitting tribute came from director Gareth Evans, who made the Indonesian martial-arts franchise The Raid:

What Panna and Jaa did w/ Ong Bak revitalised martial arts cinema. The importance of that film on the genre is huge.
— Gareth Evans (@ghuwevans) July 20, 2014

Evans also posted a link to the Dragon Dynasty trailer for 2004's Born to Fight. One of Panna's best movies, it's a sizzle reel of everything that is amazing about his innovations, which often took actors and stunt performers to the edge of danger – the truck wheel misses his head by just that much.

Converging movements, such as groups of fighters lunging toward each other from each side of the frame, explosions, flaming objects and crazy car and bike stunts are other Panna Rittikrai trademarks. It's stuff Michael Bay dreams of, but only does digitally. With Panna, the stunts were real and human, and the stakes were high.

Born in 1961 in Khon Kaen, Panna headed to Bangkok in 1979 to work in the movie business, starting out training actors how to do action. After a few years of that, he put together his own stunt team and headed back to his hometown. Taking inspiration from the films of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and the Bond movies, he ground out a series of gritty B-grade action flicks that played second run houses in Bangkok but were vastly more popular in Panna's native Northeast. It was during this period that he met Tony Jaa and started working with him. Titles from this era include Spirited Killer and Hard Gun, and after Ong-Bak was a hit, such DVD labels as BCI Eclipse started mining Panna's back-catalog.

When the boom years of the "Thai New Wave" hit in the late 1990s and early aughts, Panna and Jaa figured they had enough footage to impress a big Thai studio. Producer-director Prachya Pinkaew got ahold of some, took it to Sahamongkol Film International, and Ong-Bak was born, becoming a worldwide phenomenon and jump-starting the Thai action-film industry.

Jaa's lost-elephant adventure Tom-Yum-Goong (a.k.a. The Protector or Warrior King) followed.

Panna and his team were also kept busy on all sorts of other Sahamongkol projects, such as stringing comedian Mum Jokmok up on wires for the rollicking action-comedy The Bodyguard or teaching Ananda Everingham to swordfight in the Rashomon remake The Outrage.

Among the best of this period was the aforementioned Born to Fight (Gerd Ma Lui, เกิดมาลุย), a remake in name only of one of his 1980s films. The 2004 version introduced another of Panna's protégés, "Diew" Chupong Changprang, playing a Muay Thai champ who goes to a village with a bunch of Thai national athletes, including a female taekwondo champion ("Nui" Kessarin Ektawatkul), a sepak tawkraw kicker, a rugby tough and a gymnast (take that Gymkata!). There's even a little girl Muay Thai fighter – "Katt" Sasisa Jindamanee. She would later turn up in a couple more of Panna's projects, Somtum with wrestler and Tom-Yum-Goong fighter Nathan Jones, and Power Kids.

Other notable efforts by Panna and his team included Chocolate, which introduced martial-arts pixie Jeeja Yanin to the world.

One of my favorites is Dynamite Warrior, which marked Panna's return to acting after a couple of decades. He played an evil sorcerer who needs the menstrual blood of a virgin in order to cast a spell.. Diew Chupong tangles with him, along with water buffalo rustlers, a giant cannibalistic criminal and a hi-so steam-tractor dealer with a lisp.

Meanwhile, Jaa was endeavoring to strike out on his own as star, director and action choreographer on Ong-Bak 2, a historical-epic origin tale of the first Ong-Bak. Delays and budget overruns put pressure on Jaa, and he had his infamous meltdown. Panna was called in by Sahamongkol Film honcho Somsak "Sia Jiang" Techarattanaprasert to play peacemaker and get the project back on track as a co-director.

From that point, Jaa's relationship with Sia Jiang become strained, though he did a few more films for the studio with Panna's steady hand. Ong-Bak 3 followed, and then a hiatus while Jaa got married and started a family.

There was Tom-Yum-Goong 2, and the "eastern western" A Man Will Rise with Jaa and Dolph Lundgren. Panna handled the action, and it was produced by Sahamongkol.

But now that Jaa has split from Sahamongkol in order to work in Hollywood and Hong Kong, it seems unlikely A Man Will Rise will get a release anytime soon.

And, there's another Panna Rittikrai action film already in the can, completed last year before he became ill – Rew Talu Rew (เร็วทะลุเร็ว , a.k.a. Vengeance of an Assassin). According to Film Business Asia, it stars Panna's Born to Fight leads, Diew Chupong and Nui Kessarin; he's a hitman who goes on the run after he is ordered to kill a woman under his protection.

There's plenty of other tributes around the Web. Hit the various links at the top of the article. And though I won't link to them, there's hospital photos of Panna. They are sad, but Tony Jaa did go visit him.

I'll leave you with a behind-the-scenes featurette from Bangkok Knockout, showing the master at work.

Last Executioner hits mark for best actor in Shanghai

Opening next week Thai cinemas, The Last Executioner received a big boost from the Shanghai International Film Festival, which awarded its best actor prize to star Vithaya Pansringarm.

The awards were handed out on Sunday by a jury headed by Gong Li. Others on the panel were directors Im Sang-soo, Iwai Shunji, Liu Jie, Payman Maadi, Lone Scherfig and Sally Potter.

The big winner was Little England, a star-crossed period romance. It took Best Film, director and actress. Film Business Asia has a full report. Also in competition in Shanghai was another Thai film, Lee Chatametikool's Concrete Clouds. It was a nominee for the Asian New Talent Award.

The Last Executioner  (เพชฌฆาต, Petchakat) , directed by Tom Waller, was among 15 films nominated for Shanghai's top-prize Golden Goblet. The film is a biopic about Chavoret Jaruboon, Thailand’s last executioner to use a machine gun. A wild rock 'n' roller in his youth, Chavoret served at Bangkwang Prison, the "Bangkok Hilton", for 33 years, 19 as the executioner. Taking aim with a machine gun, he executed 55 prisoners – a job that had him struggling to reconcile the good and bad karma.

Recognizing the role's depth and intensity, the Shanghai win is a landmark honor for Vithaya, a relative newcomer as an actor, who got his start with supporting roles in such made-in-Thailand foreign features as The Prince and Me: The Elephant Adventure and The Hangover Part II. He made his breakthrough as a leading man as a policeman-turned-monk investigating a mystery in Waller's Mindfulness and Murder, which earned him a best actor prize at the ThrillSpy fest and a nomination at the Thailand National Film Awards. He followed that up with a major role in cult director Nicolas Winding Refn's Bangkok crime tale Only God Forgives, earning widespread praise for his portrayal of a cool-but-brutal vigilante ex-cop with seemingly supernatural powers.

The Last Executioner, covered in a recent New York Times article, opens in Thai cinemas on July 3.

Vithaya is flanked by his director Tom Waller, right, and Jim Sturgess from the film Eliza Graves.