Worldly Desires in Korea

Apichatpong Weerasethkul has been busy making a short film, which will premier at the Jeonju International Film Festival in Korea.

It's back to the jungle once more for the Tropical Malady director. According to his website, Kick the Machine, it's a "once upon a time" story, about "a group of people who went into the jungle with a truck full of lights." Here's more:

Their activities fascinated the unidentified creatures. They cherished the human's process long after the actual humans had left. The energy of desire lingered. This desire was so strong that the creatures transformed their appearance to resemble the humans, long after the human race became extinct. The creatures, trees, and the earth released their memories and recreated the world they did not possess.

It's part of anthology project that also involved Shinya Tsukamoto (Haze) and Song Il-Gon's (The Magicians). Twitch praises the project by "three fantastic directors with very different styles that ... will work very well together."

Song's effort looks very theatrical and I'm intrigued by it being a one take film, Worldly Desires reminds me a lot of the fantastic Tropical Malady and just what is that in shot number five from Haze!?! Tsukamoto's got something odd up his sleeve ...

The festival list is bit laborious to navigate, but experimental seems to be the watchword, judging from the one other Thai entry I uncovered, Birth of the Seanama by Sasithorn Ariyavicha.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

The Overture in San Francisco

There's only one Thai film at the 48th San Francisco International Film Festival. It's The Overture, by Itthi-sunthorn Wichailak, and much lauded by Thailand's awards bestowers.

Malaysia has a bigger presence. In addition to the epic Princess of Mount Ledang, there are several other Malaysian films and presentations on the state of cinema in that Southeast Asian country.

Takeshi Miike's Izo will be shown. It is "another cavalcade of carnage ... [the] story of an immortal samurai who cannot stop killing. Careening through time and space, this violent spectacle will leave viewers reeling."

More Miike is one the way in Three . . . Extremes, a horror trilogy that Miike shares with Park Chan-Wook and Fruit Chan.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Chatrichalerm, Nonzee busy this year

Suriyothai director MC Chatrichalerm Yukol is working on a followup to that royal epic, Naresuan, covering the life of King Naresuan the Great, a 16th centuary monarch and a nephew of Queen Suriyothai. The movie is scheduled for completion this year and should be released in time for His Majesty the King’s Birthday on December 5. ThaiCinema.org has more.

Meanwhile, director Nonzee Nimibutr will be kept busy throughout 2005, according to the Bangkok Post. He will produce a live-action feature, Nuu Hin: The Movie, based on a Thai comic series about a house maid's adventures. It will be directed by Komkrit Treewimonl.

Nonzee also is working on an epic, Pue Yai Jom Salat or the Queen of Pattani, a big-budget sea adventure set in the 16th century. He's hoping to make it a trilogy. It could even be controversial, given its subject matter concerning Pattani, which used to be an independent sultanate in southern Thailand, which is now a center of much unrest among the predominantly Muslim population. The south seems to be a subject near and dear to Nonzee. His last film, OK Baytong, touched on Buddhist vs Muslim themes.

The Nation's Parinyaporn Pajee recently did a roundup of other Thai film projects for 2005. In addition to Jira Malikool's Tin Mine and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Invisible Waves, here's a few others I'm looking out for:

• Midnight My Love (Cherm) -- a comedy by Kongdet Jaturunrasmi, who co-directed the hilarious and frank sexual comedy, Sayew with Kiat Songsanan, is about a relationship between a taxi driver and a massage parlour girl. Phetchai Wongkamlao, better known as Mum Jok Mok (or Dirty Balls from Ong Bak) stars as the driver opposite TV soap actress Woranuch Wongsawan, who’s debuting on the big screen with this film.
• Yam Yasothorn -- A busy guy, Mum Jok Mok directs this one, a followup to his The Bodyguard. It's a look thung (Thai country music) love story.
• Mah Khang Thanon (Street Dogs) -- By Somkiet Murathathit, the screenwriter for Ai-Fak (The Judgement). It's his directorial debut and is about street dogs.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Thai films at Udine

The lineup for the Udine Far East Film Festival from April 22 to 29 in Italy has been announced. Twitch has the list and ThaiCinema.org has a bit more about the four Thai entries.

The four films are:

• Art of the Devil - Bang Rajan director Thanit Jitnukul's first stab at horror, it is about one family's disaster after the father's mistress uses superstition to get revenge against him.
• Pattaya Maniac - Yuthlert Sippapak's fourth film is a crazy comedy involving karaoke singing, gangsters, a bungled kidnapping, Buddhist amulet mysticism and a beautiful girl. Bald comedian Nong Cha Cha Cha starred, proving his dramatic chops.
• Zee-oui - By veteran commercial directors Nida Suthat na Ayutthaya and Buranee Rachaibun who are also sisters. It's based on a true story of a Chinese immigrant in Thailand during the 1940s who was a cannibalistic serial killer who preyed on children.
• Born to Fight - From Ong-Bak action choregrapher Panna Ritthikrai, the gritty action is hot and heavy. It stars Dan Chupong, hailed as Thailand's second Tony Jaa, and features a cast of national athletes who use their various skills -- football kicking, gymnastics, rugby, tawkraw, muay Thai, tae kwon do -- to defeat a Burmese druglord's army. Stay for the stunts, ignore the melodramatically overwrought performances.

( Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Shutter clicks for remake

Just as I suspected when I first saw it, the slick Shutter is up for a remake, according to ThaiCinema.org.

New Regency has purchased the remake rights for Shutter. Gmm Tai Hub, the local company who owns the rights, has not disclosed a figure but it is believed to be the highest ever in Thai cinema for remake rights.

Shutter took almost US$2,750,000 in the local market and became a hit in several territories including Malaysia and Singapore. Penned by two first-time filmmakers, Pakpoom Wongpoom and Banjong Pisanthanakul, the story follows a photographer who regularly notices strange shadows and light reflections in his pictures. This phenomenon is widely known in the country and has often been reported in Thai newspapers, especially in the last decade and even in the aftermath of the recent Tsunami disaster.

Meanwhile, Pen-ek Ratanaruang's 6ixtynin9 is being given the remake treatment as well. Before this happens, I beseech you, watch the original.

ThaiCinema.org also notes that up until now, the only Thai film for which the remake rights had been confirmed as sold was Saving Private Tootsie, which attracted Distant Horizon with its humorous story about a troop of military soldiers trying to rescue a group of transvestites from the battlefront. No word on what happened to that project.

And the Pang Brothers' The Eye was picked up for remake by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner after the Pusan International Film Festival in 2002. According to Twitch, the director of the Hollywood version is none other than Hideo Nakata, the guy who got this whole wave of Asian horror started with Ringu, which was remade into The Ring for Hollywood and he directed the sequel, The Ring 2.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Looking for The Tin Mine

2005 has gotten off to a less-than-promising start, with the output from the Thai industry consisting of slapstick comedies, shrill action and shit-your-pants horror, stuff that so far hasn't really flipped my switch.

But coming soon is The Tin Mine, from director Jira Maligool (Mekhong Full Moon Party). A drama, Mueang Rae (The Tin Mine) is based on a true story of writer and former engineering student, Ajin Panjaphan, who worked in a tin mine around 60 years ago in Phuket -- long before it became an island paradise (and now a struggling resort following the December 26, 2004 tsunami).

Twitch has more.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Catch Waves in Iowa City

The University of Iowa's fifth annual Waves Asian American Film Festival has been highlights films from South Asia as a tribute to the tsunami-affected region.

From Thailand comes two transgendered flicks, the campily melodramatic Adventure of Iron Pussy and the straight-on melodramatic Beautiful Boxer.

Other highlights include The Beautiful Washing Machine from Malaysia, Travellers and Magicians from Bhutan and Takeshi Miike's gut-wrencher, Audition.

The screenings are free and open to the public and will be held from March 31 until April 3 in Iowa City.

Here's the rest of the films on the schedule:

• After the Apocalypse
• Bampinay
• Final Solution
• Ju-On
• The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam
• Sangam
• Sky Blue
• Warriors of Heaven and Earth
• When I Turned Nine

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Singaporean director loses leg

A director not showing up to claim his award at the Bangkok International Film Festival. It's not really news. Happens all the time.

Except Singapore director Bertrand Lee had a good excuse for missing the January 21 ceremonies -- he had lost a leg.

Lee, 27, won the award for best Asean Short Film (the Jameson's Best Asian Short Film Award) for Birthday, about a young teenage couple facing the last day of their relationship -- on their son's birthday.

Just a week before the ceremony, Lee was in India making another film. According to the Scotsman report, dated March 22, he was "peering into his camera lens in India when a truck reversed into him, crushing his legs and pelvis".
The leg had to be amputated and he couldn't travel to Thailand to attend the festival. Since then, an appeal has been launched to support Lee in his recovery.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Storm of Thai horror

Three horror films are out or are upcoming in Thai cinemas:

• The Necromancer - an occult thriller about feuding wizards.
• Rahtree Returns - a sequel to the comedy horror, Buppha Rahtree.
• The Eye 10 - Another in the Eye series by the Pang Bros, looking at 10 different ways people can see ghosts.

The Necromancer is out now. I wasn't too intrigued by the previews, so I haven't seen it. The Bangkok Post's Kong Rithdee has seen it, however, and he writes that it is "nothing more than blood-soaked bedlam, a schlock horro tableau that picthes two warlocks against each other in a senseless battle cheered on by other warlocks." Chatchai Plenpanich stars as an escaped convict with a tatoo that renders him invulernable to knives, bullets, missles, etc. Puttichai Amatyakul is a cop who hopes to remove the tattoo. Here's more about Necromancer at The Nation.

Next up is Rahtree Returns, Yuthlert Sippapak's sequel his Buppha Rahtree or Rahtree: Flower of the Night. Apartment 609 is still haunted by the ghost of a spurned young woman (Chermarn "Ploy" Boonyasak). And this causes problems for a bumbling gang of bank robbers whose loot has somehow found its way to that room. Yuthert, who did Sai Lor Fah (Pattaya Maniac) and Killer Tattoo is up to his usual tricks of putting a cast of comedians, including Somchai Saktikul (who apparently as agreed to star in every single Thai comedy film made in 2004 and 2005), Supakon Srisawat, Phan Rojanarungsri and Bunpoj Weerarat, through their paces, combining elements from the action, horror and crime genres with slapstick. Thai hearthrob Kris Srepoomseth returns as the college boy Ake. For seducing Ratree, he had both his legs amputated. He’s in for more disfigurement in this episode. Pitchanart "May" Sakhakorn (Butterfly in Grey, Sai Lor Fah) also stars.

The Eye 10, directed by Danny and Oxide Pang, is a pan-Asian venture, set in Hong Kong and Thailand. The emphasis is more on comedy than scary shivers and centers on four Hong Kong teenagers on a visit to Thailand. While staying at a friend’s house, they learn the basics of ghost watching through a book called "The 10 Encounters". Then one of them disappears and the others start seeing spooks everywhere. Stars Isabella Leong, Chen Polin, Ray MacDonald, Bongkote Kongmalai and Chen Po Lin.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

The Holy Man is the holiest

One of the biggest homegrown hits at the Thai box office this year is The Holy Man, which last week celebrated earnings of 80 million baht (about US$2 million) and has kept rolling, with the Bangkok Post now reporting earnings of 100 million baht. The film has done better in the provinces and suburbs, rather than central Bangkok.

Kong Rithdee has more on the funny phenomenon:

Directed by comedian Note Chernyim, The Holy Man is a low-brow, folksy flick ... starring TV funnyman Teng Terd-teung as an ex-thug turned eccentric monk with a stock of hilarious one-liners. [T]he film presents both cultural and marketing case studies that our social structure, as reflected in the movie-going habit, has become ever more complicated. And as major Thai film studios step up their campaigns of exporting local movies and going global, the jackpot scored by The Holy Man shows the glaring reality that Thai viewers may still crave the simple fun that does nothing more than tickle.

The film, which is basically a series of gags about the misadventures of Monk Teng, also prove that the Thai movie market, notoriously unpredictable, still has a place for cornball titles whose rustic appeal seems to have been inherited from the sentiments of the era of village-dwelling and outdoor cinema.

"As long as Thai people still like to eat nam phrik [shrimp paste], we believe they will continue to like this kind of low-brow comedy," says Tawatchai Panbhakdi, general manager of Phranakorn Film, which financed and distributed The Holy Man. "Some of us may develop a taste for spaghetti, but at the end of the day it's the shrimp paste we always come back to."

As it happens, taste is a great divider -- and money is a great leveler. At the rate the film's raking in revenue, The Holy Man is likely to move past the 110 million baht made by last year's box-office champion, the smart, international-flavoured ghost flick, Shutter.

Holy Man is the latest from Phranakorn Film, a small studio that started up three years ago. It had a big hit with its first film, Pee Hua Khad, or Headless Hero, barnyard slapstick about a buffalo-riding ghost looking for his severed head. It was the biggest box-office earner in 2002. Last year, Headless Hero spawned a sequel even as the first film continues to gain a cult following on the international DVD circuit. Other titles from the studio are Duk Dum Dui (about Thai comedians in Africa), Khon Pee Mah, and Pee Chong Air. Owned by Thanapol Thanarungroj, the studio is an extension of the Thana Cineplex, a theatre chain that mainly operates in Thailand's northern provinces.

Some of the company's films were flops, others generated a decent return, and it didn't bother anyone at the company that no film festivals abroad extended an invitation to these homespun pictures.

"This is a time when we cannot predict which Thai movie will make money," says Kraiwut Julaponsathorn, noted film critic and editor of the much-read Bioscope magazine. "In the case of The Holy Man, I think it's the influence of Teng, the lead actor, that successfully draws people in. And this further confirms the fact that comedians are the real stars of Thai cinema today."

Chalida Eubumrungjit, film scholar at the Thai Film Foundation, says that the film presents a strong case that Thai cinema needs middle-of-the-road movies like this one in order to iron the audience's confidence. "What we must make clear is that The Holy Man is of acceptable quality, though it doesn't come from a major studio," she says.

"The film doesn't resort to the usual hit-and-run approach -- tricking the audience to fill up the theatre in the first weekend by using heavy promotion -- and even though it didn't set any high ambitions, it does its job fairly okay. It's difficult, however, to pinpoint why this particular film has made such a lot of money while other titles in a similar vein -- low-brow, simple entertainment -- didn't perform as well. Perhaps it's the timing, but then, well, there might be many things else too."

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)