World Film Fest recap

The Nation has a special report (temporary link) today on the recently wrapped-up World Film Festival of Bangkok, recapping the 10-day event's highlights, which included a visit by Roman Polanski and many other things.

The Tsunami Digital Short Films (reviewed here and here) got a lot of notice.

The Culture Ministry's Office of Contemporary Arts and Culture Director-General Apinan Poshyananda and the Taiwanese director Tsai Ming Liang extended their appreciation for the efforts of the filmmakers who addressed the difficult subject of the tsunami with sensitivity and creativity.

Christian Jeune from the Cannes Film Festival asked to have some of the short films in the series shown at next year’s Cannes festival, the article said, but didn't say which ones they would like. Possibly a "best of"?

Nonetheless, there has been some criticism of the films, with the Bangkok Post's Kong Rithdee saying that while there were some good films individually, particularly Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Ghost of Asia, Santi Taepanich's Tits & Bum and the powerful Tsu by Pramote Sangsorn, the shorts as a package left audiences feeling disappointed.

Back to the festival, there was also the Produire au Sud (Producers of the South) film-marketing workshop, which selected three pairs of producers and directors to attend Festival of 3 Continents from November 22 to 29 in Nantes, France, where they can learn more about filmmaking.

The three film projects chosen to attend the festival are A Moment in June by producer Noth Thongsriphong and director O Nathapon from Thailand; Singapore's Forgotten Tears by producer Juan Foo and director Ellery Ngiam; and Ostrich Granny, by producer Lina Tan Suan Jeu and director Bernard Chauly of Malaysia.

Among the surprises at the festival was the success of Russian films. The 7.5-hour Russian version of War and Peace was screened to a sell-out audience, with hundreds being turned away. Doctor Zhivago (okay, not strictly a Russian film) also was screened. The puzzling but brilliant 4 was in the competition. And, Thai Airways is starting direct Bangkok-Moscow flights, and tied its promotional campaign in with the festival and the Russian films. Maybe that had something to do with it?

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Review: The Tiger Blade

• Directed by Teeratorn Siripunwaraporn
• Starring Atsadawut Luengsuntorn, Phimonrat Phisarayabud, Pongput Wachilabunjong, Suengsooda Lawanprasert, Amornrit Sriphung, Chalut na Songkla
• Theatrical release in Thailand on October 27, 2005.

The first release from the brand-new Mono Film has everything the ultimately disappointing Tom Yum Goong should have had. I'm going to lay it on the line and say this is the best Thai action film of 2005.

This is not to say the action is any better than Tom Yum Goong, because it isn't (though it's still pretty good). But what The Tiger Blade has going for it is a sense of fun. Where Tony Jaa and Tom Yum Goong were weighed down with ostentatiousness (despite the 'simple country boy' hero) and were afraid to crack a smile, The Tiger Blade (Sua Kab Daab) has no fear of letting the jokes fly. It's not so much a big action film trying to prove something as it is pure entertainment that has nothing to prove. So there's a sense of humour, plenty of hot babes (though no nudity) and lots of cool stunts.

The story is a pretty standard cops-and-robbers set up, though there's a bit of a twist, evident from the movie's official tagline: "When kick-ass cops can't get the job done, bring in the kick-ass magic."

The criminals here are all protected by black magic - the first baddie wears a headband that's been enchanted and it renders guns inoperative. Other criminals have elaborate tattoos that protect them.

In order to defeat them, a top-secret police unit, led by Yos (capable leading man Atsadawut Luengsuntorn), must obtain an ancient sword.

Now, I must say, I'm get pretty confused if I think about the actual story any further. For one thing, I don't know why the bad guys are being bad, other than to just be bad. I don't know what their overall motive is. Do they want to blow up Bangkok? Take control of the world? Release a deadly virus? I'm not sure. I guess it doesn't matter.

Maybe it involves a vault full of money. Yeah, that's it. Steal the national treasury. There's a subplot involving a Karen warlord - a long-haired guy leading one of the countless independent states in endless rebellion against the Burmese (or Myanmar) government. He needs the money. But again, it doesn't matter.



What does matter is that Yos is a bit of a loner who actually asks for a new partner: The secret unit's gadgets gal, Dao (Phimonrat Phisarayabud). On their first outing together - working undercover on a prison transport bus, she proves her worth, doing some high kicks and shooting her way out of trouble.

Meanwhile at the prison, black-magic crimelord Mahesak (Amornrit Sriphung) and a woman fighter who is the most kick-ass of all the characters in the film, GI Jenjila (Suengsooda Lawanprasert), are breaking someone out.

Each time a new criminal is introduced, there's a title card that comes up, and then a black-and-white flashback. For Jenjila, it flashes back to her childhood as a little Viet Cong soldier, enjoying the ruthless killing of war.

A couple of times Jenjila and Dao square off for a girlfight. So you get girls with guns, as well as chicks kicking ass. One of their fights is in a shopping mall, where Jenjila heists a pair of roller blades and Dao goes after her on a skateboard. So the extreme-sport market segment is covered here.

In another fight, Dao asks Jenjila: "I heard you prefer women, and I thought I'd like to try you."

"You're wrong," says Jenjila, "but you can try me anyway."

This sets up a bit of mystery about Dao's and Yos' relationship that is sure to be explored further. Yes, there will be sequels - that is clearly set up at the end.


Some other stunts:

• Jenjila leads the cops on a footchase through the narrow, winding alleys of Bangkok's Chinatown - a direct lift from Ong-Bak, even with Jenjila leaping over a vendor's cart and scaling up and over a chain-link barrier fence. She doesn't have near the same grace as Tony Jaa, but it was still fun to watch.
• In that same chase scene, Jenjila steals one of those motorcycle vendor's carts, the kind with two wheels and a big basket on the front. Yos grabs another motorcycle cart and gives chase. Again, you can see they are trying to one-up and stunt-check with Ong-Bak. It's not quite as exciting as the tuk-tuk chase in Ong-Bak, but it's still fun.
• Yos finds a big yellow endloader to stop the bad guy from getting away.
• There's a go-cart chase scene down a busy expressway, with the go-carts doing u-turns under some big-rigs. Alot of these are in the trailer.

These stunts aren't totally in the same class as Ong-Bak, which claims that no wires or CGI tricks were used. In Tiger Blade, there is evidence of wire work, and I think many of the stunts were performed by stuntmen, rather than the actors themselves. But that go-cart-semitruck scene is real. Has to be. Some low-rent CGI is used, but not for the stunts themselves, mainly just the animation of the magic blade and for stylistic purposes. I wasn't bothered by it.

Oh, there's a babe factor. The opening fight scene is in a nightclub, where's there's go-go booted ladies in hot pants on stage. In another scene, Yos comes home to his apartment to find his bed filled women in lingerie. It's all quite tasteful, though, in keeping with the chasteness of Thai society and film censorship codes.

And there's humor. The secret police unit as a heavyset cop named Red Beard (Annan Bunnak) who's constantly cracking wise. Back at the go-go bar, he pulls a boot off one of the dancers to use as a weapon, but he first catches a whiff of the gal's foot odor. "You need to hang that thing out in the sun, girl," he tells her, helpfully.

The drawbacks of The Tiger Blade are in the confusing story. There's also a cheesy score, the kind of synthesiser soundtrack that the Thai soap operas have. Its awfulness was distracting. Next time, Mono Film, spring for a real soundtrack, with at least a rock band performing the score. Some of the acting, too, also smacked of soap-opera melodrama. Folks, you're in a movie, not onstage at the university theater. You've made it! Lighten up.

The actual hunt for the magic blade is anti-climactic, as well is the encantation needed to make the rusty blade work again - it must be doused in virgin's blood. This is played up, with Yos asking Dao for blood, but hers won't work, she says. Then he gets his little sister's blood and - shock! - it doesn't work either. He gets some virgin blood eventually, but I'm not sure where it came from.

Perhaps a second viewing is in order, which is something The Tiger Blade has going for it: I'd actually want to see it again.



(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Review: Ahimsa: Stop to Run

• Directed by "Leo" Kitikorn Laewsirikul
• Starring Boriwat Yuto, Teeradanai Suwanahom, Tharanya Suttabusya, Prinya Ngamwongwarn, Joni Anwar, Kiradaj Ketakinta
• Theatrical release in Thailand on October 20, 2005

Picture your karma. How would it be embodied?

For Ahimsa, in this karmic-action-comedy-thriller, it's a guy in a red track suit, with close-cropped, dyed red hair and classic white Nikes with a red swoosh. And he's here to make Ahimsa pay for his sins.

When Ahimsa was a boy, he wasn't quite right, narrates a character who goes by the name of Einstein. His parents were at wits end, trying to figure out what to do. Medically, nothing wrong could be found. Ahimsa's dad thought the doctor was an idiot. But there was something wrong. It was that guy in the red track suit, always hanging around. But nobody but Ahimsa could see him.

Finally, they took Ahimsa to a shaman, who was able to convince Ahimsa's karma to leave him.

Then Ahimsa (Boriwat Yuto) grew up and became a DJ, playing rave parties in the rain and dropping LSD. And there's that karma (Teeradanai Suwanahom) again, big as life.

But first, after taking that hit, he's visited upon by a woman in a red dress. More on her later.

Ahimsa (alternatively transliterated as Ahingsa) and his roommate U-Kot (Prinya Ngamwongwarn) work in Einstein's after-hours rave club. Einstein (Joni Anwar) is a singularly weird character, who rides around in an electric wheelchair (even though he can walk) and wears cowboy boots and an Afro wig. He also thinks that drugs can alter time and space relationships.

Eventually, the karma guy shows up again, in a big way, bashing Ahimsa over the head with one those returnable glass water bottles, you know, the real thick ones? That had to have hurt!

He wakes up the next day, with blood on his pillow. U-kot explains that Ahimsa had passed out at the club and had to be carried home. Ahimsa visits the hospital. And there's that woman in the red dress - she's a doctor. She runs the tests, but can find nothing wrong.

Then Ahimsa starts having visions of the future. He sees his roommate getting sodomized by their drug dealer (another very weird character) and then dead in the shower. But it didn't happen. Or did it? The next day, he has a deja vu moment, complete with a little boy telling him to "watch where the fuck you're going" after he trips over the kid's trike.


He starts to have other weird visions, like the karma guy in a flame-decalled, fire-engine red 1960s Chevy Impala convertible, playing chicken with him as Ahimsa speeds towards him in his equally classic 60s Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight (both cars pure American Detroit iron leftover from the Vietnam War days). He gets into a near crash as the result of his blackouts while he has these visions, but the movie's budget wasn't so great that a classic land yacht like that could be wasted.

In another cool moment, the karma remarks that Ahimsa "hasn't suffered enough today", and proceeds to beat the living daylights out of Ahimsa. But Ahimsa can't get a lick in edgewise - the karma can't be touched.

Even releasing a cage full of birds, which is supposed to be an excellent merit-maker, does no good. Here's where Ampon Rattanawong, the comic actor who played the monkey shaman in Buppa Rahtree and also had a key role in Monrak Transistor comes in, as the bird-freedom vendor at a temple.

It turns out that Ahimsa and the doctor (Tharanya Suttabusya), who is oddly named Pattaya (the action also takes place in Pattaya and some other beachside location that I can't place) are karmically entwined. Which isn't so good, because the doctor is engaged to marry a cop (Kiradaj Ketakinta).

And Ahimsa just keeps getting deeper and deeper into trouble - shooting the sodomizing drug dealer, then a local politician (who's also the cop's brother). Now, in addition to having his karma after him all the time, he's a fugitive from the law.

Other karmas also appear. Einstein has his own karma, a long-haired guy in a Game of Death yellow track suit. And the hilarious dyed-blond U-Kot becomes a karma who torments the drug dealer.

There's a lot going for this movie. The performances are all solid, especially the karma, played by Teeradanai Suwanahom.

But there's just something ... I can't put my finger on it. Much of it seems to be color and style, just for the sake of color and style.

Director Leo Kitikorn has said he made the film for youngsters to demonstrate that they can't escape their karma, especially if they do bad things, like take LSD or kill people.

But, with a karma in red track suit, who favors a hunk of lumber to beat you over the head with, can anyone really take this message seriously?

You'd think someone with the name Ahimsa would know better.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Thai films at Tokyo film market

As a sidebar to the Tokyo International Film Festival, three Thai films were screened in a film market event that concludes today.

The films are two colorful RS Promotion products, Bangkok Loco and the recently viewed Ahimsa: Stop to Run and Mono Film's new movie being released this week, The Tiger Blade.

Also in the main program at the Tokyo festival are Midnight My Love and Citizen Dog.

But back to Mono Film's Tiger Blade. It's worth mentioning just for the tagline: "When kick-ass cops can't get the job done, bring in the kick-ass magic."

Mono Film is a fairly new company. They have a number of releases planned, including The Legend of Sudsakorn, starring Fan Chan's Charlie Trairat. A live-action fantasy, the ancient legend has been told on film before - in the first and only Thai animated feature, 1979's The Adventure of Sudsakorn by Payut Ngaokrachang.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Bollywood action in Bangkok

Both Kaiju Shakedown and Twitch are reporting about a new Bollywood action film, Ek Ajnabee, which stars Amitabh Bachchan.

It was filmed in Bangkok and features stunt work by Kawee Sirikhanaerat, another protege of Ong Bak choreographer Panna Rittikrai (Kawee did the tuk-tuk taxi chase), as well as a part of the versatile Thai stunt crews who have worked on Tombraider 2 and Batman Begins.

Basically Man on Fire or Transporter 2 done up Bollywood style (though likely without any three-hour-long song-and-dance numbers), Ek Ajnabee is the story of a burnt-out bodyguard who takes a job protecting a little girl who gets kidnapped and he has to go ballistic to get her back.

Kaiju Shakedown had the scoop and Twitch has more.

Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Review: The King Maker

• Directed by Lek Kitaparaporn
• Produced by David Winters
• Starring Gary Stretch, John Rhys-Davies, Cindy Burbridge, Yoe Hassadeevichit
• Wide theatrical release in Thailand on October 20, 2005, with English and/or Thai-dubbed soundtrack

Everything about The King Maker, or The Rebellion of Queen Sudchan, feels borrowed.

The story is lifted straight from Suriyothai. The action scenes come from Bang Rajan. The hand-to-hand action looks like it's trying to copy any number of sources, such as Ong-Bak, Once Upon a Time in China (by way of The Musketeer) and Gladiator.

The only reason I can figure this movie has been made is because of the ambition of producer David Winters, a British child actor and veteran director and producer, to make an epic like this. And the only place an epic like this could get made is in Thailand, where armies of extras, horses, elephants and experienced movie crews can be found relatively more cheaply than anywhere else in the world.

It's something that has drawn filmmakers to Thailand since the earliest days of cinema. Merian C Cooper shot the elephant disaster film, Chang, in Thailand in 1927. Oliver Stone came here to do Alexander last year. There have been many more in between.

The six degrees of separation on The King Maker and King Kong (and Alexander) give me chills. The King Maker is based on Suriyothai, which was directed by MC Chatrichalerm Yukol, who once worked for Merian Cooper. Gary Stretch, who stars in The King Maker, also was in the cast of Oliver Stone's Alexander. John Rhys-Davies also stars in The King Maker. He was also in the Lord of the Rings, which was directed by Peter Jackson, who has directed a remake of King Kong that is based on Cooper's version. It helps that the trailer for King Kong played right before The King Maker. Oh, and Chatrichalerm has visited the WETA Workshop, which does special effects for Jackson's films.

This is all tenous at best, and doesn't really mean squat, but this is a part of cinematic legend that David Winters wants to lay claim to by making The King Maker.

And it's all for nothing. But there's more.


The story opens with Portuguese mercenary Fernando de Gama (Britain's former middleweight boxing champion Stretch) drowning in the ocean after a shipwreck. He comes to, finds some flotsam to float on and washes up on an island, where he forages for food. Here is the first of bad CGI - a Siamese crocodile comes up in jungle pool and tries to eat Fernando. Crocodile-based effects in Thai films are never very good and this is no exception.

He survives the croc, only to be captured by some Arab slave traders and taken to Ayutthaya, which is oddly placed next to the ocean, even though it is several hundred kilometres inland, up the Chao Phya River. The ancient Siamese capital, by the way, is another bad CGI creation.

Released from his bonds to be put on the auction block, he promptly knocks down his Arab captors and leads them on a comic chase throughout the ancient city - one of two decent action scenes in the movie, however derivative it is.

Eventually, he's brought under control, but not before he's captured the attention of a Eurasian beauty, Maria (Miss World 1996 Cindy Burbridge), who buys him his freedom back. This sets up a stomach-churning romance that leads to a lot of stilted dialogue and wooden action.

"Why Fernando, what a dashing figure you cut in that armor."

Okay, enough of that. Maria's father is portrayed by John Rhys-Davies, one of the only good things about this movie. Turns out, Phillippe is a figure from Fernando's past that has spurred Fernando's need to become a mercenary and look for his father's killer -- none other than Phillipe.

But first there are bigger battles to be fought. Fernando and his Portuguese compatriots are pressed into the service of King Chairacha (Nirut Sirichanya), who has to go into battle against his Lanna foes. It's a multi-national taskforce, not only including Portuguese mercenaries, but also samurai warriors (which is pure fiction) -- which is based on actual Siamese history.

After a decent gory battle scene that borrows heavily on Bangrajan, Fernando is relaxing and bonds with a Thai warrior named Tong (Dom Hetrakul). They are then surprised by a band of wild sakai warriors from South Thailand, shooting poisonous darts. They distinguish themselves by saving the King and are appointed his personal bodyguards (again, pure fiction, a foreigner would not have been allowed to get so close to the King) -- also based on actual history.

Meanwhile (there's always a meanwhile), Queen Sudachan is scheming. She was a consort of the King who wangled her way into becoming queen. Her story is better told in Suriyothai and better portrayed there by Mae Charoenpura. Here, Mae's role is channelled by model Yoe Hassadeevichit. A vengeful woman, she wants to kill the king and put her lover on the throne.

Apparently, that attack by the sakai was an assassination plot. It failed, so Sudachan calls on Don Phillippe for help. Phillippe makes a deal with a scar-faced ninja (Byron Bishop, or Mr. Cindy Burbridge) to kill the king.

It's a cool idea, a bunch of black-suited ninjas stealing their way into a Siamese palace. But they are thwarted by Fernando, Tong and other Siamese troops.

So Sudachan has to resort to poisoning the king. She also must kill her own son (Fan Chan's Charlie Trairat) who would next in line for the throne, to clear the way for her boyfriend. To do her bidding, Sudachan has an African warrior wielding a spear. I tell you, this movie is weird. But not weird enough to be cool. What happened to Sudachan's rabidly loyal squad of Amazon guards?

It goes seriously downhill from there. Fernando and Tong are framed for the deaths and made to fight each other in a death duel for Sudachan and her new king's amusement. Maria is brought out and stomped on by an elephant and survives (she's holding her tummy like she has a stomachache).

One last odd thing about this movie - it was made with an English soundtrack, with even the Thai actors meticulously reciting all their lines in English. However, for the screening I checked out at a suburban Bangkok cinema, the bits where Thais were speaking to other Thais had been dubbed into Thai, which was much preferable to some of the clunky English dialogue.

So this makes The King Maker the first English-language Thai film since 1941's Kingdom of the White Elephant, made by Pridi Banomyong in a nationalistic bid to raise world consciousness against Japanese occupation of Thailand during World War II. It's another part of history that The King Maker wants desperately to be a part of.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Forsaken Land best film at World Film Fest

The controversial Sri Lankan film Forsaken Land by Vimukthi Jayasundara was named the best film in the Harvest of Talents competition at the World Film Festival of Bangkok.

"The film features unique cinematography. Its powerful imagery portrays the life of ordinary people in an atmosphere of fear," French film critic Nadine Tarbouriech, one of the festival’s five jury members, was quoted as saying in The Nation.

Set in Sri Lanka, the story centers on a family living in a desolate, sand-blown area where there is no fighting, but also no peace. The decades of living on the edge have taken their toll, and while others have fled the area, the family - a man and his young wife and the man's sister - have hung on, but are left without any will or morals of their own.

Vimukthi was present for the awards ceremony, as well as a Q&A session after on of the screenings of his film. He explained it was his own viewpoint of how the civil war has affected his country. Though it was made with cooperation of the military, when the film was completed and shown in Sri Lanka, the reactions were negative. The film was banned and Vimukthi now lives in Paris.

"Thank you so much for this award. It is important for me as I have a lot of trouble in my country," Jayasundara said in his acceptance speech. "I'm pleased because many people think that I made this film for Westerners. As an Asian, I always make films for my country and for Asians. This award from Thailand proves at least that I made this film for Asians."

Other awards in the festival's competition:

• Artistic direction - 4, directed by Ilya Khrzhanovsky.
• Best script - Days of Santiago, written and directed by Josue Mendez.
• Jury Award - Turn Left at the End of the World, directed by Avi Nesher.
• People's Choice Award - Grand Voyage, directed by Ismael Ferroukhi

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Review: Tsunami Digital Short Films - Program 2

• Premiered at the World Film Festival of Bangkok on October 22, 2005.

Thirteen short films were made in a project funded by the Culture Ministry's Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, which gave filmmakers about US$4,800 and five days to make a film somewhere in the area of Thailand that was hit by the tsunami on December 26, 2004. The films were premiered as a package at the Third World Film Festival of Bangkok, and screened in two parts. The first part is reviewed here. Here the films that were shown in the second program.

Forget It, directed by Somkid Thamniamdi

This program was more varied in styles and moods than the first program. It started with Forget It, a stop-motion clay animated film. It features a handsome, big-chinned man with big hair and an important job that forces him to leave his home and his incredibly shaped wife and spend his days working and earning money. All too late, he realizes what he's leaving at home everyday.

World Priceless Day, directed by Lek Manont

A guy who lost his friends and everything he owned in the tsunami. All he has is sand in the pockets of his cut-off Dickies trousers. But he wants to do something for his friends. He makes a crown of leaves and vines to present to them somehow. In his grief, he discovers that people are still living: Motorcycle Man, T-shirt Man, Food Man, Airplane Man. He gets transport, new clothes, food and a plane ride to Bangkok. Then he realizes he's still wearing the crown of leaves he made for his friends.

Smiles of the Fifth Night, directed by Sonthaya Subyen

"Pebbles cannot be tamed to the end they will look at us with a calm and very clear eye" - Zbigniew Herbert.

This film mixes images and text. After that opening flash of text, it switches to images, with a text crawl of actually letters from survivors of the tsunami and well-wishers.

It's pretty haunting, showing vast mudflats, stripped bare. A rice barge is left high and dry. But it's also beautiful, with images of life in the mangroves.

The Helping Hand, directed by Folke Ryden

This is a documentary by Swedish filmmaker Folke Ryden, focusing on a young Thai man, Mard Mankala, who was a hotel manager on Koh Phi Phi, which was leveled by the tsunami. Mard was able to warn his staff and guests to get to safety -- one of the success stories of the tsunami. But he lost everything.

However, he turned to helping out in the relief effort, as did others. Thousands of Swedes visit Thailand each year, enough to make a small city, and the tsunami counted as probably the biggest disaster for Sweden since World War II.

The documentary footage is from right after the tsunami, showing the devastation and the recovery of bodies.

Lie Beneath, directed by Margaret Bong Chew Jen

A little Malaysian boy returns to his hometown and makes up a story about his parents being killed in the tsunami to win the attention of his friend.

Tits & Bum, directed by Santi Taepanich

Here's a concept that should be expanded on: A parody of the karaoke videos.

If you've been in Asia, you know what I'm talking about. A sexy woman in a bikini or lingerie frolics on the beach or in the bedroom while the words to the song are scrolled at the bottom of the screen.

The film switches back and forth from parody to a behind-the-scenes mockumentary of the making of karaoke video, featuring a model who refuses to open her legs too wide and a transsexual stand-in for the model.

There's further parody with a muscle-bound guy flexing for the camera as the karaoke words go by, which is something you never see. Karaoke videos always have beautiful women.

By the director of Crying Tigers, this was the funniest, most entertaining of the shorts. It had the audience in stitches.

Tune In, directed by Pimpaka Towira

A young woman drives around Phuket, trying to find something. She stops and asks for directions many times. She plays with the radio, trying to find the station. Finally, she gets to the end of the road. Good thing she has a four-wheel drive. It seems she finds what she was looking for.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Review: Tsunami Digital Short Films - Program 1

• Premiered at the World Film Festival of Bangkok, October 20, 2005; part one of two programs.

Ghost of Asia, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Christelle Lheureux

A fitting beginning to the package of six short films made to memorialize the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004. Apichatpong served as the creative consultant for the project, which includes 13 films in all.

Funded by the Culture Ministry's Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, directors were given a budget of 200,000 baht (about US$4,800) and five days to shoot their film somewhere in Phuket or other provinces in southern Thailand that were hit by the tsunami.

For Ghost of Asia, the directors engaged three local children to direct their actor, Tropical Malady's country boy-tiger shaman Sakda Kaewbuadee, making him a "ghost" or "puppet" who had to do their bidding.

Basically anything you could think of doing at the beach or in Thailand, these kids made their ghost do - swim in the ocean, take a boat ride, hunt for crabs, go fishing, pick and eat every conceivable kind of fruit, sleep, drink milk, "go poo", paint a house, climb a mountain, climb a tree.

The film is presented all sped up, giving it a kind of silent-film feel. It was the most hopeful, celebratory and entertaining of the package, presenting a normal, everyday life. Even if the guy was supposed to be a "ghost", it shows a Phuket that is okay and fun to visit.

One of Apichatpong's most accessible works, Ghost of Asia has actually been shown in Montreal and other film festivals before being screened as part of the Tsunami Digital Short Film program. It's also part of a multi-media art exhibit in Berlin.

Waves of Souls, directed by Pipope Panitchpakdi

The Nation Channel documentarian catches up with the Moken, or sea gypsies, a tribe that takes pride in self sufficiency and survival. After the tsunami, organizations came to help, and in this particular case, a Christian charity came to build houses and offer money - with a catch. Pipope lays it on the line, offering the definition of "proselytize" from Webster's dictionary in white text on a black background. "I don't even feel like I'm part of my own village," says one woman, who didn't want to convert or wasn't allowed and is now left out of the evening get togethers where traditional music is played - and Bibles are read.

Aftershock, directed by Thunska Pansittivorakul.

For quicky, low-budget films, one of the first things to be sacrificed is audio. Like many of the films in the program, Aftershock relied mainly on images. Indeed, while showing scenes of a carnival, a guy selling hats and other trinkets and a boat ride, there is no sound at all. The tension in the audience was palpable.

I'm sure people were thinking: "What the fuck?" I know I was, but I rode with it. It's on that boat ride where things go to hell. The camera pans lazily around, finally locking in on the boat driver's crotch, and there it stays until some sort of sound kicks in and we're looking at a pale, white foot. Someone's dead? No, nobody's dead. It's a guy covered in some kind of brown substance, chocolate syrup I hope, and he's licking it off his fingers. Oh, he's got some milky substance on his lower lip.

Perhaps as a clue as to where Thunska's going with this, I kept looking at Tsai Ming-Liang, who was sitting in front of me at the screening.

Out of all the tsunami shorts, this is one that'll keep me up nights.

Andaman, directed by Sompot Chidgasornpongse

Another short that sacrifices the live audio, but instead of going silent, it substitutes the sound of surf and waves as the camera looks around at the island. You get a sense of a Phuket, still recovering after the tsunami. The beaches are a bit empty and lonely feeling. There are some tourists and locals making living from the tourist trade, and the camera stops to talk to them. Their lips are moving but you can't hear what they are saying. Just the sound of waves.

Then a rainstorm kicks up and the sound ratchets up. It made me jump. A mini tsunami on film. In a headline on its story previewing these films yesterday, the English-language ThaiDay said: "News crews showed us what the tsunami looked like. Now, filmmakers show us what it felt like." Especially in Andaman's case, this is dead-on accurate.

Trail of Love, directed by Suchada Sirithanawuddhi

With the most traditional narrative of the short-films package, Trail of Love is a cyber romance set around the days just after tsunami. Picha is a young woman who's visited the island and has found a message in a bottle that contains a map to a remote beach. She e-mails a long-time net pal about the beach and bottle, and the friend agrees to meet Pricha on December 29. But the tsunami strikes three days before. Pricha loses touch with her friend. She sends a plaintive e-mail, asking for a response. What happened? She's left alone to follow the map.

Tsu, directed by Pramote Sangsorn

A young man limps across the beach. All color is washed out. It's almost black and white. The wind blows ominously. Slowly, color comes into focus. The man approaches a green flag, flapping in the strong ocean breeze. He takes a knife and cuts the flag down. He then pulls out a red flag and ties it on to the post, and takes things further by painting the flagpole red.

There are dozens of these flags, perhaps 100 or more, lined up all the way down the beach, just at the waterline, flapping in the wind. He goes to the next flag, cuts it down and replaces it with a red one.

The source of his limp is revealed - a big open sore on his left leg that is the shape of Thailand. A lot of people gasped when they noticed that. He limps along, replacing the green flags with red ones.

Eventually, he leaves his flags and turns his attention on a battered boat that's in the shape of a swan, hitching a rope to it and trying to pull it out to sea.

Despite the calm and deliberativeness of Tsu, this is the one that really channels the anger that a lot of people must have felt about a lack of an early warning system that could have gotten people away from the beaches and saved lives. Thai meteorological officials were warned hours in advance of the possibility of a tsunami, but did nothing with the information out of fear it would be a false alarm and business and tourism would have been disrupted.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

French DVD release for Blissfully Yours, Mysterious Object

Since it's being promoted at Kick the Machine, this must be the proper DVD release of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's censored jungle romance, Blissfully Yours. It was previously released in Thailand by Mangpong, but it had certain scenes snipped.

Released by Anna Sanders Films, it's packaged as a box set with Apichatpong's first feature, Mysterious Object at Noon.

Oh, but merde! It's a French release and only has French subtitles.


(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)