Review: Ghost Variety (Phee Chalui)

• Directed by Adirek "Uncle" Watleela
• Starring Petchtai Wongkamlao, Pitchanart Sakakorn, Channarong Khuntee-tao, Somlek Sakdikul, Chaleumpol Tikumpornteerawong
• Released in Thai cinemas on December 29, 2006

Ghost Variety is a historic film for the Thai film industry. But not because it's a great film necessarily, but because it features appearances by just about every major Thai director and producer, and it pokes a lot of fun at the Thai film industry.

More on that later.

This, the last Thai film released in 2005, stars Mum Jokmok (Petchtai Wongkamlao), in his fourth major film role of the year -- a year that saw him starring in the Ong-Bak followup Tom Yum Goong, his dramatic turn in Midnight, My Love, his second outing as writer-director in Yam Yasothon and now Ghost Variety. He did a couple of walk-ons (for a case of beer) in Holy Man and Dumber Heroes as well.

The opening is great, with Mum in rural Thailand, attending an outdoor screening of an old Thai horror film, probably sometime in the 1960s in a small northeastern Thailand village. Walking home with his young son, they encounter just about every Thai ghost that's ever been in books, comics or on film, including the headless ghost and the 3-baht ghost, or pauper ghost. There's even gambling ghosts, "and that can't be good," says Mum.

I wanted more. More I say. More! But alas, it's only a dream. Mum wakes up and he's in an apartment, typing away on a script. Movie posters adorn the wall. There's an 8 x 10 glossy of Mum in a tux, clutching a Suphannahongsa award (the Thai Oscar) in one hand and an Oscar Oscar -- an Academy Award -- in the other hand. That's a keeper. More! More I say. Make it a reality!

But alas, it's only a dream. And Mum awakes in a scummy flat. He's Tom, a struggling filmmaker. And when he awakes, he thinks he's in a bad dream, and he commences to trying to slap himself out of the nightmare that is his life in reality. A mean landlady (Mum's hilarious sister Waew) throws some water on him and reminds him he has to pay his rent.

Tom hits the bricks, looking to sell his script. Here's where all the Thai filmmakers start to come in. He visits Prachya Pinkaew. "Is it an action film?" Prachya asks. "I can make an action film," the Ong-Bak director says eagerly.

Another producer wonders if it's a comedy.

Executive producer Somsak Techratanaprasert tells Tom "we need to raise the quality of our films in order to get the government to pay attention."

Huh?

Tom visits others -- the credits at the end are a who's who in Thai film -- Piak Poster, Cherd Songsri, Yuthlert Sippapak (who is seen making Buppa Rahtree 3), Visute Poolvoralaks, Jira Maligool -- the list goes on and on.

Jira's own film is poked fun of here. At one point, Tom is leaving a pawn shop after selling his camera. A guy pushing a bicycle with a basket full of props and awards is going in. "Ah, The Tin Mine," Tom says, shaking his head.

It's said by one of the producers, "What do want to do? Make a film that nobody will see but will win lots of awards, or make a film that everyone will see and will make a ton of money?"

Huh?

Uncle knows. The producer of Bang Rajan, Bangkok Dangerous and many more huge Thai films, he's directed this film for Sahamongkol. His own Film Bangkok production house has virtually closed after his last few films tanked. But over his years and years of working in the Thai film business, he's built up a lot of goodwill with his fellow filmmakers, and is apparently owed a ton of favors.

In this, Uncle's first directoral effort in a long time, his friends are only too happy to be among the parade of producers and directors who Tom either visits, or ends up sitting next to while waiting to be interviewed by the country's sleaziest, lowest-budget producer, portrayed by Somlek Sakdikul, who's probably best known for his role as a sleazy music producer in Monrak Transistor.

Tom is interviewed in the men's room while Somlek is sitting on the can. Tom is in the next stall. Somlek goes to wipe. Damn! No paper. Tom has some, and offers to wipe the producer's butt!

Anyway, his script isn't good enough. Tom is desperate. His actor friend Tik (Channarong Khuntee-tao) is desperate. Tom only wants to direct a big-budget movie. But they have to eat. And this guy who produces a TV show keeps calling. And at just right time, the TV producer shows up.

The TV gig is for a new show called "Ghost Variety", a kind of hybrid of the comedy-variety-game shows that are all over Thai TV and the reality series that are popular as well. Tom is to lead a crew while they search for ghosts in haunted places, sort of like Scooby Doo without the dog, Shaggy or Scooby Snacks.

Instead, there's cute model-actress Pitchanart Sakakorn as a production assistant, who Tom has a thing for, naturally. The curly-haired Tik "The Star" will be a co-presenter along with a Thai rock star, "The Next" (Boriboon Chanroueng), who's doing the TV gig to gain more fame.

Rounding out the crew is a very effeminate, heavy set young gay man (Chaleumpol Tikumpornteerawong - Jack, the big bully from Fan Chan, in an unfortunate choice of roles). He can do better than this.

The movie is funny for about the first hour or so, but once it falls into the routine of the cast being chased by some weird, towering CGI ghosts (the "long-legged ghosts" of a northern Thailand village) -- with lots of running around and screaming -- the fun wears off.

There is a funny twist at the end, though, where a lot of the inexplicability is explained.



(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Apichatpong Weerasethakul wins Silpathorn Award

I've ranted a lot about the Thailand Culture Ministry here, but one segment of the ministry that's doing good work -- actually promoting culture -- is the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture. Last year the OCAC started the Silpathorn Awards to recognize prominent living Thai contemporary artists.

The 2005 award for filmmaking goes to Apichatpong Weerasethakul, director of Tropical Malady, a jury prize winner at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

I like the criteria for the award. Winners must be a "Thai national [and] be aged between 30-50 years and still alive on the announcement day. Their works must have continually been exposed to the general public until present, as well as have been released in Thailand, creating a great impact to Thai contemporary art and inspiring young artists.

Seeing how an independent film movement has grown up around Apichatpong, and he's been tirelessly promoting experimental films, he definitely qualifies.

More about the award can be found at ThaiIndie.com.

The OCAC, by the way, was the office that backed the Tsunami Digital Short Films, on which Apichatpong served as a consultant.

As an aside, the OCAC has commissioned writer Prabda Yoon to write a book about the tsunami. He's the screenwriter who worked with Pen-ek Ratanaruang on Last Life in the Universe and the upcoming Invisible Waves, which is due out in Thailand cinemas on March 2.

(Thanks Thunska! Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Citizen Dog on Time's best of 2005 list

Okay, it was a 2004 film, unless you lived in behind-the-times North America, where Citizen Dog was one of the 10 best films of 2005. This is according to Richard Corliss at Time magazine. Wisit Sasanatieng's second film came in at No 6 on the list.

Here's a rapturous, visually orgasmic Asian romance, the sophomore effort from Sasanatieng (Tears of the Black Tiger), based on a novel written by his wife. This Thai kaleidoscope of comedy, with brisk narration and fevered imagery, suggests the French film Amelie, but after a dozen beers and a couple conks on the head. The movie includes a missing finger found in a sardine can, killer helmets, a grandmother reincarnated as a gecko, a litter of puppies in blue dresses ... And it's a musical! All right, you had to be there. But, guaranteed, once you're there, you won't want to leave.

(Thanks Sebu! Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Apichatpong's Intimacy and Turbulence

Twitch has details of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's forthcoming feature film, Intimacy and Turbulence.

It's one of the films commissioned by Peter Sellars for the New Crowned Hope Festival to be held in Vienna in November and December 2006, as part of the Vienna MozartYear 2006.

A festival press release explains further:

The commissions will be inspired by and explore the deeper issues that Mozart miraculously treated in the three great works from the last year of his life: The Magic Flute, La Clemenza di Tito and the Requiem. The primary themes are those of magic and transformation, forgiveness and reconciliation and recognition of the dead. These issues are those that Peter Sellars passionately feels make Mozart's work so crucially relevant to our moment in history.

Apichatpong's film "is a story set 40 years ago in a small town's hospital. A recollection and a reconstruction of the love and work of a filmmaker's parents before they finally became lovers".

Other directors participating in the project are Paraguay's Paz Encina, Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, Chadian director Mahamat Saleh Haroun, Tsai Ming Liang and Indonesia's Garin Nugroho.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

The art of scary trailers

Good points made in an article a few days ago in ThaiDay (which finally has an online presence) about the need for film ratings in Thailand, and along with them, trailers that have also been rated and are approved for general audiences, similar to what is done by the Motion Picture Association of America.

The article highlighted the gory trailers for Art of the Devil 2 (found at Twitch), which were shown ahead of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, an animated feature that many kiddies (and squeamish adults like me) went to see.

Thailand's film industry still has no ratings, and is subject to the long-outdated 1930 Censorship Code, which is enforced by the police. In some cases, the cops physically get into the films with scissors and snip stuff out, or blur offending frames with Vaseline. Every film, video, VCD and DVD that is sold in the Kingdom must get the stamp of approval from the Censorship Board.

The enforcement is spotty, with some DVDs simply getting rubber stamped, but others getting censored. An example of some DVDs I bought recently: Locally sold Region 3 versions of Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Casino (with Thai, Korean, Mandarin and Bahasa subtitles) haven't been touched, but still have the Royal Thai Police stamp. However, a Thai-dubbed version of Silver City has booze bottles and guns pixellated out. I'll be selling that one back, by the way.

A ratings system, proposed by the Culture Ministry, has been presented for Cabinet approval, but things are taking time. Scuttlebutt has it that the cops don't want to give up their cushy job of watching movies. Each viewing is an extra 500 baht in their pockets. Where's that money going to go when the Culture Ministry takes over?

And, understandably, filmmakers are wary of the Culture Ministry, which has acted positively Orwellian in the past, more like a Conservative Values and Morals Ministry than anything to do with culture.

"I don't underestimate them. But what kind of concept do they have?" an anonymous producer was quoted as saying by ThaiDay. He said he doubted that the Culture Ministry's board would be efficient enough, because most of the appointees are government officials who know nothing of how the film industry works. "Why don’t they just take some of us...and ask for our help with something we know about?"

Adirek "Uncle" Watleela (whose new directorial effort, Ghost Variety, opens on Thursday), was quoted as well. "Those selected to be on the board, have they been to the theater during the past 30 years? How many films have they seen, and how much do they understand them?"

Ladda Tangsupachai, head of the Culture Ministry’s monitoring center, countered that she regularly sees movies and that as an audience member, she doesn’t like to see cut or blurred films either. Once the ratings are in force, she says, everyone will understand their rights: filmmakers will know what to make, parents will know what to buy for their kids and marketers will know how to present their products.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Invisible Waves to premiere at Berlin

It's official - Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's next film, Invisible Waves, will get its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, from February 9 to 19.

It'll be in competition for the Golden Bear, the first since Rattana Pestonji's Black Silk in the 1961.

Among the many out-of-competition films will be Chen Kaige's poorly-reviewed historical fantasy epic romance, The Promise.

A follow-up collaboration by the Last Life in the Universe director with his star Tadanobu Asano and cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Asano portrays a Japanese chef from Macao who kills his lover and heads to Thailand to hide out.

In addition to Asano, Invisible Waves features a pan-Asian cast that includes Kang Hye-jeong from Old Boy and Hong Kong funnyman Eric Tsang.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Remembering the Tsunami

We're fast coming up on the one-year anniversary of the December 26, 2004 tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean region.

In Thailand, the disaster has been remembered by filmmakers, who produced the Tsunami Digital Short Films, which premiered back in October at the World Film Festival of Bangkok.

The films will be shown in Phuket - which was hit hard by the tsunami - on December 24 and 25 at SFX Coliseum Cinema at Central Festival Phuket. In addition, 15 short films produced by youths who reside in Trang and Phuket will be shown. These were made in the Short Film Production Youth Camp organised by Office of Contempoary Art and Culture and the Thai Film Foundation. This programme will be screened at 6pm on Christmas Day. Tickets are Bt90. All proceeds go to tsunami relief efforts.

Bangkok has a bigger event going on over the holiday weekend - the Fourth Experimental Film Festival, in which a staggering number of short films and feature films will be shown in Lumpini Park from 5pm to 9pm from December 23 to 25.

The Tsunami Digital Short Films will be shown on Sunday. Friday and Saturday there will be a retrospective of Anna Sanders Films. Other programmes include Bangkok Utopia, Thai Experimental, Thai Indie, Art+Film, MTV+POP Culture & Anima(sta)tion, Experimental Narrative and Travelogue.

There's the usual names in Thai avant garde cinema: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thunska Pansittivorakul and Michael Shaowanasai. Noi Sukosol Clapp from Bangkok Loco offers something called Time Traveller in Saturday's Bangkok Utopia screening.

In addition to the outdoor screenings at Lumpini, there will be a program on "Xtreme Film" from 2pm to 8pm on Saturday, December 24, at the 14 Ocober 1973 Memorial on Rajdamnoen Avenue, near Tanao Road and Khao San.

It'll include a discussion with filmmakers Thunska, Michael, Tuan Andrew Nguyen and film archivist Dome Sukwong, facilitated by the Thai Film Foundation’s Chalida Uabamrunjit.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

In the name of what?

I'm back after a break from the journal while I was in the States. It's taking me awhile to get back in the swing, and so far, the news is pretty disheartening.

• I tried to see In the Name of the Tiger, directed by Theeratorn Siriphunvaraporn, but I wasn't able to get to the cinema until yesterday and it was too late. One of the last cinemas in town where it was showing with subtitles took it off the schedule that very day. Killed by Kong.
• Yam Yasothon and the documentary, Crying Tigers, are out on DVD, but neither have English subtitles. Both are Sahamongkol releases, so I never really had my hopes up for the subtitles - Sahamongkol rarely springs for the licensing of the subtitles, they sell the film rights to foreign distributors and let them sort out the subtitling licensing and royalty issues. But I'm still disappointed.

But there's some good news:

• Three 1970s films - Insee Thong (the film Mitr Chaibuncha died making), Piak Poster's Tone and Choompae have been released on Thai DVD with English subs. I haven't watched any all the way through, but what I've seen is fun. The transfers are clear - you can really see how bad the films' conditions are - and the sound is surprisingly clear as well. Very cool retro vibe. Hope to have some reviews up soon.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Review: Country Hotel

• Directed by Ratana Pestonji
• Starring Chana Sri-Ubon, Surasit Sattayawong, Sarinthip Siriwan, Prajuab Reukyamdee
• 1957, available on DVD with English subtitles from the Thai Film Foundation
• Rating: 5/5

I've finally seen the spring from which Wisit Sasanatieng drank that inspired his Tears of the Black Tiger, and the water is very good indeed.

Not that Ratana Pestonji's Country Hotel is a great film, but it is a fun movie that offers rewards for repeat viewings, just to catch the nuances that I didn't think were possible. Overall, there's an elegant, understated style to this film that I find enjoyable.

Essentially, Country Hotel is a stage play, shot with one camera on a soundstage with one set - the inside of a ramshackle bar and guesthouse in suburban Bangkok.

The first hour is hilarious, pure comedy, with lots of music.

It opens with the camera panning around at various people in the bar. A musical soundtrack accompanies the scene - a solo trombone playing some bum notes. The then camera pans over to a corner of the bar, and there's actually a guy studiously playing solo trombone, badly. Meanwhile, there's a pair working on some music at the piano. The singer goes over to the trombonist and asks him to stop playing so he can practice. The guy then breaks out with some horrible, hoarse-sounding European opera, which drives the bar's one customer crazy.

The cavalcade of music hardly lets up. Just as the opera singer departs, a small marching band comes in blowing a Sousa march. A small brass band comes in with a pair of boxers and a boxing match (where the opponents let each other hit them with one punch in turn until one passes out) is held. In the morning, there's shrill Chinese opera. And a guitar-strumming Filipina stops by to sing a beautiful ballad.

The bartender, Noi, is an arm-wrestling champion, and he must frequently defend his title as challengers come into the bar.

Into the mix comes a mysterious woman who gives her name only as Riam, who claims she is 60 years old, has 12 grandchildren and trades opium.

She asks to stay at the hotel, but oddly, the place has only one room and it is taken. After some hysterics and throwing and dragging of suitcases, Riam and the solo lodger, the musically embattled man, who is named Chana, come to an agreement that has the wonderfully sassy Riam sleeping out on the sofa.

"What is this place, the hotel from hell?" asks the man.

No, actually, it's the Paradise Hotel (though "Hell Hotel" is the literal meaning of the film's Thai title, Rongraem Nark).

For the second hour, the story settles into a film noir, as the mystery of Riam and Chana are revealed, when a Thai mafia boss comes to the hotel looking for a quantity of cash and holds Riam and Chana hostage until the money is turned over.

I'm grateful to the Thai Film Foundation for making this available on DVD.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

Review: Powder Road

• Directed by Chatrichalerm Yukol
• Starring Chatchai Plengpanich, Masatochi Nagase, Sinjai Hongthai
• Available on DVD from Mangpong in Thailand. Language is Thai with some broken English and Japanese, however only the Thai dialogue is English-subtitled.

Made with the Japanese market in mind, this film is historic in that it's the first Thai film that shows bare breasts. Never mind that they are the fake tits of a transgendered male who has heroin packed into his plastic jugs. But that's how Tan Mui got around it.

Though there's actually some female breasts earlier in the film, at a Patpong go-go bar.

"You see they're in Patpong and the woman will put in a dart [into her vagina], and shoot a dart at a balloon. What you can do is integrate it into the fabric of the film, into the structure of the film, and it is impossible to take it out," Chatrichalerm explained to Thomas Richardson for Richardson's now-defunct Thai Film Index website at Cornell. "You have to see the nipple. And when you see the nipple, next year you have to fight to get the pubic hair. If you see the nipple you can see the whole tit, front on. So now you have to fight to get the pubic hair. Now, what is the definition of pubic hair? I have one of my actors who has hair from his chest down to his knees. You have to tell the censors, 'Okay, you draw the line, where is the pubic hair? Okay, I will obey it'."

Powder Road deals with the drug trade, and starts out with a Japanese man, Tokio (Nagase) trekking into Burma for some reason or another. Throughout the whole film I can't figure out what exactly his role is. Is he a cop? A secret agent? A rival yakuza enforcer? A hired assassin?

Anyway, he's a wirey little fella (not at all the imposing presence of a, say, Toshiro Mifune, a Wakayama Tomasaburo or a Sonny Chiba), and dodges bullets and grenades well as he crosses back into Thailand through the jungle and runs into some para-military bandits who try to kill him.

Tokio is tracking a shipment of heroin, which frozen into big ice blocks and is moved from the Golden Triangle region on boats down the Mekong.

He hits Bangkok, and eventually Pattaya, where he hides out, waiting, I guess, for instructions from his mysterious female handler.

He runs into a bargirl (Sinjai) who professes her hatred for the Japanese. One night, he saves her from some guys trying to rape her, taking a quite a beating in the process.

So there's one Japanese (or, sorry, Jap) that's okay in her book. They hook up, and she takes him to her home village, where she shows Tokio why she hate the Japanese -- because they built a big chemical plant that is poisoning the neighborhood, killed off the fish stocks and made her sister a brain-dead cripple. So besides the dangers of the drug trade, there's another message in this Chatrichalerm film -- of wealthier nations preying on smaller ones so they can operate dangerous industries.

Chatchai is a Thai cop looking to get to the bottom of the yakuza's involvement in the drug trade. His path crosses with the mayor of Pattaya, who also runs a transvestite cabaret.

There's some decent action in this, especially toward the end when there's a gunfight at a seedy hospital where the "girls" are having their breasts done. Here's where there's a cool reveal involving the yakuza's chief henchman, a blade-wielding sort who's got a secret identity.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)