World Comedy Film Festival: Capsule reviews

The World Comedy Film Festival wraps up today (June 16) with the Hong Kong romantic comedy Look for a Star with Shu Qui and Andy Lau. However, because of scheduling conflicts -- a full-time job-type job -- I won't be attending any further screenings. Here's a look at what I did see.

Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly

Having paid millions of rupiah for the rights to the Stevie Wonder song "I Just Called to Say I Love You", it seems only fitting that director Edwin -- who like many Indonesians has only one name -- would use the tune as much as he could. It's first sung by a blind dentist, and then warbled through six more times over the course of this absurdist look at Chinese culture in Indonesia. And by the way, Edwin, present for a helpful question-and-answer session after this bizarre film, says he hadn't seen Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century, which also has a singing dentist. Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly shares many of the non-sequitur traits and meditative pacing of Apichatpong's films, evidencing the rise of another independent film voice out of Southeast Asia. In addition to the blind singing dentist, Blind Pig is full of abstract characters, like Linda, the girl who eats firecrackers (Ladya Cheryll), and a fragile badminton player who watches a television evangelist but is spurned by the singing dentist because he wants to convert to Islam. The dentist enters into a deal with an influential pair of heavies (one played by filmmaker Joko Anwar) to ensure his new girlfriend (Indonesian Playboy Playmate Andhara Early) wins a spot on the Planet Idol reality talent series. This involves a much-talked-about scene in the dentist office that was the reason the film was pulled from public screening at the Singapore International Film Festival because of censorship concerns. Appropriately for the World Comedy Film Festival, the scene had the audience laughing -- albeit uncomfortably. The dentist does not squeal like a pig, but he does grunt like one. And just to prove it, there actually is a pig. (4/5)

Dachimawa Lee

This South Korean spy spoof is so overstuffed with gags, it made me numb. I wasn't laughing so much because I was left catatonic by the onslaught of slapstick and action. Subtitle problems meant I missed a great deal of what was being said. Basically, it involves a jowly secret agent, who reminded me a bit of the swordsman in Lone Wolf and Cub, traveling around the world in a quest to retrieve a stolen Buddha statue and find a mole in his agency. In each place he lands, he's confronted by the enemy, and I guess their dialogue went something like, "Oh ho, so we meet again, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" Etcetera. Furiously fast martial-arts battles became a blur. The sumptuous costuming, period setting and intentionally exaggerated melodramatic acting made me think Dachimawa Lee would be the next Tears of the Black Tiger. But it didn't knock my socks off like Tears did. So I'm still looking. (3/5)

James Band 007 (เจมส์แบน 007)

A fitting bookend to Dachimawa Lee, here's proof that even in 1980, Thai comedies took brilliant concepts and ran them into the ground. Directed by Chai Nimitrchotinai, James Band 007 is a fish-out-water spoof about a Pattaya bicycle rickshaw driver who takes over a mission for a secret agent. Even the real secret agent was low rent. Sent to Pattaya to stop an evil plot of some sort, the tuxedoed hero takes the bus! No Aston Martin or Q Branch for this Bond. And then, apparently because of agency policy, the real Bond hires the samlor driver named Band (Tep Thienchai) to take him up the hill to the Hyatt Pattaya Palace (now Royal Cliff). The rest of the film only exists to string together a collection of gags and confusing situations that put the grinning, toothless Band in touch with as many skinny, skantily-clad women as possible. I'm trying to make this movie sound bad, and it is. But it's no more ridiculous than Roger Moore in say, The Man With the Golden Gun. I think I might prefer James Band 007 to that. The real reason to watch James Band 007 is legendary comedian Lor Tok taking on the role of the mastermind villain with gusto. But even he's a thankless afterthought behind a couple of robots in the villain's hideout, named A and B, who are obviously patterned after C-3PO and R2-D2 in Star Wars. And then there's the score, which liberally borrows cues from the James Bond theme, as well as John Williams (the Superman love theme "Can You Read My Mind" and "Cantina Band" from Star Wars), Isaac Hayes ("Theme from Shaft") and Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Update: Here's a review of the VCD at TarsTarkas.net. (3/5)

Singh is Kinng

Here's another broadly illustrated fish-out-of-water scenario -- a village idiot from rural Punjab becomes a crime boss in Australia. Akshay Kumar is Happy Singh, an “illiterate fool" who is packed off on a trip to Australia to fetch Lucky Singh and bring him home to his ailing parents. At least that's what Happy is led to believe. Actually, the villagers just want him gone, because he's a walking disaster area. For no reason other than staging a few song-and-dance sequences among the pyramids, the hero first lands by mistake in Egypt, where he meets the heroine Sonia (Katrina Kaif). Then, as quick as you can say, "Okay, let's go to Australia", the action shifts to Gold Coast, Queensland, where Lucky Singh (Sonu Sood) is the much-feared boss of the underworld. Through Happy's usual bumbling, Lucky is not so lucky and he's put in a wheelchair. The good-hearted Happy is placed in charge of the gang. More hijinks ensue when the turbaned Sikh gangsters all pose as servants for the benefit making Sonia and her fiance think her impoverished mother is wealthy. More songs and dancing, shootouts and action sequences ensue. Finally, after 2.5 hours, the end credits roll and we can hear rapper Snoop Dogg offer his take on the Bollywood phenomenon. (3/5)

Cinlok

Here's a more commercial example of Indonesian cinema than Blind Pig. In Cinlok or Love on Location, tattooed leading man Tora Sudiro (Quickie Express, The Rainbow Troops, Arisan!) stars as a fast-talking, slacker van driver named Cundra who strikes up a romance with Naila, a young woman he spots in the train station. Neither want to reveal they are single, so they both make up stories about their significant others, leading to the classic misunderstandings and humorous situations as can be expected from a romantic comedy. Naila's "boyfriend" Tio is a wealthy oilman and shipping magnate but is actually an eccentric farmer from her home village. She also fibs about her job, which leads to another humorous situation. Cundra's "girlfriend" Tika is an older woman, a fashion designer, but she's actually a village woman who's come to Jakarta to get a job as a maid with an employment agency. There's an inside joke when Tika and the other maids run away from the agency when they find out they are to be sold as prostitutes. Cundra is hired to find them. He describes Tika as looking like actress Ria Irawan. Well, she is veteran actress Ria Irawan. While not a ground-breaking film, Cinlok mainly works because of its easy-going pace, a talented, good-looking cast and competent production helmed by Guntur Soeharjanto, who somehow makes filming in the Jakarta railway station and other areas of the bustling Indonesian capital look painless. It was refreshing to watch this relaxed romance after the other comedies I'd viewed were trying too hard to make me laugh. (3/5)

Partly Cloudy/Up

Thanks to showtimes that stretched into the late night, well past when anything for the film festival was showing, I was able to go off the reservation and catch the latest animated feature from Disney-Pixar. It's telling that the one digital 3-D screening of Up I attended probably had a bigger audience than the entire run of the World Comedy Film Festival. Up has a bigger marketing budget -- there was a magician and other performers promoting the film in the cinema lobby -- while most of the money spent on the World Comedy Film Festival has been used to bring in a few celebrities in an effort to shore up Thailand's flagging tourism industry. So hardly anybody is actually watching the films. Even more telling is that I laughed harder and more loudly at the Pixar animated short Partly Cloudy than I'd laughed at anything I'd seen in the comedy fest. Up had laugh-out-loud moments too -- mainly having to do with the talking dogs. But maybe I'm too much of a grumpy old man, because I found Up overwhelmingly schmaltzy and the characters awkwardly drawn. I was still thrilled by the action sequences toward the end, but I wasn't as wowed by this effort as I have been on other Pixar films, like The Incredibles, Toy Story or Wall-E. (4/5)

Update: Asian Cinema - While on the Road has a couple of reviews.

Update 2: Celine Julie saw 14 films at the World Comedy Film Festival!

Pen-ek and the backlash against art films

Art films don't tend to do well in Thai cinemas. And Thailand's bigger studios try to avoid making them. Recently, one big-name producer was able to convince a studio head to give a greenlight only after he ensured the exec that his director's project wasn't an art film.

Then there's Pen-ek Ratanaruang, who's had the support of Thai studio Five Star Production (and international arthouse nurturers Fortissimo Films) in making a string of challenging dramas -- Last Life in the Universe, Invisible Waves, Ploy and now Nymph (Nang Mai), which have enjoyed varying degrees of critical acclaim on the international arthouse circuit but haven't been considered commercial successes in Thailand.

And even among crowds that have been arthouse friendly, there seems to be a growing backlash. Pen-ek addresses this in the Good Morning Bangkok blurb on the cover of today's Daily Xpress:

From my observations of the Cannes festival, I see an alarming trend that art films are under threat. People patient enough to see these films are ageing and dying. The new generation of audience have short attention spans: they are used to fast-paced content provided by the likes of YouTube and video games. They just can't spend one-and-a-half hours to two hours on a film. So, films may have to be 60-80 minutes in length to respond to the new trend. It leaves us filmmakers with a fresh challenge -- how to serve the fast generation and how to adapt to the change.

So with a faster-pace and a shorter running time in mind, Pen-ek confirms he's editing a more-concise version of Nymph that'll be geared for the multiplex crowds. It's being marketed as a horror film. I've been seeing the Thai trailer on the big screen and it looks gorgeous, even if it is a bit loud and jumpy.

There are plans to show the more meditatively paced international arthouse version of Nymph in a limited number of cinemas in Thailand at the same time the horror edit is released. Nymph is due out on July 1.

Review: Dek-Khong

• Written and directed by Taweewat Wantha
• Starring Nopparit Suriwong, Keerati Mahaprukpong
• Released in Thai cinemas on June 11, 2009
• Rating: 3/5

A childlike playfulness has imbued Taweewat Wantha's feature films so far. There's been a sense of wonder as the director has crafted fantastic films seemingly out of whatever toys and bits and pieces of household junk he had handy.

Nonetheless, after the zombie-kidnapping comedy SARS Wars and the exceedingly strange sci-fi The Sperm, which is about, uh, sperm, I didn't expect that the director would make a children's movie.

But that's what he's done with Dek-Khong (อนุบาลเด็กโข่ง, Anuban Dek-Khong or literally The Kindergarten).

It's a kid's comedy that's about as twisted and weird as can be expected from Taweewat, about a man-sized child named Ohm (Nopparit Suriwong) who's seemingly stuck in kindergarten, and because of his bulk, he's the leader of a fearsome children's gang.

And what a gang it is, the King Kong Gang, who rule over the playgrounds and clubhouses of an entire district, mowing down and usurping all the other children's gangs. One by one, the flags fall, with the primate visage of King Kong rising to take their places.

The opening scene of the King Kongs storming another gang's fort is rivaled only by perhaps Saving Private Ryan for carnage. There's no blood-letting or loss of limbs, but the violence is the same, enhanced by the sound effects of real gunfire and explosions as water balloons are lobbed and a hail of peas are fired from plastic straws.

As they head off to war, the boys sing a rousing martial song, penned by none other than folk rocker Ad Carabao, a specialist when it comes to writing march-like, patriotism-stirring themes.

For armor, the kids wear whatever can be scrounged. Pieces of cardboard become arm guards, a plastic basket is a bullet-proof vest. Various toys and action figures are transformed into helmets and weapons.


Ohm tenaciously holds onto power by always acting the tough guy, and is reluctant to show any signs of weakness, such as the need to use the toilet.

But he's caught in the act by a mysterious teddy-bear-toting eye-patch-wearing girl named Jamnien (Katnataní Yasirohtwatana ). Like Firefly's River Tam, she uses math to defeat larger opponents. Aside from that eyepatch, there's something creepy about the pig-tailed Jamnien, who's always lurking around, seeing all with that one good eye of hers. She's snapped a photo of Ohm in the can, which she uses as blackmail to join the King Kong Gang, making Ohm break his rule that forbids girl gang members and girlfriends.

One woman in a boy's life -- his mother -- is more than enough, says Ohm.

And why wouldn't the boy have issues with his mom, who denies that the photo of the tough-looking pug of a man on their wall is his father, despite the uncanny resemblance. As for Ohm's unnatural size, mom blames that on a batch of radioactive mushrooms fed to him as a baby.

She's a handful, Ohm's mom -- the leader of a gambling ring in the quiet riverside community. The cops know full well what goes on in her house, but with a cellphone-equipped Ohm stationed as a lookout, the police can never catch her in the act.



It's while Ohm is on the lookout that he sees a red-haired high-school girl just at the moment a gust of wind catches her red school-uniform skirt. Ohm doesn't know why, but he's overcome with a feeling for this girl, Om (played by gravel-voiced university student Keerati Mahaprukpong). She's dancing in slow motion in his dreams. But so is his mother. And so is the bicycle shop mechanic who's Ohm's mentor. Weird, huh?

A chance meeting during a science-museum field trip and a stolen high-school uniform makes Om believe the oversized kindergartner Ohm is her age, and the two embark on an innocent romance of bicycle rides and Frisbee throwing in the park.

Ohm is clearly overmatched. Following the fashion of Seth Rogan's comedies, here we have yet another male protagonist hooking up with a woman who is way too hot for him. In contrast to the fit young men in Om's life, it's clear that even for his bulk, Ohm is still just a boy. And perhaps Om is still just a girl, even though she's blossoming into womanhood.

Meanwhile, Ohm is losing control of his gang. His pint-sized lieutenant Jorn is rebelling against Ohm's letting the eye-patch girl Jamnien in the gang. Jorn eventually crosses over to the much-feared rival gang, the Pandas, who are so evil you can't even speak their name. And this is despite all their members dressing up like cute panda bears, with blackened eyes and noses. Who knew pandas could be so ominous? Jorn secures his admission to the Panda gang because he knows his multiplication tables -- so kids, learn your math.

A soul-searching journey by Ohm and a furious face-off with the Pandas -- evoking Kurtz's hellish encampment in the final stages of Apocalypse Now -- are highlights toward the end. Some of these kids might be being groomed by the producers at Baa Ram Ewe to be the next generation of Power Kids, with a few flying double-knee kicks and elbows thrown in battle.

But the energetic innovation of the early parts of the film give way to sweetness and sentimentality. So many characters have been introduced, some are simply forgotten, so there's no real resolution in the story arc. It's a bit unsatisfying, as Dek-Khong coasts by on cuteness alone -- of which it has plenty. But it was cleverness that made the movie so charming to begin with.



Related posts:

• Trailer for Taweewat Wantha's Dek-Khong

Ong-Bak 2 gets U.S. website, release strategy

There's now a U.S. website for Tony Jaa's Ong-Bak 2, and distributor Magnola/Magnet is planning a release for cable-TV video-on-demand, Amazon and Xbox on September 25, a month ahead of the theatrical release on October 23.

Not content to wait? There has been buzz about the Korean DVD, but now it looks like there's no subtitles.

There's the Malaysian DVD. But if you order that version, what do you really gain in the long run? You might have your Ong-Bak 2 now, but what about future efforts by Tony Jaa and company? Will the North American release of future Thai action and genre films be jeopardized by gray market DVDs and fan-subbing efforts, which facilitate illegal downloads?

Kung Fu Cinema's Mark Pollard comments on Magnolia's strategy:

This forward-thinking and diversified approach is a smart move by Magnolia that I only wish could have happened sooner since many fans have already tracked down overseas editions and pirated copies of the film. While Ong-Bak 2 would undoubtedly look great on a big screen, the reality is that it's getting harder for distributors to put niche movies into theaters and turn a profit and harder for audiences to tear themselves away from their home entertainment systems and computers.

If successful, I wouldn't be surprised if this gradually becomes the new model for distributing niche movies. Films could be released sooner and at lower cost to the distributor, in turn making it more likely that we might actually see more licensed foreign films brought into the U.S. If films began to be released worldwide on VOD services in a timely fashion and at a reasonable cost, this could go a long way in combating revenue loss through piracy and cross-border, gray-market sales. Films will still have to be released to DVD and Blu-ray to satisfy collectors though.

I guess I agree with what he's saying. Sometimes the gray market is the only way you can get a semi-legal English-friendly release of a Thai movie. But if the gray market didn't exist, would the film be more likely to be picked up in North America and the U.K.? Would there be motivation for companies like Sahamongkol to offer an English-friendly multi-platform worldwide concurrent release of its films in theaters, on its Mongkol Channel and other cable channels, Internet streaming and DVD/Blu-ray? It's a conundrum.

The U.S. release of Ong-Bak 2 should have happened already, following closely after the film's appearance at South by Southwest, which could have been a promotional platform for a theatrical, VOD, DVD release. Ong-Bak 2 should have been a summer movie, not a fall movie. It'll be interesting to see how this works out.

I also wonder if there will be any special features or commentary tracks on the Magnet disc? Will the quality be okay? How about Blu-ray? Worth getting? I'm willing to wait to hear more. How about you?

Queens of Langkasuka, Rahtree Reborn announced for Neuchatel

Switzerland's Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival has announced its lineup, and among the New Cinema from Asia program is Nonzee Nimibutr's Queens of Langkasuka and Yuthert Sippapak's Buppha Rahtree 3.1: Rahtree Reborn.

Queens heads to Neuchatel after being featured at the Brussels Fantastic fest in April, as well as a commercial run in Malaysia.

A couple of fairly recent reviews of Queens can be found at Something to Sing About and at Nekoneko's Movie Litterbox.

Rahtree Reborn, meanwhile, was featured at Udine back in April.

The Neuchatel fest runs from June 30 to July 5.

Songs of Eh Doh Shi opens the Fly Beyond the Barbwire Fence fest in Chiang Mai

The refugee film, music and art fair, Fly Beyond the Barbwire Fence Episode II: Ten Years Old starts this weekend in Chiang Mai, running from June 13 and culminating in a concert on June 20, World Refugee Day.

Put together by Friends Without Borders, the venue is the Center for Promotion of Art and Culture at Chiang Mai University.

The fest opens at 5 on Saturday, June 13, with a cultural performance and folk music. The opening film is The Songs of Eh Doh Shi, a moving docudrama that Friends Without Borders produced and first screened a couple of years ago.

During the week, shorts include Nok Paksnavin's Burmese Man Dancing, which comprises of scenes of fishing boats -- mostly crewed by Burmese people -- with subtitled statements by Thai people, who think the migrant workers are "spies" or are out to steal jobs from Thais.

There's also the award-winning student film of last year's World Film Festival of Bangkok Hongsa's Schoolbag by Supamok Silarak, and Nattachai Jaitita's intensely gripping 30-minute war drama Shan at the Dawn, which was an award-winner at the 12th Thai Short Film and Video Festival.

Features include the controversial A Jihad for Love and Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, the documentary on the Los Angeles-based Khmer-American rock band Dengue Fever.

The schedule of performances and films can be downloaded here.

And hey, it looks like the first 8 minutes of The Songs of Eh Doh Shi is on YouTube, on the Friends Without Borders channel. So I've gone ahead and embedded it below.



(Thanks Veena!)

World Comedy Film Festival: Festival notes

Terima kasih
I caught my first film at the World Comedy Film Festival last night -- Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly, which is not really a comedy in the strictest sense, though it is funny at times. More on that later, I hope. What was cool about catching the late-night screening at Paragon was that the director -- Edwin, who like many Indonesians has only one name -- was there, and he hung out for a Q&A afterward. In fact, there were a bunch in Indonesian guys there, adding significant numbers to the audience of about a dozen or so fervent fans of Southeast Asian cinema. Compatriot filmmaker Guntur Soeharjanto turned out to support Blind Pig. Soeharjanto's romantic comedy (?) Cinlok is showing Sunday night at SFW CentralWorld and Monday afternoon at Paragon. Edwin's Blind Pig -- a FIPRESCI Award winner at Rotterdam and a FIPRESCI/NETPAC special mention in Singapore (where it wasn't screened publicly because of censorship) -- shows once more at 1 this afternoon at SFW CentralWorld.

Not a one-off
Before the festival opened on Wednesday night, the fest's managing director Tyler Panichpakdee took a group of festival guests on a "rest and relaxation" visit to a beach resort in Phang Nga, near Phuket. They had their own comedy show and a film screening on the beach. Ahead of that exclusive event, TV Phuket got some one-on-one time with Tyler. In a video interview, Tyler says he hopes to make the World Comedy Film Festival an annual event. "I would love to have this every year. I would hate to say it's a one-off and I don't think it will be a one-off," he says.

Big and small
While I've not seen a complete list of the celebrities confirmed as guests of the festival, I have been told that there's a Wayans brother around -- "the tall one", somebody said -- as well as dwarf actor Verne "Mini-Me" Troyer, who has his own little car or scooter, which he drove down the red carpet on opening night. He has an interview coming out in Monday's Daily Xpress.

Subtitles? Subtitles!
Blind Pig featured the usual English subtitles with Thai subtitles added on a strip just below the main screen. Nice. And I'm guessing the other films are subtitled thusly. For the Thai films, I'm led to understand that the only ones that don't have English subtitles are the live-dubbed ones -- Sao Dao Tiam (Satellite Girl) and Samgler Jer Long Hon (Three Friends Meet Invisible Agent). Update: The Assembly of Thai Gags isn't subtitled either.

On DVD: Coming Soon

A horror film within a horror film and a morality tale about movie piracy, the GTH thriller Coming Soon is out on English-friendly DVD from several territories.

Most recently coming to my attention is the upcoming Hong Kong release, which is set for June 19. YesAsia has it, though alternatively you could get it from DDD House. There's also been releases in Taiwan and Singapore.

Shop around, take your pick and enjoy.

Nekoneko recently reviewed it, though the Catgirl had a fan-sub assist.

Coming Soon is featured at the ongoing Another Hole in the Head fest in San Francisco.

(Thanks Logboy!)

A Chronology of Siamese Humor at the World Comedy Film Festival

The World Comedy Film Festival starts tonight, June 10, at Paragon Cineplex, with the gala opening film, The Wedding Game, directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham and starring Singaporean celebrity couple Fann Wong and Christopher Lee.

The program for the festival has been slowly emerging, and now the festival website has about everything listed, including a master schedule of screenings.

Among the special programs is A Chronology of Siamese Humor, which is a mix of classic films from the 1960s, the '80s and '90s, as well as newer comedies, and even short films. From recent years, among the highlights are 2005's Yam Yasothon and 2001's Killer Tattoo. There's also some rare short films that will be worth seeing.

Also, there will be another chance to catch the art of live dubbing on two 1960s films, Sao Dao Tiam (Satellite Girl), starring Dokdin Kanyamarn, and Samgler Jer Long Hon (Three Friends Meet Invisible Agent), starring Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat.

Here's the lineup:

• Time Machine 1 (Go Jaa Pa-Na-Go, โก๊ะจ๋าป่านะโก๊ะ) -- Jedi Suppakan and Pipat Payakka direct this 1991 jungle adventure from Five Star Production and Bhandit Rittakol, involving a group of college students on summer break. Santisuk Promsiri,Warut Woratham and Jakkrit Ammarat star. Screens at 5.30pm on Thursday, June 11 at Paragon Cineplex.
• Hello Yasothon (Yam Yasothon, แหยมยโสธร) -- Petchthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkamlao directs and stars in this 2005 musical comedy. Set in 1967 and paying homage to the colorful Thai musical romantic comedies of that era, Mum is Yam, an Isaan farmer who spurns the advances of Joei (a brassy Janet Kiew), the flirtatious maid of Soi, the girlfriend of his cousin Tong. When the maid and maiden are packed off to Bangkok by a scheming, social-climbing aunt, Yam and Tong pine for their absent sweethearts, even going as far as making the trip to Bangkok to search for them. I don't "get" many Thai comedies, but this is one that I thoroughly enjoyed and it remains among my all-time favorites. Screens at 2.30pm on Friday, June 12, at SFW CentralWorld.
• Killer Tattoo (Meu Peun Lok/Pra/Jan, มือปืน โลก/พระ/จัน) -- Yuthlert Sippapak's 2001 debut is an action comedy that stars Somchai Kemglad as Kit Silencer, an assassin who's out for revenge against the killer of his father. His only clue is a mysterious tattoo. Meanwhile, four hilariously bumbling hitmen (comedians Thep Po-ngam, Sornsutha Klunmalee, Petchtai Wongkamlao and Pongsak Pongsuwan) are assigned a target that will bring them into a clash with Kit Silencer. Screens at 3pm on Friday, June 12, at Paragon Cineplex.
• Satellite Girl (Sao Dao Tiam, สาวดาวเทียม) -- From 1960, this madcap comedy is directed by Sor Kra Prayoon and stars Amara Assawanon, Somkuan Krajangsart and Dokdin Kanyaman. It's about a young man who disguises himself as a woman in an attempt to woo a millionaire’s daughter. With live dubbing at 5pm on Saturday, June 13, at Paragon Cineplex.
• James Band 007 (เจมส์แบน 007) -- Instead of an Aston Martin, this 007 drives a samlor. Chai Nimitrchotinai directs and legendary comedian Lor Tok plays the mastermind villain. Screens at 6.15pm on Saturday, June 13 at SFW CentralWorld.
• The Spy Next Door (Aep Kon Kang Baan, แอบ คนข้างบ้าน) -- From 2003, this is comedian Pongsak Pongsuwan's first starring feature, following up his supporting role as Elvis M-16 in Killer Tattoo. He plays Odd, a burglar who's tasked by a cross-dressing policeman to become a confidential informant. Viroj Thongsiew directs. Screens at 11am on Sunday, June 14, Paragon Cineplex.
• Three Friends Meet the Invisible Agent (Samgler Jer Long Hon, สามเกลอเจอล่องหน) -- Directed by Chaluai Srirattana and Sor Assanajinda and starring the legendary screen couple of Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat, this 1966 action comedy is based on the popular novel series Pol, Nikorn, Kim-nguan or Samgler (Three Friends) by Por Intharapalit. In this episode, they have to intercept an invisible secret agent sent who turns out to be a woman, which triggers fierce jealousy from the three guys’ wives. With live dubbing at 1pm on Sunday, June 14 at SFW CentralWorld.
• Holy Man 2 (Luang Pee Teng 2หลวงพี่เท่ง 2 -- For last year's sequel to the 2005 smash-hit comedy by Phranakorn Film, rapper Joey Boy stepped into the role originated by Pongsak "Teng Terdterng" Pongsuwan. He plays a motor-mouthed Buddhist monk who's transferred to a poor village populated by eccentric rustics who are troubled by explosions from a nearby quarry. Screens at 2.30pm on Sunday, June 14 at SFW CentralWorld.
• Miss Yenrudee (น.ส.เย็นฤดี ) -- Kamtorn Thapkanlai directs this 1983 comedy about a rosy-cheeked girl whose crowning as the beauty queen of Buffalo Field Village attracts the attention of a young city lawyer and the Miss Thailand pagaent. Will fame go the the country girl's head? Toon Hiranyasap (Invisible Waves) and Piyamas Monyakul star. Screens at 5pm on Sunday, June 14 at Paragon Cineplex.
• Assembly of Thai Gags -- This is a 90-minute compilation of comic scenes and short films in Thai cinema from past to present, featuring many master Thai comics. Screens at 7.30pm on June 15 at SFW CentralWorld. Short films in the program are:
• Why Must I Be a Comedian? -- Witthaya Thongyooyong (Fan Chan, The Possible) directed this 2001 12-minute short starring Fan Chan child actor "Jack" Chalermpol Tikumpornteerawong as the son of a famous comedian who doesn't want to be a comedian. Big Jack, now 20 years old, is on the jury for the festival's Short Film Competition.
• Khun Krabi -- This is Dek-Kong director Taweewat Wantha's first short from 2002. The nine-minute comedy introduces the hero Khun Krabi who wants to avenge his father's death. The character was later featured in Taweewat's uproarious 2005 horror comedy SARS Wars. Taweewat is a member of the jury for the festival's International Competition.
• Kling Wai Korn Por Sorn Wai (กลิ้งไว้ก่อนพ่อสอนไว้) -- Directed by Somjing Srisuphap, this 1991 teen comedy is about four boys of the “Rolling Stones” gang who are first-rate trouble-makers and dread the end of their school days because its means real life is fast approaching. Screens at 5.30pm on Tuesday, June 16 at Paragon Cineplex.

For now website doesn't list whether the films have subtitles, in English or Thai or otherwise. I'm told that some of the Thai films are subtitled and some are not. I suspect that mainly the older Thai films -- the ones I'd likely want to see -- will not have subtitles.

There are still plenty of others to see.

The closing film has been revealed as Look for a Star (游龍戲鳳 / Yau Lung Hei Fung) , a Hong Kong comedy from earlier this year starring Andy Lau and Shu Qi, about a billionaire casino owner who falls in love with a cabaret dancer. The screening is at 4.30 on Tuesday, June 16, at CentralWorld, but the red-carpet proceedings for the gala awards show start at 6, so media people will have to choose whether to watch the film or cover the awards.

(Cross-published at Bangkok Cinema Scene)

Phantoms of Nabua installation in Columbus

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's online short Phantoms of Nabua can be experienced as an art installation at the Wexner Center at Ohio State University in Columbus.

Phantoms of Nabua is part of Apichatpong's multi-platform Primitive project.

The Columbus exhibition opened on June 1 and it's running until June 30.

Having seen the short on the Animate Projects website, I would say that it's worth experiencing in the wilds of central Ohio. It's not every day you can go to Columbus and watch a video of Thai teenagers kicking a flaming soccer ball around in the dark. If you're nearby or within a day's drive, head on over. Maybe stop to take in some of the ancient mounds and earthworks that are in the region, and interpret your own meaning of "primitive."