Reviews: Ponglang Amazing Theater, The Screen at Kamchanod

• Directed by Rerkchai Paungpetch
• Starring Somphong "Eed" Khunaprathom, Duangruedee "Lulu" Boonbumrung and Khwanapha "Lala" Ruangsri, Kavi "Beam" Tanchararak, Visa Sarasas, Duangruedee Boonbumrung, Khannapha Rueangsree, Khom Chuanchuen, Anuchit Kulsri and Kotee Aramboy
• Released in Thailand cinemas on November 29, 2007
• Rating: 2/5

Released within a week of each other, the colourful comedy Amazing Ponglang Theater and the dourly dramatic thriller The Screen at Kamchanod take very different approaches to the subject of cinemas haunted by ghosts. But they share one thing: Neither makes very much sense.

Released on November 29, Amazing Ponglang is the ostensible star vehicle for the Ponglang Sa-on country music comedy trio. As a comedy, it doesn’t have to make sense, but a concept that seems to have been lost on director Rergchai Paungpetch is if you’re going to have a talented group of singers and dancers in your movie, you should let them sing and dance. After an unbearable 90 minutes of flatulence gags, racist insults and slapstick pratfalls, the trio finally gets to put on a show to close out the film.

The Screen at Kamchanod, released on December 5, was probably never intended to make any sense either. It has some decent scares and some neat-o imagery, but still left me sitting there after the credits rolled going “huh?”

But I was probably the only one who gave it any thought at all. For both films, I had opposite reactions to the audiences. In Amazing Ponglang, while people were busting a gut laughing at scatalogical humour, severed tongues and barbs about flat noses and dark skin, I was mortified. In The Screen, while the audience was screaming their lungs out, I was laughing incessantly.

Both films are steeped in movie-going nostalgia. RS Film’s Amazing Ponglang Theater is set in an old-time Bangkok movie palace. Ponglang Sa-on frontman Somphong “Eed” Khunaprathom portrays To, the nephew of the cinema’s owner. The cinema is old and shows old movies (all from RS Film, of course), but probably the main reason there are no customers is that the place is haunted. The only people who turn up to watch films are an odd quartet of ghosts.

To wants to sell the cinema, be rid of the ghosts and move on with his life. He sees hope for all that in real-estate agent Ploy (Visa Sarasas), but the pretty ethnic Chinese beauty has no interest in the diminutive To, and is pining over her missing boyfriend, Win (Kavi Tanchararak – Beam of the boy band D2B), who is a taxi driver and just happens to be hanging around the cinema.

Amazing takes the scattergun approach typical of Thai comedy films, widely broadcasting joke after joke, with lots of screaming and running around, but hardly ever sticking to an actual storyline. After funny bits that do nothing to advance the plot, the last 30 minutes of the film move at a frenzied pace to tie up loose ends and send everyone home happy. The ghosts are largely forgotten about, as is the fact that Ponglang Sa-on is in the film.

• Written and directed by Songsak Mongkolthong
• Starring Ashita Pramoj Na Ayutthaya, Pakaramai Potranan, Ong-art Jiamjaroenpornkul, Pornpimol Hoonthongkam, Namo Tongkumnerd
• Released in Thailand cinemas on December 5, 2007
• Rating: 3/5

Five Star Production’s The Screen at Kamchanod is supposedly based on a true story that took place in 1987 in Udon Thani, when an outdoor film screening was booked at the Kamchanod forest preserve. The projection crew rolled the film, but there was no audience, until near the end, when some ghosts came out of nowhere to view the film.

Now, the big question is: what film was it? But that is never answered in The Screen. It appears to be some kind of art film. So while Thai people, in the words of cultural minder Ladda Tangsupachai, just want a laugh, Thai ghosts appear to appreciate the cerebral, abstract work of the likes of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Go figure.

The Screen at Kamchanod deals with the obsession of a young doctor, Yuth (Ashita Pramoj Na Ayutthaya), who for some reason wants to find out the mystery behind this screening. With his wife, nurse Orn (Pakaramai Potranan), and journalist friends Ji (Ongart Jiamjaroenpornkul) and Phann (Pornpimol Hoonthongkam), and a neighbourhood street hood Roj (Namo Tongkumnerd), the doctor tracks down the film and arranges a screening in what appears to be the same old-time Bangkok movie palace used in Amazing Ponglang Theatre. Soon after, all the members of the group are seeing dead people.

Directed by Songsak Mongkolthong, a former assistant director under the Pang Brothers, The Screen has its fair share of scares. What’s really cool is when the horror action seems to cross the threshold between the world of the film and the world of real-life audiences, with a ghost appearing to grab the sides of the screen and try to shove it aside to escape. Who knows, maybe there really are some ghosts lurking about at Major Cineplex Central Bangna and other mall multiplexes?

Mainly, The Screen is a psychological thriller, probing the mystery of Dr Yuth himself, and the jealousy that comes to the fore as his emotionally traumatised wife seeks solace in the company of the stoner Roj. Yuth's obsession drags everyone and everything down. There is one bright spot through it all: In a brief scene where Dr Yuth and his wacky Scooby Gang are investigating an outdoor screening for clues, the movie being shown is Wisit Sasanatieng’s The Unseeable – a film I’d really like to see again.

Red Eagle building a nest

Here is some early promotional art for Insee Dang, or Red Eagle, the upcoming next film by Tears of the Black Tiger and Citizen Dog director Wisit Sasanatieng.

Red Eagle will be a reboot of the 1960s and '70s film series that starred Mitr Chaibancha as a masked crimefighter, based on novels by Sake Dusit.

There's a website, too, but it's in the early stages of development.

More information:

• Red Eagle to fly again with Wisit
• AFM: Fresh Word From Wisit’s RED EAGLE

Ratings: Not just for films anymore

Not only is Thailand's Ministry of Culture planning a motion-picture ratings scheme, it is also going to rate books.

However, the Ministry's approach to rating books is markedly different from the heavy handed tactics it is using for film ratings.

According to a Nation article yesterday, the Culture Ministry has backed off a plan to censor romantic scenes from translated novels, after members of the public e-mailed the Ministry with their objections. (The web address for the Ministry is www.m-culture.go.th, which is incorrectly stated in The Nation's article.)

Culture Minister Khunying Khaisri Sri-aroon, obviously more a fan of novels than films, said she disagreed with the proposal to cut "romantic" scenes from translated novels because "it would ruin the taste for readers", according to The Nation.

She said she would invite national artists, academics and publishers to formulate a rating criteria.

That right there is more consideration than filmmakers have received as the National Legislative Assembly closes in on passing a harsh new law that will both have the most restrictive film ratings system in the world, and increase the government's power to censor and outright ban films. Filmmakers might have been consulted about the draft law, and they have raised objections to it, but those objections aren't being heard.

Why aren't filmmakers, which are included among the ranks of National Artists, being given the same consideration?

More information:

• New Thai Film Law to Institute PG-25 Rating

Star-studded Thai election

Thai action star of the 1970s Sombat Metanee is following the paths of many from the ranks of film to politics. I'm thinking he's aiming to be more in mold of Ronald Reagan or Fred Thompson, and not so much Joseph "Erap" Estrada, and probably not even close to Fred "Gopher" Grandy or Ben "Cooter" Jones.

Sombat was serving in the Senate before last year's coup. He then became a member of the military-appointed National Legislative Assembly (the body that's probably going to approve the harsh new film law).

The Tears of the Black Tiger villain is running for Parliament in the December 23 election as a member of the Pracharaj, or Royal People Party, a minor party that could nonetheless be influential in determining who leads a coalition government.

Another 70s action star, Krung Sriwalai is also running, as a People Power Party candidate. This is the party that is the idealogical replacement for ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's populist Thai Rak Thai party, which has been banned.

Former boxer Khaosai Galaxy, or Sura Saenkham, recently seen in Fighting Beat, is running under the Puea Pandin Party banner. Another Puea Pandin candidate is Kowit Watanakul, who was in last year's Krasue Valentine.

Singer Surachai Sombatcharoen, who was in Bodyguard 2, is a candidate for Matchima Thipataya.

More information:

• Banking on glamor to win seats
• Election coverage at 2Bangkok.com
• Sombat Metanee photoset

(Photo from 2bangkok.com)

Review: The Life of Buddha

• Directed by Krismant Whattananarong
• Produced by Wallapa Pimthong
• Starring Ratchata Samorntinnakorn, Vit Vijitranon, Thassawan Seneewong Na Ayutthaya, Phitsamai Wilaisak
• Wide release in Thai cinemas on December 5, 2007
• Rating: 3/5

An epic life, condensed to a 100-minute cartoon feature, The Life of Buddha contains episodes from Lord Buddha’s life that could have easily made a dozen 100-minute films.

So while The Life of Buddha paints a broad picture, it’s a gorgeous one. In a time when most feature-length animated films are done in 3D on computers, The Life of Buddha is refreshingly old-school, traditional animation. Budgetary concerns, rather than aesthetics have been cited by director Krismant Whattananarong as the reason for the choice of old vs new technology. Nonetheless, the colourful artwork is engrossing, especially the backgrounds.

Brought to Earth by angels, and swaddled in a loin cloth, the baby Buddha entered the world walking on a path of golden lotus pods. Creatures of the wood cavort in a scene that owes more to a Disney cartoon than the Tripitaka – no coincidence, because many of the animators on this film actually worked for the Mouse.

The son of a king, Prince Siddhartha, as he was known early in life, was to become a great ruler and was schooled in swordplay, archery and all things kingly. He even took a wife.

But he saw people suffering, and wanted to know more about the root causes. So at age 29, he left the palace, cut his air and took to meditating on the banks of a river, letting his body waste away to near nothing. It is then that the notion of the “middle path” – not taking things to either extreme – struck him.

Not as much the action-packed video game as the posters promise, the best sequences have to do with the demon Mara summoning all the dark forces in the world to attack Lord Buddha. But nothing, not even a trio of the most voluptuous women yet committed to celluloid, can penetrate Buddha’s shell of meditative goodness.

Another cool episode has to do with the hulking serial killer Anguilimala being swayed from his murderous ways by Buddha. It’s kind of anti-climactic, but then too much blood would scare the kids. More action would have been preferable, however, over the political intrigues of Buddha’s various disciples.

A Bollywood-style song-and-dance number, smack-dab in the middle, livens things up. In fact, the music, which is a mix of Indian, Thai and Western classical, is one of the joys of this film.


More information:

• Official site
• An incredible life
• A testament to faith
• Photo gallery

Harsh new film law closer to reality

The new Film and Video Act is being railroaded through Thailand's National Legislative Assembly by the Ministry of Culture.

The make-up of the proposed film-ratings board has already been decided by the NLA sub-committee, Culture Minister Khaisri Sriarun tells Nation News Service. Now the the committee is deciding on the proposed ratings system, which would restrict people as old as 24 from seeing certain films, or ban Thai films outright, from being exhibited anywhere in the world.

The moves by this military-installed parliament to clamp down on freedoms and stifle expression come ahead of a general election on December 23, and appear deaf to protests by the Free Thai Cinema Movement, which staged a demonstration on Wednesday, outside Parliament House in Bangkok.

Poet and writer Jiranan Pitchpreecha led the demonstration, by about 30 artists and filmmakers, including Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Wisit Sasanatieng, Pimpaka Towira and artist Manit Sriwanichapoom.

Jiranan submitted an open letter to Wallop Tangkananurak, a member of the NLA panel considering the act.

“The movement believes the new Film Act will impact on the freedom of expression of filmmakers as well as human rights of audiences, especially youths, who will be deprived of the opportunity to develop intellectual and analytical skills,” the letter said.

The group has asked that the provisions that empower the state to ban films and order filmmakers to cut scenes judged inappropriate, be stricken from the draft law. The filmmakers say the law is too vague and is open to broad interpretation. Furthermore, there are already laws on the books regarding national security, that could be applied to films. No need to single filmmakers out.


They also requested the NLA to consider increasing the number of nongovernment members on the proposed filmratings board. As the draft act stands now, mainly bureaucrats and governmentappointed representatives would sit on the ratings board. Led by prime minister, the board members would include ministers of Culture and Tourism and Sports ministries, as well as general secretaries from other ministries.

After the protest, Culture Minister Khaisri told The Nation's Thai-language news service that the composition of the film-ratings board has already been decided by the NLA committee.

The committee is now working on the structure of the ratings system, she said, and the full Film and Video Act is expected to come before the entire NLA during the second week of December.

The draft Film and Video Act has been written to replace the existing Film Act of 1930, but rather than being more progressive than this 77-year-old law, the new act is even more restrictive.

The ratings system has a PG for general audiences, PG-15, restricting people 14 and under, and a newly proposed PG-25 rating, under which people 24 years and younger would be prohibited. An earlier draft had 17 as the oldest age to restrict moviegoers. If passed, it would be the highest age-restrictive rating in the world. Notoriously controlling Singapore, for example, has a 21-and-over category for films as its most restrictive rating. The United States’ most restrictive rating is the rarely used NC-17, which bans people 17 years and under from seeing certain films.
The Culture Ministry is also calling for an X rating, under which films would be banned outright, and their distribution outside the Kingdom would be prohibited. Films falling in this category would be ones that, in the view of the proposed Film and Video Board, “impact sovereignty, religion, and the monarchy”.

But, just what constitutes "impact"?

More information:

• Last ditch effort by the Free Thai Cinema Movement
• Directors protest censorship law (from Variety)
• Filmmakers: Bill stifles creativity (Bangkok Post)
• It's the Love of Thailand - Rak Haeng Siam (Bangkok Post)

(Photo from Prachatai.com)

Upcoming Thai film releases: The Life of Buddha, The Screen, Ponglang

December 5, His Majesty the King’s birthday, has become an auspicious day for film premieres in the Kingdom of Thailand. This year, the King’s 80th birthday, is more auspicious, and among the films celebrating the occasion is The Life of Buddha, an animated historical fantasy film tracing the life of the Lord Buddha.

The film has been a labor of love for producer Wallapa Pimthong, who has been working for four years to bring this project to fruition. Not only does the film concern history, it is historic, being only the second traditionally animated feature film to come out of Thailand, and the first since 1979’s The Adventure of Sudsakorn by Payut Ngaokrachang, which I would love to see sometime.

It’s also a rare, traditionally animated film in an era when most cartoons are 3D animation, such as last year’s Khan Kluay, the first Thai 3D-animated feature.

Ahead of the film's release, talk seems to teeter between excitement at the possibility of the story of Buddha being made accessible to the masses, to dismay, that the Lord Buddha's life is being trivialized in a cartoon that looks like it was made by Disney (indeed, many of the Thai animators on the film have actually worked for the Mouse).

Also set for release on December 5 is The Screen at Kamchanod, from Five Star Production, which was featured at the recent American Film Market.

Directed by former Pang Brothers’ assistant Songsak Mongkolthong, The Screen is based on an actual event that took place at an upcountry outdoor screening in 1987, when an audience of ghosts turned up to watch a movie.

In the film, a group of medical professionals try to solve the mystery, and in the process endanger their own lives.

I'm a big fan of Five Star Production, mostly their arthouse efforts by Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Wisit Sasanatieng. But Five Star has a good pedigree when it comes to scares, as witnessed by the success of its Art of the Devil franchise, which has won worldwide acclaim, and even some critical acclaim in Thailand. So even though ghost movies aren't my favorite thing in the world to watch, I will try to catch this out of curiousity.

Opening today is a new comedy from RS Film, Ponglang Amazing Theatre. It features Ponglang Sa-on, the colorful Thai musical country comedy trio getting up to some ghostly hijinks in what I believe to be their first big screen venture.

The director is Rergchai Paungpetch, who has been doing a string of critically derided, yet financially successful films, including last year's smash Noodle Boxer and 2005's Dumber Heroes.

Ponglang Sa-on is a musical-comedy group I've seen on Thai television that features a pair of similar-looking, always-screaming women. Are they twins? Are they sisters? What's their story? I can't tell for sure.

They are led by a young guy with a goatee, who's always wearing a kilt, though he is sans kilt in this movie, and is oddly sporting a Star of David pendant.

I have no clue what they are on about, yet I watch, transfixed. Truly amazing.

Last-ditch effort by the Free Thai Cinema movement

Kong Rithdee, writing for Variety, seems to be the only journalist in the Thai English-language press relentlessly tracking the moves by the military-installed National Legislative Assembly to pass a restrictive ratings law, which would give the government the power to ban a Thai film from being shown anywhere in the world, if they don't agree with it.

The draft Thai Film and Video Act comes before the NLA tomorrow. Members of the Free Thai Cinema movement, including Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Wisit Sasanatieng as well as artists, media reform activists and the Thai Film Foundation, have submitted an open letter to the sub-committee that is debating the law.

The Free Thai Cinema Movement also plans a demonstration in front of Parliament tomorrow.

It's a race for freedom, with the Free Thai Cinema Movement in a last-ditch attempt to halt a desperation power grab by the conservatives who control the Ministry of Culture to pass a law before the December 23 election.

The act would create a ratings system, which might seem like a positive step for Thailand, which still adheres to a 1930 censorship law. But the ratings system is even more restrictive, with an R-25 rating, restricting some films only to viewers 25 years and older. Then there is the "rated X" category, under which films would be banned if they are deemed to "impact sovereignty, religion, and the monarchy" of Thailand.

Just what constitutes impact? The wording is overly broad. Filmmakers fear it will simply be used as a political tool by politicians and police to ban films they don't agree with or understand.

More information:

• Sorry, you're only 24 years old. You can't watch this film.
• End violent scenes in movies, says expert (from The Nation)

Review: Brave

• Directed by Thanapon Maliwan and Afdlin Shauki
• Starring Pairote "Mike B." Boongerd, Supaksorn Chaimongkol, Afdlin Shauki, Sahaschai Chumrum
• Released in Thailand cinemas on November 22, 2007
• Rating: 3/5

Fearlessness will be required if you are to attempt to watch Brave, an action-comedy starring Thai stuntman Mike B. and Malaysian comedian Afdlin Shauki.

Shaky, handheld camera work and fast-motion film speeds obscure the gritty stuntwork being performed by Mike B., an action film veteran who has worked as a stunt double and choreographer. He performs some acrobatic, hard-hitting feats, and has a cheeky charm that could go a long way with better production values.

Poor dubbing in the Thai release is another distraction. Particularly bad is the looping of Malaysian co-star and co-director Afdlin, who is paired up with a voice-over artist that proves to be annoying match.

The film opens with Mike B., wearing a suit-and-tie, spectacles and Converse All-Stars, going to an office building, ostensibly to apply for a job. But speaking to him through his Bluetooth headset is someone giving him instructions. He's supposed to get some data from a credit card company in the building. After bluffing his way past the guards, he calls in some orders for pizza and chicken delivery while riding the elevator. These will later serve as diversions. He then launches into his first fight scene, laying waste to an office full of workers, who all must be taking advantage of the company gym. A couple of female receptionists even know taekwondo!

So far so good. He eventually makes his way into the head office, grabs the executive, Lita (Supaksorn Chaimongkol) and copies the data to a USB rubber wristband. He then eludes the security guards and police.

The whole thing is a set-up. Bee, as he's called, has been forced into stealing the data in order to free his brother or cousin or friend (it's never really clear what the relationship is), played by Afdlin. The rotund comic is suspended on a rope, tied to some oxygen cylinders, with bomb strapped to him. After a bit of motorcycle stuntwork, Bee makes a big leap to latch on to his friend, only to find Tong has wet his pants. The moisture is causing the bomb's timer to short circuit. And there are more pee-based jokes to come. Anyway, the guys get out of it.

From there, it is difficult to stay involved with what is going on or why things are happening the way they are, though through the shaky camerawork and editing there are enough visual flourishes from Mike B. to occasionally make things interesting. In one of the most dramatic scenes, he appears to leap off the top floor of an unfinished hi-rise, grab a piece of reinforcment bar and swing onto the floor below.

A bad guy named Kovit (Sahaschai Chumrum) appears to be the mastermind behind the scheme, and he sends a never-ending stream of various thugs after Bee. Among them are limber stuntman Dean Alexandrou as a former friend of Bee, who performs a great backflip over Bee in a setpiece on a fishing boat. Boxer Don Ferguson chips in, in a longer fight sequence towards the end.

Mike B and Afdlin share an easy chemistry, but whether it truly works or not is difficult to determine, because of the horrible dubbing.

Shining through the proceeds is actress Supaksorn "Kratae" Chaimongkol, whose character, the credit card exec Lita, goes through the full range of emotions. For all the physical acrobatics of Mike B., Supsakorn's character has as many ups and downs, contributing to a decent twist in what passes for the plot.

More information:

• Official site
• Opening next week: Love of Siam and Brave
• MovieSeer synopsis
• Teaser trailer at Twitch

Time for Bangkok Time

Santi Taepanich's Bangkok Time, the darkly dramatic followup to his Crying Tigers docu-drama, is in limited release at the Lido cinema in Bangkok this week.

Focusing on the lives of three people who work around Bangkok's seedy Patpong scene, Ananda Everingham stars as a male prostitute, with Dusita Anuchitchanchai as an emergency room nurse and Uttapon Teemakpon as a hawker of dodgy goods.

After premiering at the Bangkok International Film Festival back in July, Bangkok Time was a Dragons and Tigers nominee at the recent Vancouver International Film Festival, and I understand it may turn up at a few other prominent festivals over the next year.

More information:

• Bangkok Time photo gallery