Festival director Victor Silakong is recently back from Cannes, where he was shopping for titles. And the festival staff are working their way through a stack of screener DVDs.
I'll have more information about the World Film Festival of Bangkok as I hear it.
There's at least one more major, non-genre-specific, feature-film festival expected this year in Bangkok, but since the dates aren't being announced, I won't mention any more about it for now.
Subscribers of the RSS feed for this blog have probably noticed that I've changed the settings for the feed so that only the first few lines for each post is sent, which means if you want to read the whole thing, you have to click through and read it on the blog.
The reason for the change is because I noticed my feed was being picked up and run in full by a number of scraper sites, and I didn't like the way it looked. So the move to limit the RSS feed is in an effort to tame the monster that this blog has become, and regain some control over the content.
It's too bad. I preferred to offer the full feed, and I prefer other websites that offer their full feeds. But I have a strong dislike for scraper sites. Seems the only options in the Blogger system are the full post or almost nothing at all. Feedburner offers all kinds of options and tweaks, but nothing I can find that lets me regulate the length and appearance of the posts. It'd be nice if at least a thumbnail photo could be offered, but I'm not sure how or if I can fine-tune that. If anyone knows a better solution, or other ways to stave off the scrapers, let me know.
There are advantages and disadvantages of the full feed and the truncated feed. I encourage comments from readers to help me sort those out.
The upcoming children's comedy Dek Khong was included in the summer movie roundup and I pegged it in the "might not be so bad" category.
But now I've learned that the director is Taweewat Wantha, and while Dek Khong looks to be decidedly lighter fare than the wonderfully all-out satiric wackiness of SARS Wars and The Sperm, I think it will still be worth watching.
According to MovieSeer, Dek Khong (อนุบาลเด็กโข่ง, also The Kindergarten) is about an overgrown kindergartner named Ohm (Nopparit Suriwong) who leads the King Kong Gang and because of his size reigns supreme over all the little kids. One day he meets Om (Keerati Mahaprukpong), a high-school girl who thinks Ohm's in high school and takes a liking to him. While Ohm is in love, he lacks the ability to rule and the King Kong Gang becomes unstable. Then a new enemy arrives. To save the gang and to win the heart of the girl, Ohm must fight to conquer all the obstacles.
There's a lot of cute kids in this movie, which is going to be its main appeal and I think it should do pretty well commercially, which will make Sahamongkol Film International happy and will be good for Taweewat. By the way, Taweewat is among the jurors in the competition for the upcoming World Comedy Film Festival.
Not sure what to make of this, as it's just last the line of a recent Bangkok Post story about piracy (cache), which says that the Commerce Ministry is "in the final stages of discussions with the Motion Picture Association of America to support Thai actor Tony Jaa to work in Hollywood."
Tony Jaa's name has been mentioned over the years in connection to various Hollywood projects. The most recent I remember is his possibly being cast as a villain in Live Free or Die Hard. The role I think that was intended for him ended up being a small one and was filled by a "Tony Jaa type". And there's always been the long-time hope that Tony Jaa could someday work with Jackie Chan and/or Jet Li.
The Commerce Ministry is also organizing roadshows for the entertainment business in Southeast Asian countries in order to expand the market for Thai performers and artists.
The 20-minute short was made for the non-smoking campaign by the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation. Produced by Pop Pictures, the cast includes Sivaroj Kongsakul , Arthorn Sonthisirikrit and Sarawut Panta, with cinematography by Umpornpol Yugala.
Nawapol's other films include Paralyzed Circus (which includes portions of his short film Penguin) and Bangkok Tanks. He's an interesting experimental filmmaker who's previously mostly worked alone, so it's good to see him collaborating with and getting support from the crew at Pop Pictures.
He's also a co-founder of the Third Class Citizen film activist group. They have an interesting discussion coming up on Friday night, June 5. It's called "No Mercy" or "Can We Say: 'I Don't Like Your Film at All' to the Director Directly?" I'm assuming it will be all in Thai. Click here for details.
Now set to run from June 10 to 16, Thailand's inaugural World Comedy Film Festival -- designed to make people laugh, forget about the dire economy and boost tourism -- starts next week.
The guest list, mentioned here earlier, continues to be firmed up, a dozen or so celebrities being flown in to take part in the festival, add prestige and be junketed around to Thailand's attractions and hopefully do their part in spreading the word that Thailand is a great place to visit.
A formal press conference was held last week to supply journalists with the details, and Lekha J. Shankar was there. She sent the following.
By Lekha J. Shankar
The World Comedy Film Festival is finally set to unspool next week with a grand Gala Opening at the Siam Paragon on June 10, which will be attended by a galaxy of international comedians and stars.
At a press conference on May 29 at the Siam City Hotel, many Thai comedians gave a stand-up performance as a taste of things to come at the festival.
Among the comedians expected for the festival is Christopher Wright, famous for his Chris Delivery English-teaching TV show in Thailand. He's actually giving his first stand-up comedy shows this coming weekend, June 5-7, at CentralWorld in Bangkok.
Other comic hands include Natasha Leggero from US, who has done stand-up shows around the world, and Tina Kim, a Korean-American comedian who produces her own shows and loves Thai food!
In fact, a big stand-up show by all these artists is set to take place on June 11 at the host Siam City Hotel.
Others stars expected at the festival are Eric Roberts, the older brother of Julia, who was recently seen in The Dark Knight and is working on The Expendables with Sylvester Stallone. There's also veteran character actor Keith David; actress Natassia Malthe; actor Ari Gold, whose Adventures of Power will be shown; deaf actress Shosannah Stern (also in Adventures of Power); Verne Troyer, famous for his role as the dwarf Mini Me in the Austin Powers series; actress Brittany Daniel; and three Wayans brothers -- Keenan Ivory, Shawn and Marlon, well known in Thailand for the Scary Movie series.
Also coming will be a bevy of stars from Australia -- Bianca Dye, Gyton Grantley, Damian Walshe-Howling, Justin Melvey and Tania Zaetta.
Hong Kong star Ng Man Tat, known for his roles in such Stephen Chow films as King of Comedy and Shaolin Soccer, will also be at the fest.
Tyler Brujah Panichpakdee, who's been working as a producer for action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, helped bring in these celebrities in his maiden role as managing director of the festival.
Word is that he was appointed only two months back after Khun Nakorn from Sahamongkol "left" the festival, which was one reason the event was postponed from April to June.
Tyler admitted that he took the job only two months back and it had not been easy.
He says that the comedians and stars attending the festival would also travel to beach towns like Pattaya and Phuket, in order to give a boost to the tourism industry of the country, which took a severe beating following the recent political disturbances in the Kingdom.
On June 14, there would be a cultural "Thai night", with Thai traditional music and dance and the foreign stars dressing in Thai costumes and talking about their experiences in Thailand.
The chief initiator of the festival, Weerasak Kowsurat, chairman of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said the idea of holding the festival was to bring the smile back to the "Land of Smiles", after the months of political and economic problems.
"We are called the Land of a Thousand Smiles -- why not have a festival of smiles?" he says. “We want to show [tourists] that we’re back on track, and ready to welcome visitors."
He boasted a budget of 70 million baht, which he says was almost double that of the Bangkok International Film Festival.
The World Comedy Film Festival will feature 50 films from 25 countries, including an international competition. There’s also a competitive section for short films.
The Asian section features films from Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan.
Among the highlights of the festival is a section of classic Thai comedies and retrospectives of two unique comedy directors from two diverse countries, Russia and Singapore.
The Russian director is Leonid Gaidai, considered the most successful Soviet comedy film director ever. Four of his films from the 1960s and '70s will be shown: Operation Y and Other Shuriks Adventures from 1965, Kidnapping Caucasian Style from 1966, The Diamond Arm from 1968 and 1973's Ivan Vasilevich menyaet professiyu (Ivan the Terrible: Back to the Future).
The Singaporean director is comedian Jack Neo, and three of his films are being shown: Money No Enough, Money No Enough 2 and his latest work Love Matters.
The opening film is Singapore-based Thai director Ekachai Uekrongtham’s rollicking comedy The Wedding Game starring Singapore’s two superstars, Christopher Lee and Fann Wong, who are scheduled to get married in real life later this year.
In the film they play two superstars who plan to get married, although here, it’s a "game" to fool the media. The topicality of the story made the film a huge hit in Singapore and Malaysia and the director hopes it will be a hit in Bangkok too -- Sahamongkol Film International picked it up for distribution and hopes to release it later this year.
Dear Galileo (หนีตามกาลิเลโอ) is the sophomore solo feature effort by Seasons Change director Nithiwat Tharatorn, one of the Fan Chan six.
Filmed in Europe, it's about a couple of Thai college girls and their travel adventures. Chutima Theepanart, Jarinporn Joonkiati and Ray MacDonald star.
A story of two Thai girls nicknamed Cherry and Noon who plan to backpack to Europe for a year. They took off for reasons totally understandable for most teenagers, but unfathomable to adults.
One is suspended from university while another one is heartbroken. Their plan was very simple: get a student visa to take an English course, but their true motivation is to save money, travel, and experience the world. The destinations were the "Big Three" of Europe – London, Paris and Rome. Before they took this trip, they swore: #1. No matter what happens, not to leave each other. #2. To never break rule #1. However, as we all know never say “never” when it comes to life being that you will “never” know what might happen.
The Thai release is set for July 23, and now there's website and a teaser trailer is at YouTube. There's some neat animation happening. It's embedded below.
Released in Thailand on July 1, 1978; screened as part of of the Week of Siam at House cinema in Bangkok, May 28-June 3, 2009
Rating: 4/5
Sex, sex, sex.
It's all about sex.
Society's preoccupation with sex and the portrayal of sex by the mass media is examined in Kama (กาม), a 1978 melodrama about a teenage schoolgirl, the daughter of a sex star, whose friendship with an eccentric artist is misunderstood.
The movie was apparently scandalous back in the day. A co-worker tells me she didn't go see the movie out of fear that that cinema owner would tell her father. It would probably be even more scandalous today, if it were allowed to be made.
What's striking about Kama is that it shows things that Thai filmmakers today shy away from, mainly an overall sense of realism. It's ironic that while acting styles in Thai films have become more natural, moving away from the stagey melodrama that was predominant in the period Kama was made (and remains in vogue for TV soap operas), the plots of films made today are for the most part unreal and out of touch.
The opening titles are superimposed over a sex scene and the close up of a man's chest as he's thrusting away atop a woman. And then the movie opens on the set of a "sex film", or at least the closest approximation to one that can be made in Thailand, since pornography is illegal. The woman is covered by a towel, but the two actors are slurping away at each other's mouths. Now there's something you don't see in Thai films today. There's hardly ever any kissing, let along sex. (The "sex film" actor, by the way is Chatrichalerm regular Sorapong Chatree, making a brief cameo.)
As the director tells the man to move "lower, lower", the actress Manvika (Piatip Kumwong) starts sighing and moaning as the camera zooms on her face. Watching from off the set is Manvika's teenage daughter Veena (Monrudee Yamapai, in her debut role), a boyish-looking schoolgirl whose most striking feature is a pair of big round wire-rimmed spectacles.
Veena doesn't care for her mother's line of work, mainly because it means her mom isn't around very much. Plus she is already on the edge among the gossiping neighborhood idlers, her two-faced classmates and judgmental school administrators because her mother is a "porn queen". But it's when Veena strikes up a friendship with eccentric artist Marut (Manop Assawathep) that the troubles really begin.
With his long hair, beard and clothes that consist of a white sheet, draped like a monk's robe, Marut looks pretty wild. But it's his art -- oil paintings that could be commended for being highly vaginal and phallic and sculptures that are phallic in nature as well -- that capture the attention of the local wags and are the subject of endless ridicule for Marut.
Veena's mother brings more trouble when she grants an interview to Surasak, an influential and unethical newspaper reporter. He surreptitiously snaps a photo of Veena and prints it in his paper, which gets Veena in trouble in school. Manvika slaps Surasak at a party, and the loss of face is too much for the newsman, so he becomes determined to fabricate dirt about Manvika and her daughter.
A struggle between Veena and the artist is then captured by the reporter and splashed on the front page. The incident is misunderstood and taken out of context and everyone's life is ruined.
Except maybe for the journalist. Somehow, he ends up looking better by the time it's all over.
Written, directed and executive produced by Toranong Srichua
Starring Pisan Srimankong, Sirinda Jensen, Panudej Wattanasuchat, Suchao Pongwilai
Released in Thai cinemas on May 28, 2009
Rating: 2/5
A wave of twisted moralism washes over the audience in 2022 Tsunami (2022 สึนามิ วันโลกสังหาร), an overly dramatic, disaster-epic version of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, or a low-rent version of director Roland Emmerich's The Day After Tomorrow (or his upcoming 2012).
Bluntly and artlessly, Toranong Srichua uses his film as a cudgel to beat the topic of climate change senseless. An old-time social-realism moviemaker, he wants to show audiences the reality, but it is difficult to take his message seriously.
Never mind that 2022 Tsunami is only fitfully entertaining -- mostly unintentionally so because of the melodramatic acting and cartoonish CGI. All the moralizing and preaching about nice cars, fancy shopping malls and skytrain transport systems rings hollow when it's those very things that Toranong depends on in order for people to see his movie.
And, as he's so fond of pointing out numerous times in the film, none of it is going to matter anyway when the big wave hits, because everything will be gone.
So what's the point of anything? Especially of seeing this movie? Or writing this review? But I shall press on.
Thailand of 2022 looks remarkably like Bangkok of 2009. Same cars, pretty much the same skyscrapers, same skytrain and the same messed-up politics. About the only thing different is a giant Buddha statue, standing like the Statue of Liberty, in the Bight of Bangkok. The Buddha is holding a hand out in front, as if to say "Stop! You shall not pass." The Buddha figure later becomes a "Thai guardian angel" in the closing action scenes.
Leading Thailand's government is a prime minister (Panudej Wattanasuchat) who's on-message about climate change, its detrimental effects on the environment and its cause -- us. The movie opens with him addressing some kind of UN function, saying more needs to be done, and quickly, or else it's going to be too late.
As if to underline his point, a small earthquake rattles Bangkok, spooking everyone.
The PM is also on shaky political ground for heeding the warnings of a scientist, who says climate change is causing a rapid shift in tectonic plates and that earthquakes and volcanoes are going to cause a tsunami so huge it'll make the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake look like child's play. The PM's stance puts a damper on the development and tourism projects that a powerful partner in his coalition government wants to see through.
But the premier sees a bigger picture than just Thailand.
"What makes us special? If the world does end, we'll all be on the same planet," the PM tells an aide who tries to explain that Bangkok doesn't sit on any fault lines, and isn't threatened by any volcanoes. "Don't try to find exceptions."
The scientist, the Cousteau-like Dr. Siam (Suchao Pongwilai), is investigating reports of an underwater volcano that's sprung up off the coast.
"It's like a giant cannon in the Gulf of Thailand, pointed at Bangkok," says dolphin trainer Sindee (Sirinda Jensen), one of the pretty young things Dr. Siam has working for him. Her big scene is when she talks to her pink dolphin Mai Tai, telling it to head for deep water. The dolphin proves its superior intelligence by swimming away and is never seen again.
The buildup to the disaster is agonizingly slow and methodical, with Dr. Siam and his team, which also includes a young man named Phuket (Pisan Srimankong) and his pet chimpanzee, investigating volcanoes, earthquakes and other disturbances. Time after time, they are certain "the big one" is going to hit, and they warn the PM, who issues orders to evacuate. But they are false alarms.
"You're hurting tourism!" hollers the coalition partner, after he bursts into the PM's office.
Meanwhile, a subplot involves the nasty coalition government politician's son who wants to build a casino resort on the coast. His plans are opposed by the sea-gypsy fishermen.
Among the scientist crew, all the characters lost loved ones in the 2004 tsunami. The young man Phuket is particularly haunted by his memories, as is Dr. Siam. They dedicated their life to make sure Thailand would get an adequate warning about the next big tsunami, and that those warnings would be heeded.
Suchao's character, the nationalistically named Dr. Siam, seems to be patterned after real-life disaster expert Smith Thammasaroj, who's been accused of scaremongering with his dire predictions of earthquakes -- including a warning of the 2004 tsunami that government officials did not heed because no one wanted to take responsibility if the tsunami was not as severe as it turned out to be. And Smith is acknowledged in the credits.
But it's hard to take the movie seriously when the characters are so woodenly and melodramatically portrayed, especially the corrupt politician who harbors a secret and his son the hedonist, who swims with bikini-clad babes, takes drugs and kills sea gypsy fishermen. Toranong's perverted, heavy-handed morality is summed up in those characters.
The heroes fare a bit better, only because they are good. The sure and steady hand of veteran actor Suchao keeps Dr. Siam above the waves of obvious melodrama, but the poor man is saddled with a fake beard that's so crazy, he's dragged down and drowned with the rest of the cast.
Panudej does fairly well as the embattled prime minister, if only because he's eventually given something to do other than helplessly scream and run around -- the PM straps on a helmet and jumpsuit and leaps out of helicopter to save a busload of schoolchildren. Perhaps he's the kind of PM Thailand needs -- an action figure who turns commando when the going gets tough.
But the special effects are problematic. The CGI is meant to show Bangkokians just how vulnerable their coastal metropolis is -- how the tsunami will erase the city, the 16-story-high waves cleaning out condos, ripping the skytrain from its tracks, crumpling luxurious cars, destroying roads and snapping elegant suspension bridges like toothpicks. It's all accompanied by the deafening sounds of screaming and of a wall of water. I respect the time and thought that went into creating those CGI animations, but as the front-and-center effect for many scenes, they don't hold up to scrutiny, or mesh convincingly with the live action. Audiences know they are fake. Why not just build a Lego version of Bangkok, put it in a bathtub and turn on the tap?
The best part about awards ceremonies in Thailand isn't when your favorite filmmaker or actor is handed a gleaming trophy -- it's when the actresses attending the ceremony try to outdo each other on who can look the sexiest, or skankiest, depending on your viewpoint.
This year, for the Star Entertainment Awards, the honor goes to veteran actress "Jik" Naowarat Yuktanan and her revealing number with a slit up her entire left side and half a jewel-beaded bikini top to cover one of her breasts.
Naowarat has been criticized for her barely there choice of evening wear, but the condemnation has been nowhere near as harsh as it was for the then-19-year-old Amy. After Amy wore that dress, she was cut out of a movie deal at Sahamongkol Film International, was made to issue a public apology -- reduced to tears in doing so -- and perform community service work. I don't know what ever happened to Amy after that, but I don't think she's working in show business -- that career was ruined, just because she wore a sexy dress at an awards show.
As for Naowarat, the controversy is obviously what she wants -- it's great publicity. And at age 51, with a well-established showbiz career that stretches back to the 1970s and includes more than 300 films, the notoriety won't hurt her at all.
She went on a Channel 3 talk show last week and was questioned by hard-ball interviewer Sorrayuth Suthassanajind, who tried to get her to admit the dress was too explicit. Soopsip in today's Daily Xpress has more:
At my age and with this kind of figure, I like to dress up to impress people,” she says. “I’d like to thank fans for their support and hope they understand me.”
“The dresses I wear to go dancing are much more revealing. You can see right through. But this dress is nothing because inside I’ve got a stocking all over. I’d like to send the dress to you, Khun Sorrayuth so you can touch it and feel the support throughout the dress.”
The talk-show host was reportedly left gape-mouthed and practically speechless after that.
Looking at the gallery of photos at Kapook, I can kind of see a sheer, stocking-like material filling the gap. But I don't want too look too hard or too long.
Naowarat was a nominee at the Star awards for her supporting role in last year's comedy Ghost-in-Law. She was also in the body-swap romance Valentine, which came out at the same time. Other recent films include the kiddie sports comedy Dream Team -- playing the overbearing mother of the team's "chubby" kid -- and the musical romp Super Hap. Also last year Naowarat competed in the Modernine reality series Superstar, which Lyn's Lakorns describes as "a show where they make D-list Thai stars do crazy musical numbers on stage."
