Game on! 14 Beyond manga posted online

One of the mostly eagerly awaited and asked about Thai movies yet to come is the thriller 14 Beyond, Chookiat Sakveerakul's sequel to 2006's 13 Beloved (13 เกมสยอง, 13 Game Sayong), a.k.a. 13: Game of Death.

In development for the past several years, 14 Beyond keeps getting put off for one reason or another, but with the release earlier this year of Chookiat's deeply personal family drama Home, word is that 14 Beyond is definitely his next project.

Based on a comic book by Ekkasith Thairath, Chookiat is collaborating on 14 Beyond with the writer-artist, and they've started things off by offering a manga version of the tale online at Commuan, Chookiat's production company's website.

Termed "the beginning of the end of the epic 14 Beyond," there's even an English version.

The story dovetails with a crucial scene in 13 Beloved and introduces a young biker character who finds a mysterious phone that he can't shut off.

The comic panels could very well also be storyboards for the forthcoming film. Looks great so far.

(Via Deknang)

36, an experiment in self-releasing

Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit is the maker of such noted shorts as Bangkok Tanks and Cherie is Korean Thai.

In the past few years, he's broken into the mainstream industry as a screenwriter on several projects with the GTH studio, including last year's hit The Billionaire and the romance that's currently in cinemas, Seven Something.

He also has his own project in Bangkok cinemas, the medium-length feature 36, an experimental effort composed of 36 shots that is described as a "relationship movie that touches on melancholic memories and old buildings". It's about a movie-studio location scout who looks back on a relationship she had with a co-worker the year before, after a computer malfunction erases the photos she took with him.

Taking a page from the book of the Third Class Citizen film-activist group he started, he's been self-releasing 36 for the past month or so, organizing screenings at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, the Alliance Francais and now at House. He's been promoting the screenings through the social networks and the Thai media, and most sessions have sold out, enabling him to recoup the costs of making the film.

It's at House on RCA, showing at 1.45pm and 5.15pm until Sunday.

Meanwhile, there's Interiors a full-length feature that's yet to come from Nawapol.

Thai animation enters the 3D age with Echo Planet

Thai animation is back in the news after a hiatus of a few years, making history this week with Echo Planet (เอคโค่ จิ๋วก้องโลก, Echo Jew Kong Loke), the first Thai animated feature to be released in stereoscopic 3D.

It's the latest effort by Kompin Kemkumnird, who made his debut as a director with 2006's Khan Kluay. Thailand's first computer-animated feature, it's the tale of a little tusker who would become the brave war elephant of King Naresuan the Great. Despite its very nationalistic historical storyline, Khan Kluay attracted overseas buyers and made a name for Kantana Animation.

It also spawned a sequel, Khan Kluay II, that was released in 2009, but Kompin wasn't really involved with it. A veteran of animated features at Disney and Blue Sky Studios, Kompin was busy researching his next project, Echo Planet.

It aims for even broader international appeal with an environmentally themed story about a gifted Karen boy who can talk to animals and his tough older sister who wears the traditional Karen neck-stretching rings. They rescue a foreigner boy scout who is the son of the president of Capital State. The three of then set off on an adventure in which they have to stop a project that will cause environmental havoc.

Echo Planet appears to be another landmark for the Thai animation industry, which has moved in fits and starts over the course of decades. The first Thai animated feature was 1979's The Adventure of Sudsakorn by Payut Ngaokrachang. Animation is labor-intensive, and penny-pinching Thai studios figured they could make live-action movies cheaper. So altough there are many Thai animated shorts and TV shows, there wasn't another animated feature until 2006's Khan Kluay. That was quickly followed by the ghost tale Nak and Buddha, Khan Kluay II. Also due out this year is the fantasy Yak, a project from Workpoint Entertainment.

Read more about Echo Planet in a Nation article today.

There's a few different trailers and music videos to promote the film, and the "action version" is embedded below.

A dose of mother's milk in Ka Nam Nom

Social-problem dramas used to be a large component of the Thai film industry back in the 1970s and '80s, the heyday of MC Chatrichalerm Yukol.

You don't see them so much these days, but this week in Thai cinemas there's Ka Nam Nom (ค่าน้ำนม), which literally means "mother's milk".

The motherhood drama comes out just before the August 12 Queen's Birthday and Thai Mother's Day holiday, and seeks to get back to the roots of social-problem movies.

Chudapha Chanthakhet stars as a widowed single mother who struggles to raise her boy and girl, and hopes they will rise from their hardscrabble, small-town roots and have better lives.

Full of promise, the good brother and sister head to Bangkok for schooling, but end up getting caught up in all the various problems that come with life in the big city, such as gang fights and drugs.

Teerapat Yamsri and Uttama Chiwanichpan star as the brother and sister. Nati Phunmanee directs. He previously did such low-budget horror comedies and action flicks like Ja-Ae ... Goi Laew Jaa (จ๊ะเอ๋... โกยแล้วจ้า) and Ha Teaw. It's released by Pacific Island Films, which was behind the fairly acclaimed teenage drugs drama Sam Chuk a few years ago.

Check out the trailer, embedded below.

Review: Heaven and Hell (Wong Jorn Pid)

• Directed by Yuthlert Sippapak and Tiwa Moeithaisong
• Released in Thai cinemas on July 12, 2012; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

Yuthlert Sippapak is renowned for his penchant for mixing genres in his films. And he can't restrain himself from leaping from suspense to comedy to drama and back again to suspense even in a short film. His crazy genre-bending yields mixed results in Heaven and Hell (Wong Jorn Pid, วงจรปิด), a trio of "found footage" horror shorts purportedly taken from security cameras.

Here, Yuthlert collaborates with Tiwa Moeithaisong, who's been his cinematographer on his past several features. Yuthlert directs two of the segments, while Tiwa chips in with one.

It's Tiwa's segment, Ghost Legacy, that opens the movie. And it's the most stylish of the trio, processed in black and white and given a grainy appearance. Apart from the sophisticated angles, which are explained anyway, it really does look like it came from a security cam. It sounds like security camera footage too – it's a "silent" film, with spooky sound effects and intertitles for the dialogue

The action takes place in a creepy old mansion where a pair of Siamese twins are visiting. Apparently, their grandfather has died and they are there to hear his last will and testament. The timeline jumps all over the place, and mainly focuses on a corrupt plainclothes police detective investigating murders in the mansion, but what he's really looking for is a cache of gold. Of course, the ghosts in this mansion have other ideas.

Yuthlert's segments do away with the silent-film treatment, switching to sound and color. They also reveal the ultra-low budget of the project, with ghosts and ghouls in obvious makeup and low-tech effects. But that only makes it more fun.

Heaven 11 takes place in a convenience store, where three clerks have been killed. A policeman – Yuthlert's long-time cop and partner-in-crime Adirek "Uncle" Wattleela – is overseeing the scene and letting in a comical pair of security camera technicians in. While the technicians are working, they find the ghosts of the clerks on the closed-circuit screens and are freaked out.

Next, a young woman in a school uniform arrives to work at the store, which it turns out her father owns. She's going through a break-up with her boyfriend, and is working her iPhone to talk to her friends while she finds herself haunted by the ghosts, one of which hung herself above the cashier's counter. And it seems like the hanged woman's spirit is trying to get others to follow her.

Heaven 11 is the most uneven and confusing of the segments. The annoying shrieking schoolgirl doesn't help. The arrival of another clerk, who appears to be a zombie, is actually a relief.

The comical security camera technicians reappear in the last segment, Hell No. 8, where they are servicing the camera in a scuzzy, broken-down elevator that's haunted by the ghost of a woman who was fatally stabbed. The elevator only travels from the first floor to the eighth floor, and all men who get in the elevator are haunted by the violent female ghost – women are immune from the scary spirit.

There's plenty of laughs as the ghost girl jumps back and forth in front of the elevator door, in and out of the frame, to frighten the occupants inside the lift.

As scattershot Heaven and Hell is in terms of style and genre, there's an overarching theme of feminism, with strong female roles in Yuthlert's segments – the girl ghosts get their revenge.

Related posts:

• Security cameras reveal the horrors of Yuthlert's and Tiwa's Heaven and Hell

Classic Thai horror-movie poster art

The exhibition of film poster art by Chawana Boonchoo just wrapped up over the weekend at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, and now there's another gallery of classic movie posters online at Monster Brains.

There are dozens of posters to gander at, all displayed in a very large size.

They are mostly posters for the Thai releases of Hollywood horror and sci-fi films of the 1970s and '80s.

The movies include Jaws, The Evil Dead, Ghoulies, Nightmare on Elm Street, An American Werewolf in London, Terminator and Robocop.

There's even one for the original Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone. However, I can't believe the Thai artist missed an opportunity to paint a three-breasted woman.

There are also a few posters for Thai films, such as the Sompote Sands crocodile creature feature Krai Thong, and even a Hong Kong flick, Sammo Hung's Close Encounters of a Spooky Kind II.

GTH says happy birthday to itself with Seven Something

Nearly 10 years have passed since production companies GMM Pictures, Tai Entertainment and Hub Ho Hin collaborated on the now-classic hit childhood romance Fan Chan. The companies formally merged in 2004, forming a movie-making machine that's churned out a solid string of hits, many of which are critically acclaimed.

Plans to mark the studio's auspicious seventh anniversary have been in the works for a long time and were due to be held last year but for one reason or another things were delayed, and it's only just now they are getting around to having the big party.

The Nation has more on that as well as other details about how GTH makes its movies.

The special film marking the seventh anniversary is Seven Something (รัก 7 ปี ดี 7 หน, Rak Jet Pee Dee Jet Hon) a three-segment drama that looks at the stages of life at various seven-year cycles.

The first part, directed by Paween Purijitpanya, and starring Jirayu La-ongmanee and Suthata Udomsilp is about romance at the age of 14.

Adisorn Trisirikasem directs the second part, which covers a celebrity couple (Sunny Suwanmethanon and Cris Horwang) breaking up when they are 21 and reuniting at age 28.

Jira Maligool directs the third part, which features boyband star Nichkhun Horvejkul and newscaster Sukwan Bulakul in a story about a female marathon runner going through a crisis at age 42.

Most of the cast and crew have all been a major part of GTH's success.

Director Paween did the well-regarded horror thriller Body #19 and also had a hand in the hit horror compilations Phobia and Phobia 2. His segment in Seven Something, called 14, marks a departure for him as he makes a foray into teen romance.

Young actor Jirayu was in last year's hit rock 'n' roll romance SuckSeed while actress Suthata was in another big GTH hit from last year, the psychological thriller Laddaland.

Adisorn is one of the six directors of Fan Chan and also directed and co-wrote the hit romance Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story. His segment, 21/28 reunites him with his BT(L)S leading lady Cris Horwang, who co-stars with Sunny, the star of the big GTH hit romance Dear Dakanda.

And Jira, a co-founder of the studio, marks his return to directing for the first time since 2005's historical drama The Tin Mine.

His segment, 42.195, about marathon runners, has a pair of acting newcomers – veteran newscaster Sukwan Bulakul and singer Nichkhun Horvejkul. Despite the presence of many big stars in the movie, it's been the popular Nichkhun – a member of the South Korean boyband 2PM – who's been getting the most attention from fans, the media and promoters at the studio. However, a drunken-driving arrest will likely mean further promotional appearances by Nichkhun on behalf of the film will be curtailed.

There will also be cameos and supporting appearances by other GTH stars. Among them is Panissara "Opal" Phimpru, who's been the saucy comic-relief character in several GTH films, most notably Dear Dakanda. Show's moved on from acting in films and is now a popular TV personality and hostess of special events.

There's an international version of the trailer, embedded below.

P-047 opens in limited Thai release

Having toured the festival circuit for the past year or so, Kongej Jaturanrasmee's trippy psychological drama P-047 (Tae Peang Phu Deaw, แต่เพียงผู้เดียว) returns to Thailand this week for a limited theatrical release.

Opening today, it's the first indie production for Kongdej, a film-industry veteran as both a writer-director (Sayew, Midnight My Love, Handle Me with Care) and hired-gun screenwriter (Me ... Myself, Tom-Yum-Goong, Happy Birthday).

In a look at the meanings of identity and personality, P-047 is the story of a lonely locksmith (musician Apichai Tragoolpadetgrai) who joins up with an aspiring writer (Parinya Ngamwongwan) to break into other people's homes – not to steal anything but just to temporarily "borrow" the lives of others. But things go off the rails when they pry too deeply into someone else's life.

P-047 premiered last year at the Venice fest, where it was a last-minute addition to the out-of-competition program. Other appearances have included Busan, Palm Springs, Singapore, Osaka, Hong Kong and Los Angeles.

At last month's LA Film Fest, the Awards Circuit's Joseph Braverman had this to say about P-047:

The last movie I saw was disjunctive, confusing, yet eerily fascinating. Director Kongdej Jaturanrasamee’s P-047 really reminded me of a Wong Kar-wai film. Nothing made sense, the story was fragmented into bits, and things you may think are real actually might not be. I’ll need to take a second look at this film to really piece together everything, but right now I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to decide if I liked the movie or not. I guess you’ll find out in my review, but it was difficult to turn away from this Thai-based foreign language film. The acting is incredibly strong, although the characters don’t always behave like what they initially portray themselves to be the further along the film progress, but I assume that’s intentionally so. If you thought Prometheus was confusing, then P-047 may just leave you forever stumped. If you find the thread that connects each piece or unearth the hidden meanings behind every scene and piece of dialogue, then I proclaim you a genius. P-047 both baffles and stimulates, but Kongdej Jaturanrasamee has a ways to go before he can contend with Wong Kar-wai, although this was a valiant attempt.

I too welcome a second chance to see P-047, having seen it only once so far at the 9th World Film Festival of Bangkok earlier this year.

In Bangkok, it'll be screening at the Lido in Siam Square and at the Esplanade Cineplex Ratchadaphisek and in Chiang Mai at the Major Cineplex.

The trailer is embedded below.

Traces of Southeast Asian cinema at Jim Thompson Art Center

Photos and video art from across Southeast Asia are featured in the  Traces exhibition at the Jim Thompson Art Center on Kasemsan Soi 2, near the National Stadium BTS station in Bangkok.

Of interest to cinema-buffs will be a display of photos from the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project, with images of the old stand-alone cinemas across Thailand, Laos and Burma. Some are still in operation but most are closed or have been relegated to other uses, such as car parking or as a dressing room for prostitutes.

Among the video installations is Bangkok in the Evening by Sompot Chidgasornpongse, which captures Bangkokians as they pause their daily routines and stand still for the 6pm playing of the national anthem. Sompot is a former assistant director of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and is at work on his debut feature, Are We There Yet?, due out sometime soon, hopefully.

Also of note is Nguyen Trinh Thi’s Chronicle of a Tape Recorded Over, a documentary on the Ho Chi Minh Trail that turns into a look at censorship when the filmmakers are detained for questioning by police and the camera kept rolling. It previously screened at this year's Bangkok Experimental Film Festival.

An entertaining video is Ho Tzu Nyen’s Utama – Every Name in History is I, which is a fantastical look at the legendary ancient history of Singapore. It reminds me of the cheesy Chinese fantasy TV series that are broadcast daily on Thai TV.

Traces runs until October 31 at the Jim Thompson Art Centre, which is open daily and has free admission.

Film poster art by Chawana Boonchoo at BACC until July 29

Film posters, especially Thai film posters, used to be more of an art than they are today in this age of Photoshop and giant floating heads.

The artistry of movie posters and billboards was at its height during the 1960s and '70s when artists would hand-paint the posters as well as billboards, featuring colorfully lavish, intricate compositions that would capture the key moments and visual elements of the films in all their explosive fury. Who needs to watch a movie trailer when you can just be blown away by the poster?

Among the artists working in this medium was Chawana Boonchoo, who's since gone on to be respected for his nature paintings.

The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, in cooperation with the Thai Film Archive, is hosting an exhibition of Chawana's movie posters. It runs until July 29 on the 2nd and 3rd floors at the BACC.

Check Facebook for a photo gallery from the exhibition opening.