Cinemanila awards 36 and Sahamongkol

Awards were presented last night at the 14th annual Cinemanila International Film Festival, with Nawapol Thomrangrattanarit sharing the the best director prize in the international competition for 36 and Sahamongkol Film International being recognized for Outstanding Achievement to Asian Cinema.

Nawapol shared the best director prize with Mexico's Carlos Reygadas for his latest, Post Tenebras Lux.

Sahamongkol was paid tribute in a special program called Very Thai, featuring mostly films from the past year, ones that will likely gain further acclaim during next year's awards season in Thailand: Home by Chookiat Sakveerakul, Antapal (The Gangster) by Kongkiat Khomsiri, Jan Dara: The Beginning by ML Bhandevanop Devakula and Nonzee Nimibutr's Distortion.

Also part of the Sahamongkol tribute was Chookiat's now-classic gay teenage romance Love of Siam, for which Jan Dara the Beginning star Mario Maurer won best actor at Cinemanila in 2008. That was the start of idolhood for Mario in the Philippines, which was further cemented with Thai teenybopper romance Crazy Little Thing Called Love and led to Mario starring in a mainstream Filipino romance, Suddenly it's Magic.

Other winners at Cinemanila included Juvenile Offender by South Korea's Kang Yi-kwan with the Lino Brocka Grand Prize; If It’s Not Now, Then When? by Malaysia's James Lee with the Grand Jury Prize; Oula Hamadeh for best actress in Kayan, about the Middle-Eastern community in Vancouver, and Seo Young-joo for best actor in Juvenile Offender. Check the full list at the festival website.

The festival also paid tribute to Filipino film figures who died during the past year. Marilou Diaz-Abaya, who died of cancer in September, was honored with a retrospective and Celso Ad. Castillo, who died of heart attack this month, was honored with a screening of Burlesk Queen.

Producer Tony Veloria, who died in a bus accident this month, was paid tribute with a screening of Lav Diaz’s Batang West Side, which Veloria co-produced. Veloria was also behind actor-director Mario O’Hara’s telemovie Pusang Gala – lost footage that according to festival founder Tikoy Aguilez was recovered by Diaz from old cabinet owned by the late director Joey Gosiengfiao (1941-2007). O'Hara died in June of cancer.

Diaz's latest film, the 300-minute Florentina Hubaldo, CTE, was featured as part of the Made in Manila program. And there was Diaz's tribute to the late film critic Alexis Tioseco, Pagsisiyasat sa Gabing Ayaw Lumimot (An Investigation on the Night that Won’t Forget).

Cinemanila wraps up on Tuesday, with 36 as the closing film. The fest was to have closed with Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Mekong Hotel, but that was unavailable due to the film's busy print-trafficking schedule, and the festival's own changing schedule.

36, meanwhile, is headed to the Tiger Awards at next year's International Film Festival Rotterdam. It's also in the World Cinema lineup at the International Film Festival of Kerala. And the film's New Currents win at the Busan International Film Festival is recalled by Nawapol in a recent photo essay at Cinemas of Asia, the NETPAC online journal.

(Via Panu Aree's Facebook)

Luang Prabang Film Festival 2012: Capsule reviews and notes part 3

The Shadow Play Association of Champasak performs live accompaniment to Chang.

The third edition of the Luang Prabang Film Festival wrapped up on Wednesday night with a screening of the 1927 silent Chang: A Drama in the Wilderness, with live musical accompaniment by the Shadow Play Association of Champasak.

Owing to Laos being a former French colony and the screening's sponsors being French, the intertitles were presented in French rather than the original English from the Hollywood version.

In an introduction, it was stated that the film took two years to make, starting in 1924. The film crew set out from Bangkok and made their way to Sayabouri, where they found a thick jungle and an abundant population of elephants and other wildlife. There is confusion over whether the filmmakers knew whether they were in Laos or Siam, though the intertitles state the movie takes place in Siam.

Chang is directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, who had earlier done the docu-drama Grass about the nomadic Bakhtiari goat-herder tribe in Iran, and later went on to make King Kong. Presented as a documentary, Chang is the story of a family whose home is trampled by elephants. They then rally other village men to round up the rogue pachyderms. It was a pure Hollywood fabrication, with the main character Kru the Lao tribesman being an actor who wasn't actually married to his wife in the film. However, the carnage against wildlife is very real. This was before a time when there was Humane Society oversight of films, and before PETA could launch an Internet protest campaign.

The musicial accompaniment consisted of a 14-piece orchestra of traditional instruments, including ranand xylophones, khaen reed pipes, saw bowed instruments, drums, gongs and a phin (lute). The musicians also provided sound effects for axe blows, gunshots, and the various animals, including elephants, tigers and monkeys, as well as the hollering of men. The effect was an entertaining combination of a traditional classical music concert and comedy-variety show. The outdoor plaza, which seats 1,000, was absolutely packed, with everyone's eyes glued to the screen.

Documenting Southeast Asia

The Documenting Southeast Asia panel: Tae, Ian Bromage, Shalahuddin Siregar, Peter Livermore and Bradley Cox.

On Tuesday was the panel discussion, Documenting Southeast Asia. Panelists were "Tae" Thanapanont Phithakrattanayothin, associate producer of Cheer Ambassadors, Ian Bromage, producer of the Vietnamese HIV-and-drugs documentary With or Without Me,  Indonesia's Shalahuddin Siregar, director of the farming documentary Land Beneath the Fog, documentarian Peter Livermore, who had a selection of his work exhibited at the festival's visitor's center, and Bradley Cox, director of Who Killed Chea Vichea?, about the murder of the Cambodian labor leader.

Among the questions posed: "Can you make money off of documentaries in Southeast Asia?"

There was no answer. The panelists all just simply looked at each other in hopes one of them had an answer.

There was much lamentation about the lack of funding, or if there is funding, then the backers, such as NGOs, have a stake in the film and that always skews the documentary's objectivity.

Much of the discussion gravited toward censorship.

Who Killed Chea Vichea? won a Peabody Award and has been aired in the U.S. on PBS television. However, it's banned in Cambodia. Cox said the authorities knew he was making the documentary. He even put in a formal request to interview Prime Minister Hun Sen, but was denied. With many cases of videotapes, Cox eventually left Cambodia, exiting by land through a low-profile border checkpoint. He has't been back since. "I'd be more worried if they did let me in," he said.

In Vietnam, With or Without Me, about two heroin addicts and their different approaches to their addiction, was made with the government's okay, though officials were wary of the coarse language and the men's continued drug use. It was shown on television, but because censorship is more stringent for theatrical exhibition, it wasn't approved for a public screening.

Festival director Gabriel Kuperman, moderating the panel, also answered questions, revealing that there's a three-tiered censorship system for the Luang Prabang Film Festival. Uncontroversial films are okayed for the open-air screening. Controversial ones are okayed for the daytime venue, indoors, with the understanding that few Laotian citizens are likely to attend the screening. The third tier is that the film won't be shown at all.

Further, with cinema growing in popularity in Laos, there's a new law - all foreign films must be dubbed in Lao, though that does not yet apply to the Luang Prabang Film Festival.

Final notes

Doughnut, Gabriel Kuperman and Ananda.

With the addition of panel discussions, the Luang Prabang Film Festival is emerging as an important platform for Southeast Asian cinema.

The guest list this year was headed by Ananda Everingham, who was accompanied by actress Manatsanun "Doughnut" Phanlerdwongsakul. Filmmakers in attendance included Tongpong Chantharangkul (I Carried You Home) and Tom Waller (Mindfulness and Murder). Wichanon Somumjarn (In April the Following Year, There was a Fire) and his producer Anocha Suwichakornpong, whose Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner was also screening, arrived on Tuesday after driving all the way from Bangkok.

A sidebar to the festival featured documentaries by Luang Prabang-based lensman Adri Berger, in his handsomely appointed shophouse screening room at T'Shop Lai. Three titles were shown, Free the Bears, about a bear rescue center near Luang Prabang's Kuang Si waterfall; Portraits from Luang Prabang, featuring profiles of 10 artisans and laborers; and Song of the Lao Elephant, about logging elephants and the struggles to preserve the Lao elephant herd. It was made for KBS television in South Korea.

Filmmaker Sherman Ong led a team from Singapore's 13 Little Pictures to conduct the festival's Film Lab, with 17 participants from Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore taking part in workshops, film production exercises, screenings and networking over six days.

A party last Saturday's opening night provided a chance for much networking and discussion between filmmakers, film experts and fans. More opportunities like that are needed – there should be a designated venue for filmmakers to gather each night.

Most importantly, the festival must overcome its technical problems. They simply cannot be excused. The daytime venue, the Amantaka Hotel, was especially full of glitches. Movies were screened on DVD or Blu-ray on a large flat-screen TV. Two screenings I attended there were ended early by problems with the DVD or the DVD player. Only the hotel staff were in attendance to deal with the problems. It's a pretty lousy setup.

Postcards from the Zoo

Edwin, who like many Indonesians has only one name, directs this quirky comedy-drama about a young woman who has grown up in a zoo. Abandoned there as a child, Lana (Ladya Cheryl) is taken in by the colorful group of homeless people who squat at the zoo. She is raised to learn to care for such animals as the giraffe and hippo, and perform other chores, such as leading tours and operating the cheesy amusement rides. Eventually, the homeless people are told to leave, and so Lana takes up with a mysterious magician who dresses as a cowboy (Nicholas Saputra). She dresses as an Indian maiden to his cowboy, and becomes his assistant for him to throw knives at. Her face is framed in a box where she is cut in half. This leads them to a spa that's really a brothel, where Lana has further formative adventures. Here, she puts her hands on a different kind of animal, which later leads to the urge to reconnect with her beastly friends at the zoo. The world is a zoo, where we are watching other animals, or the animals are watching us. (5/5)

Luang Prabang Film Festival 2012: Capsule reviews part 2

Tolong! Awek Aku Pontianak (Help! My Girlfriend is a Vampire)

Niggling technical problems continued to plague the Luang Prabang Film Festival. On Sunday, Day 2, in its daytime screening venue, the Amantaka Hotel, the DVD failed for Help! My Girlfriend is a Vampire. It was dodgy at the beginning, but continued to play, but by the end, everything seized up. It was the only DVD provided. What I did see was a highly enjoyable throwback to the Hong Kong horror-comedies of the 1980s. More contemporary eyes might see it being influenced by Shawn of the Dead, especially because of its videogame-playing protagonist Bob (Zahiril Adzim) and his afro-haired slacker roommate Pian (Sufian Mohamed). There's a colorful, episodic romance aspect to this that made me think for some reason about Wisit Sasanatiang's Citizen Dog. Help! My Girlfriend is a Vampire is a commercial Malay comedy by James Lee, the Malaysian filmmaker who gained traction on the festival circuit with his slow arty movies like My Beautiful Washing Machine. He's making slick commercial movies like this now though. He earlier made the girls-boarding-school horror Hysteria, but I liked Help! better, thanks to its wacky cast of characters, including he sad-sack Bob, who works at an advertising agency run by two horrible bosses. After a breakup with a stuck-up girlfriend who falls for a biker dude, he and his roommate move to a rundown apartment block. Bob becomes close to a young woman who is actually a vampire. Actually, she's a pontianak, a Malaysian version of a vampire, a female ghost who appears to be a beautiful woman until she pulls a pin from her hair and turns into a fanged monster. Decent makeup and wirework make the vampires jump. Anyway, at some point, I hope to see this movie again, on a DVD or file that actually works. (5/5)

Already Famous

Actress Michelle Chong makes her directorial debut starring in this sunny comedy about a starry-eyed small-town Malaysian girl who goes to Singapore with dreams of being a TV actor. Working in a shop selling televisions, Ah Kiao thinks she can make it big like another native Malaysian, Singapore superstar Christopher Lee. Encouraged by her grandmother, she makes her way to Singapore and works her way up, starting with a job hawking beauty products in a drugstore while she tries to get on at modelling agencies around the city. Eventually, she is picked up by an extras casting agency, which leads to her big break witha bit part in a soap opera. In her spare time, she keeps her eyes glued to the television in a local coffee shop, where she develops friendship with the young man who runs  the place (Alien Huang). Other colorful characters include Ah Kiao's gambling-addicted mother, her pirate-DVD salesman brother and a cohort extra actress who specializes in acting like she's been hit by an explosion. As her fortunes rise, Ah Kiao begins to have misgivings that fame might change her. Singapore's entry to the the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, is filled with cameos by local celebrities, which makes it an ideal primer if you're looking to get hooked on Singaporean television. (4/5)

Chanthaly

Laos' first horror film is also the first Lao feature by a female director. Mattie Do's Chanthaly is about a young woman (Amphaiphun Phimmapunya) with a congenital heart defect who's been raised by her overprotective widowed father. The willowy girl has hardly ever left the confines of her gated home. Aside from her father and a female cousin who delivers laundry for Chanthaly to wash and fold for her home-based business, her only contact with the outside world is a neighbor boy. They speak through the fence by a spirit house whenever Chanthaly offers prayers to the shrine. And her father barely tolerates that little bit of interaction. She is haunted by the past, and may have witnessed her mother's suicide attempt. However, her father swears that her mother died in childbirth. The pills Chanthaly takes to keep her heart condition in check may be causing hallucinations, and she believes she is seeing a ghost (Phenmaly Pholsena), and it might be her mother. Later, her father brings a young doctor home, not only to treat her but as a possible suitor. Chanthaly is suspicious of him at first, and demands to know where he was educated – schooled in Paris, he assures her. The helpful doc wants to switch Chanthaly's meds, but doing so will mean the visions she's having of her mother will disappear. Eventually, Chanthaly's disposition grows stronger, and the meek girl is transformed into a headstrong young woman who is determined at all costs to keep the visions of her mother coming. As her character develops, the movie gradually shifts gears to horror, with ghosts in white dresses inhabiting a parallel realm of the house where it's daylight all the time. Gore aspects are kept to a minimum, except for a puddle of blood on the floor. For the most part, the film is quiet and slow-moving, with a minimalist soundtrack – the scares aren't tied to shrieking violins or sound effects, and yet it still managed to have members of the audience screaming. The film also prominently features Mango, the pet dog of the director and screenwriter Christopher Larsen. Possibly the mellowest dog ever in cinema, Mango is the namesake of the film's production company, Sleepy Whippet. Chanthaly was supposed to be the opening film of the third Luang Prabang Film Festival, however a problem with the digital file prevented that from happening and caused embarrassment for the festival organizers in front of various dignitaries. Luckily, another Lao film in the program, Huk Aum Lum, was pulled at the last minute because of a conflict with a distributor, so a later spot was opened for Chanthaly. What was screened on Monday night was a work print, so perhaps the film's slow pace will pick up speed in the final cut. (4/5)

Luang Prabang Film Festival 2012: Capsule reviews and notes, part 1

Sherman Ong, Ananda Everingham and Kong Rithdee take part in the panel talk on  Cross-Border Filmmaking.

After introductions, speeches by government officials and a gong-ringing ceremony, the third Luang Prabang Film Festival got off to a rocky start on Saturday night. It was supposed to open with Chanthaly, billed as the first Lao horror film. However, a problem with the digital file prevented the movie from being shown. So the next entry in the program, Thailand's Cheer Ambassadors became the de facto opening film.

A work print of director Mattie Do's Chanthaly was completed in time for a premiered on Monday night for the outdoor screening in Luang Prabang's Handicraft Market. A capsule review of that will be forthcoming.

Among the dignitaries introduced during Saturday's opening festivities was actor Ananda Everingham. He also took part in the "Cross-border Filmmaking" panel discussion on Sunday, along with Malaysian-Singaporean filmmaker Sherman Ong, Bangkok Post film critic and filmmaker Kong Rithdee, Cheer Ambassadors director Luke Cassady-Dorion and Hollywood producer Nicholas Simon.

Much of the talk naturally gravitated toward Thai-Lao co-productions, and Ananda talked of making Sabaidee Luang Prabang, the first of a string of cross-border romances by Thai director Sakchai Deenan. The Lao-Australian actor attached his name as producer on Sabaidee, gaining valuable experience. "To be honest, we spent too much on it," he said, and it's a mistake he's hoping not to repeat as he embarks on producing more projects. He's recently connected with Lao filmmaker Anysay Keola, having been duly impressed by Anysay's first feature, the thriller At the Horizon, and the two are looking develop another project, one that might indeed cross borders.

Kong Rithdee revealed that with the coming Asean Economic Community scheme in 2015, the Southeast Asian trade and diplomatic bloc is looking to start an Asean film fund – Asean just needs filmmakers to submit a proposal on how such a initiative might work.

Problems with cross-border productions include language and cultural differences.

Ananda spoke of his disappointment with the Thai dubbing of The Coffin, the Pan-Asian horror drama he starred in along with Hong Kong superstar Karen Mok. "It ruined the film," he said.

Language issues are easier to overcome when two countries share similar languages, like Thailand and Laos or Singapore and Malaysia.

Cultural differences and censorship, especially in Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, were brought up as obstacles. However producer Simon said dealing with censors is much easier than dealing with the demands of investors and studio executives. "At least with the censors, you know what the rules are."

Boundary

Benito Bautista directs this hard-boiled crime thriller about a taxi driver who takes a mysterious passenger. But just who is taking who for a ride? The motivations of the two men remains unclear throughout much of the picture. Prolific actor Ronnie Lazaro stars as the taxi driver Lemuel. His face is full of weariness, weighed down by dread and shame. His slick ponytailed passenger (Raymond Bagatsing) is a friendly enough chap, but there's an underlying threat and hidden meanings in every word. The title refers to the quota the taxi driver must make each day, and Lazaro's character isn't making enough. Eventually, the driver and the passenger have a run-in with a gang of glue-sniffing thugs, who commandeer the taxi, and soon it becomes clear what Lemuel's deal is. The short-tempered glue huffers bring a bit of comedy to the otherwise tense proceedings. One guy lets a fart and stinks up the cab. And then there's an ordeal to fetch cash from an ATM, and you can't help but laugh at the result. But no one is laughing at the end, with the ultimate fate of the taxi driver left unclear. (5/5)

Bounthanh: Lost in the City

Sabaidee Luang Prabang director Sakchai Deenan offers Laos' answer to Thailand's long-running Boonchu comedy film series, about a daffy college student and the humorous adventures he has with his zany group of friends. Like Boonchu, Bounthanh is from a farming village. He's too poor to attend the university, but is considered a bright enough boy that the local Buddhist temple's abbot gets up a support fund to send him to college to study forestry. He's given a hen – for eggs, not for meat – to take with him. So the country boy arrives in the big city of Vientiane with his chicken in a cardboard box tied with plastic twine. He's such a hick, he doesn't realize he has to pay the tuk-tuk driver, no matter that the driver is from his home village. His influential "uncle" is not the university president as everyone back home was led to believe, but the janitor. And Kamla, the girl from his hometown, who was supposedly his best friend, doesn't remember him at all. She's part of a group of snooty girls, and perhaps her affiliation with these hi-so drama queens has completely changed her. Bounthanh's efforts to reconnect with Kamla are hampered by a trio of goofball classmates. They befriend Bounthanh with the intention of conning him into paying their house rent. Later, the four boys get up to all kinds in shenanigans to try and impress the ladies, such as comically dressing up as Korean pop stars. They also have an encounter with a "ghost", which is a bit controversial because depictions of supernatural beliefs are generally frowned upon by Lao censors. In all, it's cute but squeaky-clean fun, totally in keeping with traditionally modest and polite Lao culture. (3/5)

The governor of Luang Prabang bangs the gong to open the third Luang Prabang Film Festival.

10th WFFBKK capsule reviews: Mekong Hotel, Parts of the Heart, Return to Burma, Elephant Shaman

Mekong Hotel – A lullaby to fans and cinema, I believe that Mekong Hotel is a transitionary work for Apichatpong Weerasethakul, perhaps signaling a move away from feature films toward more shorter art films. He talks a bit about that in a recent Nation interview. Mekong Hotel is rife with commentary about Thai society and politics that goes way over the heads of foreign audiences, which is why, since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, it's left overseas audiences largely puzzled. There are things said that are left untranslated in the subtitles. There's so much subtext, I can't even begin to explain it. Mekong Hotel will speak volumes to Thai audiences and perhaps even experts of Thai culture, but for ordinary movie lovers (like me), that subtext will not register. It's a mixture of experimentalism and storytelling, with workshop footage of his actors for another project called Ecstacy Garden. The actors, including Apichatpong's longtime cast members Sakda Kaewbuadee and Jenjira Pongpas, engage in dialog that alternates between conversation about their real lives and talk about the gut-munching pob ghost. Jenjira is a mother pob ghost who laments passing on her eternal curse to a daughter. They surreptitiously feast on bloody, raw meat. Throughout it all, a classical guitarist noodles on a Brahms-like tune by a famous Thai composer. It beckons heaviness of the eyelids. Shot at a riverside hotel on the Mekong in Nong Khai, Laos is across the waters, prompting talk of Lao refugees. The film was made last year around the time that Bangkok and the central plains were heavily flooded. One character comments that the floods are the tears of the Emerald Buddha, a controversial icon that's still a sore point in Thai-Laotian relations. At the end, the focus is on jetskis on the river as they circle about, making figure eights – more subtext that I can't explain. (4/5)

Parts of the Heart – The struggles of being an out-and-proud gay man in Indonesia are examined in this comedy-drama by Paul Augusta. The life of a gay guy named Peter is tracked in eight segments, with the character played by different actors. It runs from boyhood, when Peter is Boy Scout and he steals a kiss from his best friend and tentmate. Next, the two friends are in their early teens. They confide their long-buried feelings for one another and experiment in heavy petting. In subsequent segments, the goth-attired Peter is in a deep depression over loss and breakups, and dealing with boyfriends who won't commit to an open relationship. A colorful circle of campy friends emerges, bringing comic relief to Peter's sadness and self-pity. A particularly funny segment has Peter and his boyfriend engaging the help of another friend in finding a partner for their threesome, in which they audition various applicants from a gay matchmaking website. Filmmaker Joko Anwar portrays Peter in another segment, The Couch and the Cat, in which a happily situated couple shares a coach with an extremely hairy feline. Their life has become routine, and they appear content to just watch TV and smoke (What would an Indonesian film be without lots of smoking?) When his partner starts sneezing, Peter is forced to act. The story comes full circle with Peter happily married to a husband and running a coffeeshop in Jakarta. A young customer who is going through many of the same problems Peter had in his youth comes in. Peter is tempted but comes up with a more-constructive solution. (4/5)

Return to Burma – Taiwan-based Myanmar filmmaker Midi Z directs this loosely autobiographical tale of a young man returning home after years of working as construction laborer in Taipei. Ostensibly, he's making the trip home to deliver the ashes of a friend who was killed in a construction accident. He's been away so long, that when he finally arrives at his home, he has to introduce himself to his mother. He then sets about to reaquaint himself to the hard realities of the country where much as changed but other things have not changed at all. At the time of filming, Burma was preparing for elections that would pave the way for much-heralded democratic reforms. But the lives of ordinary people haven't changed much. They still must struggle mightily just to make a little money and earn a living. Throughout the film, the young man Xing-Hong probes for an angle, asking everyone he meets if there's work, how much it pays, how much to set up a business, etc. Meanwhile, his brother and other friends are preparing to head to Malaysia to find work. Others talk about working in China, and bad experiences there. Shot on the fly, documentary-style, it's an engrossing portrait and it's easy to forget that a camera crew is involved. You feel like you are right there beside Xing-Hong, step by step with him (except for when he visits a brothel; the camera takes a time out as Xing-Hong is led across the street to the sex den). Later, there's a brief respite from Xing-Hong's wanderings as the camera focuses on children playing with toy guns. A boy and a girl reenact the diner robbery scene from Pulp Fiction. Without all the swearing, it's cute. Other kids engage in a battle, and everyone ends up "dead". Most of the action takes place in a border state populated mostly by Yunnan people who speak the Chinese dialect – a reminder of the diversity of Myanmar's population. In the end, the message is reinforced that no matter what's happening with Myanmar politically, not much has changed for most folks, who have few other choices than to toil away in hardship. (5/5)

Elephant Shaman – Anyone who's watched the Tony Jaa martial-arts movies featuring elephants might be interested in checking out director Shane Bunnag's National Geographic documentary Elephant Shaman, which delves into the mysticism and symbiotic relationship between man and pachyderm in the northeast of Thailand. Bunnag's hour-long doc is an important chronicle of the dying custom of the Kuy people, who were known for their work with elephants. At the centre is an 85-year-old man named Miw, the last elephant shaman. He holds the highest ranking among the Kuy people who handle elephants, a sadam, or senior priest. Other rankings include jaa, a senior handler, and ma or mahout, the most junior. Long ago, the kuy elephant handlers and trackers played a key role in Siamese culture, capturing, training and caring for the elephant herds that were used by armies, loggers and in royal and religious ceremonies. According to tribal custom, their methods could only be passed on in the jungle, during the hunt. Today, the jungles have been mostly cleared, with only small tracts of wilderness left. Elephants are only used by man for two purposes – hauling tourists around or begging on the streets. There is no elephant hunt, so there's no chance for Miw to pass on his knowledge. However, an opportunity for one last hunt arose when a rogue bull elephant started trampling crops. Out of desperation, the Wildlife Department called on Miw to capture the beast. Returning the stubborn 15-year-old wild bull to his herd was deemed impossible, so it was left to Miw and his followers to tame and care for the elephant. It might be difficult, in this day and age, to see a need for men like Miw, but Bunnag makes the case that we need them now more than ever because the borders between men and wilderness have broken down. The elephant shamans, with their respect for the remarkable beasts, are needed to protect the elephants from poachers and overdevelopment, and preserve a way of life that shouldn't be forgotten. (5/5)

Review: Soob Ku Kuu Lok

• Directed by Naruebadee Vejjakam
• Starring Petchtai Wongkumlao, Nakorn Silichai
• Released in Thai cinemas on November 8, 2012; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

Although it's marketed as a special-effects-driven sci-fi comedy, flying saucers and space aliens make up probably less than half of the half-baked movie Soob Kuu Ku Lok.

Most of Soob Kuu involves comedians Petchtai "Mum" Wongkumlao and Nakorn "Ple" Silichai riffing on homophobic jokes. They are a pair of biker dudes who run a custom chopper shop in a sleepy fishing community in Chanthaburi.

The film is a new venture for the comedian Ple, who after many years has split from his old Saranae comedy troupe, which has made several movies but is mainly known for its TV series that pulls elaborate pranks on celebrities. The remaining two of the Saranae trio, Willy McIntosh and the dreadlocked Kiattisak “Sena Hoi” Udomnak, went their own way with the recent Saranae Osekkai, a feature-film spoof of Japanese pop culture. Willy and Sena Hoi also packed up their Lucks 666 production shingle and moved it to the new studio M-Thirtynine after their previous films had been released by Sahamongkol.

Sticking with Ple is director Naruebadee Vejjakam, who helmed the first three Saranae movies. He follows a similar template to the last two Saranair films, with a very loosely scripted approach that allows for gag after gag by the comedians, irregardless of whether the jokes are actually funny or have anything at all to do with advancing the plot.

Soob Ku Kuu Lok starts out amusingly enough with Mum and Ple as motorcycle-taxi drivers, each with a schoolchild on their bike. They race through the streets to be the first to their destination, scaring their passengers out of their wits. Of course, things are not what they seem – Ple's passenger in a Boy Scout uniform is actually a dwarf, and he turns abusive when the wild ride comes to an end.

Eed (Ple) and George (Mum) dream of riding their choppers on the open road. However, they are heavily indebted, thanks to Eed's gambling, lottery playing and fruitless get-rich-quick schemes. At one point, they think about robbing a 7-Eleven, which is just one of the jokes that goes on for too long.

There are always some mobsters hanging around, threatening them.

Still, there's plenty of time of idle chatter by Eed and George, who make jokes about gays even as they take a bath together and Eed enthusiatically grabs for the "soap". Tiresome as their nattering on becomes, the sexual ambiguity at least keeps people guessing. Or, with Ple's ridiculous fake facial hair, the guessing might have more to do about when the false moustache is going to fall off.

Eventually, the actual story starts to take shape – of George's live-in nephew Pong (Phoom Rangsrithananon) acting strangely. They think he might be on drugs, but Pong is actually a little grey space alien with a bald head and huge eyes, pretty much like the being Seth Rogen voiced in the sci-fi spoof Paul starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Unfortunately, Soob Ku Kuu Lok is nowhere near as funny or smart as Paul.

The alien's mission on Earth is mysterious – something to do with the "black Buddha" that's gone missing from a local temple. Using various stolen electronics and other spare parts, he's built a communications array in his room in an effort to "phone home".

When the alien nephew's powers are revealed, he actually helps George and Eed earn some much-needed money in a motorcycle race, only to let them lose the stack of cash in a night of boozing.

There's also a romantic interest for the alien kid, with a pretty local schoolgirl (Arpa Pawilai) wooing him.

Meanwhile, the community's suspicions about who stole the black Buddha start to zero in on George and Eed, and soon they are pursued by the mobsters, the cops and other townspeople.

Various well-known actors join in the fun. Monrak Transistor and Tears of the Black Tiger star Supakorn Kitsuwon is a friendly cop. Bad-boy actor Peter Thongchua is the tough gangster George and Eed owe money to. And musician-actor "Kong" Saharat Sangapreecha turns up for seemingly no apparent reason other than to be there and serve as a good-natured foil for Mum and Ple.

The special-effects, when they are actually used, are convincing enough. The little grey alien being interacts seamlessly with his live-action counterparts, and CGI sequences involving the huge lighted flying saucers are generally breathtaking. But it's all too little, too late

An ending-credits gag reel has Mum getting revenge for being pranked by Ple in the first Saranae film.

Soob Ku Kuu Lok actually has an international English title, tentatively How They Saved the World! (English-subbed trailer embedded below), but given the preponderance of below-the-belt Thai-style shenanigans over actual sci-fi wackiness, I'm uncertain whether the film will attract much interest in foreign markets.

36 takes New Talent Award at Hong Kong Asian Film Festival

Award presentation by Josie Ho. Via Facebook.

The Hong Kong Asian Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday night, presenting its New Talent Award to Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit for his debut feature 36
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Here's the festival synopsis:

A poetic visual experiment with 36 cameras, 36 is the first mid-length feature by Thai film activist Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, in which depicts a lady’s search for lost love, and an incredible journey of soul searching when all the photos of her and the one she admires are lost as her computer broke down. Between forgetting and remembering, all there is left is a constant yearning for pieces of memories, and the ambiguous sense of longing for love. 36 is one of the entries in the New Current Sections at the 17th Busan International Film Festival, 2012.

Nawapol previously shared the New Currents Award at Busan for 36, after self-releasing it in a limited theatrical run in Thailand.

Other nominees for the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival's New Talent Award were Miss Lovely from India, Our Homeland from Japan, Cha Cha for Twins from Taiwan, Love Me Not from Hong Kong, Egg and Stone from China and Peculiar Vacation and Other Illness from Indonesia.

10th WFFBKK: Victor is awarded

Victor Silakong accepts the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres award from the French government.

World Film Festival of Bangkok director Victor Silakong is usually the one giving the awards, but on Friday, at the opening of the 10th edition of his annual fest, Victor was on the receiving end, as he was inducted into the French government's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and given the ranking of chevalier, making him a knight.

The French government's cultural honor has been bestowed on a few other Thais. By happy coincidence, another member of the order is Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who was also present on Friday with his Mekong Hotel as the opening film. He has been decorated twice by the French order, and now holds the rank of "officier". He appeared on stage with Victor wearing blue suede shoes, a dark suit jacket and a T-shirt that says "No 112", in reference to Article 112, Thailand's lèse majesté law.

Teem and Joei and "No 112".

Victor's cultural achievements aren't only limited to putting on the film festival. A native of Betong in southern Thailand (Nonzee Nimibutr made a movie about the border town, Okay Baytong), Victor's Thai-Chinese upbringing put an emphasis on education. He eventually won a scholarship to study theater at L'Ecole Florent in France. He's fluent in several languages, including French. He's staged several plays, including an adaptation of Carmen that mixed contemporary dance with Thai shadow puppets. Another was his staging of Pierre de Marivaux's The Isle of Slaves as a likay (Thai folk opera) production, complete with singers in sparkly traditional costume. This year, Victor was at the helm for the ambitious musical Reya, an adaptation of a hit TV soap that in turn was adapted from a novel by Taitao Sucharitkul. The musical was composed by Taitao's son, conductor Somtow Sucharitkul.

More about Victor can be found in a Nation article and in the Bangkok Post's Sunday Brunch section.

On Friday, Victor was more excited to have as his guest the French director Leos Carax, who is the recipient of the festival's annual Lotus Award, which is essentially a lifetime achievement honor.

The award was handed to Carax by Sonthaya Kunpleum, a member of the powerful Pattaya political clan who was made culture minister in the latest Cabinet reshuffle. The post had been held by his wife, but Sonthaya, who just came off a five-year ban from politics, is now back. He made a long speech in Thai that was not translated.

Upon receiving his award Carax said just one word that needs no translation: "Merci."

But the press-averse Carax had more to say yesterday after the screening of his latest movie Holy Motors – a tour du force for actor Denis Lavant – treating the audience to a question-and-answer session. Lavant stars as an actor who rides around in a limo and dresses the part as he services various "clients". His adventures include being a green-suited homeless man who violently disrupts a fashion shoot and absconds with model Eva Mendes. He explained that he shot the movie very quickly without viewing the dailies and that it's science fiction, though "more fiction than science".

The festival is taking place at the Esplanade Ratchada as it did earlier this year (the ninth edition had been postponed from last November because of the flooding).

Yesterday's first full day of screenings saw a good crowd for Holy Motors. Festival-goers had to contend with long lines at the ticket counter due to the fact that the festival coincides with the opening weekend of the latest (and hopefully last) Twilight movie, which is playing on every screen at the Esplanade except for the three in use by the festival.

Aside from Holy Motors, other noteworthy films include Aki Kaurismaki's Le Havre, and a package of Dutch films like Win/Win, Meet the Fokkens and The Happy Housewife, that are offered as part of the concurrent Dutch Film Festival in Bangkok.

In addition to Holy Motors and The Happy Housewife, I saw a Ukrainian film, Gaamer, because when else will I ever have a chance to see a Ukrainian film?

Folks have lamented that there aren't many Thai films this year, except for Mekong Hotel. Though several notable indie Thai films have been made this year, the directors have all opted for limited local theatrical releases rather than to submit to the WFFBKK. They reach a broader local audience and qualify for industry awards that way, but film-goers who come to Bangkok specifically for the World Film Festival in hopes of seeing new Thai films are left disappointed.

There is director Shane Bunnag's documentary The Elephant Shaman, which is tipped as a "must see" by Victor and deputy director Dusit Silakong.

And there are packages of Thai shorts in the Short Wave programs, including some of the award-winning shorts like A Belt and a Comb and The Farmer that were made by ethnic filmmakers in a workshop put on by the Chiang Mai NGO Friends Without Borders and screened at the Fly Beyond the Barbwire Fence Festival. Sadly, because of niggling digital projector problems yesterday, the Message from the North package was not shown.

Luang Prabang fest sets schedule, adds Doc Talks

Click to enlarge.

The Luang Prabang Film Festival, running from December 1 to 5 in the historic former royal capital of Laos, has completed its lineup, released the schedule and added a sidebar benefit event, Doc Talks.

A Myanmar film has been added, 2009's The Dance of an Alchemist by Me Pwar.

When the festival started back in 2010, all screenings were held outdoors in the city's central Handicraft Market. At least that's the way I remember it.

Since last year, there's an indoor venue, which screens movies during the day, starting at 10am, with such offerings as Malaysian director James Lee's Help! My Girlfriend is a Vampire!, Edwin's Postcards from the Zoo from Indonesia, the Philippines' Boundary. It's at the Amantaka hotel.

But the main event will still be the outdoor screenings.

After the Saturday night opening ceremony on December 1, the fest will screen the Lao feature, Chanthalay. Directed by Mattie Do, it's about a young woman who thinks she is seeing her mother's ghost.

The opening night will also feature Thailand's The Cheer Ambassadors, Luke Cassady-Dorion's rousing documentary on the scrappy Thai cheerleading squad that overcame all odds to win world championships.

Other evening "main event" evening films during the rest of the festival also concentrate on Lao and Thai movies because those are what will appeal to the greatest number of local folks.

These include the Lao films Bounthanh: Lost in the City, Hak Aum Lum and Always on My Mind, while other Thai highlights include Tom Waller's monastic mystery Mindfulness and Murder and Wichanon Sumumjarn's experimental In April the Following Year, There Was a Fire. Tongpong Chantarangkul's sisterhood road-trip drama I Carried You Home is the closing film.

One Indonesian film, Shalahuddin Siregar's documentary Land Beneath the Fog, will be featured in the evening, and it will also be included in the Doc Talks program, which features documentaries screened at nice hotels for a minimum donation of $10, to benefit the festival. Directors will be present for Q-and-A sessions. Others are The Cheer Ambassadors, Bradley Cox's Who Killed Chea Vichea?, and With or Without Me, Ian Bromage's look at two young Vietnamese heroin addicts living with HIV.

There will also be panel discussions, "Cross-Border Filmmaking" and "Documenting Southeast Asia", and screenings of short films in the festival's project space and dance and music performances in the evening at the main outdoor venue.

Update: The festival has a Kickstarter campaign to raise much-needed funds.

Capsule reviews: 36, Fighting Fish, Yak, In April

Due to time constraints, I've let several recent Thai films pass under the transom without writing any actual reviews. Here then is an attempt to remedy that situation.

36

Winner of this year' New Currents Award at the Busan International Film Festival, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's 36 was hailed for its inventiveness by the jury led by Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr. Indeed, 36 takes a uniquely spare, minimalist approach in telling the story of a film-company location scout (Vajrasthira Koramit) who gets into a relationship with an art director (Wanlop Rungkamjad). After the guy moves on, she struggles to reconstruct those memories after a hard-drive crash erases the photos she took with him. Nothing, it seems, is the way she remembers. The film is comprised of 36 scenes, each a single-camera set-up, preceded by a title card. They feel like the pages of a storybook. The camera angles, sometimes close and sometimes from far away, are often odd and obscure the faces of the actors. Or, the light sources will cause things to be obscured or fragmented, just like the memory on that broken hard drive. It's the debut feature from Nawapol, a young filmmaker whose varied career has included making many award-winning short films, writing a film column for a magazine, scripting mainstream films at big Thai studios and organizing screenings of indie Thai short films. He self-released 36 to sold-out screenings at alternative venues around Thailand before taking it to Busan. It'll be interesting to see what he can come up with if he's ever given a big-studio budget and support. (5/5)

Fighting Fish

Bromance forms between a foreigner and a Thai boxer in Fighting Fish (ดุ ดวล ดิบ, Du Duan Dib), a welcome Thai martial-arts movie, which have become a rarity in local cinemas, except for Tony Jaa films every two or three years. Stuntman Jawed El Berni stars as a mysterious expat who checks into a five-star Bangkok hotel and then falls for the oldest trick in the book when he's taken for a ride in a tuk-tuk to a boxing match and is then robbed. He runs in to further trouble when he sells his gold watch to a hilarious pair of pawnbrokers (real-life twin-brother boxing champs Khaosai and Khaokor Galaxy). He's then cheated out of his last bit of cash of by street hustler ("JJ" Jakkris Kanokpojnanon) who turns out to be an expert Muay Thai fighter. A run through back alleys and an electronics factory echoes the rough-and-tumble street chase of Ong-Bak. Afterward, the guys become best pals as they enter matches in an underground cagefight club. But there's conflict again when the foreigner talks his way into the top-tier to-the-death "fighting fish" matches. There's lots of gritty, sweaty close-quarters boxing action, which is choreographed by David Ismalone ("Mad Dog" from Ong-Bak) who also stars as a vicious top henchman. The story is scripted by David's wife "Ying" Julaluck Ismalone, a former model and VDO star who makes her directorial debut. The wafer-thin plot provides just enough motive for the two protagonists – the foreigner is desperate for cash and redemption while his Thai buddy has a disabled wife who needs an expensive operation. The soundtrack keeps it real by being mostly in English despite it being hardly anyone's first language. Other stars include Ong-Bak baddie Suchao Pongvilai as the gangster in charge of the fight club, Raging Phoenix leading man Kazu Patrick Tang as a fighting fish combatant and former boxer Somluck Kamsing as a dogged police detective. (3/5)

Yak: The Giant King

From its look and setting, Yak: The Giant King (ยักษ์) might be most often compared to such Hollywood animated features as Blue Sky Studio's Robots or Pixar's Wall-E. But it's really closer to Brad Bird's traditional animation The Iron Giant, as it tells the story of a giant robot who is gentle and kind but is actually a weapon of mass destruction. The tale, inspired by the Ramayana, is set in a post-apocalyptic future when only robots exist. It's a million days after a big battle between the army of the little monkey robot Hanuman and the giant Totsakan. The two combatants awaken to find their memories wiped. They are joined together by an indestructible chain that's attached to Hanuman's rear end. They then set off on an adventure to break the chain and find out the truth of their identities. Interestingly, Yak, produced by Work Point Entertainment and released by Sahamongkol Film, was offered in Thai cinemas with a Thai soundtrack as well as a well-done English soundtrack. The highly polished English version was supervised by Thailand-based American musician Todd "Thongdee" Lavelle, who also penned several catchy tunes. The animation is about as artful as can be possible when ramshackle robots are involved. However, it's unclear as to what kind of audience it might attract. The action might be too intense for small children, but there are long moments when the robot pals are just walking and talking that might make it boring for grown-up animation geeks. The slack times are made up for by the end with a climactic battle, in which Totsakan's fearsome power – 10 evil little heads and 10 arms that think independently, just like Spider-Man's Dr. Octopus – is revealed. (3/5)

In April the Following Year, There was a Fire

The long title might come off as pretentious, but it's really not. Lifted straight from a line of dialogue about a childhood tragedy, In April the Following Year, There Was a Fire (สิ้นเมษาฝนตกมาปรอยปรอย, Sin Maysar Fon Tok Ma Proi Proi), is a heartfelt and laid-back stream-of-consciousness recollection of filmmaker Wichanon Sumumjarn's own life, growing up in Northeast Thailand. It starts off rather puzzlingly, with someone collapsed on a beach and rescuers shouting for "beach morning glory". The story then follows a young man who works as a supervisor on construction projects in Bangkok. Tossed out of work by the political instability of Thailand, he goes back home to Khon Kaen, ostensibly to attend a friend's wedding but mainly to spend his days boozing and crashing on his father's couch. Midway through the 70-minute debut feature, Wichanon switches from fictional narrative to documentary, interviewing his father as well as his brother, who bears the scars of a jellyfish attack. "You can't just tell it like that. You have to use some technique," the brother says in an unscripted moment as he's being quizzed about that painful incident at the beach in which the morning-glory folk remedy was rubbed too hard. Other humorous self-referential moments come earlier in the movie, when the construction foreman Nuhm happens by a movie-location shoot and strikes up a conversation with one of the film crew about whether the indie movie he's working on will ever be released in theater or come out on DVD. "You never know about these things," the guy tells him. However, in a hopeful sign, Wichanon and his producer Anocha Suwichakornpong did manage to secure a limited release for In April in Bangkok cinemas after it premiered at the Rotterdam festival this year and toured the festival circuit. So there's hope yet for Thailand's hard-working underfunded indie directors. (4/5)