B is for Banjong in The ABC's of Death

After directing the hit romantic comedy Guan Muen Ho (Hello Stranger), Banjong Pisanthanakun will return to the horror genre with 25 other directors in the international anthology project The ABC's of Death.

Initiated by Alamo Drafthouse, Timpson Films and Magnet Releasing, the project assigns a letter of the English alphabet that represents a word to act as a springboard for a short story of death.

"It is up to each filmmaker to interpret the letter they are assigned to create a celebration of death from the accidental to murder most foul. The sum of these parts, from A to Z, will be The ABC's of Death," says the press release.

It's not stated at this time what letter will be assigned to Banjong, the co-director of the hit GTH horror thrillers Shutter and Alone as well as the director of the comic segments of GTH's Phobia and Phobia 2 horror-shorts anthologies.

Other directors taking part in the project include Indonesia's Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre) and Japan's Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police) and Tak Sakaguchi and Yuji Shimomura (Yakuza Weapon).

In all, 25 established directors and emerging new filmmakers are being chosen with the 26th spot being held open for the winner of a worldwide competition to find a new filmmaking talent.

Production is set to begin next month, with completion slated for January 2012, six months, six weeks and six days after the start date.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Legal-defense fund started for Insects in the Backyard

Director Tanwarin Sukkhapisit is doggedly pursuing a legal remedy against the Culture Ministry's ban on her gay-transvestite family drama Insects in the Backyard.

Having had a request to allow the movie to be screened for educational purposes rejected by Thailand's Administrative Court, the next step up the legal ladder is the Constitution Court.

Ultimately, Tanwarin and activists hope to see changes in the Film and Video Action of 2007, under which the Culture Ministry is empowered to regulate films. The ministry bans the movies if they are deemedto be harmful to Thai morals or national security.

To support the efforts of Tanwarin, activists, Bioscope magazine and the lawyers from the iLaw legal-reform NGO, a legal-defense fund has been started by the Facebook group “Radom Tun Su Kadee Insects in the Backyard”, a.k.a. "Fight for Insects".

The fund details are as follows: Bangkok Bank savings account 035-0-0466-0, Krungthep-Tesco Lotus Ladphrao branch. Anything left over after court expenses will go to the Thai Film Archive.

Apichatpong-a-rama: Residence in New York, Boonmee on Blu-ray

With the Cannes Film Festival going on now, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's name has been in the news again, just because he won the Palme d'Or last year for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past LIves.

The Cannes win launched Apichatpong on a global journey, touring the world with Uncle Boonmee to talk about it at film festivals and special screenings – too many for me to keep track of (though the unofficial Nashville Film Festival poster by Sam's Myth obviously caught my eye).

It's a trip Apichatpong's still on, and most recently it's taken him back to New York City, where he's begun a monthlong residency at SoHo's New Museum, where his Primitive video-art installation is being exhibited from May 19 to July 3. The Wall Street Journal online has more on Primitive.

He's also taking part in the Blissfully Thai film series at the Asia Society, which started yesterday with Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Ploy, and today he and Pen-ek will sit in the same room together in front of a live audience for a "conversation". Who knows what might happen? Should be interesting.

At the New Museum on Sunday, he'll present Around the World of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a four-hour show-and-tell in which he'll discuss excerpts from all his features. On May 19 and May 22, he'll present selections of his short films. And on May 26 he'll present Quick Billy, a 1960s “horse opera" by Bruce Baillie, an experimental filmmaker that Joei cites as a major influence. IndieWire has more about these programs.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives comes to Region A Blu-ray and Region 1 DVD in July.

This is the U.S. edition by Strand Releasing, which looks to be stepping up its game with the Blu-ray – a first I believe for both Strand and Apichatpong. Bonus features on the Blu-ray include the companion Primitive short A Letter to Uncle Boonmee, deleted scenes, an interview with Apichatpong and trailers of his other films. The Strand DVD does not list the Letter short as an extra.

And curiously, the cover art that's shown at Amazon is not the Chris Ware poster design. Rather, it's the red-eyed monkey ghost that's been used a lot already.

Anyway, if you're into Blu-ray, then by all means get the Blu-ray of Boonmee, I guess. But for viewers still stuck with just plain-old DVDs, maybe the Region 2 British release would be better if you have a player that can handle it. Maybe wait for the comparison.

A few other odds and ends I've been accumulating over the past couple months or so:

• Does everyone care about Uncle Boonmee? Should everyone? Read it at Everyone Likes Movies.
• And then go read Chuck Stephens' review of Boonmee at Film Comment.
• Chicago Sun-Times blogger Jim Emerson waxes rapturously about Boonmee.
• Hell on Frisco Bay's Brian Darr talks about Apichatpong and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives on Look of the Week, a videocast by Sara Vizcarrondo. Brian's segment – check out his T-shirt – comes somewhere in the middle of the video.

Hitching up the White Buffalo

The phenomenon of the dusky ladies of Isaan getting hitched to pale-skinned foreigners is the basis of the romantic comedy E-Nang Ei Khoei Farang (อีนางเอ๊ย...เขยฝรั่ง ), which is in Thai cinemas this week.

The English title White Buffalo is a metaphor from the superstition of Thailand's Northeast that if a family receives a white water buffalo as a gift, the animal cannot be used for work or killed for food – it can only be kept as a pet.

“Ron AF5” Patarapon Tua-on stars as a young man who returns to his Northeast village after flunking out at a university in Bangkok. He is shocked to discover that the women there are crazy about farang men. Even the mother his old crush, Waewdao (“Preaw AF2” Anusara Wanthongtak), is determined to marry her daughter off to a Westerner. Mark then rallies his old buddies in a campaign to stop Isaan women from marrying farangs.

Rungrawan Tonahongsa, who previously played the troublemaking Isaan maid in Noo-Hin: The Movie, also stars.

The feature directorial debut by veteran industry hand Chinoret Khamwandee was chosen from the Thailand Script Project four years ago and picked up for production by Sahamongkolfilm International. It also received backing from the Culture Ministry's "Strong Thailand" fund.

Read more about the movie in an article in The Nation.

And check out the trailer (embedded below).

Three family dramas for the price of one in Love First

Five Star Production brings together three stories about families in Love First (Khob Khun Thee Rak Kan, ขอบคุณที่รักกัน), which hits Thai cinemas this week.

The directors of this romantic-drama anthology are Peerasak Saksiri, who previously wrote the screenplay to the hit historical musical drama The Overture; Putipong Saisikaew, who was one of the "Ronin Team" behind Art of the Devil 2 and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, the longtime lensman for Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

The cast includes veteran soap actress Lalita Sasiprapha nee Panyopas, best known outside Thailand for her roles in Pen-ek Ratanaruang's 6ixtynin9 and Ploy, and the young starlet Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, who made her debut in Ploy.

However, the two Ploy actresses appear in different segments – Lalita as the wife of a soldier in southern Thailand while Saipan Apinya is the mentally ill sister of a music student (Patchai "Pup Potato" Pakdeesusuk) traveling around the countryside with an eccentric professor (veteran character actor Somchai Sakdikul) .

There's a trailer (embedded below).

Eternity (Tee Rak) in LA Film Fest

Sivaroj Kongsakul's indie drama Eternity (Tee Rak, ที่รัก) has been selected for the Los Angeles Film Festival

The award-winning film will play in the International Showcase.

The LA fest follows Seattle.

Eternity has also been playing at the International Eskişehir Film Festival in Turkey, where actors Oom and Fon are representing the movie. You can read more about that at the Pop Pictures blog.

The LA Film Fest runs from June 16 to 26.

(Via 24 Frames, Los Angeles Times)

Review: Mindfulness and Murder

• Directed by Tom Waller
• Starring Vithaya Pansringarm, Prinya Inthachai, Jaran Petcharoen, Charina Sirisingha, Abhijati Jusakul, Wannasak Sirilar
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 6, 2011 (limited); rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 4/5

When a murder is committed in a Bangkok Buddhist temple and all the suspects are shaven-headed monks who wear the same orange robes, you know this is no ordinary whodunnit. Even the detective on the case is in saffron robes. He's Father Ananda, a former homicide detective.

That's the setup to Mindfulness and Murder, a movie directed by Tom Waller and adapted from one of the "Father Ananda Mystery" novels by Thailand-based expat writer Nick Wilgus. The Thai title is Sop Mai Ngeap (ศพไม่เงียบ) – literally, "the corpse is not quiet".

The corpse in question is that of a teenage boy, found stuffed into a klong jar with feet protruding. His eyes have been gouged out and a candle is jammed down his throat.

It's determined that he was a temple boy who lived in the monastery's homeless shelter. What really chills the blood is that needle tracks on the kid's arms make it appear he was a drug addict, raising the specter of dope in the temple.

But the cops are busy and don't care. "Investigate it yourself," the wonderfully weary police inspector ("Muek" Abhijati Jusakul, who died in September 2010 after filming) tells Father Ananda (Vithaya Pansringarm). And the temple's abbot (veteran thespian "See Tao" Jaran Petcharoen), eager to have the case cleared up, orders Ananda to get cracking.

So, methodically, the former homicide detective uncovers clues by piecing together a paper trail, asking around the neighborhood and checking the bottoms of other monks' sandals.


He gets help from a bespectacled computer-nerd monk (Sunon Wachirawarakarn) who works in the temple's office, as well as a cheeky temple boy with a bum leg (Pakapong Sangkasi). There's a helpful newspaper reporter (Charina Sirisingha) and even former Miss Universe Natalie Glebova pitches in with a cameo that serves to make an example of the non-existent state of national health care in Thailand.

Meanwhile, there are furtive glances from various monks, among them rough-looking types who smoke cigarettes and have what appear to be gang tattoos. They are all suspects.

There's even humor, thanks to an elderly bespectacled gossiping monk (Sin Kaewpakpin).

The tension ratchets up. Fake monks, fake cops, corruption and other symptoms of society's ills come slithering out.

It's worth noting this movie was passed without cuts by Thailand's censors, following a trend set by last year's "monks-with-guns" crime thriller Nak Prok, which showed the saffron-robed brethren in less-than-favorable light.

Fine performances keep the movie clicking along. As Father Ananda, Vithaya (who also co-scripted the screenplay) is a serene paragon of meditative calm but becomes gradually more intense as the stakes mount. Rapper-actor Way Prinya is appropriately menacing as one of the thuggish monks. And a surprise is performance artist "Kuck" Wannasak Sirilar in a role eerily similar to the conflicted clergyman he played in the 2008 short film Observation of the Monk by Pramote Sangsorn.

Mindfulness and Murder was made for about 5 million baht, the cost of craft service of the recent filmed-in-Bangkok, straight-to-video Hollywood actioner Elephant White, for which Waller's De Warrenne Pictures provided production services, and the two films share a director of photography, Wade Muller, whose work here is highly polished and atmospheric.

There's hope for a further entry in this "Father Ananda" series, with Waller and his De Warrenne crew already at work to develop a sequel.

See also:

• Sleuth in saffron [The Nation]
• Official website

Related posts:

• A monk on a mystery in Mindfulness and Murder
• Mindfulness and Murder wins three awards at ThrillSpy
• Trailer for Mindfulness and Murder
• Killer Karma, Suriya in Ties That Bind
• Udine 2011: Crazy Little Thing, Bangkok Knockout, Mindfulness and Murder

Review: Nang Phee (The Cinderella)

• Directed by Sarawut Intaraprom
• Starring Niranart Victoria Coates, Pattaranan Deerassami, Sarunyu Prachakrit, Wasit Phongsopa, Anchalee Saisoontorn
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 12, 2011; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

The gore-filled low-budget Nang Phee (หนังผี), a.k.a. The Cinderella works better as a horror comedy and satire of the Thai film industry than it does as a thriller.

The scares are predictably hilarious in this tale of a egotistical jerk of an actor named Rashane (Sarunyu Prachakrit) who dies in an accident on the set of a torture-porn thriller.

The movie-within-the movie's co-starring actor, played by Wasit Phongsopa, then auditions to take the place of the dead leading man, whom he idolized.

The cast and crew are trapped on Si Chang island at a boutique resort that conveniently resembles a horror castle. Here's where Rashane, back from the grave thanks to the black-magic incantations of his sorceress mother, plods around killing everyone.

Like Hannibal Lecter, he peels back the scalp of the movie's director and exposes his brains. And that's not the only Silence of the Lambs reference in this movie. Rashane then attacks the director's busty, scantily clad girlfriend and removes one of her breast implants.

The movie's female stars Niranart Victoria Coates and Pattaranan "Nannie Girly Berry" Deerassami are left with not much to do except run around, scream and somehow stay alive.

And something's not right about the undead Rashane, who appears as though he's been stitched back together after an autopsy and his skin isn't properly fitted. His face fits like a mask, with black sockets for eyes. And as for the equipment on this nude marauder, he's as atomically correct as a zombie Ken doll.

Thank goodness then for the appearance of Wonderful Town actress Anchalee Saisoontorn, who portrays an acting coach. Her radical teaching techniques spark a dramatic transformation in the wooden performance of the replacement actor.

Anchalee gives the movie dramatic weight as she plays it straight. But there's a slight sideways glimmer in her eyes, offering a clue that maybe she's in on the joke.

Indeed, Anchalee is also credited as one of the movie's acting coaches, alongside Insects in the Backyard director Tanwarin Sukkhapiset. And this gives director Sarawut Intaraprom a chance to make cheeky references to both Wonderful Town and the banned Insects (in which Anchalee also stars).

Her character is the key to the movie, and offers the reason for the English title The Cinderella (to follow last year's thriller by Sarawut, The Snow White). As an acting coach, she's the fairy godmother for the young replacement actor, who grants him his wish. Only when midnight comes, he isn't turning into a pumpkin.


Related posts:

• Nang Phee isn't the same old Cinderella story

Review: Ha Zard

• Directed by Pornchai Hongrattanaporn
• Starring Kom Chuanchuen, Charlie Trairat, Thanachart Tulyachat, Boribun Chanruen, Pimchanok Ponlaboon, Inthipon Thamsukin, Kirk Schiller
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 7, 2011; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

One trademark of Pornchai "Mr. Pink" Hongrattanaporn's movies is a colorful, action-filled opening-titles sequence in which the names of the cast and crew are incorporated into various objects as the characters run frantically to start the story off.

In the Bangkok Loco director's latest comedy Ha Zard (ฮาศาสตร์), the conceit is kept up for a laugh-filled 20 minutes or so as a parade of characters and guest stars are introduced. The tale is set at a fairyland-like comedy university, where the students dress in blindingly colorful uniforms and the faculty are all of Thailand's top comedians.

The headmaster, the ubiquitious Kom Chuanchuen, dresses like Bozo the Clown, only he's grouchier. So maybe he's more like Krusty the Clown.

The students include young actors Charlie Trairat from Fan Chan and the new Boonchu boy Thanachart Tulyachat, along with Boribun Chanruen (who for some reason dresses as a panda), frizzy-haired actress Pimchanok Ponlaboon and newcomer starlet Inthipon Thamsukin.

The teachers school the kids in the use of slapstick head-bashing props, outlandish costumes, goofy dances and cross-dressing. The parade of well-known comedians includes Jaturong Mokjok, Jazz Chuanchuen and Joey Chernyim (as an African witch doctor). The Thai pantomime trio Babymime has a cute cameo appearance as teachers of physical comedy. There's even a funny monk to tell humorous Buddhist parables.

It's a time of crisis, with Thais tired of the comedians and their same old schtick. At the school, the top comics are being killed off. And the ultimate goal by the cross-dressing villain(ess) (Kirk Schiller) is to transform Ha Zard University into Handsome University to train the next generation of South Korean-style boybands.

So it's up to the five young students to save the school and the institution of Thai comedy itself. They are pitted in a sort of showbiz olympics against a bunch of boyband stars. All the singers have to do is strut around and the crowds go wild. They don't sing a note. The young comedians have to work harder. They even put on an old-fashioned likay (folk opera), but the teenybopper crowds are uninterested. Maybe the comic kids are working too hard, as their jokes fall flat, their antics become belabored and fail to rise above the gags that are presented nightly on Thai TV variety shows. But somehow they save the day anyway.

The underlying commentary, is, I suppose, that the Thai cultural fascination with boybands is somehow "unThai" and completely ridiculous, while dressing up in black face to portray a policeman in order to save a suicidal man is perfectly okay.


Related posts:

• Colorful comedy hijinks from Mr. Pink in Ha Zard

Thai Film Archive aims to rescue old home movies

The Thai Film Archive and the Ministry of Culture have officially launched the Film Rescue Unit, a squad of archivists that will be mobilized to wherever there are reels of film that need a new home.

"Don't throw away film," is the primary message of the campaign, which was initiated by Thai Film Archive Director Dome Sukwong and Culture Minister Nipit Inthrasombat.

The Bangkok Post has more:

"There are so many films that people want to throw away – something shot by their fathers or grandfathers and locked away somewhere in the houses," said Dome. "We have been campaigning for the people to understand the importance of visual documents that exist in their own homes. They're the cultural heritage of the country.

"Today, we prefer to transfer films to digital storage, but digital devices are not stable and the quality of the picture is incomparable to good old film."

There's more information at the Thai Film Archive website, including the number for a 24-hour hotline.

There's also an official commercial spot, available for viewing at YouTube and embedded below. It includes clips from many iconic films, including animator Payut Ngaokrachang's debut short, Haed Mahasajan.