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  • LIFE

    The inciting incident

    Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/10/2017

    » On Sept 24, 1976, two electricians were beaten and hanged to death from the top of a gate somewhere in Nakhon Pathom, victims of an escalating right-wing terror in Thai politics of that heady decade. Two weeks later, as protests against the return to the Kingdom of former dictator Gen Thanom Kittikajorn gathered steam, students at Thammasat University staged a play about the hanging of the two men. Soon the photographs of the play were used by nationalists to whip up anger and fear of communism, which led to the massacre on the morning of Oct 6 as police and militias laid siege to the university, killing, maiming and brutalising scores of people in one of the worst incidents of bloodshed in modern Thai history.

  • OPINION

    'Bad Genius' exception to Thai film rule

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/10/2017

    » She cheats because she wants money, and because she believes the system has cheated her first. No politics please! The exciting Thai pop-culture news of the week was the box-office triumph of the Thai film Chalard Games Goeng (Bad Genius in English), an exam-cheating thriller packed with heart-racing set pieces in which bright students orchestrate an elaborate international cheating ring, outsmarting the system on the expense of their moral equanimity. When you're 17, perhaps that's a small price to pay.

  • OPINION

    Movies shine light on dark Thai truths

    News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/12/2017

    » Last week, I watched a South Korean film called A Taxi Driver. Based on a true story, it's the account of a cabby who secretly drove a German journalist to cover the 1980 pro-democracy demonstration in Gwangju, a dramatic uprising that toppled Maj General Chun Doo-hwan, the ruler of the country at the time.

  • LIFE

    Filming history

    Muse, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/10/2016

    » Anocha Suwichakornpong's first degree is in jewellery design, but you won't see any gleaming items on her. A small woman with a pixie cut, the film director is more interested in crafting images than making necklaces (or wearing one) -- and that's good for her and even better for us on this side of the screen. On a recent afternoon she showed up to meet us, and the long talk was about film, memory, feminism, frozen ovum, political heartbreak and how the scourge of history has found a way into her latest film.

  • LIFE

    Thai independent films going strong

    Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 12/08/2016

    » History, identity, cavemen, dwarves -- independent Thai films taking on those subjects (and curiosities) are making the rounds at the film festival circuit this season. While the big multiplex release of the year is likely to be Fanday, the first output from GDH 559 (previously GTH) slated for Sept 1, some Thai indie titles are busily injecting necessary edge and provocation to the scene.

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