Showing 1 - 10 of 43
2023 ROUNDUP A vintage year for Thai cinema?
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/12/2023
» There were cheers of jubilation and gasps of disbelief as Thai cinema found itself awash with excitement in 2023. This has been the most successful year for mainstream Thai movies in a decade, a box-office triumph far exceeding all expectations. To many, the 2023 coup de theatre calls for celebration. "We are back!" cried optimistic pundits. But also: "Really? Is it just a one-time cinema party and can we keep the ball rolling?"
A love letter to Thai cinema
Life, Tatat Bunnag, Published on 10/10/2023
» Sitting on a grassy lawn in the park, enjoying motion pictures on a giant white canvas screen with live-dubbed sound, a nostalgic outdoor screening, or nang klang plaeng, of yesteryear Thailand is brought back to life in Nonzee Nimibutr's latest film.
Journey back to the golden era of Thai cinema
Guru, Nianne-Lynn Hendricks, Published on 09/10/2023
» Go back to the glorious era of the Thai film industry with “Once Upon A Star”, the latest movie by award-winning director Nonzee "Oui" Nimibutr, which premieres on Netflix on Oct 11.
The afterlife of Mitr Chaibancha
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/10/2023
» In an abrupt moment of life's brutal script, Mitr Chaibancha fell to his death from a helicopter ladder on Oct 8, 1970. He was filming Insee Thong (Golden Eagle), playing an anti-communist masked hero, when he slipped from the rung and plunged to the ground in Pattaya. That same evening, his body was transported to Wat Kae Nang Loeng. Thousands of people, unable to believe that Thailand's most famous actor was really, tragically dead, amassed impromptu at the temple and demanded that his corpse be raised from the coffin and shown to the public.
Netflix revisits the golden era of Thai cinema
Life, Published on 26/09/2023
» Netflix is taking audiences back to the 1960s with the release of Once Upon A Star, a heartfelt homage produced by renowned director Nonzee Nimibutr. The film stars Sukollawat Kanaros, Nuengthida Sophon, Jirayu La-ongmanee, and Samart Payakaroon.
Nang Nak at 20
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/07/2019
» Thai cinema saw a new horizon open 20 years ago up this month. On July 23, 1999, a little film called Nang Nak opened in cinemas. An adaptation of the country's most popular ghost tale about a wife who died in childbirth but stuck around as a spirit waiting for her husband to return from war, the film arrived carrying high hopes -- and exceeded all of them. Nang Nak, directed by Nonzee Nimibutr and written by Wisit Sasanatieng, unleashed an unprecedented momentum of enthusiasm and became the first Thai movie to blaze past the 100-million-baht mark at the box office.
The story on the wall
Life, Tatat Bunnag, Published on 12/04/2019
» Despite the fact that the whole story of the Thai classic literature Ramakien and its characters Phra Ram, the Monkey King Hanuman or the 10-faced demon Tossakan have been depicted as mural paintings along the surrounding walls at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha since ancient days, not everyone today could claim to know the entire story or remember every character in the epic, derived from the Indian epic Ramayana.
Fierce and pitiful
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/03/2019
» Krasue is a Thai ghost beside whom vampires -- and other blood-lusting Western monsters -- pale in comparison. Basically a detached head of a woman floating around in the dark, lit up by a phosphorescent glow from her still-beating heart, and with her bloody entrails dangling below the head like an infested creeper, krasue feeds on, naturally, filth, blood, corpses and carcasses. Sometimes it's compared, for the sake of convenience, with Gothic-era will-o'-the-wisp or jack-o'-lantern. But seriously, please, that is a gross under-characterisation that discounts the supreme grotesqueness of krasue, born by the pulpy fantasy of our equatorial folklorists.
Reliving an era through film
Life, Published on 24/04/2018
» The 70-year reign of King Bhumibol Adulyadej overlaid decades of Thai cinema history, from the golden age of 16mm movies in the 1950s to the country's first and only Cannes Film Festival winner in 2010. To mark the two courses of history, the Ministry of Culture last week announced the "70 Best Films In The Reign Of King Rama IX", an extensive survey that covers seven decades of Thai cinema, essentially comprising the country's cinematic canon.
Fit for a king
Tatat Bunnag, Published on 28/10/2017
» A special new movie celebrates the late King's ideas.