Showing 1 - 7 of 7
In Cannes, it's cinema as usual
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/05/2022
» After the cancellation in 2020 and a bump to the month of July in 2021 -- with smaller attendance as international travel was still interrupted -- the Cannes Film Festival returns to its usual mid-May slot, keyed up and fully prepped to show the world that it's cinema, and the cinema business, as usual.
Life, love, liberation
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/09/2017
» In the sole Thai film showing at Toronto International Film Festival this week, a soap opera star stuck in a loveless marriage tangles with an eccentric hitman and a powerful cult. Samui Song is the latest feature film by Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang, who's fashioned a crime thriller that also plays as a critique of many things: patriarchal oppression, faux-Buddhism, public healthcare and the act of cinema-making itself.
Monking around on the big screen
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 12/04/2016
» Men in saffron robes are a force to be reckoned with; in life, in headline news, and in Thai cinema. At a time when monks scuffle with monks, and sometimes with the authorities, a new Thai film about a funny monk is raking it in at the cinemas.
The 4-billion-mile voyage to open minds
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/07/2015
» We’re not going anywhere near Pluto, not any time soon. Not until we set our educational compass towards the future, towards the outside world and not the navel-gazing self. That’s as unlikely as life on the ice volcanoes at the edge of the solar system.
It's all in the room
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/02/2015
» In Bon Srolanh Oun, the spirit of a Khmer woman lingers like an abandoned lover in a room. There's a Thai man, or actually two, and their treatment of the forgotten ghost is the backbone of this moody, atmospheric film by director Siwaporn Pongsuwan. Bon Srolanh Oun is a Thai movie with a Cambodian title — the meaning of which shouldn't be revealed here, as it's a mini-spoiler — featuring a Thai and Khmer cast, as well as locations in Bangkok and Phnom Penh, and a narrative that smuggles in sly commentary on Thai-Cambodian relationships.
Open up to spur cultural revolution
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/06/2014
» Alarmed by the sight of zombies stampeding to get free tickets to see the film Legend of King Naresuan 5, former Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombat, of the Democrat stripe, lamented aloud about the need for a “cultural revolution”.
We can teach China a few cyber cop tricks
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/08/2013
» Send me gifts of Line stickers. Brown, Cony, Mickey, Monsters University, Kerokerokeroppi, whatever - faster, before the tech-savvy Thai police spoil the party and shut the chat down.