Showing 1 - 4 of 4
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.
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.