Showing 1 - 6 of 6
Sucking the wind out of the elections
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/05/2018
» The verb of the week is "to dood".
On unhappy women and clumsy hitmen
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/01/2018
» Pen-ek Ratanaruang's movies -- eight of them in the past 20 years and the ninth slated for a Feb 1 release -- are often inhabited by unhappy women and clumsy hitmen. Unhappy, yet those women are neither resigned nor passive. Clumsy, yet those hitmen have aspirations, dreams and worries like people in other respectable professions. A genre geek, Pen-ek likes crime thrillers, but one of Thailand's best-known directors is also a diligent investigator of human relationships and man-woman dynamics, their eccentric and mysterious rapport and misunderstandings that determine the course of the world, and of cinema.
Yingluck gets earful as the play goes on
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/08/2017
» The suspense, then the anticlimax. The adrenaline, then the warrant.
Highlight reel
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/12/2012
» Critics are not saboteurs, though sometimes we can be. I do not dream about movies _ there are more pleasant and sexier subjects _ and I enjoy Brave and The Avengers and The Expendables 2 and The Amazing Spider-man as much the average boy in your next seat. There are only movies I (or you) like and that I (or you) don't like, and if one day, I hope not soon, you put me in the ring at Lumpini Boxing Stadium, gloved, gagged, naked, oiled, and beat me up to pay for my ignorance, then let it be. But at least today in this traditional year-end pondering, please allow me to talk about movies that you mightn't have seen.
In rocks we trust
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/03/2012
» Our boat cut through the dark water in search of light. Salt-sprayed, wind-whipped and guided by shadows, we finally found it: in the lagoon of Kudu Island, a screen had been erected and projector installed. Gently bobbing before it was a floating lounge, a deconstructible auditorium for the castaways who imbibed cinema, hoping (or dreaming) that it were elixir. Soon a beam of light from the projecting tower pierced the darkness and illuminated the white canvas: it was indeed a cinema, and a unique cinematic experience. Hardly men had gone before to such length to enjoy movies. And of course, this is Thailand.
Berlinale, it's a wrap
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/02/2012
» In Berlin last weekend, Roman inmates performed Shakespeare and won the Golden Bear, the year's first major prize in world cinema handed out at Europe's premiere film festival. Decking the sidebar awards were a Hungarian movie about violence against gypsies, a poignant East-West German drama, a rapturously eccentric Portuguese black-and-white film, while the only Asian title to score was a Chinese epic set during the last days of imperial rule. It was the usual distribution of honours to cover every base by the jury led by Mike Leigh (and including Jake Gyllenhaal and Charlotte Gainsbourg).