Showing 21 - 30 of 75
A fitting aperitif
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/05/2017
» At 70 years of age, the Cannes Film Festival opened on Wednesday with a touch of its glorious past and a heavy dose of present uncertainty. Inside the Palais des Festivals, the bustling headquarters, a decoration motif lays out the key moments of the festival's history, and special events marking the occasion are planned for the days to come. Meanwhile, for the first time, metal detectors have been installed at the entrance of the Palais and some of the cinemas, stacking up long queues. Flowers pots have reportedly been deployed as part of the strategy to prevent any unexpected intrusions.
Horror film does double duty as social satire
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/04/2017
» Hot on the trail of the Oscar-winning Moonlight and half-a-century after Katherine Hepburn gasped at her daughter's black fiancée in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, here comes Get Out, a "social thriller" about a black man trapped in a white horror. These weird white folk voted for President Obama -- they keep repeating that to assure themselves and others -- but their exaggerated civility is more creepy and menacing than ever in Trump-ruled America.
The holy voice, the beautiful sound
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/03/2017
» In January, Hasan Samoh became the first Thai to win first place at a major Koran recital competition, taking place in the capital of Sudan where he outscored 85 other contestants from around the world. Living in Pattani, young Hasan became a celebrity in the predominantly Muslim South and, upon his return, was welcomed at Government House by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who pledged to support the 19-year-old in future competitions.
We can't give up hope on bail for 'Pai'
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/02/2017
» Let us keep writing about Pai Dao Din until he gets bail. Let us be patient but also passionate. Let us be cool-headed but also resolute. Let us be respectful of the court but also firm in our questioning. Let us be law-abiding citizens but also simple humans with beating hearts. Let us write even though only five people might read it.
Cannes Film Fest opens today
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/02/2017
» The 69th Cannes Film Festival opens today with Woody Allen's Cafe Society, and the world's most influential film festival will play out its drama until May 22. As the glamour and the art of cinema fill the airwaves, here are some of the talking points worthy of note as more reports from the Croisette will follow over the next 10 days.
At Cannes, humour makes a surprise visit
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/02/2017
» Humour is hardly ever associated with Cannes competition films -- to win the Palme d'Or, for example, it's assumed a film should possess art house gravitas, serious humanity, or weighty, topical, discourse-stimulating subject matter (last year's winner, Dheepan, is about immigrants in Paris, and before that, the three-hour-long Turkish drama Winter Sleep).
Colourful journey into Thailand's soul
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/01/2017
» The train clangs ahead, moving people and dreams, as it has done since 1893. In Railway Sleepers, a minutely observed film shot entirely on-board a Thai train, we see kids on school trips, young men travelling north and south, hawkers selling food and horoscope books, families and lovers, vacationers who turn the sleeping car into a party venue. They're passengers, and they're also humans. They are, as director Sompot Chidgasornpongse says, a collection of faces that make up a portrait of Thailand.
Humanity!
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/01/2017
» Mankind is doomed. We're hard-wired to be selfish, paranoid, prone to violence. We like war, among us humans or with the alien. What may redeem us, however, is compassion, generosity, language, love, grace, and so on -- all those teary-eyed emotions that is sometimes called "lyrical" in a movie. Or simpler, what may save us is a last-act manipulation of time and plot points, a wily trick nonetheless pulled off smoothly through the moving performance by Amy Adams.
Our best films of the year
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/12/2016
» As usual we have two lists, for titles released in local cinemas and the wider universe of world films shown elsewhere (and hopefully coming to our screens soon).
'Pre-truth' far scarier than 'post-truth'
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/11/2016
» 'Post-truth" -- that's Oxford Dictionaries' word of 2016. Trump-inspired and aided by Facebook algorithms, it clicks. What happens isn't as important as what you think happens, and if you think something is true, then what is true is simply what you think. But truth be told, post-truth still suggests an involvement of truth, how truth is there and yet is blithely bypassed by emotion and prejudice, and thus there's a more dangerous term that fits better in some places: "pre-truth".