Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Corona and the death of cinema (again)
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 30/03/2020
» "Cinema is an invention without a future," said Louis Lumiere who, along with his brother Auguste, invented the Cinematographe in 1895. From its birth, cinema was convinced of its own death. From the very beginning, cinema predicted its own eventual demise. And that was before the two world wars, the advent of home video, laser disc, DVDs, Blu-rays, terrorism, mass shootings, Netflix, and now the coronavirus, the latest scourge that has sealed shut cinema houses around the world.
Regime trawl for small fry no joke at all
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/01/2018
» The big fish hardly ever gets caught, not here. Only the small, the trivial, the nonsensical fish, the clownfish especially. As in school, or in prison, the bullies never bully the big kid. They only confirm their sense of power when they go after the small guys, the nerds, even the girls.
Show must go on to save Scala cinema
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/01/2018
» Urban conservationists, architects, archivists, cinema-goers, and all-round romantics have united for one cause: Save Scala.
Windows on the world
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/09/2017
» As Hussain Currimbhoy sees it, this is a golden age for documentary filmmaking, a time when the criss-crossing narratives of the world tangle with audiences' growing suspicion over traditional media. The emergence of streaming services has also revolutionised distribution philosophy and connected doc-makers with audiences in ways unseen before, especially with audiences who once had little interest in documentary titles.
In search of the next hit
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/06/2015
» A string of box-office failures, an absence of hits, an onslaught of Hollywood blockbusters, an economic slump, the vacillating, unpredictable taste of audiences — all of this has plunged the Thai film industry into a gloom in the first half of 2015. Home-grown cinema can barely compete with the American juggernauts, but the past six months have been particularly wounding. Usually, Thai films take around 25% of the ticket sales, with Hollywood gobbling up the rest (the total box office value was around 4.5 billion in last year). This year, so far, local movies took a paltry 10%, according to industry analysts.
Comic royalty
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/04/2015
» Kochakorn Mhanaojyakorn goes by the catchier moniker of "Pop Mhan". The Thai-born, US-based artist is certainly a pop-cultural influence thanks to his prolific output and long resume. His clients include DC Comics, Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm, as well as companies such as Hasbro, Lego and Microsoft. Some of Pop Mhan's key works include the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #1 Vol. 3 and a comic series Jedi Quest, an offshoot of Star Wars. Now he's doing He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe for DC.
What you’re watching is not a film
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/05/2014
» The conversion is complete, or at least, virtually complete. When you go to a cinema today, it’s a certainty that what you’re watching on the screen is not “a film”, but a digital projection of bits and bytes stored in a hard disk and transformed into images.
Airing new agendas
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/10/2012
» The 27-rai compound of low-rise, industrial-chic grey buildings on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road is a picture of calm authority. Nearly 900 people work here in the offices, studios and control rooms of the country's only public television station, the non-profit, four-and-a-half-year-old, largely admired if sometimes embattled TV Thai, better known as Thai PBS.
Regionalcross-Over
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/08/2012
» It helps that the part doesn't require him to speak much. Playing a soldier stationed in the Spratlys, a group of disputed islands in the South China Sea several nations lay claim to with some even flexing their military might, Ananda Everingham, in the new Filipino film Kalayaan, only has to speak three sentences in Tagalog.
The gaul of it
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/02/2012
» Come Monday morning, the winter rite of the Oscars will be executed in all its blazing, self-congratulatory aura, and after three hours of pompous live broadcast and in-jokes we'll return to our graves happily thinking about other fine movies the world has to offer. In the global peddling of moving images, we're forced to be fixated with Tinseltown's annual polling, an extensive survey of American taste and preferences, in which 6,000 people cast their precious votes to determine the worldwide conversation about the value of good movies.