Showing 1 - 10 of 22
Hear her roar
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/05/2023
» The image of a girl taking off her hijab is wrought with cinematic symbolism. Kamila Andini shows it in her Indonesian film Yuni (2021); Hesome Chemamah in his Thai short I'm Not Your F*cking Stereotype (2019); Ana Lily Amirpour in the Iranian vampire film A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014). Subversion? Provocation? Liberation? At this year's Cannes Film Festival, we see that image in Amanda Nell Eu's Tiger Stripes, a work as playful as it is potent in its portrayal of adolescence and what it entails for a young woman's body.
Staying afloat on a sea of despair
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/12/2019
» Chakra (Sarm Heng) is a Cambodian peasant boy who wants to escape a rural existence that offers him no future. "How's Thailand?" he asks a friend who returns from working at a construction site in Bangkok. "If you work hard, there's no problem," his friend assures him. Through trafficking agents, Chakra is smuggled across the border, but instead of being sent to a factory or a construction site, the boy is thrown onto a fishing trawler and forced to work without pay in conditions resembling a floating prison.
In search of big ideas
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/01/2018
» BangkokEdge Festival, billed as an "idea festival", returns to its old quarters of Bangkok this weekend. Spearheaded by MR Narisa Chakrabongse, the two-day event is a vibrant smorgasbord of literature, music, art, history and politics, anchored in the charming venues of Museum Siam, Chakrabongse Villas and Rajini School. There will be talks -- plenty of panels and discussions, on subjects ranging from "What Makes The Chao Phraya A World Monument?" to "The Power Of Slam Poetry", from "Populism, Religion and Neo-Nationalism In The 21st Century" to "Years Of Living Dangerously: A Woman's Take On War". The list of participants is starry, including writers, journalists, poets, historians and artists, Thai and international. Come evening, the lawn of Museum Siam will play host to film screenings (Pop Aye on Saturday and Citizen Dog on Sunday), as well as concerts by Hugo, Yena, Rasmee Isan Soul and more.
Shooting star
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/12/2017
» In Europe, the angle at which sunlight hits Earth is lower than in Thailand, says Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. In Europe, he explains, the air also has less humidity, meaning the suffusion of colour in the light is more intense.
Saint Toon carrying the cross for all
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/11/2017
» Saint Toon carries the cross for the entire nation as he runs from the deep South to the high North.
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.
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).
Noble quest to ease misery is not IS support
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/11/2016
» In 2011 Naiem Wongkasorn crossed the border from Turkey into Syria. The civil war had already plunged the country into chaos and it was just before the Islamic State (IS) swept across the land on their evil rampage. Travelling with two Thai friends and some Turkish NGO workers, Naiem found himself in the town of Idlib in northeastern Syria. They were there to donate money raised from Thai donors to the refugee camps.
Remember the King in all our complexities
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/10/2016
» We knew it would happen but when it did the blow was grave. We thought we could prepare for the eventuality, for the implacable force of mortality to exert its power, and yet all our mental preparation was swept aside, like a wave of fate's hand, when the announcement of His Majesty King Bhumibol's death was televised on Thursday evening.
An enigmatic, carnal pilgrimage
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/04/2016
» Terrence Malick's Knight Of Cups opens with a solemn passage from the 17th century text The Pilgrim's Progress, and right from the start this enigmatic film lays its cards on the table and yet withholds what they really mean. The pilgrim's progress was "delivered under the similitude of a dream". He set out on "a dangerous journey" before "a safe arrival at a desired country".