Showing 151 - 160 of 192
Tokyo wrap!
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/11/2013
» Opening while one typhoon swept past and closing as a second was coming ashore, the 26th Tokyo International Film Festival wrapped up last weekend to some well-deserved cheers. One of the last big events in this year's film-festival calendar, Tokyo showcased an impressive mix of high-profile international titles, Asian highlights and some new Japanese fare.
Tokyo's cinematic taste
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/10/2013
» On the opening night of the 26th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) last Thursday, Tom Hanks was greeted on stage by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Hanks flew in just in time to introduce the festival's opening film, the seaborne hostage thriller Captain Phillips, which kicked off the nine-day cinefest taking place in the bustling Roppongi district in the heart of Tokyo.
When one-eyed censorship rules the airwaves
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 31/08/2013
» Thai television continues to inspire sadness and nausea, to the point that sometimes we envy Cyclops and Captain Hook, with all their one-eyed oblivion.
Striking with a pose
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 30/08/2013
» How frustrating it is to get stuck in the middle _ limbo _ somewhere between the past that hasn't been forgotten and the future that hasn't yet arrived. How sad to think we're adults when we're just children who dream of advancement, of reason, of democracy, of being something else we're probably not ready to be (though we're trying hard to be), something we struggle to grasp the basics of, like a runner with one shoe, or a dancer clumsily scrambling to get into her first pose. What's worse, we realise, is that as we're fighting to move forward, deep-seated fears, doubts and mental weaknesses hold us back and convince us that our will alone, or our human power and ability alone, is never enough and we're condemned to forever rely on something invisible, something divine, something supernatural, something we're not sure we believe in yet have no choice but to keep believing.
Silly 'Arab' soap opera lights the fires of mistrust
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/08/2013
» The Middle East becomes a scene of a great romance. The people are cool. The camels are cute. The sky is blue, boundless, and the smooth ridges of the sand dunes are as seductive as the chiselled face of the beardless Muslim sheikh, whose handsome head is wrapped in a chequered keffiyeh.
From Laos with love
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/06/2013
» The first all-Lao film to be released in Thailand in decades, Hak Um Lum occupies that territory between naivete and honesty. Made on a paltry budget of around 1 million baht, the romantic comedy will mainly draw Thai viewers who're curious about a homemade flick from our land-locked neighbour, while those who ride the high horse of cultural snobbery will dismiss this freshman effort as totally unnecessary.
4 wheels good, protection from the law better!
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/06/2013
» Italian super luxury car maker Rambikini proudly announces the launch of an exclusive limited edition of three models especially for Thai politicians, first-born sons of obscenely wealthy businessmen and luxury-loving monks. This last group has emerged as the company's untapped demographic (we bang our foreheads for not having thought of them sooner) whose sacred aura and talismanic power will surely lend our supercars with an unprecedented mixture of spirituality and materialism.
Teenage Wildlife
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/04/2013
» Director Chookiat Sakveerakul has established himself as a specialist in depicting the thrill, the drama and the inevitable disquiet of adolescence. Some of his most memorable characters are young people who're growing up. Especially in The Love of Siam and in the touching first part of his previous work, Home, boys are crossing the threshold of childhood into something else as they still try to grasp its emotional meaning. It's hard being a kid, but it's harder leaving childhood, wading into the jungle of adult feelings, of adult consequences. When in good form, Chookiat has a natural knack for capturing and relating that shaky uncertainty.
Asia's alter ego
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/03/2013
» Two upcoming film showcases explore the many faces of Asean and offer a close look at Thailand.
Going to jail for writing is a horror story
Business, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/03/2013
» Interestingly, getting people killed can't be as bad as disturbing people. Fatal recklessness isn't as unforgivable as deliberate provocation. At one extreme, murder is sometimes more tolerable than writing. To know how to toe the line, to know what to write and what not to write, has become a political as well as literary dilemma - and here we're talking about Chinese Nobel literature laureate Mo Yan's semi-endorsement of censorship and jailed editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk's sentence for breaking the lese majeste law. And we thought clemency was the way of our world.