Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Poor Barbie... Oppenheimer's the bomb
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/03/2024
» The annual guessing game to read the minds of inscrutable Oscars voters is here.
If it was up to me...
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/03/2023
» The Oscars are once again upon us and Life goes out on a limb to pick the peaches.
Revisiting Wong's dance of desire
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 30/10/2020
» Drenched with desire, Wong Kar-wai's In The Mood For Love feels like a plush, vivid dream lodged in the deepest recess of a lover's heart. Now, the heart is beating again and the dream is being projected on the big screen some 20 years after the film first stunned audiences at Cannes and launched a wave of copycats around Asia.
The French Connection
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/05/2018
» In the opening episode of Ten Years Thailand, a group of soldiers arrives at an art gallery to inspect a potentially subversive artwork. What constitutes a kernel of subversion, however, is hard to lay a finger on. So the story shifts: one of the soldiers begins to chat up a pretty maid, and as the Sun is setting the two of them look out from the gallery to the horizon full of shadows. Maybe of hope.
Two international stars, two divergent styles
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/04/2018
» Early next week will see two performers arriving in Bangkok. On Monday, Bruno Mars will hit Impact Arena with all his funky fanfare. On Tuesday, Jake Bugg will play live at the Scala, an intimate venue perfect for his acoustic set.
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.
Starting with the script
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/06/2017
» Script development is key to successful movies, and good scripts are what filmmakers in Southeast Asia need. The first Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (or Seafic) has been conceived for the purpose of strengthening the quality of feature-length fiction films from the region, and after eight months, the programme is reaching its climax this weekend in Bangkok.
Lao cinema hits the jackpot
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/05/2017
» In this Lao film, a nearly-blind woman is visited by ghosts that come to tell her winning lottery numbers. Her young caretaker, a girl from the countryside, takes advantage of her mistress' impairment and cashes in on the phantoms' fortunetelling, scoring win after win. On paper, it all sounds preposterous. Ghosts that give out lotto jackpots? How superstitious! How Southeast Asia! But don't be mistaken: you should go and watch Nong Hak (Dearest Sister), a well-made Lao production that spins the supernatural premise into class critique and psychological horror, ripe with atmospheric suspense. In fact, this is simply a better film in terms of script and technical standards than many Thai flicks released each year.
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.
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).