Showing 1 - 10 of 16
Andalusian dreams
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/02/2024
» Two Middle Eastern tourists looked excited as they held up a phone to an exquisitely carved arabesque in Nasrid Palace at the Alhambra. No, they're not taking photos. They're comparing the Arabic text on their screen with the 8th century stone calligraphy. I hear them mumble in Arabic -- here's the translation:
Old boyz n the Charoen Krung hood
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/08/2018
» The boys once ruled Charoen Krung Road -- the boyz from the hood, sons of Chinese merchants and Muslim roti-makers, rough-around-the-edges teen bred and drilled in the network of sois, who leapt into the Chao Phraya every evening and caught catfish when the river swelled every November, who roamed Bang Rak market when it was still sludgy with vegetable scraps and sneaked into the Prince Rama Theatre when it was still showing, err, adult movies.
Time is not on our side
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/01/2018
» This is a note on an important Thai film that is unlikely to be shown in Thailand. Such is the fate of home-grown cinema in a time of disease, the time of a black hole.
Luang Prabang film fest moves forward
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/12/2017
» There was the crowd, the spontaneous chaos, and the outdoor screening that has become a hallmark of the Luang Prabang Film Festival. Its eighth edition ending last night, the film festival in a town without cinemas has grown into an annual highlight every December, with its eyes firmly fixed on Southeast Asian titles and an attempt to expand its role and relevance to regional audience and filmmakers.
Life before death
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/12/2017
» With the Thai film Die Tomorrow, writer-director Nawapol Thamronrattanarit tries to capture that rarefied feeling of the eternal fleetingness of life. Presented as vignettes in which the viewer (though not necessarily the characters) knows that someone on the screen is going to die, the film aches to be a melancholic contemplation of perhaps death's greatest power -- its unpredictability.
The spiral in the sky
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 31/03/2017
» The top 27 floors of Central Embassy will soon have a new host -- the Park Hyatt Bangkok. Among the slate of new hotels to open in the city this year, this luxury property by the Hyatt brand is one of the most exciting, its reputation preceding its arrival by miles. Set for a May 12 opening, the hotel has had reservations coming in since January and has already landed a spot in Monocle's Most Anticipated Hotel Openings.
Relive cinema history at Maya City
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/12/2016
» Dec 28 is the day cinema was born. On this day in 1895, the Lumiere Brothers for the first time showed their invention, the cinematograph, for paying customers at Salon Indien du Grand Cafe in Paris. The programme consisted of 10 short films; the first being Workers Leaving The Lumiere Factory, a short clip showing female workers filing out of a building in Lyon.
Romancing Bangkok
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/08/2016
» Paris had Paris Je T'aime, New York had New York I Love You. Now Bangkok has its own film ensemble drawn from different neighbourhoods of the city. Bangkok Stories, a portmanteau of six films telling tales of brief encounters and nebulous romance, will premier tonight at the 20th Short Film and Video Festival at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, before going on to cinema and television release later.
A copy of his mind
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/04/2016
» In the Indonesian film A Copy Of My Mind, a pirate DVD seller falls in love with a salon worker. Two working-class lovers struggling in a vast city, their relationship is just as heated as the smoke-choking street of Jakarta, and around them looms the tense shadow of politics as a presidential election nears.
Thai movies ride the Euro circuit
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/01/2016
» The new year starts with a slate of new Thai films -- and some older ones -- which are already making rounds at the European film festival circuit which began this week.