Showing 21 - 30 of 98
Backpedalling in a parallel Thai universe
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/11/2017
» Thailand will eradicate poverty by next year.
For the days that remain
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/11/2017
» Challenging taboos, one of Thailand's most popular directors returns with a film that looks death in the eye
Human traffic
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/11/2017
» Edmund Yeo started writing the film Aqerat before the word "Rohingya" would make world news headlines -- entirely for a distressing reason. Now the Malaysian film, which had its premiere in the main competition of the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival this week, has proved prescient as over 500,000 of Myanmar's Rohingya minority have fled violence for Bangladesh in one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in years.
Section 112 the elephant in the room
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/10/2017
» The elephant isn't simply in the room; it is in the room and charging tusk-first at an old man with a walking stick.
Learning to speak govt's language
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/08/2017
» The Newspeak is the Oldspeak. The New Testament is the Old Commandments. When they say the clock strikes 13, it means the clock strikes 13. The writing isn't in the law but on the wall.
Cinema paradiso no more
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/08/2017
» Everything changes. It changes in its own time.Cells die. Cells grow. Death and birth happen all the time.Like the mind, it's gone before you even know. Like when I project a movie, a reel of film rotating at high speed looks like a still image.
A wind from the Northeast
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/03/2017
» Last month the cinemas saw a sleeper hit -- and don't be surprised if your cultural radar didn't beep. The homemade Isan film Thi Baan The Series attracted huge crowds not to Bangkok cineplexes, or not at first, but to theatres in Si Sa Ket, Khon Kaen, Maha Sarakham and elsewhere across the Northeast. Scoring big with regional tastes, the small, Isan-speaking film, made by a group of friends for 3 million baht, has now made over 20 million in box office -- 70% of it on its home turf, the rest in the capital.
The holy voice, the beautiful sound
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/03/2017
» In January, Hasan Samoh became the first Thai to win first place at a major Koran recital competition, taking place in the capital of Sudan where he outscored 85 other contestants from around the world. Living in Pattani, young Hasan became a celebrity in the predominantly Muslim South and, upon his return, was welcomed at Government House by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who pledged to support the 19-year-old in future competitions.
Judging the judges at Cannes
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/02/2017
» There was a chorus of surprise when the 69th Cannes Film Festival last Sunday awarded its top prize to Ken Loach's welfare drama I, Daniel Blake -- because the film was largely absent from the critical radar during the 12-day festival. A bigger surprise (not to say disappointment) was when the second prize went to Xavier Dolan's melodrama It's Only The End Of The World, because the film was nearly unanimously disliked for its histrionics and theatrical conceits. When the jury, led by Mad Max director George Miller, gave the prize to Dolan's film, a joke sprang up and quickly caught on, inspired by the film's title: yes, for this film to be honoured by Cannes it is the end of the world, or the end of cinema. Apocalypse now!
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).