Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Life, love, liberation
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/09/2017
» In the sole Thai film showing at Toronto International Film Festival this week, a soap opera star stuck in a loveless marriage tangles with an eccentric hitman and a powerful cult. Samui Song is the latest feature film by Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang, who's fashioned a crime thriller that also plays as a critique of many things: patriarchal oppression, faux-Buddhism, public healthcare and the act of cinema-making itself.
'Boss', 'Pai' and the casino of (in)justice
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/07/2017
» Place your bets on what's going to happen first: Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya being brought to court, or Jatupat "Pai Dao Din" Boonpattararaksa being granted bail.
When history becomes just a hazy dream
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/04/2017
» Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present (tada!) controls the past. In summary, the military, like quantum physicists or mad sorcerers, controls time: The past, present, future, ad infinitum.
In the land where time stands still
Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/06/2015
» The past, as they say, is not even past. Just look around, scan the headlines, or smell the Cretaceous swamps that haven’t been pumped for ages. It feels strange watching the view outside the train window become a blur of movement, only to realise, with horror or apathy, that it’s not us who’re moving and leaving a trail of hazy landscape behind. It’s the outside world that’s speeding ahead while we’re stuck on the interminable platform.
In search of the next hit
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/06/2015
» A string of box-office failures, an absence of hits, an onslaught of Hollywood blockbusters, an economic slump, the vacillating, unpredictable taste of audiences — all of this has plunged the Thai film industry into a gloom in the first half of 2015. Home-grown cinema can barely compete with the American juggernauts, but the past six months have been particularly wounding. Usually, Thai films take around 25% of the ticket sales, with Hollywood gobbling up the rest (the total box office value was around 4.5 billion in last year). This year, so far, local movies took a paltry 10%, according to industry analysts.
Anger must not give way to bloodlust
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 12/07/2014
» The strangest thing I saw online this week was someone calling for a Buddhist theocracy — in Thailand. For Buddha’s sake, that’s rich. I thought Buddhist fundamentalism is a fad confined to certain parts of Myanmar and Sri Lanka. The benevolent lotus has been plucked from the serene pond and cast into the fires of rage and vengeance. Ta tor ta, funn tor funn — an eye for an eye — that’s the message of the week. If someone slaps you on one cheek, don’t offer him the other: you cut off his head in the town square and hold it up as the blood-lusting crowd cheers.
Ferrari boys drive us all to distraction
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/05/2014
» The Ferrari boys have made our blood boil. Cruising Bangkok’s streets in their super-steeds, the two kids with rich dads, speaking in faux English accents, expound their beliefs on how the country is being ruined and how it should be run, how immoral the Thaksin regime is and how their friendship, forged in battle, is stronger than steel, or something like that. It sounded like they rehearsed the script in front of a mirror for days, for they were so happy to hear the sound of their own voices, to show the world how great it is to be themselves.
Nature versus nurture
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/12/2013
» Always gentle, always composed, the films of Hirokazu Kore-eda also register quiet devastation, often within the family. The stirring _ the earthquake, even _ usually happens beneath the surface of calm. Two years ago he gave us I Wish, a story about children of divorced parents, and before that, the sublime Still Walking, about a family wound that members prefer not to discuss. And, of course, Kore-eda's biggest hit in Bangkok was in 2003 with Nobody Knows, a painfully moving story of children left to fend for themselves after their mother walked out on them. That film packed Scala for more than a month.
Road deaths are classless, the law is not
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/09/2012
» Rich kids and fast cars, put together, often inspire amazement, jealousy and maybe fear. One night last week, I was in Bang Lamphu when a convertible BMW swerved round and snuggled into a no-parking spot (the car looked even more expensive when it was in the no-parking spot). Two boys came out, looking pleased, and we looked at them looking pleased.