Showing 1 - 8 of 8
The politics of taste in our election season
Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/12/2025
» Hell is other people's tastes. Hell is when we passionately hate what people unconditionally love. Hell is when we can't fathom how anyone on the face of the earth can like someone or something we find revolting -- a food, a film, a style, an opening ceremony, a politician, a president.
Thai film ‘A Useful Ghost’ wins Cannes prize
Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/05/2025
» CANNES — The Thai film Pee Chai Dai Ka (A Useful Ghost) has won the Grand Prix at Critics’ Week, a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Thai film to ever win the prize.
Follow the yellow brick road
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/06/2019
» There is a newly-invented subgenre of the rock biopic: the queer, British, 1970s-set rock biopic, preferably with family trauma and cruel (or at least unsympathetic) parents. First was Bohemian Rhapsody, the shoddy Freddie Mercury flick, whose status as an Oscar-nominated title still befuddles. Now comes Rocketman, in which Taron Egerton preens and struts in Elton John's greatest hits of wardrobe flamboyance, even at his AA session.
An imperfect world
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/05/2019
» Even on the ground at the Cannes Film Festival, what people seemed to be anticipating most on Monday was, well, the final episode of Game Of Thrones. No, it wasn't being shown at the festival (how unbecoming that would be), but isn't it a sign of our times that a TV episode has the Valyrian-steel nerve to dominate global discussion and upstage the world's biggest film showcase?
Lights out at Lido, but can art hub shine?
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/06/2018
» It was a tearful farewell at the Lido Theatre on Thursday night, with a thousand fans congregating to say goodbye to the old-school, unglamorous, 50-year-old cinema in Siam Square. After the last picture show on May 31, all Lido’s staff and managers lined up like a guard of honour to wai and thank the audiences filing out of the rooms, a surprise parting shot that tugged deeply at the heart strings of even the most unsentimental viewers. To paraphrase Chris Hemsworth, aka Thor of Asgard, Lido is not a place but a people. It’s also a memory. That’s why we wept. That’s what we’ll miss Lido for.
Paint it noir
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/04/2018
» Jean-Pierre Melville, the supreme stylist of French film noir, is getting the retrospective he (and his fans) truly deserve. Starting on April 17, the Alliance Francaise Bangkok will screen five Melville films, plus one documentary about the filmmaker and another that makes strong allusion to his style.
Last night at the Scala -- or is it?
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/02/2018
» We have the latest update on the Scala Theatre: Its closing date is now set for May 31.