Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Living in Thailand's age of impunity
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/01/2026
» There's no place like Thailand. Joyscrolling TikTok and Reels reveals dozens of clips made by international visitors lamenting having to leave our lovely country and return to dreary Europe or joyless America. "Nobody talks about how hard it is to go from this" -- insert a cut of a wonderful beach in Krabi -- "to this"--cut to a drab, damp suburban street somewhere in the West. Add a crying-face emoji. "I want to move here!" the traveller announces. True, everybody loves Thailand.
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:
Mariah carries on
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/11/2018
» Mariah Carey came to town as the final stop on her Asian tour, playing the near-capacity crowd at a hall in Bitec Bangna after the supposedly more dramatic setting of Borobudur. "Mariah Carey Live In Concert" last Friday lasted barely 90 minutes, with a set heavy with her 90s R&B hits and a couple of new songs from her latest album, Caution, which comes out this week. No Christmas songs on the set list, though I'm sure quite a few of us sort of half-hoped there would be.
A nation of millions can't hold them back
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/10/2018
» Rhymes and misdemeanours. Yo, yo. Rappers are threatened to be thrown in a slammer.
House RCA retrospective honours Japanese Palme d'Or winner
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/07/2018
» Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters will open in Thailand on Aug 2, two months after the film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival. Among modern Japanese filmmakers, Kore-eda has amassed the strongest following in Thailand, largely due to the fortunate fact that most of his films -- not all, mind you -- have opened commercially here since 2004. To pave the mood for Shoplifters, a gem of a family drama that finally brought the 56-year-old director one of the highest honours in international cinema, the Thai distribution Mongkol Major brings back seven films by the master in a Kore-eda Retrospective programme at House RCA, starting today.
Beyond the cinematic glitz
B Magazine, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/05/2018
» In the past 10 days the seaside city of Cannes has been in the news with noisy fanfare and dazzling colour, led by pictures of bare-shouldered stars sauntering down the red carpet on a daily basis. It happens every year in May, as the world's largest cine-event, the Cannes Film Festival, attracts thousands of journalists, photographers and industry professionals to the Mediterranean resort town made out to become a self-contained universe of glamour. Throughout its 71st edition, which ended yesterday, Cannes once again commanded the attention of the world.
A one-man 'loveable rogues' gallery
B Magazine, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/05/2018
» Sunny Suwanmethanont raises his thick eyebrows and chuckles. He forks a piece of mango into his mouth while he considers something -- an existential query of sorts.
Strange brew
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/03/2018
» He went down to the crossroads, fell down on his knees, asked the Lord for mercy -- and somehow got it. In this biopic documentary, Eric Clapton -- his place in the pantheon of guitar god-dom guaranteed -- is a tragic genius denounced by his own mother and nurturing a desperate crush on his best friend's wife, which kept his guitar wailing and weeping. Here's a 60s-70s blues-rock maverick who sold his soul to heroin, cocaine, cognac, whatever, and when he emerged from the pit and things began to feel wonderful tonight, he lost his son in a terrible, terrible accident. That a new documentary about his life to date is allowed to end happily is proof that rock'n'roll (and life itself) can cheat the claws of fate and go on for longer than 12 bars.
Show must go on to save Scala cinema
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/01/2018
» Urban conservationists, architects, archivists, cinema-goers, and all-round romantics have united for one cause: Save Scala.