Showing 21 - 30 of 35
Learning to love shooting from the hip
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/08/2015
» Maybe some Thais dig PM Prayut Chan-o-cha the same way some Americans dig Donald Trump.
When the O2 is impure, breathe CO2
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/06/2015
» Congratulations. Peace prevails. Silence is golden. Reform is at full throttle. Reconciliation will glue the cracked golden axe into one shiny piece. Politicians can grow mushrooms. Generals can play golf. Elections are overrated. Democracy is a dream. Only the road map is real. Love is in the air. Citizens can stop worrying and learn how to love the bomb. Everything will be all right. Why worry? Why complain? Why think?
7 car stud
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/04/2015
» With Furious 7, the superhero season has begun — and these guys (and girls) are so poised in their invincibility that they don't even bother to put on spandex costumes.
In fighting IS, don't mimic its evil ways
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/02/2015
» It was a sad week, a week of satanic beheadings, then the barbarous immolation, executed and filmed by that godless bunch as if in mockery of Hollywood war movies. A week of moral anger and global blood lust, from Amman to Tokyo by way of Iraq. A week of sadness that quickly morphed into something like vengeance, as war cries sounded over the medieval fortresses of Jordan and Egypt and echoed to the South China Sea.
Best films of 2014
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/12/2014
» Another year, another December ritual of best-ofs. Is the high worth the pain at the cinemas? Mostly yes, 2014 has yielded a crop of films that excite, touch, baffle, entrance and stun us in many ways.
Memories are the first victim of 'happiness'
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/10/2014
» October is here. Along with the monsoon and beclouded mood, the month has always been marked by the political remembrance whose toxic vapour still leaves a nasty taste in the mouth even of those who didn't live through it.
Mindanao offers lessons for South
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/04/2014
» There are signs of uncertainty. No, not the red-shirt rendezvous on Utthayan Road or the summit of the Suthep Thaugsuban-led movements at Lumpini Park, both happening with egoistic drum rolling today. As usual, Bangkok politics has the kind of narcissism and surreal influence that monopolises the headlines and consigns other struggles — more real, more fatal struggles — to the attic of our attention. If the way forward is decentralisation, let’s start by at least trying to look further afield than Bangkok’s face-off and the oratory salvoes of Mr Suthep and Jatuporn Prompan.
Brawn, bosom and blood
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/03/2014
» In the absence of Gerard Butler, we thankfully have Eva Green. Hissing rather than acting, uncoiling like a Persian rattlesnake, she is a bitch-babe naval commander lusting for blood and revenge. Her costume is that of a warrior as clothed (or imagined) by John Galliano, a fetishised wardrobe of buxom leather, metal spines and cultish accessories. It’s chic brutality. And with those burning coals in her eyes she stares down the muscled generals on her own side and the topless Greeks, greasy torsos and all, on the other. More than any other character in 300: Rise Of An Empire, her Artemisia knows this film is just one notch above camp and one below a high-budget death metal music video. Green’s vampish theatricality is the best part of this narcissistic, violent almost-cartoon.
Jesus christ superman
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/06/2013
» Zack Snyder's Man Of Steel takes pride in giving us doom and gloom, and the tale that was one of our most exciting childhood memories has been turned into rather joyless bombast. Keen to insert biblical references, whether they fit or not, and assaulting us with a maximalist visual treatment, Snyder's reboot inherits the stern-faced self-importance of The Dark Knight (it's no coincidence that Christopher Nolan is one of the producers), but lacks the menace and the nihilism that gives rise to Batman's (imagined) existential crisis. Superman is supposed to soar, to fly us to the Moon or, farther afield, to the fantastic nebula where his home planet is, or was _ but the loftiest emotion that Man Of Steel is capable of stimulating _ and I hate to say this _ is indifference.
More blood, Bella, more blood!
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/11/2012
» The vegan vampire Edward, pale as Pluto, lets his hand creep up the blouse buttons of his bride, Bella, recently converted by love from human to immortal blood-sucker. But lust still courses through their cold-blooded bodies, or so we mortals can only presume.