Showing 11 - 20 of 22
The non-Hollywood contenders
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/12/2016
» Thailand has submitted the monk drama Arpatti to compete with 84 other countries in the Oscar race for best foreign-language film. Here we look at some highlights from around the world before the nominations are announced on Jan 24.
Stephen Chow's latest is fantastically foolish
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/04/2016
» The Chinese comedy The Mermaid became the biggest-grossing film ever in China when it came out during Chinese New Year, raking in US$417 million (14.6 billion baht), surpassing last year's hit Monster Hunt and Fast And Furious 7. Even without the hype, fans of Stephen Chow -- and there's plenty of them in Thailand -- have been looking forward to his latest madcap escapade, this time with the story of a pretty mermaid who falls in love with an ocean-destroying, banknote-burning real estate tycoon who's also her target.
The fire still burning
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/03/2016
» It was never business as usual for Santana, despite this being his sixth visit to Bangkok. On Monday night, we got what we're always happy to get from Carlos and his band -- thrilling musicianship, fiery Latin polyrhythms, passionate guitar solos, tribal percussive beats, a message of joy and love, and of course the 1,001st performance of Black Magic Woman and other classics. Carlos Santana, 68, continues to work his guitar hard as he put fire in the old melodies (he's probably the only performer of the 1969 Woodstock who's still touring inexhaustibly), and although the guitar-based Latin rock is hardly coursing the vein of the 21st-century soundscape, he never tires of making it authentic and fun.
Trying too hard
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/02/2016
» A controlled plunging into the abyss, Son Of Saul is a Hungarian film set in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. Or precisely, it is largely set in the horrific slaughterhouse of the gas chambers in which Jewish prisoners are horded by the trainload. What sets this film apart — what makes it one of the most acclaimed and yet divisive films of last year, as well as a front-runner at the Oscar on Sunday — is the visual strategy and conceptual representation of that European tragedy.
A view from the gas chamber
Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/01/2016
» A Holocaust movie surprisingly becomes a topical subject in Thailand, after the highly publicised, highly embarrassing incident of a Thai aristocrat's grand denial of that historical tragedy (and a subsequent rebuttal by an Israeli ambassador).
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.
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.
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.