Showing 1 - 10 of 20
Apichatpong's memory of the world
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 30/06/2021
» It begins with a bang. Maybe the Big Bang, a culmination of cosmic murmur and subterranean hum that explodes like a burst of revelation, a sonic release of the weight of all human pain. In Apichatpong Weerasethakul's new film Memoria, a woman wakes up one morning in Bogota jolted by a mysterious sound -- a metallic, visceral, bottom-of-the-well bang. The woman, orchid farm owner Jessica (played by Tilda Swinton), wanders the Colombian capital in a daze, haunted by the unshakable aural echo, then leaves the city and heads to the mountains, where the phantom of the bang shadows her.
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?
Saint and sensibility
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/05/2019
» A Christian fable or a Marxist allegory? A magical-realist myth or a political cry against neoliberalism (or feudalism, which produces the same catastrophe anyway)?
Romance and rage
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/07/2018
» The air in that rural village is impregnated by unsettling emotions and propaganda announcements from loudspeakers. Three people sit drinking and talking in front of an old house: an honest, confused young man; a pretty, even also confused young woman; and a rich, suave, sport-car-driving playboy, so sure of himself and the power he has over the other two.
A wind from the Northeast
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/03/2017
» Last month the cinemas saw a sleeper hit -- and don't be surprised if your cultural radar didn't beep. The homemade Isan film Thi Baan The Series attracted huge crowds not to Bangkok cineplexes, or not at first, but to theatres in Si Sa Ket, Khon Kaen, Maha Sarakham and elsewhere across the Northeast. Scoring big with regional tastes, the small, Isan-speaking film, made by a group of friends for 3 million baht, has now made over 20 million in box office -- 70% of it on its home turf, the rest in the capital.
Careful what you click, but keep thinking
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/12/2016
» Be careful what you wish for. Be even more careful what you like. Be most careful what you share.
Three stories from Asia
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/10/2016
» An illegal Filipino migrant in Hokkaido, a Japanese grandfather in Penang, a UN official reflecting on the romantic past in Phnom Penh. The three short films in the omnibus Asian Three-Fold Mirror: Reflections narrate the criss-crossing of destiny between Asian people -- or particularly in this case between Japanese and Southeast Asians. The Reflections project has been commissioned by the Japan Foundation and Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) as a means to show the mutual relationships, present or forgotten, among the Asian countries.
Moments of record
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/10/2016
» The film fades and has scratches, but the persistence of history is strong. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Culture and Thai Film Archive (Public Organisation) registered 25 film items into the National Heritage list for audiovisual conservation and future reference. In November and December, the Archive will host screenings of some of the newly inducted titles.
Journey to Middle Earth
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/06/2016
» It's the Earth not the Moon, I think. We are walking the path that skirts the pool of geothermal geysers at the Whakarewarewa site in the town of Rotorua, New Zealand. The moon-grey rocks are smothered in mud and pungent smoke, with sporadic hissing that suggests the chemical fury underneath. The scene is alien. The air is calm, a kind of nervous calm because we know there will be an outburst. Once every 40 minutes or so, the subterranean pressure pushes the heated, underground water through the crack and shoots up a jet of spray up to 30m, drawing cheers from fortunate visitors who happen to be present at the moment of thermal activity.
A seaworthy adventure tale
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/12/2015
» There is no one-legged Captain Ahab but there is Herman Melville himself in In The Heart Of The Sea, a high-seas romp about greedy harpooners and a leviathan from the depth that ends with a thought on naturalism. The monomania that drives men to their demise, as in Moby-Dick, is touched upon here though not pursued to its darkest inevitability, and yet that doesn't stop the Ron Howard's film from being a lively, well-oiled seafaring entertainment.