Showing 151 - 159 of 159
Funeral pyres lit in our dark night of shame
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 12/05/2012
» Light the funeral pyres. Two, not just one. Throw in the conflagration the corpse not of man but of the basic right citizens in any sane society should be able to exercise: the right to speak, and the right to watch film.
The belief in art
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/04/2012
» Boonchai Bencharongkul gives us the lowdown on the artists he loves, and he loves so many of them. The usual suspects, to start with, and then something else. On the Surrealists, Magritte and Dali in particular, he likes the "fevered dream, the sense of distortion". On Modigliani, it's the "colour and the eye" that grab him. On Picasso: "a bitter gourd, it takes time to digest". On the Thai titan Thawan Duchanee: "a great fruit salad of spiritual deities". On Pratuang Emjaroen: "Pure". On Prateep Kochabua and his riotous vision of the netherworld: "His hell is big, much bigger than Bosch's. You have to see a Bosch up close. To see Prateep's, you step back, look up, and take it all in."
Unfairly ripp'd, 'Shakespeare' must pass
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/04/2012
» Four centuries after his death, Shakespeare's child suffers a miscarriage, aborted into a limbo by the Thai censors. Unless the appeal goes through at the National Film Board, you will be deprived of a chance to watch what has already become the most scorching movie of the year, Ing Kanjanavanit and Manit Sriwanichpoom's Shakespeare Tong Tai, or Shakespeare Must Die, an adaptation of Macbeth, charged with black humour, scheming harridans, buxom Lady M in blood-red dresses, and a political parable that peaks with a simulation of the infamous chair episode of Oct 6, 1976.
Look South, Bangkok
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/02/2012
» It was a racket and near-scuffle. It was fear teleported as anger. The scene at Thammasat University on Thursday was distressing, as anti-Nitirat alumni exalted morality against knowledge, along the way confusing noise with argument and equating what's loud with what's right. It almost turned sinister when a small band of Nitirat supporters showed up, placards ready, and a mini face-off ensued. That was enough to dominate the headlines and consciousness of the public in the ongoing case that is testing the firmness of the ground beneath our feet - a historic test of what Thailand is, or what we want to become.
Parallel ambitions
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/01/2012
» We wish them the best of luck, and we pray Hua Hin International Film Festival won't turn out to be a lemon. A month ago hardly anybody had heard about this brand-new event, and now those who've heard about it are wondering if they'll take the trouble of making a trip down to the seaside town to watch the films. Our advise is, if the sky is blue and you have nothing else to do (and if you want to forsake the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival that will also happen this weekend) just go for the fun of it. Worst case, you can always decamp to the beach, or one of the seafood joints in Khao Takieb.
Deserving of top honours
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/01/2012
» On screen and in headlines, Iran the provocateur du jour, is causing a stir. As Israel fumes, as Bibi Netanyahu ponders a pre-emptive strike, as the US watches with hawk-eyed severity over Teheran's nuclear ambition, and as an alleged Iran-backed Hezbollah rabble-rouser was arrested in Bangkok and a spectacular arsenal of bomb materials uncovered - as the quivers in Hormuz Strait are felt throughout Earth, an Iranian film cruised past contenders to win the Golden Globe. Worldwide punters now believe A Separation will become the first Iranian title to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Never mind the sanctions, an Iran-scripted drama has had Hollywood (and Washington) in thrall. So catch it now: A Separation is showing on one screen in Bangkok, at House RCA (I hope it'll stay there for a few more weeks.) It won't give you a crash course on the latest nuclear grumble; the politics of the film is smaller in scope yet larger in humanity, for it concerns class, marriage, religiosity, and the heart-aching struggle to uphold justice in the court of God and by the rule of law. At the centre, the film is about a separation of a couple, called Nader and Simin, but at heart this is a complex drama of moral quandaries that inflict bourgeoise Teheranians and speak of other kinds of seperation, physical and spiritual, visible and clandestine, in a society heaving with pride, prejudice and doubt. In short, it's closer to home than the belligerent rhetoric of the nuclear war.
A covering that bares one's faith
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/01/2012
» For years the mosque in my neighbourhood was registered as "Wat Muang Kae Mosque". The Buddhist temple, Wat Muang Kae, is a cat's meow away from the Islamic house of worship, and the mosque's name, so Thai and so un-Arabic, suggests the presence of interfaith amicability even before the term "interfaith" had any political undertones.
Be young and shut up
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/01/2012
» A week before Children's Day, we have reason to cherish a bright future for our nation's youth.
Three's A Treat
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/01/2012
» We open the year with an unusual occurrence in the cinema-going sphere: This month there will be three film festivals slated to satisfy the thirst and curiosity of local audiences. Two of them are taking place in the cultural stronghold of Bangkok, while the other has come up with the strange choice of Hua Hin. Two of them will feature alternative cinema of vastly diverse temperaments, while the other sticks mostly with munchy fares from across Asia. All of them, luckily, are privately funded.