Showing 61 - 70 of 159
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.
Avoiding bogeymen and the religious police
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/10/2016
» Tehran in the 1980s, at the height of the Iran-Iraq War and a few years after the Islamic Revolution convulses the life of Iranians. In a middle-class apartment, young mother Shideh lives with her husband, a medical doctor, and their daughter Dorsa. Their lives are punctuated by the sound of sirens and shelling, their windows taped up to shield vibrations. One day, the father is drafted to fight in the escalating war, and Shideh is left with Dorsa in the house where strange beings lurk. The neighbours begin to talk about djinn, the devilish beings in the Middle Eastern belief, and soon Dorsa's doll goes missing and the girl begins to talk to invisible people.
Youth strike fear into old, cold hearts
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/10/2016
» We can imagine the scene: Twenty policemen mobbed a 19-year-old boy arriving at the airport immigration. They took him to the detention quarters and kept him there, refusing communication, and consequently sent the entire world into a manhunt frenzy. Where's Joshua Wong? What has he done? Or more directly to the heart of the midnight stealth: What did the Thai authorities fear? Why did the mighty state have to send 20 officers -- not five, not 10, but 20 -- to whiz away a skinny boy on a red-eye flight? A boy whom I bet never won a fist-fight in his high-school yard.
A backpack, bombs and a land of fear
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/09/2016
» The photo just broke your heart: A little yellow backpack with a cartoon pattern, crumpled on the road in Narathiwat after a bomb. We can imagine the rest. A few minutes before, it must have been slung on the back of a five-year-old girl before a deadly blast knocked it off. She was killed along with her father, Mayeng Wohbah, at 8.25am outside a school in Tak Bai, a place that has seen too many deaths, adults and children, over many years.
A tower of our glory, except the foreign bit
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/09/2016
» I happened to be there at the opening of the sparkling corn-cob skyscraper, the trophy of high-capitalism and symbol of wealth. No fireworks at the launch of the MahaNakhon Tower, that would have been tacky, but we had the beam-me-up light dance and iridescent sky painting, cued to booming music. Jose Carreras sang arias.
Alternative screenings this weekend
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/09/2016
» As the multiplexes are dominated by the big Thai film Fanday, two screenings this weekend should provide alternatives for Bangkok moviegoers. First, David Lean's Doctor Zhivago will play at the Scala on Sunday at noon, then a set of nine short films addressing the issue of legal reform will be screened at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre at 3pm.
Going S44 cold turkey is going to hurt
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/08/2016
» There's a Thai phrase, fon lai chang, the rain that chases out the elephant. But the heavy rain on Wednesday night managed to chase out something bigger than an elephant: the Bangkok governor. I hear people popping champagne corks.
Desolation row
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/08/2016
» Ripping through lonesome plains and highway desolation, two Texan brothers set out to rob banks that, technically, have been robbing their family for years. Tanner and Toby (Ben Foster and Chris Pine) are siblings at different ends of the spectrum: the first a wild coyote, a jittery flask of criminal energy; the second a melancholic fox, handsome, sad and serious.
Breaking into song on the big vote day
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/08/2016
» Tomorrow is the day. Are you ready? Really, are you ready?Keep calm, get dressed, put on your Sunday smile, and head out to … No, not the referendum booth, or maybe later. First you really must go to the Scala Theatre in Siam Square, where for the first time in Thailand in decades, The Sound of Music will play on the big cinema screen with its historic overflowing of saccharine -- and with one of the strangest anti-dictatorship sentiments ever shown on film.
All aboard for a 'Thai-Thai' referendum
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 23/07/2016
» The word "Thai" means "free". But when you repeat the syllable and say "Thai-Thai" (with a dismissive laugh), suddenly it means "fake" -- it means we've bent whatever rule the world has to make it suitable to our temperament, emotion and impulse. For example, when you're not sure if your principle is solid, your stance firm, your democracy authentic, or your coup justified, there's a simple way to shut down the argument: just say it's baab Thai-Thai, "in the Thai way". Then, if everything is not forgiven, at least it's understood.