Showing 1 - 10 of 28
Uncle Boonmee at 10
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/05/2020
» Rumour had spread early that morning that the Thai film would win big that night. How big? We daren't dream. The runner-up prize maybe? The Cannes grapevine, in those embryonic days of Facebook and Twitter, was fairly dependable but not downright on the money. It gives you the shape but never the details. The Thai film "will definitely win something", said one of my supposedly well-connected friends, accompanied by a speculative wink.
Eyes wide open
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/05/2020
» The literature about modern Thai politics is not abundant, and by this I mean a narrative that grounds its characters in the double-whammy of coup d'etat and street protest that characterised the mid-2000s to mid-2010s. The period, plus a few years earlier when Thaksin Shinawatra rose to power, contains some of the most convulsive and era-defining moments that continue to shape the visible and invisible dimensions of Thai society in the present time, and it's astonishing that not more writers find it a rich wellspring of artistic expression (on the contrary, visual artists and theatre artists seem more responsive to the political currents of the same period).
Beware the tears of a crocodile
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/06/2018
» 'The tears were obviously theatrics. They're political tears. Stop crying and stop trying to fool the people. Stop using the same trick over and over for your political gains."
First they came for those who 'twerk'
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/06/2017
» The police this week visited several cultural spaces, to appreciate the art and to mete out censorship. Next they'll give out art prizes -- to those who toe the line and serve the official ideology -- like the propagandistic communist states did in the last century.
Popping the question of hero or killer
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 12/03/2016
» A hero to some is a murderer to others — how I wish the world were less tortuous.
The hateful eight gang up on one activist
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 23/01/2016
» If your heart hasn’t been too hardened, you must have seen that the arrest of the student activist on Wednesday night was a foul act unjustified by law.
Bowie, in film
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/01/2016
» A shape-shifter on stage, David Bowie naturally found a new home in acting. Over the past 40 years, the late performer starred in many films -- though acting seemed more like another one of his experimental projects -- working with top directors such as Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan and the late Tony Scott, and playing roles from vampire and wizard, to alien and Andy Warhol (in Basquiat, a biopic of the artist by Julian Schnabel). It would be impossible to list them all, so here are my five picks on Bowie's screen performances.
Stolen moments
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/01/2016
» In Kongdej Jaturanrasmee's new film Snap, a wedding photographer returns to his hometown in Chantaburi with a group of high school friends. In that picturesque small town, Boy (Tony Rakkaen) takes happy prenuptial pictures of his old flame Phueng (Waruntorn Paonil), who's marrying a high-ranking soldier. That word, "soldier", carries a weight so leaden here: Snap is a soulful romance about a man searching for lost time, but the film is contextualised as a personal aftermath of the larger social tremors, namely the military coups d'etat of 2006 and 2014.
Pretty rash behaviour
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/09/2015
» Did we see this coming? In his new film, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit smuggles in a load of contraband sensibilities and pulls the rug out under his audience's feet.
The cheers for justice we haven’t heard
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/04/2015
» On Tuesday, the country watched Thai heartthrob Mario Maurer taking the greatest risk of his young life.