Showing 1 - 10 of 41
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.
South may stay the loneliest planet of all
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/05/2012
» It is better late, proverbially speaking, than never. Nine months after she won the election to become prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra last Sunday visited the deep South for the first time since she took office. Surrounding her at a Pattani barracks - for the well-dressed dignitaries wouldn't be so foolhardy as to step out of the fenced quarters - were high-profile ministers and generals. The visit was on April 29, a day after the 8th anniversary of the harrowing siege of the Krue Se mosque, on April 28, 2004, in which soldiers killed 108 people and left dozens more widowed and orphaned in multiple places including Saba Yoi district in Songkhla and Krong Penang district in Pattani. At Krue Se alone, 32 people were killed.
Mean streets
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/06/2012
» Director Kongkiat Khomsiri's professed love for Martin Scorsese's mean-street movies is evident, beyond all doubts, in his new film Anthapan (The Hooligan). Think Goodfellas, with the 1950s Bangkok substituting New York's Little Italy, and an ingenuous Thai rookie replacing Ray Liotta. But then, we also see Chinese triads, brutal knife fights, Western-style shootout, the reference to Field Marshall Sarit's coup d'etat and the rise of the police as the force more wicked than the mafia _ and Kongkiat's film is a melange of influence, style, and politics.
Insect in the backyard!
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/06/2012
» The new Spider-Man is a cocky high schooler on a skateboard, a tad pompous and narcissistic, largely unperturbed by the preternatural power that allows him to leapfrog, shoot webs and climb walls. Once aware of his superheroism, he demonstrates it on a school's basketball court, slam-dunking the hoop and shattering the backboard into pieces _ to the eye-popping awe of his former bully. It helps that Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker; he's not a depressed teenager who broods over the great responsibility that comes with great power, as Tobey Maguire's arachnoid Peter Parker did in the Sam Raimi-directed trilogy that began in 2002.
Unabashed mayhem
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/08/2012
» As hype about the Asean economic link-up grows frenetic _ even though nobody is quite sure what that pipe dream might entail _ let's savour the coughed-up blood, the fevered sweat and the rabid, slaughterhouse smell of a film from a fellow Asean member state.
When wizardry Dwarfs reality
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/12/2012
» So we're back in the Middle-earth, green and gnarly, volcanic, folkloric, heroic, mystically Germanic, mythically Norse, and obviously New Zealand. In short, a familiar neighbourhood from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, last inhabited and winning 11 Oscars in 2003. Populated by murderous ogres, phosphorescent elves, salivating goblins and digitally ageless Cate Blanchett and Ian McKellen, the narrative is strictly another quest of a little hairy-footed being who'll have to prove his worth, conquer his fear, and slay the dragon (the latter will come in the second episode, or maybe the third, stick around). Gollum also returns _ no, in the Tolkien universe the creature has lived in that grotto long before LOTR _ only that he's now even more life-like, more hideous, more sad. Should I also add: more real?
Paradise lost as evil rears its ugly head
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/01/2013
» In my heyday, I was at the fabled Koh Phangan's full moon parties - three times - where I practised English, Swedish, Spanish, German and Hebrew, then walked the moonlit, vomit-strewn beach, enjoyed (meaning eating) local mushrooms, lit a bonfire of international camaraderie and watched the psychochemical clouds drift like memories into the dark Gulf of Thailand.
Weep for the fallen, never stop caring
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/05/2013
» We weep for the South. We send prayers and we will remember, or try our best to remember, all the deaths and not consign them to the faceless realm of statistics. On Wednesday night, ruthless, lawless, godless insurgents killed six civilians, including two-year-old Jakarin Hiangma, in a sign of escalating violence that leaves Buddhists and Muslims alike in shame and shock.
Poles Apart
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/05/2013
» The spirit of rebirth is almost palpable as you walk the streets and hear the stories of Warsaw. Wiped off the map in the 19th century, reduced to ashes by German planes and panzers in 1939 and consigned to suspended animation during the four decades of repressive Stalinist rule that followed, this metropolis _ and the country of which it is capital _ has endured a succession of traumatic misfortunes that it has somehow survived, integrity intact, to reassert its proud identity in the 21st century.
Stretching genre limits
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/10/2013
» In the universe of Thai romantic comedy, Rak Ngo Ngo (literally "stupid love", although the official English title is Love Syndrome) is one of the brighter stars _ not the brightest, mind you, but bright enough to deliver the required dose of laughter and, perhaps, cause the sentimental to squeeze out a few tears. Penned by a team of talented young writers and directed by Pantham Thongsang, this is another progeny of the Love Actually-inspired family of loosely entangled tales of the heart (four in this film), criss-crossing many demographics and sexualities. But while Love Syndrome sticks to stock twists and choreographed romantic button-pushing (kneeling to propose, dramatic confessions via big songs), it does manage to rise above the formula at the right moment and also comes armed with a healthy supply of irony.