Showing 1 - 10 of 35
The beautiful and dangerous side of love
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/04/2012
» Love is lost, found, wretched, hopeful, torn asunder by distance, karma, doubt, accent, then reunited by melody and maybe death. Chookiat Sakverakul's generically titled Home _ the Thai name is more twee, Kwamrak Kwamsuk Kwam Songjam, "love, happiness and memory" _ homes in for the bittersweetness present at the various phases of romance, young or not, heterosexual or else. The movie has the flavour of a well-crafted melodrama that makes love cuddly, its dagger hidden. Most romantic movies warn of the monster lying in wait yet make you want to fall in love anyway (from the right angle, a love story is a hairbreadth away from a horror), and Home, all 140 minutes of it, fulfils that function with the efficiency of a Manhattan wedding planner.
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.
Godzilla's nuclear power
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/08/2012
» From the depths of the radioactive ghetto comes the iconic monster. The Japanese calls it Gojira _ Godzilla to the rest of us. A stomping, fire-breathing post-dinosaur mutant, the beast in fact carries under its skin a horde of cultural and historical meanings, mostly horrific, and largely rooted in the nuclear bombings that left Japan devastated after World War II.
Never mind nipples, the law is an ass
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/09/2012
» The debate on free speech is heating up around the world, from the tumult of the anti-Islam video to the US boycott of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's UN speech and the tyranny of extremism laid bare in Salman Rushdie's newly published memoir.
China boards the laureate gravy train
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/10/2012
» So fans didn't get to dance on the street. The two moons of Haruki Murakami were eclipsed when he didn't win the Nobel Prize in literature, as the Japanese man seemed the only writer on the speculated shortlist capable of inspiring global adulation from admirers, including in Thailand, had Stockholm given him the call on Thursday.
More blood, Bella, more blood!
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/11/2012
» The vegan vampire Edward, pale as Pluto, lets his hand creep up the blouse buttons of his bride, Bella, recently converted by love from human to immortal blood-sucker. But lust still courses through their cold-blooded bodies, or so we mortals can only presume.
Jesus christ superman
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/06/2013
» Zack Snyder's Man Of Steel takes pride in giving us doom and gloom, and the tale that was one of our most exciting childhood memories has been turned into rather joyless bombast. Keen to insert biblical references, whether they fit or not, and assaulting us with a maximalist visual treatment, Snyder's reboot inherits the stern-faced self-importance of The Dark Knight (it's no coincidence that Christopher Nolan is one of the producers), but lacks the menace and the nihilism that gives rise to Batman's (imagined) existential crisis. Superman is supposed to soar, to fly us to the Moon or, farther afield, to the fantastic nebula where his home planet is, or was _ but the loftiest emotion that Man Of Steel is capable of stimulating _ and I hate to say this _ is indifference.
Brawn, bosom and blood
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/03/2014
» In the absence of Gerard Butler, we thankfully have Eva Green. Hissing rather than acting, uncoiling like a Persian rattlesnake, she is a bitch-babe naval commander lusting for blood and revenge. Her costume is that of a warrior as clothed (or imagined) by John Galliano, a fetishised wardrobe of buxom leather, metal spines and cultish accessories. It’s chic brutality. And with those burning coals in her eyes she stares down the muscled generals on her own side and the topless Greeks, greasy torsos and all, on the other. More than any other character in 300: Rise Of An Empire, her Artemisia knows this film is just one notch above camp and one below a high-budget death metal music video. Green’s vampish theatricality is the best part of this narcissistic, violent almost-cartoon.
Mindanao offers lessons for South
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/04/2014
» There are signs of uncertainty. No, not the red-shirt rendezvous on Utthayan Road or the summit of the Suthep Thaugsuban-led movements at Lumpini Park, both happening with egoistic drum rolling today. As usual, Bangkok politics has the kind of narcissism and surreal influence that monopolises the headlines and consigns other struggles — more real, more fatal struggles — to the attic of our attention. If the way forward is decentralisation, let’s start by at least trying to look further afield than Bangkok’s face-off and the oratory salvoes of Mr Suthep and Jatuporn Prompan.
Memories are the first victim of 'happiness'
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/10/2014
» October is here. Along with the monsoon and beclouded mood, the month has always been marked by the political remembrance whose toxic vapour still leaves a nasty taste in the mouth even of those who didn't live through it.