• LIFE

  Pedro Almodovar celebrates life in all its messy turns

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 23/11/2021

  » Pedro Almodovar's films turn camp into art, or art into camp. Or even better, he isn't bothered all that much whether the candy-coloured hijinks, the sexual anything-goes, the carnal perfidy and maternal heartbreak in his movies are a form of art or a celebration of camp. And we, the audience, shouldn't either. Almodovar, the internationally best-known Spanish filmmaker, thrives on something much simpler, I think. Freedom.

• LIFE

  Melancholy and absurdity

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/05/2021

  » Chaitanya Tamhane was 27 years old when his breakthrough film Court became a critical sensation and won the Lion of the Future Award at the Venice festival in 2014. A film of understated power about India's Kafkaesque judicial tribulation, Court announced the arrival of an exceptional talent from Mumbai, a proud cinema city usually associated with rambunctious Bollywood titles.

• LIFE

  Killer and victim

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/12/2017

  » Sandome no satsujin (The Third Murder) -- which is way more gripping and finely-crafted than Murder On The Orient Express -- is a Japanese whodunit wrought with the dramaturgy of a Russian novel. Right at the opening, we see a murder being committed: Takashi Misumi (Koji Yakusho) is clubbing a man -- the owner of a factory where he works -- to death on a riverbank. But in its staunchly reflective storyline, The Third Murder is as much about the murder itself as it is about the killer's complex motif that underlines the elusiveness of truth, reason, justice and victimhood -- of crime and punishment.

• OPINION

  'Boss', 'Pai' and the casino of (in)justice

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/07/2017

  » Place your bets on what's going to happen first: Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya being brought to court, or Jatupat "Pai Dao Din" Boonpattararaksa being granted bail.

• OPINION

  Movies shine light on dark Thai truths

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/12/2017

  » Last week, I watched a South Korean film called A Taxi Driver. Based on a true story, it's the account of a cabby who secretly drove a German journalist to cover the 1980 pro-democracy demonstration in Gwangju, a dramatic uprising that toppled Maj General Chun Doo-hwan, the ruler of the country at the time.

• LIFE

  Toronto top picks

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/09/2017

  » A showcase of Oscar hopefuls and world cinema highlights, the film festival which wrapped up last weekend is one of the most influential in the world. Here are our highlights

• LIFE

  The outspoken monk

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/05/2017

  » At the start The Venerable W., we see the firebrand Myanmar monk Ashin Wirathu speaking to the camera, calmly and casually. He talks about the African catfish, a creature that "grows fast, breeds a lot and is violent". The punchline is not totally unpredictable: "Muslims are like that."

• LIFE

  Let's hear it for silence

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/06/2016

  » In the world full of noise, let's appreciate the sound of silence. The 3rd Silent Film Festival in Thailand will run from June 16-22 at Scala and Lido, with a programme of marvellous classics from the 1920s. Two pianists specialising in performing with silent films will accompany every screening.

• OPINION

  Chaiyaphum owed more than lost data

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/08/2018

  » In the age of video clips, one video clip is absent. At a time when we're inundated by cat clips, dog clips, accident clips, slap clips, brawl clips, grope clips, chase clips, murder clips -- when we even have clips recorded from the depths of a dark cave where light hardly reaches -- it's amazing that one crucial clip, shot in broad daylight, is missing, lost or made to be lost forever, along with transparency and maybe justice.

• OPINION

  'Boss' strides atop pyramid of injustice

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/04/2017

  » The boss walks free. The boss is the boss. The boss dines in France and snowboards in Japan. The boss rules the road and tramples the law. In the pyramid of privilege, the boss stays on top. In the food chain of injustice, the boss reminds us again, and again and again, who the boss is.

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