Showing 11-20 of 29 results
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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.
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Regional favourites, new and old
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/04/2016
» The 2nd Bangkok Asean Film Festival begins on Thursday at SF World Cinema, and will travel to Khon Kaen, Surat Thani and Chiang Mai later.
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Courting controversy
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/01/2016
» When creativity crosses the line into insensitivity, there's usually a pattern of uproar, apology and cancellation. In the past many years, there's been a number of notorious cases of insensitive creativity in Thai commercials, series, films and visual representations that have made international headlines. The offensive issues often involve race, skin colour, ethnicity and historical interpretation. There are many more that never made the front page, for example the casual mockery of minorities and genders that is normalised by the audience, such as jokes on the accents of hilltribe people that often appear in movies and TV series.
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Fragments of the region, in short
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/11/2015
» On Jan 2005, the Asian Film Archive (AFA) was founded by a group of film lovers and archivists in Singapore. From then on it has worked to preserve, restore, collect and promote the heritage of Asian cinema, as well as co-operate with other preservation agencies and archives to encourage research and critical appreciation of Asian films.
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Expanding the Asean screen
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 23/10/2015
» Across Indochina the movie houses are bubbling with energy, and as the region's big brother in popular culture, Thai film is quick to tap into these growing markets. Some recent examples: The teen comedy May Who?, which came out here earlier this month, has just opened in Laos and Cambodia (with the same familiar posters, but with the wriggling scripts of the local languages).
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Bolder line-up at Luang Prabang Film Festival
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/10/2015
» Entering its sixth year, the Luang Prabang Film Festival marches on. This year LPFF, the only film event in the historic town on the bank of the Mekong, will take place from Dec 5-9, with around 40 feature films from across Southeast Asia.
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Asean on screen
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/08/2015
» When was the last time you saw a Malaysian film? An Indonesian? A Vietnamese? The odds are even lower for a Myanmar or a Bruneian. As the Asean banner is being splashed across the region, with the emphasis on the economic free-flow, the cultural exchange among Southeast Asians remains a glaring deficit. Cinema, perhaps the most accessible form of cultural expression, is no exception.
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It's all in the room
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/02/2015
» In Bon Srolanh Oun, the spirit of a Khmer woman lingers like an abandoned lover in a room. There's a Thai man, or actually two, and their treatment of the forgotten ghost is the backbone of this moody, atmospheric film by director Siwaporn Pongsuwan. Bon Srolanh Oun is a Thai movie with a Cambodian title — the meaning of which shouldn't be revealed here, as it's a mini-spoiler — featuring a Thai and Khmer cast, as well as locations in Bangkok and Phnom Penh, and a narrative that smuggles in sly commentary on Thai-Cambodian relationships.
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Excellent exposure
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/11/2014
» At first, no one could imagine how a town without a cinema would host a film festival. Movies need screens, but where's the screen? And we're not just talking about any town — it's Luang Prabang, the enchanting Unesco World Heritage site by the Mekong, the town known better for its rapt serenity and majestic temples than for its role as a movie junction.
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Don’t they know it’s ‘our’ Songkran?
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/03/2014
» Your Honour, ladies and gentlemen of the tribunal of the International Court of Universal Justice. I’ve come to this court today to represent the Cultural Watchdog and Tourism Authority of Thailand, and I henceforth present to the esteemed tribunal the grave, scandalous, hair-raising offence committed by a group of people in Singapore (I think) against the splendid and extremely wet Siamese tradition known as Songkran.
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