Showing 31 - 40 of 62
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.
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.
The purveyors of Islam
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 30/06/2015
» At the age of 12, after finishing Prathom 6, Shakireen Malilee left normal education to study to become a hafiz. Originally from Prachuap Khiri Khan, he moved to an Islamic boarding school in Min Buri, a Bangkok suburb, and devoted himself to the ancient art of memorising the Koran. Every day for eight hours, Shakireen recited from Islamic holy scripture and committed each word, each verse, each page, each chapter into his young brain. After four years, he had memorises the entire book, roughly equivalent of memorising every single word of a 500-page tome. At 16, he achieved the rare honour of being called a hafiz.
Remembering cinema's comic heritage
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 27/02/2015
» A great way to unwind from the Oscar hullabaloo has arrived this week. "Memory! International Film Heritage Festival — Reprise In Thailand" opened last night and will continue until March 6, featuring 11 classic films, from Chaplin to Ozu, Buster Keaton to Jacques Tati, plus a rare Mongolian epic and a Thai comedy classic. For filmgoers who regularly feast on Hollywood's new releases — intensified by the award-season blitz — watching old films on the big screen is an opportunity to find perspectives on cinema history and contemplate the ongoing evolution of the art form.
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.
Rejuvenated cine-fest makes comeback
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/01/2015
» After a two-year absence, the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) has returned with renewed commitment. It has been a lively, substantial week of films, talks, workshops, masterclasses and star presence, as Ken Kwek's black comedy Unlucky Plaza opened the cine-fest on Dec 4, before John Woo and Zhang Ziyi breezed into town with their new film, the World War II epic The Crossing. Then Juliette Binoche, all smiling despite the tropical heat, showed up to present Clouds Of Sils Maria, a touching drama about an ageing actress. Meanwhile, Egyptian director Ahmed Abdulla was around from the beginning as the festival's "Filmmaker in Focus".
Life is short, Lav is long
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/01/2015
» The longest film at the 18th Thai Short Film and Video Festival will run at 250 minutes. That's not particularly short, but it speaks volumes about the cinematic health and enthusiasm offered by the festival that runs until Sept 7.
Diamond is the future
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/01/2015
» The closest thing to Thailand in Cannes this year is, once again, Cambodia. Last year, Rithy Panh arrived at the festival with moving Khmer Rouge documentary The Missing Picture, which went on to win the Un Certain Regard prize and be nominated for an Oscar. This year, at the sidebar Directors’ Fortnight section, Paris-based Davy Chou presents his 21-minute film Cambodia 2099, a rapt, fluid record of the dreams-in-construction that is present-day Phnom Penh.
Missing Picture, Berkeley premiere at Salaya Doc
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/01/2015
» It’s funny and sad that some Thai academics are still embroiled in a debate about whether documentary film is film. Funny, because it is. Sad, because Cambodia, whose film industry and film schools are struggling hard to regain their cultural significance, has a documentary film that won a prize in Cannes and was nominated for the latest Oscars — in the foreign language category where it competed with four other fiction films. That film, The Missing Picture, will finally have a Thailand premier at the “4th Salaya International Documentary Film Festival”, a cine-event that has consistently gained ground and reinforced the importance of documentary filmmaking as art and as a social statement.
A glittering showcase of film
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/01/2015
» Cannes Film Festival opens today with Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, and for the next 12 days the Mediterranean resort town on the French Riviera plays host to the 66th edition of the world's most respected, most influential and most circus-like cine-jamboree. Stars, filmmakers, industry bigwigs and journalists congregate for the annual pilgrimage that celebrates, sanctifies and commercialises cinema to an extent that's both astounding and puzzling.