Showing 41 - 50 of 64
All eyes on Asia
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/10/2018
» Asia's premier cine-event took off last night. The 23rd Busan International Film Festival once again draws all attention to the South Korean port city as it hosts the annual showcase of films, especially Asian films. One part to promote the South Korean film industry -- a formidable machine of creativity and commerce -- and one part to reign as a centre of filmmaking activity in this part of the world, Busan has gone through some bumps, political and managerial, but remains steadfast in being in the biggest in Asia.
Keeping it real
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/10/2018
» Boonsong Nakphoo keeps making movies, regardless of the obstacles. A champion of small people and small stories, he has lamented the difficulties of surviving in the movie business for years and yet he keeps churning out film after film, usually on a meagre budget. His latest output is now in cinemas: Nane Kradod Kampaeng (The Wall) recounts his own early struggle to make it as a filmmaker.
Edgy art in the Northeast
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/10/2018
» It began on Oct 6, but it's not too late to check out the edgy art festival Khonkaen Manifesto, taking place at various sites around the northeastern province until Oct 26.
The pastoral romance returns
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/09/2018
» The star-crossed lovers coo. They ride their buffaloes through a verdant field, splash mud, evade spiteful parents, and make a vow at the shrine of the banyan tree. But their romance, like all memorable romances in books and life, is doomed by the circumstances of fate, tragic and scarred, and their destiny is one of the most heartbreaking in the canon of Siamese literature and film.
Romance and rage
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/07/2018
» The air in that rural village is impregnated by unsettling emotions and propaganda announcements from loudspeakers. Three people sit drinking and talking in front of an old house: an honest, confused young man; a pretty, even also confused young woman; and a rich, suave, sport-car-driving playboy, so sure of himself and the power he has over the other two.
Will gentrification respect city's people?
Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/06/2023
» We've lived for over a century in the shadow of grandeur: near the Customs House, known to Thais as rongpasi. "We" means my maternal family and the community of Haroon Mosque. Each day before sunrise, the muezzin's sing-song call rings through the neighbourhood, carried on the river wind towards the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the French Embassy and Assumption Cathedral.
Harry takes Bangkok in Styles
Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/03/2023
» The accessory du jour was the fluffy pink boa. The color scheme was hot pink - pink pants, pink boots, pink cowboy hats, pink eye-shadow, pink hijabs. Or if not pink, then anything in the tooth-aching shades of the rainbow. It was a lively, joyous sight on Saturday night, a show of hot-colored aesthetics in a defiant contrast to the brutalist concrete skeleton of Rajamangala Stadium. How I wish concrete-mad Bangkok could look like this every day!
Return to paradise
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/01/2022
» At Maya Bay, hawk-eyed park officials patrol the sandy stretch, whistles at the ready. It was a gorgeous morning last Thursday, just days after the fabled beach on Phi Phi Leh Island had reopened after three years of closure, and the 300 or so holidaymakers, masked or otherwise, were ambling or striking catwalk poses on the pillow-soft sand, awestruck by the emerald splendour around them.
‘Memoria’ featured in Cannes
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 03/06/2021
» A Thai-directed film starring Tilda Swinton has been selected into the main competition of Cannes Film Festival 2021, the first time in 11 years that a Thai filmmaker will be featured at the top tier of the prestigious festival.