Showing 81 - 90 of 121
Flag turns the national into factional
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/02/2014
» Red, white and blue. The tricolour Thai national flag has never been this omnipresent.
Reaping what they Sow
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/01/2014
» Rice is what has raised Thailand, but our staple crop hasn't raised many smiles in the Land of Smiles lately. When Uruphong Raksasad set out to make Pleng Khong Khao (The Songs Of Rice) two years ago, he didn't imagine that his documentary would acquire a timely resonance now that the epic mess of the government's rice-pledging scheme has become an escalating imbroglio and national embarrassment. Rice, the filmmaker believes, is the soul of the country, but the song it sings has unfortunately turned into a sad one.
Conceptual reality
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/01/2014
» It is ill-fated irony that an art exhibition which is probably most relevant to the current political havoc is unable to be viewed because of that havoc itself.
All fired up on a one-way trip to purgatory
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 30/11/2013
» Finally, we've arrived at the point where Suthep Thaugsuban wants to be Jennifer Lawrence (I shudder). If not in looks and curves, then in the spirit of her character: the Girl on Fire who sparks hope and conquers fear and plays the unvanquishable Mohican and leads the people - the validly frustrated people - on a path of revolution against the evil president. Soon he'll be asking for a bow and arrows and order a special screening of The Hunger Games on the giant screen at his Ratchadamnoen fortress. Jesus Buddha Mohammed help us, our Man on Fire doesn't seem to realise what Dante and Jatuporn Prompan (another J-Law lookalike) did a few years back: Going to hell is easy, it's coming back alive that is the problem.
Losing land is bad, but don't lose your head
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/11/2013
» Maps are back. Or precisely, the interpretative wildcard that accompanies maps.
Ready to launch
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/11/2013
» Officially and conceptually, this is an Australian film. Linguistically and thematically, it is a Lao one, while practically and physically, it is very much Thai. Never mind nationality, a good film is a good film. And in a dream that seems wild but certainly not the wildest, The Rocket is perhaps good enough (it has to be lucky enough too) to make it to the shortlist for the best foreign language Oscar, which means the Lao and Thai actors, along with the Australian filmmakers, will get to saunter down the famous red carpet in Los Angeles next February to present this lovely film.
Striking with a pose
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 30/08/2013
» How frustrating it is to get stuck in the middle _ limbo _ somewhere between the past that hasn't been forgotten and the future that hasn't yet arrived. How sad to think we're adults when we're just children who dream of advancement, of reason, of democracy, of being something else we're probably not ready to be (though we're trying hard to be), something we struggle to grasp the basics of, like a runner with one shoe, or a dancer clumsily scrambling to get into her first pose. What's worse, we realise, is that as we're fighting to move forward, deep-seated fears, doubts and mental weaknesses hold us back and convince us that our will alone, or our human power and ability alone, is never enough and we're condemned to forever rely on something invisible, something divine, something supernatural, something we're not sure we believe in yet have no choice but to keep believing.
Silly 'Arab' soap opera lights the fires of mistrust
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/08/2013
» The Middle East becomes a scene of a great romance. The people are cool. The camels are cute. The sky is blue, boundless, and the smooth ridges of the sand dunes are as seductive as the chiselled face of the beardless Muslim sheikh, whose handsome head is wrapped in a chequered keffiyeh.
Radiohead redux
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/07/2013
» Every day Amnarj Sonimsart wakes up at 3am. "That's normal for an 80-year-old," he chuckles. The first thing he does is flick on the TV to catch BBC and CNN; then he checks the stock and oil prices, noting down important fluctuations for later use. At 4.20am _ he states the time with the casual precision of someone who's been following the same schedule without fail for a long time _ his driver takes him from his house in Pattanakarn to the radio station in Lumpini Park ("my daughter forbids me from driving"). At 5.10, Amnarj begins sipping a cup of Ovaltine while scouring the Thai-language newspapers laid out for him, lighting on items of interest and quickly digesting their contents. On the dot of 5.50am, he prepares for a task he's performed for 46 years straight: leaning slightly forward, he gets ready to switch on his mic and go on air.
Hell's angel
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/07/2013
» With serene conviction, Nicolas Winding Refn baptises Bangkok as the new capital of Hell. In the blood-lusting new movie Only God Forgives, which opens tomorrow, the Danish director transforms our city of lost angels into a delirious nightmare _ even a torture chamber _ as his American characters face the nihilistic retribution of their own making, with a lot of help from Oriental mysticism.