Showing 1 - 10 of 10
The force is strong with this one
Life, Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana, Published on 04/05/2015
» In 1997, Atis Ruchirawat translated the script of the original Star Wars trilogy for subbing and dubbing in Thai. He didn't need the script, he said. He could recite the dialogue more or less by heart. He even knows the words Greedo and Jabba the Hutt say in their fictional language, though he does not care to speculate whether Greedo or Han Solo shot first. His scope of interest is boxed in by the film itself — he isn't concerned about the numerous spin-offs of the movies or unsolvable hypotheses.
Sculpting Complex, Urban Cityscapes
Life, Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana, Published on 04/03/2015
» Rattana Salee and Therdkiat Wangwatchakul walk the streets of Bangkok, recording what they see with a camera, imprinting images in their minds. Their Bangkok is personal, one that transforms frantically on the surface, and even more tumultuously below. "Representing Localities: Memory And Experience" at Thavibu Gallery presents their lives in the city, where urban development is the setting for sober contemplation.
Illustrating the ideal
Life, Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana, Published on 10/02/2015
» As a child, Tatchamapan Chanchamrassang, aka Pomme Chan, was a nerd, she says. She used to read manga comics and then she starting making up her own stories and drawing her own manga. She loved Ai Yazawa's Nana.
Rich tapestry of Thai society
Life, Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana, Published on 02/02/2015
» All things considered, the 14 stories in the collection translated by Marcel Barang read like a list of social issues a Thai should be aware of: participating in last year's protests without genuine understanding and interest; having an affair with someone of an opposing political colour; the death of red-shirt poet Mai Nueng; violence in the South; hilltop villages; the move from local farms to factory farming. And Buddhism.
Rips and tears, black and blue
Life, Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana, Published on 28/01/2015
» At a New Year's party at CentralWorld, Soopakorn Srisakul took a picture of his friend as she lifted her arm, revealing a tear in her old black tank top. He wanted to frame her tight-fisted nature — her unwillingness to buy a new shirt — but he unintentionally captured something else: the resulting scar from breast implants that peeked through the hole. Soopakorn's arm also appears in the photograph, pushing her hand and hair aside to reveal a secret.
Masterly delve into the video age
Life, Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana, Published on 05/12/2014
» It's so meta sitting at House RCA cinema watching how its founders used to get their fix of indie films.
The leader's true self
Life, Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana, Published on 24/11/2014
» 'A few months ago, the [North Korean] Ministry of Interior issued a statement on TV — 'We will remove your existence from the universe'," says Jang Jin-sung, unfazed, over a decade after he fled North Korea in the middle of the day, across the frozen Yalu River and into China.
Molam's mass movement
Life, Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana, Published on 07/11/2014
» 'Molam can't be tamed," so the old saying goes. The years have certainly proven this true. From now until the end of March next year, the Jim Thompson Art Center presents "Joyful Khaen, Joyful Dance", an exhibition tracing the development of molam from its ritualistic roots in Isan, through its passage as anti-communism propaganda, to its current place in pop culture, where the once rural music is played to the cool or even international crowd of Bangkok.
Finland's world-beating education systemoffers lessons for Thailand
Life, Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana, Published on 28/10/2014
» Besides Marimekko, Nokia, Moomin, saunas and summers without darkness, Finland is also known for its excellence in education. In 1968, the northern European country went through a major educational reform. In the following decades, Finnish students consistently achieved the highest, or near highest, average results in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa).
Raising the yellow flag
Life, Pimrapee Thungkasemvathana, Published on 30/09/2014
» The sky above Chinatown is blocked by a dense layer of yellow flags and lanterns and banners; the air heavy with grease from industrial-sized frying pans. Navigating Yaowarat with any form of transportation, on foot or on a bus, during the past week has been more chaotic than ever. The annual Vegetarian Festival, which ends on Thursday, is celebrated not by just believers, young and old, in white and in every other colour, but also by the media and sponsors ranging from banks to amusement parks.