• LIFE

  That's entertainment!

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/12/2014

  » The year in Thai movies, music and theatre

• LIFE

  13 to watch

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/01/2015

  » Dizzying. That's what it feels like to glance at the line-up of blockbusters and desirable titles slated for the next 12 months. This will be a very busy year at the cinemas with the intense parade of blockbusters, sequels, reboots and scavenged superheroes in search of redemption or glory — all the more reason for multiplex regulars to rejoice after a somewhat jaded 2014.

• LIFE

  Mongkut, reinterpreted

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/03/2015

  » When Arin Rungjang learned of the art heist near Paris earlier this month, the Thai artist had good reason to feel concerned. At dawn on March 1, thieves broke into a high-security wing of the Chateau de Fontainebleau and made off with 15 priceless works of Asian art, including Phra Maha Mongkut Longya, a replica of a royal crown studded with rubies, pearls, emerald and diamonds. It was one of several royal tributes presented to Emperor Napoleon III by King Rama IV in 1861.

• LIFESTYLE

  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.

• LIFE

  Bowie, in film

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/01/2016

  » A shape-shifter on stage, David Bowie naturally found a new home in acting. Over the past 40 years, the late performer starred in many films -- though acting seemed more like another one of his experimental projects -- working with top directors such as Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan and the late Tony Scott, and playing roles from vampire and wizard, to alien and Andy Warhol (in Basquiat, a biopic of the artist by Julian Schnabel). It would be impossible to list them all, so here are my five picks on Bowie's screen performances.

• LIFE

  The late, late show

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/06/2016

  » Normally prime time for television is 8-11pm or thereabouts, the period when the family gathers to watch news and series while having dinner. So it will come as a surprise to many that for Muslim audiences during this month of Ramadan, prime time for television is closer to a graveyard shift -- 3-4.30am, deep in the night while most people are asleep -- as families wake up for the pre-dawn meal before a full day of fasting.

• LIFE

  Chuga-Chug! Here come the zombies!

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/08/2016

  » Zombies overrunning a high-speed train, what more could you ask for.

• LIFE

  Bibliomaniacal pursuits

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/09/2016

  » Writer, editor and publisher Kittiphol Saragganonda sums up the glorious role of a book nerd. With an encyclopaedic knowledge of literature, Kittiphol breathes books and lives in the shuffle of their pages, and that's an enviable existence, especially since he runs the store Books and Belongings. Recently he was instrumental in crowdsourcing the complete Thai translation of Moby-Dick, while his 1001 Editions puts out translations of philosophical literature and novels.

• LIFE

  The outspoken monk

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/05/2017

  » At the start The Venerable W., we see the firebrand Myanmar monk Ashin Wirathu speaking to the camera, calmly and casually. He talks about the African catfish, a creature that "grows fast, breeds a lot and is violent". The punchline is not totally unpredictable: "Muslims are like that."

• LIFE

  Windows on the world

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/09/2017

  » As Hussain Currimbhoy sees it, this is a golden age for documentary filmmaking, a time when the criss-crossing narratives of the world tangle with audiences' growing suspicion over traditional media. The emergence of streaming services has also revolutionised distribution philosophy and connected doc-makers with audiences in ways unseen before, especially with audiences who once had little interest in documentary titles.

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