Dib Bangkok

Dib Bangkok opened on 21st December last year, and its inaugural exhibition, Invisible Presence (ล่องไม่หน), runs until 3rd August. The museum was founded by a Thai businessman with an arts background, though he died in 2023 before construction was completed.

One of the highlights of Invisible Presence is the video installation Emerald (มรกต), in which Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s camera glides elegiacally through a deserted hotel. Emerald was previously shown at Tomyam Pladib (ต้มยำปลาดิบ), Save the Film, Indy Spirit Project, the International Buddhist Film Festival, and the Thailand Biennale.

Dib is billed as Thailand’s first contemporary art museum, though that’s not really accurate, as the Museum of Contemporary Art opened in Bangkok in 2012, and the MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum opened in Chiang Mai in 2016. Like MoCA and MAIIAM, Dib has its strengths and weaknesses.

On the positive side:

• All three museums have stunning architecture. Dib has an impressive courtyard, a conical ‘chapel’ gallery, and a cylindrical tower (James Turrell’s Straight Up). Similarly, MAIIAM has a dazzling mirrored façade, and the MoCA building is a vast granite structure.
• Dib has a genuinely contemporary collection, with an emphasis on installation art from the past thirty years. This is also true of MAIIAM, though MoCA (despite its name) focuses on traditional figurative and religious paintings.
• Dib’s permanent collection is a combination of Thai and international artworks. On the other hand, MAIIAM and MoCA both exhibit work exclusively by Thai artists.

But on the negative side:

• Dib is overstaffed: each of its galleries has several attendants keeping a close watch on visitors. This is similar to MoCA, though MAIIAM allows people to explore its galleries relatively unsupervised.
• Dib is expensive to visit: its admission price is as much as MoCA and MAIIAM’s combined. Also, Dib has a dual-pricing policy, charging foreign visitors extra, whereas MoCA and MAIIAM charge all nationalities equally.
• All three museums depend on the tastes of their founders. Dib was founded by Petch Osathanugrah, and its permanent collection consists of works purchased by him. Similarly, MoCA is based on the private collection of Boonchai Bencharongkul, and MAIIAM’s holdings were collected by its founders Jean Michel Beurdeley and Patrsi Bunnag.

Retrospective!!! by Koraphat Cheeradit

The Us coffee shop in Phatthalung will show a complete retrospective of films by Koraphat Cheeradit on 8th March. The event, organised by Phatthalung Micro Cinema, includes Koraphat’s short films ...Tomorrow I Fuck with Yesterday Now!, Yesterday Is Another Day, Believe a Lust, Landscape of Us on Fire, and Hydrangea, amongst others.

...Tomorrow I Fuck with Yesterday Now!

...Tomorrow I Fuck with Yesterday Now!, shown at Wildtype 2024, begins with a young man stumbling around in a woodland. The aimless protagonist is filmed in a continuous take, with double-exposures constantly fading in and out. Birdsong and other bucolic, ambient sounds soon give way to a non-diegetic locomotive on the soundtrack, which gradually rises to a crescendo. Visually, this is matched by bursts of rapid-fire shots, each lasting for only a single frame, that are perceived only subliminally.

Some of these inserts are faux-naïf: white doves and heart emojis, symbolising peace and love. Other flash frames are more extreme: Koraphat juxtaposes sex and violence in split-second montages of anatomical drawings, erections, Ukrainian war casualties in Bucha, Nazi troops, and riot police firing water cannon at Thai protesters.

Yesterday Is Another Day

In Yesterday Is Another Day, a high school student plays hooky and meets his girlfriend in a woodland. They take a walk, and joke about their future together, seemingly without a care in the world. But there are ominous signs of impending threats: they find a discarded handgun, and Koraphat inserts shots of a JCB digging up the forest.

Eventually, we learn that the student is being charged with lèse-majesté, for sharing Facebook posts. His court hearing is the following day, and he is likely to be jailed. (The film doesn’t state directly that he’s facing royal defamation charges, though it’s clear from the couple’s conversation: he explains that the sentence is three years per offence, which is the minimum jail term for lèse-majesté.)

The prospect of criminal charges for posting on social media is a reality for dozens of people in Thailand today, many of whom are students. As the boy in Koraphat’s film says to his girlfriend, he has to face changing from “being a teenager to being a prisoner.”

Yesterday Is Another Day is a moving reminder of the severe consequences of lèse-majesté. It’s a less angry film than ...Tomorrow I Fuck with Yesterday Now!, though the two films do have something in common: their titles are both puns on ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’. (Yesterday Is Another Day refers to ‘tomorrow is another day’, popularised by Gone with the Wind).

Yesterday Is Another Day and ...Tomorrow I Fuck with Yesterday Now! were both shown as part of the Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน) on 19th November 2023. Yesterday Is Another Day was also shown at Wildtype 2023, at The Political Wanderer, and (twice) at the Chiang Mai Film Festival (เทศกาลหนังแห่งเมืองเชียงใหม่).

Believe a Lust
Landscape of Us on Fire

Believe a Lust is only a few minutes long, though it’s a powerful and provocative film, as it shows a novice monk masturbating in a toilet cubicle. It was shown as part of the online Short Film Marathon on 31st October 2024.

Landscape of Us on Fire also challenges the taboo against depicting the sexual desires of monks. In the film, a monk hires a prostitute, and the poster image — of a monk’s hand on a woman’s back — recalls a shot in Kanittha Kwunyoo’s previously banned film Karma (อาปัติ). Landscape of Us on Fire was shown at the Isan Creative Festival (เทศกาลอีสานสร้างสรรค์) on 28th June 2024, in the Short Film Marathon on 5th November 2024, and at the Chiang Mai Film Festival in July 2025.

The nearest equivalent to Believe a Lust and Landscape of Us on Fire is probably Watcharapol Paksri’s short film All Done in the Opposite of Afternoon [sic] (วัฏสงสาร), which was shown at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya on 8th September 2018. (Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses the representation of monks in Thai films in much more detail.)

Hydrangea

Hydrangea takes place on the seventh anniversary of the 2014 coup. As in Yesterday Is Another Day, beneath its romantic surface lies a political subtext. The film’s credits call directly for an alternative to the ideology of the military government.

Spirit

Last year, Liberate P released a digital EP titled Spirit. The EP included two new tracks, The State-mandated Smile (เผด็จการที่มีธรรมาภิบาล) and Oppression (เอาให้ตาย), both of which begin with the same lyrics condemning state violence against political protesters. The State-mandated Smile criticises the military for ‘tearing the constitution into shreds’ (“ฉีกรัฐธรรมนูญเป็นขี้ผง”), and Oppression accuses the authorities of treating people’s lives ‘like fish or vegetables’ (“ชีวิตคนไม่ใช่ผักปลา”).

Today, the music video for Oppression was released. Directed by Teeraphan Ngowjeenanan (who made A Teeraphanny Joint last year), it features a man being beaten up and hit with a folding chair, in an echo of the infamous Neal Ulevich photograph from 6th October 1976.

The Spirit EP also featured two older tracks, สิ่งที่ประเทศกูไม่มี (‘what my country doesn’t have’) and Oc(t)ygen. สิ่งที่ประเทศกูไม่มี comments on the arrests of student protesters for three-finger salutes and other symbolic anti-government actions: “แค่กูชูสามกูแดกแซนวิชก็ติดคุก” (‘holding up three fingers or eating sandwiches can land you in jail’). Oc(t)ygen is a response to 6th October 1976.

Exploring Society: India and Beyond

India’s Supreme Court has acted swiftly to ban a school textbook, as it contains material critical of the country’s judiciary. The eighth grade social sciences book, Exploring Society: India and Beyond (vol. 2), was published by National Council of Educational Research and Training yesterday, and the Supreme Court’s strongly-worded verdict was issued today.

The book includes a chapter titled The Role of the Judiciary in Our Society, which states that “the judicial system in our country has a massive backlog.” It also outlines the potential penalties for corrupt judges, though it makes no assessmemt of the extent of judicial corruption.

The Supreme Court ruled that “a complete blanket ban is hereby imposed on any further publication, reprinting or digital dissemination of the book” with immediate effect. NCERT issued a press release noting that “it has been observed that certain inappropriate textual material and error of judgement have inadvertently crept into” the offending chapter.

Another Indian textbook, Enjoying Cursive Writing, was banned for blasphemy in 2010. The book Godman to Tycoon was banned in India in 2017 after a court injunction.

คุณหนูประเทศไท้ย กับกกต.ทั้งเจ็ด (‘Thailand and the seven ECT members’)

Rap Against Dictatorship released singles in the days before Thailand’s two most recent elections: 250 Bootlickers (250 สอพลอ) dropped two days before the 2019 election, and I’m the One Who Gets to Decide (คนที่ตัดสินใจคือฉันเอง) came out six days ahead of the 2023 election. Thailand held another election this year, on 8th February, and Rap Against Dictatorship have again released a new single, this time in the aftermath of the vote.

The band’s new song, คุณหนูประเทศไท้ย กับกกต.ทั้งเจ็ด (‘Thailand and the seven ECT members’), criticises the Election Commission of Thailand, after allegations of irregularities in the election process. (Even two weeks after the election, only 94% of the votes have been officially counted by the ECT, and there have been protests over the use of QR codes and barcodes on ballot papers.)

The song’s animated video was designed by PrachathipaType, with a hand motif (also available as a t-shirt) inspired by the Saul Bass film poster for The Man with the Golden Arm. This is the band’s fourth collaboration with PrachathipaType, after Homeland (บ้านเกิดเมืองนอน), กอ เอ๋ย กอ กราบ (‘k is for krap’), and Budget (งบประมาณ).

The ECT were previously criticised over their apparent mismanagement of the 2014 election, when polling stations were understaffed. In fact, an ECT member was even quoted saying that the 2014 election should be cancelled, as it may lead to a coup (although admittedly his prediction was accurate). The 2006 election was invalidated by the Constitutional Court, which ruled that the ECT was biased in favour of the winning party, Thai Rak Thai.

Rap Against Dictatorship’s most famous single is the anthemic My Country Has (ประเทศกูมี). Their other tracks include Sunflower (ดอกทานตะวัน), Burning Sky (ไฟไหม้ฟ้า), Reform (ปฏิรูป), Ta Lu Fah (ทะลุฟ้า), and 16 ปีแล้วไอ้สัส (‘it’s been 16 years, ai sat’).

Censor Must Die

Ing K.’s Shakespeare Must Die (เชคสเปียร์ต้องตาย) was banned by the Ministry of Culture in 2012. In an interview for Thai Cinema Uncensored, Ing didn’t mince her words, calling the censor board “a bunch of trembling morons with the power of life and death over our films.” At an event last year, she described her furious reaction when the Administrative Court rejected her appeal in 2017: “อาจจะใกล้เป็นผู้ก่อการร้ายมากที่สุดในชีวิตนะ” (‘that might be the closest I’ve ever been to becoming a terrorist’).

Thai Cinema Uncensored features an insider’s account from a member of the appeals committee, who said he was obliged by his department head to vote against releasing the film: “I had to vote no, because it was an instruction from my director. But if I could have voted freely, I would have voted yes.” The book also includes a complete account of the film’s censorship history.

Ing fought the censors all the way to the Supreme Court, which finally lifted the ban on 20th February 2024. She documented her legal battle in the film Censor Must Die (เซ็นเซอร์ต้องตาย), which follows producer Manit Sriwanichpoom as he files a case with the Office of the National Human Rights Commission. Censor Must Die will be shown at Cinema Oasis in Bangkok tomorrow, to mark the second anniversary of Ing’s Supreme Court victory.

Censor Must Die’s most revealing scene takes place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture: in the lobby, a TV plays a video demonstrating polite and respectful Thai etiquette. The video encapsulates the ministry’s didactic and outdated interpretation of Thai culture, and it was parodied by the mock instructional video “How to Behave Elegantly Like a Thai” in Sorayos Prapapan’s film Arnold Is a Model Student (อานนเป็นนักเรียนตัวอย่าง).

Censor Must Die premiered at the Freedom on Film (สิทธิหนังไทย) seminar in 2013. It was shown a few months later at the Film Archive, and had private screenings at Silpakorn University and the Friese-Greene Club. Its first commercial screenings were at Cinema Oasis in 2020, and it has been shown there on a regular basis since 2024.

Delusional

Delusional (หลงผิด), featuring new works by Manit Sriwanichpoom and Akkara Naktamna, opened yesterday at West Eden in Bangkok. The exhibition is the first in the gallery’s Shadow Archives series, and it runs until 12th April.

Delusional examines “the suffocating realities of life” in a quasi-democratic system. Manit takes that description literally, with a series of photographs of people with bags covering their heads, titled Portraits of Thai Citizen (ภาพเหมือนบุคคลพลเมืองไทย). The bags have red, white, and blue stripes, the colours of the Thai flag.

Beyond their metaphorical meaning, Manit’s images also refer to corrupt police chief Thitisan Utthanaphon, who murdered drug suspect Jeerapong Thanapat by suffocating him during an interrogation. The exhibition includes a CCTV video of the incident (ironically retitled How to Become a Thai Citizen), which made headlines in 2021. The killing also inspired a powerful cartoon by Arun Watcharasawad in Matichon Weekly (มติชนสุดสัปดาห์; vol. 42, no. 2142).

The Thitisan case has previously been referenced in two very different films. In the audacious opening sequence of Nontawat Numbenchapol’s Doi Boy (ดอยบอย), a cop with a guilty conscience has flashbacks of himself suffocating an anti-government protester. In contrast, Poj Arnon’s Oh My Ghost! 8 (หอแต๋วแตกแหก โควิดปังปุริเย่) includes a tasteless and offensive scene in which the suffocation is played for laughs by a group of aristocratic women.

Delusional also features Akkara’s Failing Dreams (ล้มฝัน) and Felling Dreams (ฝันล้ม). Failing Dreams is a series of thirteen photographs of Democracy Monument, the images distorted due to interference in a television signal. The implication is that tapping the TV set would briefly rectify the picture, just as protests and elections attempt to restore democracy.

Other artists — Suwaporn Worrasit’s short film Ratchadamnoen Route View 2482+, for example — have used images of Democracy Monument under construction as a metaphor for incomplete democracy, though Failing Dreams goes a stage further. The nearest equivalent to Failing Dreams is perhaps Thunsita Yanuprom and Sarun Channiam’s short film Democrazy.mov, in which a cellphone signal is jammed by a 44GHz frequency, a reference to article 44 of the 2014 interim constitution, which granted absolute power to the leaders of the 2014 coup.

There have been thirteen successful coups in Thailand, and Felling Dreams features photos of the thirteen coup leaders shown on a TV screen. This not only hints at the source of the interference from Failing Dreams, it also refers to television as the traditional medium used to announce Thai coups. (Natthapol Kitwarasai’s short film Coup d’état also includes photos of each coup leader.)

Beyond the Border

Nontawat Numbenchapol’s documentary Boundary (ฟ้าต่ำแผ่นดินสูง) will be shown tomorrow at Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Social Sciences in Bangkok. The screening is part of an event titled Beyond the Border, and will be followed by discussion with Nontawat on the subject of ประเด็นพื้นที่ชายแดนไทย-กัมพูชาในบริบทการเมืองไทยร่วมสมัย (‘the issue of the Thai-Cambodian border in the context of contemporary politics’).

Boundary documents the 2008 conflict between Thailand and Cambodia when the disputed Preah Vihear Temple was exploited for nationalist political gain. But it remains a topical film, as another border dispute between the two countries took place last year, and the issue was a significant factor in Bhumjaithai’s election victory last week.

The Bouquet and the Wreath

The Bouquet and the Wreath (ข้อมาลา), a retrospective exhibition covering Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s entire artistic career, opened at MAIIAM in Chiang Mai last year, and has now transferred to Dubai. The exhibition catalogue, edited by curators Roger Nelson and Kittima Chareeprasit, was published this month, in a limited edition of 700 copies. Among the new essays in the catalogue is The Estate of Death by Luckana Kunavichayanont, which examines Araya’s videos filmed at a morgue, such as The Class (ชั้นเรียน).

Anutin Charnvirakul:“Nationalism is in the heart of everybody in Bhumjaithai...”

Anutin Charnvirakul’s Bhumjaithai party achieved an unexpected election win yesterday, with an increase of more than 100 seats since the last vote in 2023. More predictably, Pheu Thai suffered a significant decline, losing almost half of their seats. The People’s Party, which won the last election, lost almost a quarter of their seats, finishing in second place.

At a press conference last night, Anutin said (in English): “Nationalism is in the heart of everybody in Bhumjaithai party.” This goes a long way to explain his election victory, as the defence of the country — following last year’s border war with Cambodia — was central to his campaign. This was in stark contrast to Pheu Thai, whose former leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra was dismissed as prime minister following her obsequious phone call with former Cambodian PM Hun Sen.

Since he became PM last September, following Paetongtarn’s dismissal, Anutin has increased his power base, with dozens of MPs (including fifty from United Thai Nation) defecting from other parties to join Bhumjaithai. The People’s Party must now be bitterly regretting their confidence-and-supply agreement with Anutin, which — from their perspective — has backfired spectacularly. Their only consolation is that they achieved a clean sweep in Bangkok, winning all thirty-three constituencies in the capital.

There are numerous reasons for Pheu Thai’s losses. They ran a campaign that was even more blatantly populist than usual, promising to hold daily lotteries with ฿1 million prizes. Their de facto leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, is in jail, yet the party is still reliant on Thaksin family members — this time, his nephew Yodchanan Wongsawat — for its prime-ministerial candidates. And Pheu Thai have surely lost considerable support since 2023, after breaking their pledge not to form a coalition with pro-military parties.

Yesterday’s votes also included a preliminary referendum asking whether the constitution should be rewritten. There was a majority in favour of a new constitution, with a striking north/south divide: almost all constituencies in northern and central Thailand voted in favour, while almost all constituencies in the south voted against. With the conservative Bhumjaithai in power, any changes to the constitution are likely to be limited.