Insects in the Backyard

Identity Unbound: ท้าว/ข้าม, a two-day season of films marking Pride Month, will take place at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya on 20th and 21st June. The event will begin with a screening of Tanwarin Sukkhapisit’s Insects in the Backyard (อินเซค อินเดอะ แบ็คยาร์ด).

Insects in the Backyard premiered at the World Film Festival of Bangkok in 2010, though requests for a general theatrical release were denied, making it the first film formally banned under the Film and Video Act of 2008. When the censors vetoed a screening at the Film Archive in 2010, Tanwarin cremated a DVD of the film, in a symbolic funeral. (The ashes are kept in an urn at the Thai Film Museum.) Tanwarin appealed to the National Film Board, which upheld the ban, so she sued the censors in the Administrative Court.

As Tanwarin explained in an interview for Thai Cinema Uncensored, the censors condemned the entire film: “When we asked the committee who considered the film which scenes constituted immorality, they simply said that they thought every scene is immoral”. When she appealed to the Film Board, they were equally dismissive: “we were told by one of the committee members that we should have made the film in a ‘good’ way. This was said as if we did not know how to produce a good movie, and no clear explanation was given.”

On Christmas Day 2015, the Administrative Court ruled that Insects in the Backyard could be released if a single shot was removed. (The three-second shot shows a hardcore clip from a gay porn video.) Although the film was censored, the verdict represented a victory of sorts, as the court overturned the censors’ ruling that the film was immoral. As Tanwarin said in her Thai Cinema Uncensored interview: “we considered that we had won the case, because the cut doesn’t have an impact on the rest of the film”.

Following the court’s decision, the film was shown at House Rama, Bangkok Screening Room, Sunandha Rajabhat University, ChangChui, and Lido Connect. It was shown at the Film Archive in 2018, 2020, and 2023.

Insects in the Backyard was finally released after five years of legal challenges, though fortunately Thailand’s film censorship has since been liberalised. In 2024, two government committees tasked with increasing the country’s soft power proposed that the Film and Video Act of 2008 should be replaced with a system of self-regulation by the film industry, and since that announcement there have been no further film censorship controversies.

At a discussion in Phimai last year, Tanwarin described how the film industry had fought for the introduction of the 2008 film law (“ซึ่งเราก็ต่อสู้กันมาอย่างยาวนานนะกว่าจะได้ พ.ร.บ. ภาพยนตร์ปี”), and said that the decision to ban her film had made her cry (“ซึ่งตอนนั้นรีแอคก็คือก็เสียใจก็ร้องไห้นะฮะ”). She described the Administrative Court’s verdict as both a defeat and a victory (“เราแพ้แต่เราชนะ”).

Interestingly, she explained that she had specifically conceived Insects in the Backyard to be the first film to be rated ‘20’, the highest classification in the rating system. Her intention had been to take advantage of the adult rating by making an explicit film, though she hadn’t expected it to be banned outright (“พอเราเป็นคนทําเนี่ยเราก็วางแผนชัดเจนนะว่าหนังเราจะต้องได้เป็นหนังไทยเรื่องแรกที่ได้เรตติ้ง ‘20’... แต่เราก็ไม่นึกว่ามันจะเลยเถิดจนถึง: อืม ห้ามฉายโดนแบนนะครับ”).

Tanwarin also recalled how, when the ban was announced, she was criticised online for making what many considered a ‘sissy’ film. The bitter irony, she said, was that people were opposed to the film because they didn’t understand transsexuality, which the film would have given them a better understanding of (“เป็นเพราะความไม่เข้าใจ ซึ่งมันก็ตรงกับสิ่งที่เราต้องการนําเสนออยู่ในหนัง”).

Insects in the Backyard, a restaurant named after the film, closed in 2021. Its name was appropriate, as it featured water beetles, crickets, ants, and other insects on the menu.

Blue Collar: แรงงาน วิญญาณ ความฝัน (‘labour, soul, dreams’)

Blue Collar: แรงงาน วิญญาณ ความฝัน (‘labour, soul, dreams’), a new season of films about working-class characters, runs from 1st to 29th May at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya. The programme included a screening of the classic On the Waterfront — featuring Marlon Brando’s iconic “I coulda been a contender” monologue — on 3rd May. Tomorrow, there will be a screening of Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s A Useful Ghost (ผีใช้ได้ค่ะ), and Ratchapoom will take part in a Q&A after the screening.

The story of Mae Nak — the Thai legend in which a young woman dies and returns as a ghost to reunite with her husband — has been retold dozens of times, including in the blockbuster Pee Mak (พี่มาก .. พระโขนง) starring Davika Hoorne. (I wrote about the various Mae Nak adaptations for Encounter Thailand magazine.) Davika also stars in A Useful Ghost, though there’s a bizarre twist to the tale: she plays Nat, a ghost that returns to her husband March not as a traditional spectre, but as a haunted vacuum cleaner. (The names Nat and March evoke those of Mae Nak and her husband Mak.)

In A Useful Ghost, the restless spirits of the dead possess domestic appliances, either to be near their loved ones or, in most cases, to torment the people responsible for their deaths. Inhaling toxic dust particles seems to be a common cause of death, hence the possessed vacuums, and this is a reflection of real life: Bangkok and Chiang Mai are notorious for their air pollution.

Ratchapoom’s film begins as an absurd comedy, as the haunted Hoover trundles around. (A Useful Ghost shares its sense of deadpan humour with the short films of Sorayos Prapapan.) In a hilarious early sequence, a monk insults Nat’s ghost, prompting a debate among his fellow monks: “Sir, we’re holy men. We shouldn’t use words like ‘cunt’ too liberally.”

In its second half, A Useful Ghost becomes much darker. We discover that some appliances are haunted by victims of political violence: Dr Paul, a government minister, complains that he can’t sleep due to the sounds of gunshots replayed by the ghosts of those who died at Ratchaprasong in 2010. It’s this noise, not his conscience, keeping him awake at night.

Dr Paul leads a decadent lifestyle, and seems to have authority everywhere he goes, yet his ministerial portfolio is unspecified. This ambiguity, and his generic name, are presumably intended to avoid any association with real-life politicians. His wife complains about protesters who revive memories of the 1976 Thammasat massacre and the 1932 revolution, and a subplot about the dismantling of a frieze also refers to the removal of monuments commemorating 1932.

The film shifts in tone from comedy to political satire, as Nat taps into people’s dreams and the state uses electroconvulsive therapy to erase the memories of the ghosts’ living relatives. (If people can’t remember the deceased in their dreams, then the ghosts disappear.) The ECT not only eliminates the ghosts, it also ensures that any memories of state atrocities are erased, and March resists this brainwashing by reading a (fictional) book about Ratchaprasong. As he tells Nat, she is helping to delete history, so he is trying to preserve it.

The forgetting of political violence is also a key theme in the sci-fi film Taklee Genesis (ตาคลี เจเนซิส), the short film Transmissions of Unwanted Pasts (วงโคจรของความทรงจำ), the video installation Delete Our History, Now! (อำนาจ/การลบทิ้ง), the exhibitions Amnesia and Unforgetting History, the novel The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth (ไส้เดือนตาบอดในเขาวงกต), and Wichaya Artamat’s new play The Dead Still Riot. In fact, that play’s title also describes the ending of A Useful Ghost.

There are three short films featuring the ghosts of Ratchaprasong massacre victims: We Will Forget It Again (แล้วเราจะลืมมันอีกครั้ง) — which also deals with the theme of forgetting the past — This House Have Ghost [sic], and Hush, Tonight the Dead Are Dreaming Loudly. (Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses the history of Thai political filmmaking.)

As in Ten Years Thailand and Supernatural (เหนือธรรมชาติ), A Useful Ghost uses dystopian science-fiction to comment on present-day Thailand. Like the film’s scientists wiping memories, successive military governments have sought to suppress discussion of controversial events. The result of this whitewashing is a cycle of nascent democratic reforms repeatedly reset by military coups, as forgotten history is destined to repeat itself.

A Useful Ghost’s initial focus on dust and vacuum cleaners is given an additional resonance in its second half. In Thailand, the idiom ‘dust under the feet’ refers to people swept under the carpet like insignificant specks of dust. The film’s cathartic ending hints at this metaphorical meaning of ‘dust’, as the ghosts wreak their revenge on Dr Paul while dust particles are shown glittering in the air.

Beam Wong: Selected Moving Images 2015–2026

This evening, the Goethe-Institut in Bangkok will show a partial retrospective of short films by Beam Wong. Selected Moving Images 2015–2026 includes his music video Long Live the Sin from 2021, which features imagery associated with the three-finger protest movement. Today’s retrospective is the first event in the Goethe-Institut’s Stack V_Circuits screening programme.

Abstract Art:A Global History

Pepe Karmel’s Abstract Art: A Global History was first published in 2020, followed by an expanded edition last year. Karmel begins with a close analysis of major paintings by “the three best-known creators of abstract art” — Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrain, and Kazimir Malevich — and identifies apparent figurative origins within their abstract compositions. He then applies this method to later abstract artists: “If these key examples from the history of abstraction reveal concealed subject matter, perhaps the same is true of all abstract art.”

This informs his central thesis, that abstract art is the culmination of a creative process involving the transformation of figurative imagery: “The argument of this book, in brief, is that abstract artists always begin with a visual theme or archetype combining abstract forms with meanings generated by associations with the real world.” Note his use of words such as “all” and “always”: these are bold claims.

Karmel also rejects a chronological approach to art history, explaining that it’s not possible to cover each of the various movements and ‘isms’ that influenced the development of abstract art: “There is no narrative thread that could hold all of these together.” Nevertheless, previous histories of the subject, beginning with Michel Seuphor’s +Dictionary of Abstract Art and Abstract Painting, had a more traditional chronological structure.

Instead, Karmel’s book is organised thematically, into five broad categories: bodies, landscapes, cosmologies, architectures, and signs and patterns. Again, this imposes figurative origins onto abstract images, and despite the book’s subtitle, the result is a selective survey rather than a comprehensive history. (Karmel admits that any examples that contradict his argument have been excluded.) But it’s still the first major study of abstract art in more than thirty years, and it has an extensive bibliography.

When discussing the origins of abstract art, Karmel cites František Kupka’s 1912 painting Amorpha as a precursor to the Kandinsky/Mondrain/Malevich triumvirate. He is also among several writers in recent years who credit Hilma af Klint as a previously unsung pioneer of geometric abstraction. But there are two even earlier abstract artists who go unmentioned: Arnaldo Ginna and Victor Hugo.

Ginna’s 1908 painting Nevrastenia (‘neurasthenia’) has been described as “probably the first abstract painting in the history of Western art” (in Giannalberto Bendazzi’s Cartoons). Hugo’s fascinating stain-paintings were created from random splashes of ink, one of which was even titled Abstract Composition. (The work is undated, though it was produced in the 1860s.)

The Spiritual in Art, the 1986 exhibition that first rediscovered af Klint, was also arranged according to five themes, though only one of which (cosmic imagery, like the cosmologies chapter in Karmel’s book) was related to figurative images. Its extensive exhibition catalogue, edited by curator Maurice Tuchman, featured chapters covering artists and movements rather than visual classifications.

Chinatown

Roman Polanski’s neo-noir classic Chinatown will be shown at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya on 26th June. It was previously shown at Doc Club and Pub in 2024, and at Smalls in 2019.

House ClassicsThe Edge

Bangkok’s House Samyan cinema has announced the films in this year’s House Classics season. The theme this time is The Edge, and the film selection features two controversial titles by Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut) and two Alfred Hitchcock masterpieces (Psycho and Vertigo).

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò is also included, which is a result of the liberalisation of Thai film censorship that has been apparent since 2024. (A 1977 screening of Pasolini’s notorious film at a London cinema club was raided by the vice squad.)

The lineup for The Edge was revealed in a trailer for the season, which was played after a surprise screening of A Clockwork Orange this evening. (The reveal of each film drew cheers and applause from the audience.) A Clockwork Orange will be shown again on 15th, 16th, 17th, 23rd, and 24th May.

Psycho was previously shown at Scala in 2016, at Cinema Winehouse in 2018, and at Bangkok Screening Room in 2019. Psycho will be shown in its uncut version, following its restoration in 2019.

Vertigo was voted the greatest film of all time in the 2012 Sight and Sound critics’ poll. It was screened at the Thai Film Archive in 2021, at Cinema Winehouse in 2018, and at Bangkok Screening Room in 2016.

A Clockwork Orange was previously shown at the Thai Film Archive and Scala in 2019, at Cinema Winehouse in 2018, and at Thammasat University in 2014. It was also screened earlier this year at Arcadia.

Diary of the Undead

Diary of the Undead, a major programme of short films, will take place on 24th April at Thammasat University’s Rangsit campus. The selected films address themes of traumatic memory and state injustice, from the 2010 Ratchaprasong crackdown to the recent student protest movement and the coronavirus pandemic.

As the event organisers say on their Facebook and Instagram pages, the nationalism, negligence, and intolerance of those in power have caused extensive loss of life, for which there has been no accountability. They deplore the fact that Anutin Charnvirakul won this year’s election despite his record as minister of health during the pandemic.

They compare such figures to vampires, as they seem to enjoy political immortality, hence the title of the first part of the programme, Vampire Legacy. (Journalist Marina Hyde has also compared British politicians to vampires for the same reason.) The second part is titled โควิดกระจอก (‘Covid-19 is insignificant’), and its highlights include Bangkok 2564 (เมืองฟ้าอมร) and New Abnormal (ผิดปกติใหม่).

The third part, featuring political documentaries, is titled Unfortunately, We’re Still Here, a reference to former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s comment that “unfortunately, some people died” at Ratchaprasong. Abhisit was prime minister during the crackdown, and his dismissive comment in a BBC interview also inspired Unfortunately (a poster by Njorvks) and Kawinnate Konklong’s short film Unfortunately (แค่วันที่โชคร้าย).

Part three is the most provocative section of the programme. Highlights include Cremation Ceremony (ประวัติย่อของบางสิ่งที่หายไป), The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ), Democracy after Death (ประชาธิปไตยหลังความตาย), Develop Viriyaporn Who Dared in Three Worlds (เจริญวิริญาพรมาหาทำใน 3 โลก), and Letter from Mr. Colour Blind (จดหมายของนายตาบอดสี).

Diary of the Undead is organised by JubChaii, and will be held at The Oasis, part of the House of Wisdom community space at Thammasat. The event’s English title is a pun on the George Romero zombie film Diary of the Dead; its Thai title is จดจําพวกมัน, as seen on the poster for the event, though it has been mistakenly listed online as อย่าลืมพวกมัน.

Bangkok 2564

Panisa Khueanphet’s Bangkok 2564 (เมืองฟ้าอมร) is the director’s silent assessment of the city in the present day. (2564 is the Buddhist Era equivalent of 2021, the year the film was made.)

Its Thai title translates as ‘heavenly’ or ‘angelic’, though this is intended ironically, as the film highlights the authoritarian nature of city life. Panisa films police officers and security guards in public spaces, and protesters at Democracy Monument. In the final moments, riot police advance on demonstrators who give a three-finger salute.

Bangkok 2564 is similar to Weerapat Sakolvaree’s Zombie Citizens, which was filmed at around the same time. Both films show access to the Grand Palace blocked by shipping containers, and Bangkok’s streets largely deserted after coronavirus pandemic restrictions. The two films are also commentaries on the state’s attitudes towards its citizens.

Bangkok 2564 hints at this with a shot of the Baiyoke Tower II skyscraper, which has an LED panel that features the scrolling message “LONG LIVE THE” — the final word is missing, as the panel cuts to a commercial. (The advert is for the FWD insurance company, whose name and orange brand identity resemble the progressive Move Forward Party.)

New Abnormal

In a series of static shots and long takes, Sorayos Prapapan’s satirical New Abnormal takes aim at former military prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. In one sequence, a paramedic reveals the scale of the problem: “It’s already mid-2021, our country’s people is still only less than 10% vaccinated.” Sadly, the statistic was accurate at the time the film was made.

Another scene eavesdrops on a meeting between Prayut, then-deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan, and a civil servant. When the bureaucrat asks about bailouts for businesses affected by the lockdown, an irritable Prayut barks back: “Why do you always hand me problems? It’s tiring enough acting as Prime Minister, you know!” Meanwhile, Prawit remains slumped in his chair, fast asleep (as was often the case in parliament). Prayut is played by Phayao Nimma, who also portrayed him in The Cave (นางนอน); in the credits, he’s described as “Stupid Prime minister who did coup” [sic].

The film ends with a recreation of an anti-government protest (on a small scale, given the low budget), which is dispersed by riot police with water cannon, tear gas, and rubber bullets (the latter heard but not seen). In the last shot, wisps of tear gas swirl slowly around a solitary rubber duck. The end-credits song is an anti-government anthem based on the Hamtaro (とっとこハム太郎) anime theme tune.

Cremation Ceremony

Vichart Somkaew’s Cremation Ceremony, which resembles a video installation, begins with the faces of three politicians staring impassively at the viewer. The three men — Anutin, Abhisit, and Prayut — are all responsible for tragic injustices: respectively, the Thai government’s initially sluggish response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Ratchaprasong crackdown, and the ramping up of lèse-majesté prosecutions.

Vichart sets fire to photographs of the three men, their faces distorting as the photographic paper burns. There is no sound except the crackling of the flame. This symbolic ritual is a reminder of the deaths of Covid-19 victims, red-shirt protesters, and political dissidents, though it’s also a metaphorical act of retribution, as the three politicians have faced no consequences for their actions.

While the three portraits burn slowly, captions mourn the forgotten victims: red-shirts shot while sheltering in Wat Pathum Wanaram, political prisoners charged under article 112, and victims of the coronavirus. (Cremation Ceremony originally ended on a hopeful note with a final caption explaining that pro-democracy parties had “emerged victorious” in the 2023 election. But after the film’s release, Move Forward was excluded from the governing coalition, and the optimistic caption has now been removed.)

The Letter from Silence

The Letter from Silence, also by Vichart, features extracts from letters by lawyer and pro-democracy campaigner Arnon Nampa to his family, written while he serves a prison sentence for lèse-majesté. Arnon’s letters are often heartbreaking, as he faces the prospect of many years in jail if convicted on further charges, separated from his wife and their two young children.

The film is silent, except for ambient sounds recorded at night in a quiet neighbourhood, letting Arnon’s words stand alone. This makes it all the more powerful, and emphasises the hopelessness of Arnon’s situation.

The Letter from Silence’s focus on Arnon’s letters themselves has echoes of another short film with a similar title, Prap Boonpan’s Letter from the Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ). Prap’s film documented the suicide note left by Nuamthong Praiwan, who had protested against the 2006 coup by crashing his taxi into a tank.

Democracy After Death

Neti Wichiansaen’s Democracy after Death is an account of Thailand’s recent political history, bookended by the coups of 2006 and 2014. These events are narrated in a voiceover addressed to Nuamthong, the pro-democracy protester who committed suicide in 2006.

The film covers Thailand’s polarisation between the yellow-shirt and red-shirt protesters, culminating in the military crackdown of 2010, which it describes as “the most brutal political massacre in Thai history.” Abhisit is blamed personally for the massacre: “Directly responsible, Abhisit Vejjajiva holds Thailand’s new record of the number of people shot by the military.”

Democracy after Death highlights the underhand tactics of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (extorting money and sabotaging the 2014 election). But the film is clearly biased in favour of Thaksin Shinawatra, noting sympathetically that he “was forced to leave and has had to remain outside Thailand” though ignoring his corruption conviction.

The film’s director is also living in exile, due to a previous lèse-majesté prosecution, and Democracy after Death was self-censored to avoid further charges: a photograph of the junta and Rama IX on the night of the 2006 coup was pixelated, and a soldier’s pledge of loyalty to the king was bleeped out. However, the version screening at Diary of the Undead is unpixelated and unbleeped.

Develop Viriyaporn Who Dared in Three Worlds

Who is Viriyaporn Boonprasert? She has submitted quite a few films to the Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น), though the organisers have no idea who she is. Her short films, with their ironic juxtapositions of found footage, satirise the elitism and nationalism of the Thai political establishment. Viriyaporn is a pseudonym, and presumably she disguises her identity because her work deals with Thai politics and other sensitive issues.

Viriyaporn’s film Ghost of Centralworld was made in response to the 2010 military crackdown. It features an emotional account from the father of Kittipong Somsuk, whose death was caused by arsonists who burnt the Zen department store, followed by news footage of the store’s reopening, when tragedy and political controversy were swept away in the name of consumerism. (Ghost of Centralworld will be screened as one of several unannounced bonus films at Diary of the Undead.)

The mysterious tale of the anonymous filmmaker is told in Develop Viriyaporn Who Dared in Three Worlds. Director Kanyarat Theerakrittayakorn interviewed various film experts — including Chalida Uabumrungjit, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, Jit Phokaew, and Wiwat Lertwiwatwongsa — who speculate on Viriyaporn’s real identity. They even begin to suspect each other, as Thai cinephiles are a close-knit group and she seems to be an insider. This leads to bemused denials by some contributors (some more convincing than others), and Viriyaporn remains an enigma.

The Letter of Mr. Colour Blind

The Letter of Mr. Colour Blind, an early film by Sorayos, was released in 2010 and shows the red-shirt protests from that year. There is no dialogue, though a recent graduate and red-shirt supporter reads a letter to his father in voiceover.

All colour in the film is desaturated, except for the red t-shirts and flags of the protesters. This was presumably inspired by Chai Chaiyachit and Chisanucha Kongwailap’s short film Re-presentation (ผีมะขาม ไพร่ฟ้า ประชาธิปไตย ในคืนที่ลมพัดหวน), in which the yellow t-shirts worn by monarchists are the only objects shown in colour.

Bangkok 2564

Panisa Khueanphet’s short documentary Bangkok 2564 (เมืองฟ้าอมร) is the director’s silent assessment of the city in the present day. (2564 is the Buddhist Era equivalent of 2021, the year the film was made.)

Its Thai title translates as ‘heavenly’ or ‘angelic’, though this is intended ironically, as the film highlights the authoritarian nature of city life. Panisa films police officers and security guards in public spaces, and protesters at Democracy Monument. In the final moments, riot police advance on demonstrators who give a three-finger salute.

Bangkok 2564 is similar to Weerapat Sakolvaree’s Zombie Citizens, which was filmed at around the same time. Both films show access to the Grand Palace blocked by shipping containers, and Bangkok’s streets largely deserted after coronavirus pandemic restrictions. The two films are also commentaries on the state’s attitudes towards its citizens.

Bangkok 2564 hints at this with a shot of the Baiyoke Tower II skyscraper, which has an LED panel that features the scrolling message “LONG LIVE THE” — the final word is missing, as the panel cuts to a commercial. (The advert is for the FWD insurance company, whose name and orange brand identity resemble the progressive Move Forward Party.)

Panisa’s director’s statement is even more direct: she says that the film is a reminder of how the government and other institutions ‘shattered people’s hearts and dreams’ (“โลก ณ ห้วงเวลาหนึ่งของชีวิตและช่วยเตือนความจำว่าครั้งนึงรัฐบาลเผด็จการภายใต้อำนาจกษัตริย์และชนชั้นนำไทย”). (Posted on Kangjor Nitade’s Facebook page on 14th November 2022.)

Bangkok 2564 was screened as part of the Bangkok Unbound programme in 2025, and at Kangjor 28 (กางจอ 28) in 2022. It will be shown at Thammasat University later this week.

Kash Patel: “I’ll see you in court — bring your checkbook...”

FBI director Kash Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic today, seeking $250 million in damages. An article by Sarah Fitzpatrick, published online on 17th April, claims that “Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”

The article, headlined “The FBI Director Is MIA”, includes a denial from Patel, who told the magazine: “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court — bring your checkbook.” Patel’s lawsuit describes the article as a “malicious and defamatory hit piece” though Fitzpatrick’s reporting is based on conversations — albeit off-the-record — with six current and former FBI officials.

The Joyce of Everyday Life

At university, I wrote a dissertation on the cultural history of the c-word, which I later updated and published online. My work has been quoted by numerous other writers over the years, most recently by Vicki Mahaffey in The Joyce of Everyday Life, her prize-winning study of James Joyce.

In her book, Mahaffey cites me as a source: “Matthew Hunt argues that...” But, very strangely, she also writes: “Since Hunt’s death, the essay originally accessed has been taken down.”

This is really bizarre. Needless to say, I am still alive. I took my c-word research offline a few years ago, because it was being copied without authorisation, but I didn’t die. (I have now put my work on the c-word back online, and emailed Mahaffey to say that I’m not dead.)

Japan's Anime Revolution!Twenty Animated Films That Changed the World

Japan’s Anime Revolution! Twenty Animated Films That Changed the World, by Jonathan Clements, will be published in June. The book analyses twenty classic anime films “that help narrate and explain the history of Japanese animation”, including milestones such as Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) and Akira (アキラ).

Clements is the leading anime authority outside Japan, and has worked on anime translation and distribution for many years, so he discusses each film from an industry insider’s perspective. He also surveys the latest Japanese-language anime scholarship.

Clements wrote the definitive history of anime in 2013. (A more concise book on the subject, 100 Years of Anime, was published last year.) He also co-wrote The Anime Encyclopedia, a uniquely comprehensive guide to thousands of anime titles. His co-author Helen McCarthy wrote Anime!, the first English-language book on the subject.

“หมอ ฟ้องภาพนี้เพราะเหมือนการ์ตูนชายรักชาย”(‘I’m pressing charges because it looks gay’)

One of the strangest lèse-majesté cases began yesterday, when a dentist from Chiang Mai announced on Facebook that she had prepared a dossier of evidence to prove that a cartoon book published last year defamed King Naresuan. Yuwathida Poopunhong argues that the cover of Amulin’s Ayothaya Ayeyarwady vol. 1 (อโยธยา เอยาวดี เล่ม ๑) shows a man — who she presumes to be Naresuan — surrounded by flowers, which makes him seem overly effeminate and therefore gay (“หมอ ฟ้องภาพนี้เพราะเหมือนการ์ตูนชายรักชาย”).

Why is the case so odd? There are many reasons. Yuwathida admits that she hasn’t read the book (“หมอยังไม่ได้อ่านเนื้อเรื่องเลยค่ะลูก”). She even confesses that she herself has previously insulted Rama X (“เหตุการณ์เกือบตายที่หมอไปด่า ร.10 & ต้นตระกูลจนเกือบ ตาย”). Most bizarrely, she says that she is filing the lèse-majesté charge because Naresuan appeared in her nightmares and told her to do it (“พระองค์น่ากลัวอยู่เด้อ ชอบมาเข้าฝันหมอ ฝากให้หมอแช่ง”).

The comic is homoerotic — it falls within the BL (‘boys’ love’) genre — but it isn’t sexually explicit. In any case, although the main character was clearly inspired by Naresuan, he has a different name: the character is called อำดง (‘forest lurker’), which is almost a phonetic anagram of Naresuan’s title องค์ดำ (‘black prince’). A disclaimer from the publisher stresses that all names have been changed, and the comic is a work of fiction.

In one of her Facebook posts, Yuwathida apologises to Amulin for the necessity of filing the lèse-majesté charge (“หมอขอโทษล่วงหน้า”). But later in the same paragraph, she also says callously: ‘whether you go to jail or not is your problem’ (“จะติดคุก มันก็เรื่องของหนู”).

Naresuan died more than 400 years ago, in 1605, though a modern lèse-majesté case involving him is not unprecedented. The respected public intellectual Sulak Sivaraksa narrowly avoided a conviction in 2014 after he questioned the historical accuracy of Naresuan’s legendary elephant duel.

Confessions II

2026 is a return to the Confessions era for Madonna, as she will release a new album, Confessions II, on 3rd July. The album is a sequel to her critically-acclaimed, disco-inspired Confessions on a Dance Floor from 2005.

The first single from the new album, I Feel So Free, will be released digitally on 17th April. I Feel So Free begins with a verse that’s spoken rather than sung, like Future Lovers from Confessions on a Dance Floor but with better lyrics. (In Feel So Free, Madonna describes how she wants to “create a new persona, a different identity”.) Another single, Bring Your Love (a duet with Sabrina Carpenter) will be released on 30th April.

Confessions II will be released on vinyl, CD, and cassette, in multiple versions. The standard album has twelve tracks, and deluxe editions have sixteen songs. Some versions are arranged as a continuous mix, with each song fading into the next, as on Madonna’s You Can Dance album.

Confessions on a Dance Floor was also released as a continuous mix on CD, though its original vinyl release was a more traditional format with individual tracks. The continuous version of Confessions on a Dance Floor was finally issued on vinyl earlier this year, followed by a vinyl edition of the Confessions Tour (previously available on CD), which was issued as a Record Store Day release.

Confessions II is Madonna’s first studio album since Madame X, which came out seven years ago. The decision to revisit Confessions could be seen as a return to form after the failed experiment of Madame X, though it also feels regressive, especially as Madonna’s other recent releases — EPs based on Ray of Light and Bedtime Stories — have also harked back to her earlier albums.

Donald Trump v. The Wall Street Journal

Donald Trump’s $20 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal has been dismissed by a US District Court. In a written judgement published today, Southern District of Florida judge Darrin P. Gayles made it very clear that Trump had failed to establish that the Journal had acted with ‘actual malice’, the legal standard required for defamation cases filed by public figures in the US. Gayles wrote: “The Complaint comes nowhere close to this standard. Quite the opposite.”

Last year, the Journal, reported that Trump had sent child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a salacious letter on Epstein’s fiftieth birthday. In a front-page story published (in late editions) on 18th July 2025, the newspaper quoted Trump’s birthday greeting to Epstein: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

The text was enclosed within a drawing of the outline of a nude woman, and Trump signed the letter in the position where the woman’s pubic hair would be. A thick marker pen, Trump’s preferred type, was used for the drawing and signature. The letter was part of an album compiled in 2003 by Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell — who is also a child sex offender — containing letters and cards from Epstein’s friends, including Trump.

Trump was a close associate of Epstein’s who attempted to distance himself once Epstein’s crimes were revealed. The WSJ article — written by Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo, and headlined “Trump’s Bawdy Letter to Epstein Was in 50th Birthday Album” — included denials by Trump, and quoted him as saying: “I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else”.

Safdar and Palazzolo were named in Trump’s lawsuit, as was media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the proprietor of the WSJ. Trump posted on Truth Social on 18th July 2025: “I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But now he has, and I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.” His lawsuit sought $10 billion in damages for defamation per se, and a further $10 billion for defamation per quod (that is, implicit defamation).

A copy of the letter was released by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on 8th September 2025, and the newspaper cited this as clear evidence that its story was true. In today’s ruling, the judge noted that the letter described by the Journal and the copy released by the committee “appear identical”, though he did not make a judgement about the accuracy of the newspaper’s reporting: “Whether Trump was the author of the Letter or Epstein’s friend are questions of fact that cannot be determined at this stage of the litigation.”

Murdoch has a chequered history with Trump, as does the Journal. In an editorial at the beginning of last year, the newspaper called Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada “The Dumbest Trade War in History”. Murdoch was quoted calling Trump a “fucking idiot” in Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury.

Trump’s lawsuit against the WSJ was the first time that a sitting American president had ever sued a media organisation. He has subsequently filed a lawsuit against The New York Times and the authors of Lucky Loser, and he sued the BBC after Panorama edited one of his speeches.

Trump has sued numerous other media figures and news organisations over the years as a private citizen, including Bill Maher and CNN. He sued Bob Woodward for copyright infringement, though that case was dismissed. His lawsuit against E. Jean Carroll was also dismissed. His unsuccessful lawsuit against Timothy L. O’Brien’s book TrumpNation sought $5 billion in damages.

Trump has never won a libel case in court, though he has received settlements in two cases. ABC settled after he sued them in 2024. He sued CBS later that year, and they also agreed to an out-of-court settlement.

Occasionally, Trump has filed defamation suits indirectly via his organisations or relatives. His brother sued their niece, Mary Trump, in 2020, though the case was dismissed. A suit filed against the NYT by his presidential campaign also failed. His wife won undisclosed damages from The Daily Telegraph in 2019, and she was awarded $3 million in damages from the Daily Mail in 2017.

“A vindication for investigative journalism...”

Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey has withdrawn his defamation lawsuit against the Financial Times newspaper, almost three years after it accused him of sexually assaulting and harassing more than a dozen women who had worked with him. Odey’s libel suit was filed at the High Court in London in 2024. FT editor Roula Khalaf’s reaction to the collapse of the case is quoted in today’s issue: “This is a vindication for investigative journalism and for the victims whose stories of abuse we reported”.

The FT published its investigation into Odey on 10th June 2023, as the cover story of its FT Weekend Magazine supplement (no. 1,026). The magazine’s stark headline read: “Crispin Odey has got away with assaulting and harassing women for 25 years”. The article, titled “THE GAMBLER” (pp. 18–25), was written by Madison Marriage, Antonia Cundy, and Paul Caruana Galizia.

Gao Zhen

Artist Gao Zhen, who has been detained in China since returning there from the US in 2024, was subject to a one-day trial on 30th March on charges of defaming Chinese national icons. The trial took place in camera at Sanhe, in Heibei province.

Prosecutors cited three satirical sculptures of Mao Zedong created by Gao with his brother Qiang. The Execution of Christ is a 2009 installation of seven Mao statues forming a firing squad to shoot Jesus. Mao’s Guilt is a statue of Mao kneeling in repentance, also from 2009. Miss Mao is a bust of Mao with female breasts and a long Pinocchio-like nose, produced in various versions since 2007.

The law Gao has been accused of breaking came into effect in 2018, long after Gao’s sculptures were made. A Chinese comedy talent agency was fined the equivalent of more than $2 million in 2023 under the same law, after a stand-up comedian made a joke about the Chinese People’s Army.

Stink-O-Vision

Audiences who saw the horror film Dead Lover in cinemas earlier this year were given scratch-and-sniff cards, in a revival of a gimmick first used by John Waters for Polyester in 1981. Waters called the format Odorama, and the producers of Rugrats Go Wild used the same term (and logo) on their scratch-and-sniff cards in 2003.

In 2011, the fourth film in the Spy Kids franchise was also released with scratch-and-sniff cards, in a format that was renamed Aroma-Scope. In 2023, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was rereleased with scratch-and-sniff cards branded as Stink-O-Vision, and Dead Lover has now borrowed that name for its black scratch-and-sniff cards.

The first experiments with scented cinema occurred sixty years ago, when smells were wafted through cinema air-conditioning vents to accompany the documentary Behind the Great Wall (via the Aroma-Rama process) and piped to cinema seats during the thriller Scent of Mystery (using the rival Smell-O-Vision system). Like Cinerama and 3D, they were Hollywood’s attempts to lure audiences away from television.

Barry Lyndon

Stanley Kubrick’s classic Barry Lyndon will be shown in Bangkok on 3rd May, at GDXperience. The screening is part of Reading Cinéma, a short season organised by Doc Club with the Books and Belongings bookshop.

GDX is a screening room at Stadium One, a new mall dedicated to sports shops and fitness centres. Reading Cinéma runs from 1st to 3rd May. Barry Lyndon was previously shown at Chulalongkorn University in 2023.

There has been a revival of critical interest in Barry Lyndon over the last decade, with three documentaries on the making of the film: the radio programme Castles, Candles, and Kubrick, an episode of the TV programme Hollywood in Éirinn, and Making Barry Lyndon on the Criterion blu-ray. There is also a book on the film, The Making of a Masterpiece, by Alison Castle.

500 Must-See Movies

Total Film magazine first published its 500 Must-See Movies special issue in 2017, listing 500 films classified into five genres: horror, science-fiction, thrillers, action movies, and comedies. A second edition was published in 2022, with a handful of changes.

Since then, ‘new’ editions have appeared each year, without any further changes to the selected films. This year’s sixth edition features only one substitution: in the thriller category, Performance has been removed and replaced by a new entry, Oppenheimer.

Empire and Us Weekly magazines have also published top-500 film lists, as did the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspapers. Empire later revised its list for its Australian edition, and published a collection of 500 five-star reviews. Dateline Bangkok also has its own list of 500 classic films.

Total Film’s previous greatest-film lists are: The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time from 2005, The Top 100 Movies of All Time from 2006, and 100 Greatest Movies from 2010. It also compiled a list of The Sixty-Seven Most Influential Films Ever Made in 2009.

Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women

In Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women, Caroline Magennis argues that woman need not feel guilty for not having children. After searching for an appropriate description of herself as a woman without children, she settled on ‘harpy’: “I had tried on different words, and none of them stuck until Harpy.”

Although a harpy is generally depicted as a winged monster, Magennis embraces these physical characteristics as a metaphorical means of escape from criticism: “Through the harpy I want to find a way to turn both the passive-aggressive and direct stigma into something that felt like it had a terrifying power... The harpy came to mean, to me, all the ways in which we had been depicted but also a way out, even if we had to fly away and use our claws to get there.”

Magennis shows how childfree women are demonised by popular culture (specifically, tabloid newspapers and Hollywood films). She cites Lady Macbeth as “the epitome of the ruthless childless monster”, though she also highlights negative cultural archetypes such as wicked stepmothers.

Mary Daly, in Gyn/Ecology (1978), sought to reclaim ‘harpy’, along with similar terms such as ‘witch’, ‘hag’, ‘crone’, and ‘spinster’. Harpy is one of a handful of recent feminist books whose titles refer to misogynistic insults. Other examples include Hags by Victoria Smith, Bitch by Karen Stollznow, Slags on Stage by Katie Beswick, In Defence of Witches by Mona Chollet (which includes a chapter on The No-Child Option), Bimbo by Ashley James, and several books that tackle the word ‘slut’ (I Am Not a Slut, This Is What a Feminist Slut Looks Like, Wordslut, and Sluts).