Sarit Thanarat

Sarit Thanarat, military prime minister during the Cold War, died in December 1963. After his death, the floodgates opened, and exposés of his love life were rushed into print. His lovenest was a private residence nicknamed the ‘pink palace’ (วิมานสีชมพู), and เมียน้อย 108 (‘108 mistresses’) printed a list of the concubines he entertained there.

Several books — including อัลบั้มภาพชุดสีชมพู (‘pink album’), วิมานสวาท หลังกองพล (‘the palace of love behind the 1st infantry regiment’), จอมพลของคุณหนูๆ (‘young ladies of the general’), and สาวม่ายในวิมานสีชมพู (‘widows in the pink palace’) — featured dossiers of photographs of his alleged lovers. The erotic novel แม่ม่ายผ้าขะม้าแดง (‘the widow in the red sarong’), and a saucy Daily News (เดลินิวส์) cartoon booklet with the same title (การ์ตูนชุดแม่ม่ายผ้าขาวม้าแดง), were also thinly-veiled portrayals of Sarit’s mistresses.

Almost fifty years later, the phrase ‘pink palace’ was censored by Channel 3 when it broadcast the lakorn คุณชายพุฒิภัทร (‘khun Chai Puttipat’) on 5th May 2013. In the third episode, a former military general played by Montree Jenuksorn (who slightly resembles Sarit) discussed his ‘pink palace’, though the sound was muted, presumably to avoid any possibility of a libel suit from Sarit’s descendents. (The novel on which the drama was based refers to Sarit more obliquely.)

Potential defamation also prevented director Banjong Kosallawat from making a semi-fictionalised Sarit biopic in 2002, which was to have been titled จอมพล (‘marshal’). Sarit did feature briefly in the horror movie Zee Oui (ซี-อุย), ordering the swift execution of the murderous title character for political expediency. And Sarit’s statue looms ominously over the characters in Song of the City, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s segment of the portmanteau film Ten Years Thailand.

The newsreel การปฏิบัติหน้าที่เพื่อประเทศชาติในตำแหน่งหัวหน้ารัฐบาลและผู้นำทางทหาร จนถึงล้มป่วยและอสัญกรรมของ ฯพณฯ จอมพลสฤษดิ์ ธนะรัชต์ (‘Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat performing duties for the country as the head of government and military leader until his illness and death’) is a fascinating example of Cold War state propaganda. Screened shortly after Sarit’s death, it provided a counter-narrative to the books that exposed his decadence and corruption. The film depicts Sarit as a tireless and selfless leader, to the extent that he became ill through overwork. Thunska Pansittivorakul’s recent documentary Isan Odyssey (อีสานอำพราง) gives the other side of the story, in a voiceover describing how suspected communists were “brutally murdered” during Sarit’s regime.

After Sarit led a coup in 1957, he was portrayed as a hero by pliant newspaper cartoonists. One example of such propaganda showed Sarit cradling a rescued child in his arms, returning the boy (who represents the Thai people) to his grateful mother. In contrast, a July 1958 cartoon in the liberal ประชาชน (‘people’) newspaper depicted Sarit as a monkey wrapping his tail possessively around Democracy Monument.

In the wake of the 2014 coup, Sarit satire was too sensitive, and the Guerrilla Boys self-censored their mural Junta Connection (วิ่งผลัดเผด็จการ), which originally depicted Sarit passing his (literal) baton of dictatorship to Prayut Chan-o-cha. Junta Connection was shown in 2018 as part of Khon Kaen Manifesto (ขอนแก่น แมนิเฟสโต้), a group exhibition that directly addressed Sarit’s contested legacy.

Art and Culture (ศิลปวัฒนธรรม) magazine analysed cartoonists’ caricatures of Sarit (vol. 43, no. 1), and the journal Same Sky (ฟ้าเดียวกัน) examined the lurid books published shortly after his death (vol. 20, no. 2). Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses the portrayal of Sarit in Thai films.

October 6th: A Reconfigured Archive

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the violent and tragic events that took place on 6th October 1976 at Thammasat University, when forty-six people, most of whom were students, were killed by right-wing militia groups and vigilantes. The bodies of the victims were desecrated by baying mobs, and the incident remains one of the most shocking moments in Thailand’s modern history.

MAIIAM in Chiang Mai is commemorating the anniversary with a group exhibition devoted to the incident, October 6th: A Reconfigured Archive (จดหมายเหตุนอกบรรทัด 6 ตุลาคม 2519), which opened on 10th July and runs until 30th November. The exhibition features artworks commenting on the Thammasat massacre alongside books and other archival materials documenting the event.

The exhibition includes Nutdanai Jitbunjong’s installation A Massacre: a folding chair suspended from the ceiling. The chair is an iconic signifier of the massacre, thanks to Neal Ulevich’s photograph of a man preparing to hit a corpse with a folding chair. Nutdanai’s chair is made from tamarind wood, as the dead man in Ulevich’s photo was hanged from a tamarind tree. A Massacre was previously shown in the Status in Statu (รัฐพิลึก) and Khon Kaen Manifesto (ขอนแก่น แมนิเฟสโต้) exhibitions.

Several works from Taiki Sakpisit’s exhibition Dark Was the Night (ผีพุ่งไต้) are included, notably his photograph Half Day Closing, an image of the notorious ‘red elevator’, which — according to legend — is haunted by victims of the 1976 attack. The lift was discussed in the documentary Ghosts, and it inspired the horror film Haunted Universities (มหาลัยสยองขวัญ).

Thasnai Sethaseree has produced numerous paintings that refer to 1976. The exhibition features three of his untitled collages: news photos of the incident heavily obscured by colourful overpainting. They were also shown in a previous MAIIAM exhibition, Errata.

Thanavi Chotpradit and Kornkrit Jianpinidnan’s book Prism of Photography is on display. The book is a visual archive of the massacre, featuring dozens of Thai newspaper front pages and news photographs. ฟ้าใหม่ ใกล้มา (‘dawn of victory’), a ‘museum in a box’ featuring meticulously reproduced artefacts from 1976, is also on show.

To contextualise the events of 1976, the exhibition also features Arin Rungjang’s And Then There Were None, a series of paintings based on news photographs from 14th October 1973, a date almost as infamous as 6th October 1976, when a mass protest led to the (temporary) collapse of a military dictatorship. Arin’s work was shown alongside Thasnai’s in Errata.

Songs of Angry People

Uruphong Raksasad has directed a trilogy of documentaries about the recent student protest movement: Songs of Angry People, Paradox Democracy, and Cut of Speech. All have been shown at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, though Songs of Angry People was deemed so sensitive that its screening — as part of To Commune, the 69th Flaherty Film Seminar programme in 2024 — wasn’t advertised in advance. Songs of Angry People was also shown in the Wildtype Middleclass programme this year, though the screenings were equally surreptitious, and it was listed as a ‘surprise film’ in the schedule.

In Paradox Democracy, speeches by protest leaders are intercut with extracts from The Revolutionist (คือผู้อภิวัฒน์), a play about Pridi Banomyong staged by the Crescent Moon theatre group in 2020. The film also includes footage shot at the 6th October 1976 commemorative exhibition at Thammasat University in 2020.

Cut of Speech concentrates almost exclusively on the protesters’ speeches. It features clips of forty-four speakers, in reference to article 44 of the interim constitution drafted after the 2014 coup.

Songs of Angry People does include short extracts from speeches by protest leaders — it begins with a fiery speech by Parit Chirawak outside the Crown Property Bureau offices — though it focuses more on the atmosphere of the protests. These include demonstrations at Democracy Monument, Din Daeng, and Nang Loeng in Bangkok, and at the smaller Democracy Monument in Khon Kaen.

Songs of Angry People’s title comes from a comment by a protester to a phalanx of riot police: “Don’t make the people angry.” It also refers to the numerous protest songs performed at the demonstrations: Uruphong films Chaiamorn Kaewwiboonpan and the Bottom Blues performing 12345 I Love You, and The Commoner singing You Know Who (คนที่คุณก็รู้ว่าใคร) at Democracy Monument.

During the chorus of 12345 I Love You, demonstrators shout “ai hia Tu” instead of the original lyrics. (Ai hia is a strong insult, and Tu is Prayut Chan-o-cha’s nickname.) While Uruphong was filming Chaiamorn perform the song, his camera also caught sight of another director, Yuthlert Sippapak, who was coincidentally also filming the same performance. (Yuthlert was filming 1410, a project he announced with Chaiamorn in 2021.)

You Know Who was released as a single in 2021. Its lyrics refer to “He Who Must Not Be Named”, which is a reference to Voldemort from the Harry Potter franchise. The music video ends with brief footage of the student protests, though its main theme is the discovery of the bodies of dissidents in the Mekong river.

Cinematic Nangloeng

Sala Chaloem Thani, Bangkok’s oldest cinema, reopened last year for a series of film screenings organised by the Thai Film Archive. More classics will be shown at the historic wooden cinema this year, in a Cinematic Nangloeng season that runs from 28th July to 1st August. Highlights include Somboonsuk Niyomsiri’s A Man Called Tone (โทน) on 29th July and Nonzee Nimibutr’s Dang Bireley’s and Young Gangsters [sic] (2499 อันธพาลครองเมือง) on 1st August.

A Man Called Tone

The release of A Man Called Tone in 1970 was a turning point in Thai cinema history. Filmed in widescreen 35mm, it marked the end of the 16mm era, a formulaic mode of production that had dominated the industry for the previous twenty years. Stylistically, its modern approach to characterisation, acting, narrative, music, and cinematography was equally groundbreaking. It was previously shown at the Archive in 2025 and — to mark Somboonsuk’s ninetieth birthday — in 2023. It was also screened in 2022 at Doc Club and Pub in Bangkok, though a gala screening at the Scala cinema in 2020 was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Dang Bireley’s and Young Gangsters

Dang Bireley’s and Young Gangsters, the film that launched the Thai New Wave in 1997, was shown last year at the Microwave Film Festival in Sisaket. It had two outdoor screenings in 2022: in Chiang Mai (in 35mm) and Bangkok. It was shown at Scala in 2018, and at Ramada Plaza in 2010. It was shown twice at the Archive in 2020.

Like 1970, 1997 was a pivotal year for Thai cinema, as Dang Bireley’s and Young Gangsters broke domestic box-office records and Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s debut Fun Bar Karaoke (ฝันบ้าคาราโอเกะ) premiered at the Berlinale. The Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (เทศกาลหนังทดลองกรุงเทพฯ ครั้งที่) and Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น) were also founded in that year.

Panorama

UK parcel delivery company Evri is suing the BBC for libel and seeking £1.2 million in damages. That amount represents the lost business that the firm claims it has suffered as a result of the Panorama documentary Evri: Where’s My Parcel?

Panorama reporter Zoe Conway interviewed Evri couriers, who complained that the company reduced its per-parcel payment rate to the extent that “they couldn’t make a living if the accepted the pay cut.” The programme was broadcast on 15th December 2025 on BBC1, and repeated five days later on BBC2, and is still available on the BBC’s iPlayer streaming service.

In its lawsuit, filed at the High Court in London, Evri stated that Panorama falsely accused the company of “exploitative business practices designed to reduce pay for its couriers, with the result that they are regularly unlawfully paid less than the national minimum wage”. It is also seeking an injunction to prevent the BBC from repeating or streaming the programme in future.

Confessions II

2026 is a return to the Confessions era for Madonna, as she released a new album, Confessions II, on 3rd July. The album — on vinyl, CD, and (neon pink) cassette — 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, begins with a spoken introduction, like Future Lovers from Confessions on a Dance Floor but with better lyrics: Madonna describes how she wants to “create a new persona, a different identity.” Another single, Bring Your Love — a duet with Sabrina Carpenter, on 7" vinyl — was followed by Love Sensation.

The standard edition of Confessions II has twelve tracks: I Feel So Free, Good for the Soul, One Step Away, Bring Your Love, Danceteria (about her early days in New York), Read My Lips, Every Thing, Love Without Words, Bizarre (which references Sean Penn), School, Fragile (about the death of her brother Christopher Ciccone), and My Sins Are My Savior. Deluxe editions have four additional tracks: Love Sensation, Betrayal, The Test (a duet with her daughter Lola Leon), and LES Girls.

For some unknown reason, gatefold LP editions (which feature all sixteen tracks) have no printed track listing, either on the album sleeve, the inner sleeves, or even the record labels. They come with a lyric sheet poster, though — again, inexplicably — this features lyrics for only nine songs, and only half of the poster image is included.

There are various other vinyl editions, in a variety of different colours, and some picture discs. A bonus track, Hot Sauce, is exclusive to the digital ‘Icon edition’. Each song fades into the next in a continuous mix, 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.

Morte Cucina

In Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s new thriller Morte Cucina, a waitress (Sao) notices a handsome man (Korn) who comes to eat at the restaurant where she works in Bangkok. As the proverb says, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach: Korn is a gourmand, and Sao takes cooking classes, learning how to prepare lavish meals for him. Then Korn develops a mysterious illness...

In a subplot, a younger woman in Thailand’s deep south converts to Islam and gets married, though she is cast out of her community after they discover that she wasn’t a virgin. Later, we learn that she had been sexually assaulted by a drunk man on a beach.

The film doesn’t make any direct connections between these two scenarios, though the younger woman’s ordeals can be interpreted as flashbacks to Sao’s past. Sao tells Korn that she’s from Songkla (a southern province), and asks him if he has ever visited, and this apparent small talk implies that Sao was assaulted by Korn and disowned by her Muslim husband.

Korn becomes physically dependent on Sao as his health deteriorates, but they also seem to develop a mutual emotional dependency over the years that they spend together. This feels outdated, like the sexist storyline in Thai soap operas when a rich man rapes a woman but she forgives him and they fall in love.

Sao is slowly and methodically killing Korn with her cooking, in revenge for his drunken assault. But she always remains disapassionate, and there is no cathartic moment of confrontation. Perhaps that would have been too conventional? Instead, an unexpected final use of the dining table signals her empowerment. (I’m being ambiguous here to avoid spoilers.)

Morte Cucina comes almost twenty years after Pen-ek’s Ploy (พลอย), and both films include sex scenes with topless female nudity. Ploy was censored in 2007, and when I interviewed Pen-ek for Thai Cinema Uncensored, he explained that “they were afraid that in one of the cinemas we might show the uncut version. So, there were police everywhere.” In contrast, Morte Cucina has been released here uncut and rated ‘15’.

A minor footnote: Morte Cucina’s title, which literally translates as ‘death kitchen’ in Italian, is grammatically incorrect. Its Thai title is more prosaic: ครัวสาว (‘Sao’s kitchen’).

Parodical Exhibition

Parodical Exhibition (เกรียนบ้าน เกรียนเมือง), an exhibition of satirical political art organised by the Museum of Popular History, opened today at Kinjai Contemporary in Bangkok. It runs until 26th July (extended from the original closing date, 19th July).

There are several iconic photographs of the events at Thammasat University that led to the 6th October 1976 coup, including a photo taken by Kraipit Phanvut that shows police colonel Watcharin Niamvanichkul aiming his pistol while nonchalantly smoking a cigarette. Parodical Exhibition features a 2023 image by Lucky Leg that manipulates Kraipat’s photo, replacing the pistol with a petrol pump nozzle.

Kraipat’s photograph has been parodied by numerous other Thai artists over the years, and — including Lucky Leg’s petrol pump — there are at least a dozen different versions of it. These include photomontages, paintings, and recreations in films and videos.

Manit Sriwanichpoom inserted his Pink Man character into the image for Horror in Pink (ปีศาจสีชมพู), a technique parodied by Anuwat Apimukmongkon. Spanky Studio superimposed a clown’s head over Watcharin’s face. In Déjà vu (เดจาวู), Headache Stencil replaced the pistol with a futuristic ray gun. For his Selfie Series (เซลฟี่ ซีรีย์), Chumpol Kamwanna depicted himself taking a selfie while adopting the same pose as Watcharin. The pose was also restaged in Anocha Suwichakornpong’s film By the Time It Gets Dark (ดาวคะนอง), Naphat Khunlam’s short film A Sleepless Entity, and View from the Bus Tour’s music video Sun Rises When Day Breaks (ลิ่วล้อ). Pornpimon Pokha’s Hidden Agenda No. 5 (วาระซ่อนเร้น หมายเลข 5) recreated the image in watercolour. The image also featured, alongside a drawing of a hanged student, on a large banner first displayed at red-shirt protests in 2010. Wana Wanlayongkoon’s painting The Gate of Hell (นรก 6 ตุลา) depicts the scene surrounded by flames.

Parodical Exhibition also features two posters that refer to Thammasat, both of which were previously shown at the Bangkok Through Poster exhibition. One is for a spoof horror film titled Cursed Siam (สาปสยาม) by Canyouhearcloud from 2024, and the other is The End of Pinocchio and His Friends from last year.

The exhibition also includes a timeline charting the history of political satire, and a selection of newspaper cartoons depicting the ‘three tyrants’ who fled the country after 14th October 1973. Its centrepiece is a room dedicated to online memes relating to recent Thai prime ministers.

The Persistence

The Persistence, an exhibition of photographs by Napin Mandhachitara and Pichak Tanunchaibutra, opened at MunMun Srinakarin, an art gallery at Seacon Square in Bangkok, on 23rd May. The exhibition features photos of objects related to the 2020–2021 student protest movement, including including rubber bullets and tear gas canisters fired by riot police, and the inflatable yellow ducks that became symbols of the protests.

The Persistence runs until 5th July. It was shown at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre last year, and a catalogue was sold at the Bangkok Art Book Fair 2025.

นิรโทษกรรม จำเลยคดี 6 ตุลา(‘amnesty for the 6th Oct. defendants’)

The documentary นิรโทษกรรม จำเลยคดี 6 ตุลา (‘amnesty for the 6th Oct. defendants’) will be shown at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Law on 5th July, as part of an event titled ครึ่งศตวรรษรัฐประหาร 6 ตุลาฯ ถึงเวลาลบมรดกบาป (‘half a century after the 6th Oct. coup, it’s time to erase the legacy of sin’). The film was previously screened at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya on 25th February 2017.

นิรโทษกรรม จำเลยคดี 6 ตุลา was compiled from news footage of the announcement in 1978 of an amnesty for the Thammasat students who were arrested following the 6th October 1976 coup. The amnesty was proposed by Kriangsak Chamanan, the de facto leader of another coup in 1977. In the film, Kriangsak is seen at a press conference with the students, which was held at his home, in a performative display of national unity and reconciliation.

Of course, the students were the surviving victims of the event, not the instigators of it, and the perpetrators — various right-wing paramilitary groups — never faced any charges. However, the documentary begins with a summary by Channel 7 that accuses the students of provoking the massacre, citing their reenactment of the hanging of two men arrested for campaigning against the return of former dictator Thanom Kittikachorn. The film shows the notorious photograph of that reenactment printed in the Dao Siam (ดาวสยาม) newspaper, and the student actor in the photo, Apinan Buahapakdee, was one of those who were charged before the amnesty was granted.

Thongchai Winichakul was also one of those charged and pardoned. In Moments of Silence, he wrote about his memories of attending the press conference at Kriangsak’s house, noting that the amnesty was presented not as the reversal of an injustice but as a pardoning of the students’ perceived offences: “throughout the entire encounter, Kriangsak treated us as the wrongdoers, such as by telling us not to repeat past mistakes. This definitely reflected his view, and possibly that of all of those in power as well.”

The documentary was one of six films about Kriangsak’s political career issued on VCD in 2006, collectively titled ที่ระลึกงานพระราชทานเพลิงศพ พลเอกเกรียงศักดิ์ ชมะนันท์ อดีตนายกรัฐมนตรี 12 พ.ย. 2549 (‘souvenir from the royal cremation ceremony of general Kriangsak Chamanan, former prime minister, 12th November 2006’). They were part of a commemorative box set given to those who attended his funeral.

Pulp Fiction

Skyline Film will be showing Pulp Fiction at the Shanghai Mansion Bangkok hotel on 8th August. It was previously screened by Skyline in 2024, at River City Bangkok.

Pulp Fiction has been shown in Bangkok several times before: at House Samyan in 2024, at Neighbourhood in 2023, at House Samyan and Bangkok Screening Room in 2019, and at Cinema Winehouse in 2018 and 2015. It was screened most recently at the Pavillion in May.

Reading Pictures: A History of Illustration

We live in an image-saturated culture, and Reading Pictures: A History of Illustration, by D.B. Dowd, shows how illustrations have been mass-produced and disseminated for more than 500 years. In his introduction, Dowd explains the book’s scope: “Reading Pictures is my attempt to tell a story of how printed images and texts developed, engaged, and sometimes manipulated audiences in North America, Europe, and East Asia from the early modern period to the present day, with greatest emphasis on the era of mass culture during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”

The first half of the book covers the development of various printing techniques — woodblock printing in Asia, the invention of moveable type, and European etching and engraving — and the relationship between illustration and mass media: illustrated novels, satirical prints, lithographic advertising posters, newspapers, magazines, and comics. Later chapters are more thematic, focusing on the role of illustration in political propaganda, and the media’s formation of visual stereotypes about gender identities, childhood, and race.

The main emphasis is on Europe and America, though each chapter also includes coverage of illustration in China and Japan. Given the book’s stated focus on printed illustrations, there is no discussion of illuminated manuscripts. Illustration throughout the nineteenth century, and in the first half of the twentieth century, is covered in depth. (Fifty Years of Illustration, by Lawrence Zeegen and Caroline Roberts, is a more detailed guide to illustration since the 1960s.)

Reading Pictures is the third book to survey the history of illustration. Steven Heller and Seymour Chwast wrote a visual history of the subject in 2008, a concise introduction rather than an in-depth study. On the other hand, History of Illustration, published in 2018 and edited by Susan Doyle, remains the definitive work.

Doyle’s book is more global in its coverage than Dowd’s, with chapters on Indian, Latin American, African, and Islamic illustration. It also has more than twice as many images: 900, compared to Dowd’s still-impressive 400. Doyle’s more comprehensive book also finds space for histories of the major illustration genres — anatomy, natural history, and fashion — which are absent from Reading Pictures.

Wildtype Middleclass 2026

Wildtype Middleclass 2026 will show a programme of independent and experimental films in July and August, at various microcinemas and other arts spaces around the country. Screenings will take place at Buffalo Bridge Gallery in Bangkok, Lorem Ipsum in Hat Yai, Alien Artspace in Khon Kaen (organised by Berng Nang Club), Chiang Mai University’s Department of Media Arts and Design (organised by Untitled for Film), Bliss Project in Chanthaburi, PYE Space in Phayao, and at Vongchavalitkul University’s Faculty of Communication Arts (organised by Doonungnaihognan) in Korat.

One of the highlights will be Sina Wittayawiroj’s Your Ash and My Bone (ธุลีดาว), which was previously shown at Sina’s exhibition Can’t We Recant? (เราจะถอนคำพูดไม่ได้เลยหรือ?) earlier this year in Khon Kaen and last year in Bangkok. Your Ash and My Bone is a documentary collage film in which the artist narrates his life story from birth to the present, from his family background to the progress of his artistic career. It will be screened at Buffalo Bridge, PYE Space, and Alien Artspace on 12th July; at Vongchavalitkul on 15th July; at CMU on 18th July; at Lorem Ipsum on 19th July; and at Bliss Project on 18th August.

There will also be a ‘surprise film’ directed by Uruphong Raksasad, screening at Buffalo Bridge, PYE Space, and Alien Artspace on 11th July; at Vongchavalitkul on 15th July; at CMU on 26th July; and at Bliss Project on 12th August. I don’t want to spoil the surprise here, except to say that it will be a rare opportunity to see a film that has been shown in Thailand only once before.

Your Ash and My Bone

The film’s autobiographical narration is juxtaposed with an account of Thailand’s political turmoil over the same period. There is archive footage of ‘Black May’, the 2006 coup (which Sina describes as “this poisonous tree attempting to root itself deepest into society”), the red-shirt crackdown, the whistle-blower protests, the 2014 coup, and the student protest movement of 2020–2021.

Coloured filters are used to add political commentary to some of the events: blue for 2006, red for 2010, and yellow for 2014. Music is also a key element: a montage of scenes showing the arrest of Arnon Nampa and water cannon being used in Siam Square is accompanied by Caravan’s song Jit Phumisak (จิตร ภูมิศักดิ์), linking today’s student protesters to the revolutionary young writer who was killed in 1966.

Your Ash and My Bone also highlights some of Thailand’s artistic controversies over the past two decades: the banning of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Syndromes and a Century (แสงศตวรรษ), protests against Anupong Chantorn’s painting Perceptless (ภิกษุสันดานกา), and the censorship of the Rupture (หมายเหตุ ๕/๒๕๕๓) exhibition. The film shows how political repression and artistic censorship are equally corrosive.

Some self-censorship was necessary, and Sina draws attention to this by periodically displaying a spoof computer error screen (“No Freedom”) and obscuring certain words in the English subtitles. Abhichon Rattanabhayon used a similar tactic in his short film The Six Principles (สัญญาของผู้มาก่อนกาล), as did Pen-ek Ratanaruang in Paradoxocracy (ประชาธิป'ไทย).

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

This month marks the centenary of Marilyn Monroe’s birth, and to celebrate the anniversary, the Thai Film Archive in Salaya will show one of her most famous films, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, on 28th August. (The film was screened twice in Bangkok in 2017, at Scala and Bangkok Screening Room.)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is one of the essential Monroe films (alongside Some Like It Hot and The Seven Year Itch), purely because of her iconic performance of Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend. (The sequence was the inspiration for Madonna’s Material Girl music video.)

Against the Grain

Adult Material, a new contemporary art and design gallery in Bangkok, opened for its inaugural exhibition on 18th June. Against the Grain runs until 15th August, and includes the light sculpture Cunty Country by Oat Montien.

Cunty Country, which was completed only a few days before the exhibition opened, is a continuation of the theme of Oat’s 2024 solo exhibition Country Home Sheriff: the blending of Oat’s sexual identity with the cowboy accoutrements he inherited from his father. Oat’s father was the landlord of the western-themed Country Home pub, and Cunty Country incorporates part of the pub’s illuminated sign (‘คันทรี’, meaning ‘country’).

Dialogue with a Flower-Crowned Man of Thorns

Teerawat Mulvilai has often used props with political subtexts in his powerful and provocative dance performances. His latest work, Dialogue with a Flower-Crowned Man of Thorns, was performed on 20th and 21st June at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

Teerawat interacts with red oil drums on stage — as he did in a previous performance, Red Tank (ถังแดง) — in an unspoken reference to the anti-communist purge in the 1970s. Dialogue with a Flower-Crowned Man of Thorns also refers to more recent political unrest, the 2020–2021 student protests, with plastic barricades that make loud thuds as they are pushed over.

Thai Hood

Thai rap artist 3Bone released his new single Thai Hood on 16th June. A state-of-the-nation song similar to Bigboat’s This Is Thailand (ที่นี่ประเทศไทย), Thai Hood’s lyrics call out illegal gambling, inequality, and corruption.

The music video features dozens of news clips, including the 2006 and 2014 coup announcements, ‘Black May’, Thaksin Shinawatra, the 2010 crackdown on protesters, the 2011 floods, water cannon being deployed against protesters in 2020, people who died on the street during the coronavirus pandemic, bodies found in the Mekong river, and the collapse of the State Audit Office building in 2025. It also includes the famous Neal Ulevich photograph taken on 6th October 1976. All of this is ironically intercut with promotional footage of traditional Thai dancers.

3Bone has previously rapped about contemporary politics in his single Sunflower (ดอกทานตะวัน), and about modern political history in สาดสี (‘splashing colour’). He is a member of RapCon, a collective of six rappers who produce music about social and political issues. The group was set up earlier this year, to campaign for a new constitution drafted by an elected committee. (The ‘Con’ in RapCon stands for ‘constitution’.)

Orientalism:Between Fact and Fantasy

Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this month, and runs until next year. With almost 200 items on display, it’s probably the largest survey exhibition of Orientalist art. It’s also significant for its focus on Orientalist decorative arts and fashion in addition to the familiar paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme and his contemporaries. The Met’s exhibition catalogue, written by Deniz Beyazit, Maryam Ekhtiar, and Asher Miller, features full-page images and an essay on Orientalist design.