09 December 2024

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 this was the title of a Sarit biography published in 1964, which included a dossier of photographs of Sarit’s alleged lovers. Several erotic novels of the period, including แม่ม่ายผ้าขะม้าแดง (‘red-headed widow’), 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 planned 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.

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. Sixty years later, 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.

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.

07 December 2024

somethingELSE
Back to the Future


Back to the Future
The Physical Realm

Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s short drama The Physical Realm (ภูมิกายา) will be shown at Doc Club and Pub in Bangkok tomorrow, in the second of a series of screenings organised by ELSE. The theme of the somethingELSE programme is Back to the Future.

The Physical Realm had its Thai premiere almost exactly a year ago, at the 27th Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้นครั้งที่ 27). It was also shown in Chiang Rai earlier this year at the Thailand Biennale. It will be screened at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya on 22nd December in a reprise of the Best of Short 27 (โปรแกรมผลงานชนะรางวัลจากเทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 27) programme.

06 December 2024

28th Short Film and Video Festival


Short Film and Video Festival

The Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน) concluded two days ago, and the 28th Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้นครั้งที่ 28) will take place from 14th to 22nd December at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya. This annual festival, founded in 1997, is Thailand’s longest-running film event, providing a unique showcase for independent filmmakers.

Of the short films in competition, the highlights include Komtouch Napattaloong’s No Exorcism Film, screening on 14th December, and Jarut Wisawong’s Twas Partly Love, and Partly Fear on 21st December. Both films were previously shown at Wildtype 2024.

Twas Partly Love, and Partly Fear
No Exorcism Film
The Letter from Silence
Damnatio Memoriae

The documentary film competition includes Vichart Somkaew’s The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ) on 14th December. The documentary strand also features two feature-length films showing in competition that were not part of the online Marathon, as they are politically sensitive: Uruphong Raksasad’s Paradox Democracy on 14th December, and Thunska Pansittivorakul’s Damnatio Memoriae (ไม่พึงปรารถนา) on 15th December.

Damnatio Memoriae premiered at the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival in South Korea earlier this year. The film is a collage of found footage, though it also includes the director’s trademark explicit content, with a political subtext.

You Fucked with the Wrong Generation Songs of Angry People Paradox October

Paradox Democracy—whose title has echoes of Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s Paradoxocracy (ประชาธิป'ไทย)—is the third in a series of documentaries by Uruphong about the recent student protest movement. The first two films in the trilogy are You Fucked with the Wrong Generation (made for television, but not broadcast) and Songs of Angry People.

Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s short drama The Physical Realm (ภูมิกายา), one of the award winners from last year’s Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้นครั้งที่ 27), will be shown on 22nd December in a reprise of the Best of Short 27 (โปรแกรมผลงานชนะรางวัลจากเทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 27) programme. It will also be shown at Doc Club and Pub in Bangkok tomorrow.

03 December 2024

Skyline Film
Pulp Fiction


Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction will be screened on the rooftop of River City Bangkok on 27th December, as part of a regular programme of monthly outdoor screenings organised by Skyline Film. Quentin Tarantino’s classic was previously shown at House Samyan this year, at Neighbourhood last year, at House and Bangkok Screening Room in 2019, and at Cinema Winehouse in 2018 and 2015.

30 November 2024

Hits Me Movies...
One More Time
(vol. 2)


Oppenheimer

As the end of the year approaches, there’s an opportunity to catch up on the films you may have missed at House Samyan in Bangkok. The cinema is bringing back its most popular films of the year in December, in a programme called Hits Me Movies... One More Time. (Yes, the name is a pun on the Britney Spears single.) This year is vol. 2, as the format began last year, with encore screenings of Oppenheimer, Past Lives, and other hits from 2023.

This year’s programme runs from 12th December to New Year’s Day, and highlights include the Thai documentary Breaking the Cycle (อำนาจ ศรัทธา อนาคต) showing from 12th to 16th December; and the Greek ‘Weird Wave’ drama Dogtooth (Κυνόδοντας) on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. (Breaking the Cycle went on general release in May. Dogtooth was shown at House Samyan in August, at the Chulalongkorn International Film Festival in 2011, and at the Bangkok International Film Festival in 2009.)

27 November 2024

Arcadia Rooftop Cinema
Enter the Dragon


Enter the Dragon

Bangkok’s Arcadia bar continues its Sunday night cult film screenings on 1st December with Enter the Dragon, featuring Bruce Lee in his most famous role. Previous titles in the open-air Arcadia Rooftop Cinema programme have included 2001, Die Hard, Un chien andalou (‘an Andalusian dog’), Videodrome, Alien, Akira (アキラ), and the venue’s signature film, Blade Runner.

24 November 2024

Bangkok Breaking:
Heaven and Hell


Bangkok Breaking

Kongkiat Khomsiri’s Netflix series Bangkok Breaking—a drama about rivalries among the EMS ‘body snatchers’ who transport accident victims to hospital—was released in 2021. Earlier this year, he adapted the series into a film, Bangkok Breaking: Heaven and Hell (ฝ่านรกเมืองเทวดา), which is also streaming on Netflix.

The film’s prologue is probably its most effective sequence. A slum neighbourhood has been purchased by the corrupt head of an EMS foundation, who has plans to redevelop it into luxury accommodation. The residents protest against their eviction, and are brutally beaten by riot police with batons. A TV reporter at the scene tells her audience: “The city is in chaos. It’s like a battlefield here.”

Bangkok Breaking

The scene—filmed on an impressive outdoor set without GCI—escalates as protesters, and even monks who have joined the demonstration, are shot dead by police snipers. A news bulletin reports that “the police fired real bullets at the protesters.” The violence is bloody, and a reminder that Kongkiat also directed the intense thriller Slice (เฉือน).

The protest that opens Heaven and Hell echoes the real-life demonstrations against the military government that took place in Bangkok a few years ago, particularly the violent clashes at Viphavadi Rangsit Road throughout August 2021. In fact, the film even features a protest sign reading “เผด็จการ” (‘dictator’), and one character has “Fuck Government” written on his chest.

Bangkok Breaking

If Kongkiat’s film had received a theatrical release, it would potentially have been censored for its depiction of police killing protesters with live bullets. Film censorship was controlled by the police department from 1972—following a decree by Thanom Kittikachorn’s junta—until the Film and Video Act of 2008. (Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses the severe restrictions imposed on films portraying the police.)

Bangkok Through Poster 2024
Thailand Postlitical Fiction


Thailand Postlitical Fiction Bangkok Through Poster 2024

The fifth annual Bangkok Through Poster exhibition opened at Kinjai Contemporary in Bangkok yesterday. This year’s theme is Thailand Postlitical Fiction: poster designs for imaginary movies commenting on Thai politics.

A handful of posters in the exhibition refer to past political violence. One example is a spoof horror film titled Cursed Siam (สาปสยาม) by Canyouhearcloud, referencing the 6th October 1976 massacre at Thammasat University. Two posters refer to the 2010 crackdown at Ratchaprasong: All the Light We Can(not) See by Wonderwhale Studio (which uses candles to represent the red-shirt victims), and Animal Sanctuary by Chonlatorn Wongrussamee (which emphasises the killing of wounded protesters sheltering at Wat Pathum Wanaram). Two posters—More Conceal, More Reveal (ยิ่งปกปิด ยิ่งเปิดเผย) by Deepend Studio, and Unfortunately by Njorvks—highlight former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s statement that “unfortunately, some people died” at Ratchaprasong. Kawinnate Konklong’s short film Unfortunately (แค่วันที่โชคร้าย), released last year, also refers to Abhisit’s dismissive comment.

Most of the posters, however, focus on more recent events. Thaksin Shinawatra and his daughter Paetongtarn (the current Prime Minister) are the most common theme, featuring on ten posters: The Missing (You Too Much) (ผมคิดถึงคุณ) by Setthawuth K. (a spoof of The Shining), The Chair of the Promise Land [sic] by Genji Kun, The Zone of Shinnawatra [sic] by Nam.Ni.Ang, The Successor by Gaw Chutima, Hereditary by Kritsaran Hanamonset, The Loop by Thalufah, The Invisible Storm by Antizeptic, The Landslider by Sina Wittayawiroj (a diptych inspired by The Lobster), and Closing the Scenes (ปิดฉาก) by Thiraphon Singlor.

The student protest movement inspired almost as many posters as the Shinawatras, including Chorn Yuan’s A Smile. There are two that refer to 16th October 2020, when riot police used water cannon to disperse protesters at Siam Square: 16 10 63 by PrachathipaType, and Sky Flood, Stars Fall (น้ำท่วมฟ้า ปลากินดาว) by Tnop Design. Panita Siriwongwan-ngarm’s Here at Din Daeng Police Station, a Boy Named Varit Died (ที่นี่ (สน.ดินแดง) มีคน ตาย ชื่อ ด.ช.วาฤทธิ์) honours a 15-year-old boy who was shot at a protest in 2021.

Protest leader Arnon Nampa appears in two posters: The Lawyer Devil (ทนายปีศาจ) by Shake and Bake Studio, and The Letter (จดหมายรัก). The Letter refers to letters he wrote to his family from prison, as does Vichart Somkaew’s short film The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ), released this year. Arnon’s fellow protest leader Parit Chirawak features in The Penguin 112 by director Chaweng Chaiyawan (a reference to Parit’s nickname and the lèse-majesté charges he faces).

Article 112 also inspired perhaps the strongest poster in the exhibition, Pssyppl’s Lèse-majesté, which depicts blue figures strangling red ones with nooses, a comment on the maliciousness and severity of Lèse-majesté prosecutions. Bangkok Through Poster 2024 runs until 22nd December.

19 November 2024

November Action Flicks


November Action Flicks

Neighbourhood, the Bangkok community mall, is resuming its outdoor film screenings this month, after taking a break during the rainy season. The current programme is billed as November Action Flicks, though it also includes Taxi Driver, which is more of a drama than an action film.

Martin Scorsese’s classic, one of the greatest films of the last fifty years, will be shown on 24th November. It has been screened a few times before in Bangkok: at House Samyan this year and last year, at Bangkok Screening Room in 2019, and at Scala in 2018.

13 November 2024

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining



Taschen published The Stanley Kubrick Archives as a limited coffee-table book in 2005. Then, in 2009, came their collector’s edition of Kubrick’s Napoleon, limited to 1,000 copies: ten volumes inside one enormous book. Another collector’s edition followed in 2014: the making of Kubrick’s 2001, limited to 1,500 copies in a metal slipcase. Of course, these books were far from cheap, though last year’s collector’s edition on the making of Kubrick’s The Shining (limited to 1,000 copies) cost a prohibitive $1,500 (almost as much as the other three titles combined).

Fortunately, a year after its release, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is now available in a more modest edition, costing around a tenth of the original price. (How times have changed: this version is the same price as the limited edition of The Stanley Kubrick Archives was in 2005.) The new edition consists of two volumes in a slipcase: a book of photographs (many previously unpublished) styled to look like a scrapbook; and The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, a comprehensive account of the film’s production.

The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is credited to both J.W. Rinzler and Lee Unkrich, though Rinzler wrote the majority of the text. During the project’s gestation, there was some confusion around the authorship: Unkrich (a Pixar film director) initially referred to it as his book, without mentioning Rinzler’s input, and then implied that he had hired Rinzler. In fact, Rinzler had begun the manuscript independently, and the two later agreed to collaborate.

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining benefits both from Rinzler’s expertise as a writer of making-of books (such as The Making of Alien), and Unkrich’s passionate interest in The Shining. (He wrote the introduction to Danel Olson’s book, also titled Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.) The original collector’s edition also included supplemental volumes such as a Saul Bass sketchbook and a reproduction of the film’s continuity script.

12 November 2024

Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy


Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy

Vichart Somkaew’s new documentary Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy (ไตรภาคการเมืองร่วมสมัยไทย) is an hour-long portmanteau project combining three of his recent short films: Cremation Ceremony (ประวัติย่อของบางสิ่งที่หายไป), 112 News from Heaven, and The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ). The anthology’s structure, divided into three segments, reflects what the director sees as the three eras of modern Thai politics: 1932–1957 (the abolition of absolute monarchy and the establishment of democratic institutions), 1957–1992 (prolonged military dictatorship, culminating in the ‘Black May’ crackdown), and 1992 to the present day (liberal reforms, followed by political polarisation).

Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy begins with Vichart’s most directly political film, Cremation Ceremony, in which the faces of three politicians stare impassively at the viewer. The three men—Anutin Charnvirakul, former health minister; Abhisit Vejjajiva, former prime minister; and former army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha—are responsible for three tragic injustices. Anutin oversaw the Thai government’s initially sluggish response to the coronavirus pandemic. Abhisit authorised the shooting of red-shirt protesters in 2010. Prayut led the 2014 coup, and his military government revived 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 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. (Anutin is a billionaire, Abhisit was cleared of all charges, and Prayut acted with total impunity.)

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 last year’s election. But after the film’s release, the progressive Move Forward Party was excluded from the governing coalition, and the optimistic caption has now been removed.)

Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy continues with 112 News from Heaven, which juxtaposes news that’s broadcast on all channels every day with news that goes unreported by mainstream outlets. On the soundtrack, an announcer reads a bulletin of royal news, a daily staple of Thai television and radio. This is contrasted with captions documenting news of “victims of the Thai state”.

The Thai monarchy is often associated with the sky, symbolising the high reverence in which it is traditionally held, and lèse-majesté is article 112 of the criminal code, hence the title 112 News from Heaven. The film’s captions feature 112 headlines from a 112-day period, detailing the custodial sentences given to those convicted of lèse-majesté and the bail denied to those awaiting trial.

After its litany of legal persecution, 112 News from Heaven ends with a clip from an impromptu TV interview Rama X gave during a walkabout. Asked for his message to pro-democracy protesters, the King offers words of reassurance: “We love them all the same.” Viewers are left to interpret this in the context of the film they have just seen.

Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy’s final segment is The Letter from Silence, a series of 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.

In fact, Arnon is one of the common threads linking each Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy episode. Cremation Ceremony summarises his 3rd August 2020 speech calling for reform of the monarchy, 112 News from Heaven documents the legal process following his arrest, and The Letter from Silence quotes from his prison letters.

11 November 2024

The Letter from Silence


The Letter from Silence

Vichart Somkaew’s latest short film The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ) 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. It avoids the explanatory captions of Vichart’s previous films 112 News from Heaven and Cremation Ceremony (ประวัติย่อของบางสิ่งที่หายไป), instead letting Arnon’s words stand alone. This makes the film 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.

The Letter from Silence, which is dedicated to Arnon and other political prisoners, was shown as part of this year’s online Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน) on 5th November. Vichart has announced plans to combine it with 112 News from Heaven and Cremation Ceremony into an hour-long portmanteau film, Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy. Arnon’s letters have been translated into English by the Article 112 Project website.

Arnon led a protest at Democracy Monument on 3rd August 2020, one of the first rallies calling for reform of the monarchy. The speech he delivered at that event was published as The Monarchy and Thai Society (สถาบันพระมหากษัตริย์กับสังคมไทย). He has also written a book of poetry, เหมือนบอดใบ้ไพร่ฟ้ามาสุดทาง (‘we subjects, as if mute and blind, have found ourselves at the end of the line’). A documentary about him, We Need to Talk About อานนท์ (‘we need to talk about Arnon’), was screened at Phatthalung Micro Cinema earlier this year.

Short Film Day


Lumiere!

The Thai Film Archive at Salaya will celebrate Short Film Day on 28th December with screenings of Lumière! and Hugo. Short Film Day marks the date in 1895 when the Lumière brothers showed a programme of short films to customers at a café in Paris.

Lumière! is a compilation of 114 meticulously restored short films by the Lumière brothers. Narrated by Thierry Frémaux, it’s similar to the earlier documentary The Lumière Brothers’ First Films, a compilation of eighty-five Lumière films narrated by Bertrand Tavernier. (In both compilations, the short films are arranged thematically rather than chronologically.) Lumière! was previously shown at the Alliance Française in Bangkok in 2018.

Hugo

Hugo was Martin Scorsese’s first film in 3D, and also his first film aimed specifically at a family audience. It’s nominally the story of Hugo Cabret, a Parisian orphan, but its real focus is filmmaker Georges Méliès, played by Ben Kingsley. Méliès sells toys at a small booth, though Hugo discovers his past as a cinema pioneer.

Hugo also has parallels with Scorsese’s own life. Like the title character, Scorsese was captivated by the cinema as a child, and he rehabilitated the reputation of director Michael Powell, just as Hugo brings Méliès back into the limelight.

Sunset Boulevard

The Film Archive will also show Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, on 6th December. This classic Hollywood-on-Hollywood satire has been shown previously at Bangkok Screening Room, and at Smalls in Bangkok.

08 November 2024

House Samyan


The 400 Blows

House Samyan in Bangkok will show two classic French films at the end of this month, with further screenings continuing into December. François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (Les quatre cents coups) and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (À bout de souffle) are both among the greatest films ever made, and cornerstones of the French New Wave (la nouvelle vague)

The 400 Blows opens on 28th November, followed by Breathless on the following day. Both films are being screened in a double bill on 30th November; and on 1st, 5th, and 7th December.

The 400 Blows was screened at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya earlier this year and in 2018. It has also been shown several times previously in Bangkok: at the Prince Theatre, at Bangkok Screening Room (to launch their BKKSR Cinémathèque programme), and at the Alliance Française (introduced by its leading actor, Jean-Pierre Léaud).

Breathless

Breathless, one of the most influential films ever made, was shown in Chiang Mai and Bangkok last year. It was also shown in Bangkok in 16mm in 2010, and at an open-air screening in 2011.

05 November 2024

2475
Dawn of Revolution


2475 Dawn of Revolution

When the animation 2475 Dawn of Revolution (๒๔๗๕ รุ่งอรุณแห่งการปฏิวัติ) was released earlier this year, Prachatai reported that the film’s production company, Nakraphiwat, was paid almost ฿4 million by the army for other projects between 2020 and 2022. Yesterday, Prachatai revealed that it had received a defamation lawsuit from Nakraphiwat, alleging that Prachatai’s online article falsely implied that 2475 had been funded by the military.

The film’s credits include a long list of individual donors, some of whom gave as little as ฿100 each, though the bulk of the budget was provided anonymously. 2475 (directed by Wivat Jirotgul) tells the story of the 1932 coup from a royalist-nationalist perspective, though its makers are clearly sensitive to the suggestion that the film is an example of military propaganda.

The lawsuit was filed on 11th October, and there will be a preliminary hearing at the Criminal Court in Bangkok on 9th December. Prachatai’s report—headlined “พบเจ้าของแอนิเมชัน ‘2475 Dawn of Revolution’ รับโครงการทำสื่อแบบวิธีเฉพาะเจาะจง ‘กองทัพบก’ 11 สัญญา” (‘the maker of 2475 Dawn of Revolution took on 11 media contracts from the army’)—which was published on 15th March, is still online.

16th World Film Festival of Bangkok


16th World Film Festival of Bangkok

The 16th World Film Festival of Bangkok (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์โลกแห่งกรุงเทพฯ ครั้งที่ 16) begins on 7th November with the Thai premiere of Sivaroj Kongsakul’s new film Regretfully at Dawn (อรุณกาล). The festival will run until 17th November.

Kriengsak Silakong, the festival’s founder, sadly died in 2022, and the Lotus award for lifetime achievement was renamed in his honour. Like the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th festivals, this year’s event will take place at CentralWorld’s SF World cinema. (The 6th, 7th, and 8th festivals were held at Paragon Cineplex; the 5th, 9th, and 10th took place at Esplanade Cineplex.)

Regretfully at Dawn

Regretfully at Dawn is one of several recent Thai films whose protagonists are retired soldiers nearing the end of their lives. Sivaroj’s film includes flashbacks in which the main character, an elderly man called Yong (played by Caravan band-member Surachai Jantimathawn), is haunted by his time in the military. The time frame is not specified, though judging by Yong’s age, he likely fought against the Communist insurgency in the 1970s.

Taiki Sakpisit’s The Edge of Daybreak (พญาโศกพิโยคค่ำ) and Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s Anatomy of Time (เวลา) also feature protagonists who cannot escape the memories of their anti-Communist past, though Yong is a more sympathetic figure than the dying men in Taiki and Jakrawal’s films. Similarly, the title character in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ) confesses that he “killed too many communists”, though the film doesn’t include flashbacks to that period of Boonmee’s life.

04 November 2024

The 100 Best Movies of All Time


The 100 Best Movies of All Time

The 100 Best Movies of All Time, a magazine published by A360 Media earlier this year, lists 100 classic films, though only six are foreign-language titles. The list is very mainstream, which is hardly surprising as A360 is a rebranding of American Media, the publisher of the National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids. The Godfather is at the top of the list.

Bangkok Art Biennale 2024


Bangkok Art Biennale 2024

After Beyond Bliss (สุขสะพรั่ง พลังอาร์ต) in 2018, Escape Routes (ศิลป์สร้าง ทางสุข) in 2020, and Chaos:Calm (โกลาหล:สงบสุข) in 2022, the fourth Bangkok Art Biennale’s theme is Nurture Gaia (รักษา กายา). As in previous years, the Biennale (บางกอก อาร์ต เบียนนาเล่) is being held at multiple venues around the city, from galleries to temples. The event opened on 24th October, and runs until 25th February next year.

Taiki Sakpisit’s video installation Dream Sequence (ฝันทิพย์), showing at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, consists of static shots filmed at the house in Paris where Pridi Banomyong lived during his years in exile from Thailand until his death in 1983. The house was purchased this year by Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, founder of the Future Forward party, cementing the property as a symbol of progressive politics thwarted by the establishment, and the Biennale catalogue describes Tiaki’s video as “a kaleidoscopic feast of delusion, desperation, oppression, and perpetual nightmares rooted in Thailand’s flawed democracy.”

28 October 2024

Amazing Stoner Movie Fest 4


Amazing Stoner Movie Fest 4

The fourth Amazing Stoner Movie Fest (มหัศจรรย์หนังผี ครั้งที่ 4) will take place at Cinema Oasis in Bangkok from 7th to 10th November, with simultaneous screenings both inside and outside the cinema. The festival’s Holy War Zone strand, part of its Shorts Programme (โปรแกรมหนังสั้น), includes two Thai films that feature archive footage of political unrest: Patipat Oakkharhaphunrat’s Black Hole and Warat Bureephakdee’s Crazy Soft Power Love. Both films are also included in this year’s Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน).

Crazy Soft Power Love

Crazy Soft Power Love is a satire on the government’s soft power strategy, culminating in a Songkran water fight that escalates into a brawl, intercut with footage from the 6th October 1976 massacre. It was previously shown at Wildtype 2024.

Black Hole

Black Hole is a surreal black-and-white film in which a young son discovers that his father, a corrupt military officer, has sold citizens’ digital data for personal gain. The film links this family conflict with anti-military demonstrations in modern Thai history, with footage from 14th October 1973, 6th October 1976, and the student protests that began in 2020. It was also screened in the Tech Tales Youth programme at the 27th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้นครั้งที่ 27).

25 October 2024

If the Air Has Memories


If the Air Has Memories

Walai Buppha’s new documentary If the Air Has Memories (หากอากาศมีความทรงจำ) will be screened today at TK Park in Narathiwat, as part of the Indelible Memory (ลบไม่เลือน) exhibition commemorating the Tak Bai incident, when seventy-eight protesters suffocated to death on 25th October 2004 while being transported to a military camp. Today is the twentieth anniversary of the tragedy.

After many years, seven former police and military officers were eventually charged with the murder of the Tak Bai protesters. However, no attempt has been made to enforce the arrest warrants issued for them, and at midnight tonight, the twenty-year statute of limitations will expire, meaning that they cannot be prosecuted.

Walai’s one-hour documentary is the first film to give a voice to the families of the Tak Bai victims. One relative, for example, says that “we kept quiet, memory never goes away. We’d just get used to it.” He also asks why the protesters were “loaded on the truck and stacked up” like animals.

If the Air Has Memories includes a photograph of Tak Bai protesters being transported, as does the new horror movie The Cursed Land (แดนสาป), directed by Panu Aree. A character in Panu’s film has newspaper clippings and printouts about Tak Bai on a wall in his house.

The Cursed Land The Cursed Land

If the Air Has Memories is not yet complete, and is screening today under its working title. It was first shown on 20th October at Hope Space in Bangkok, under its eventual subtitle, 20 Years Later, as part of the 20 ปีตากใบ เราไม่ลืม (‘20 years of Tak Bai, we will never forget’) exhibition.

Its final release title, Along the Road, refers both to the route along which the victims were transported twenty years ago, and the ongoing journey of the relatives in coming to terms with what happened. This title is also a reference to the long-running legal campaign for justice and accountability, which is still, two decades later, a journey without an ending.