Thai

After witnessing a murder committed by her boyfriend’s brother, a young woman must choose between the love and the law.Read More »

Time Out Film Guide wrote:
An exceptionally beautiful movie set among Thailand’s Muslim minority in villages near the Malaysian border, and centering on a bright teenage kid forced to drop out of school and support his family by turning small-time smuggler. Impossible to convey its qualities without falling back on turn-off words like ‘charm’ and ‘sensitivity’, but the fact is that it succeeds in evoking the trials, terrors and excitements of childhood with an immediacy that’s both sweet and tough. There’s an eye-opening blend of universal and local elements: trouble with punks at a rock concert, daredevil feats on the roof of a moving train. And it offers the joy of seeing a director in full control of his medium. (Tony Rayns)Read More »

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Returning to Thailand after studying in the US, Ananda lands a part in a new film and finds himself swept up in a whirlwind of success. When American girlfriend Zoe turns up to visit, she soon begins to feel shut out and the distance between them grows as Ananda becomes increasingly absorbed with his role in the film. His attention soon turns to May from the film’s production crew, and so as one relationship fades, another ignites. All the while, Ananda finds himself revisiting his past and reflecting on his present – from the building he grew up in and a Bangkok he once knew, to two cultures that he is now caught between.Read More »

A mirror joins two worlds, modern-day Bangkok and Bangkok under Rama IV, together. Maneechan, a diplomat investigating recently uncovered documents in France concerning ancient Thailand, learns the story behind them first-hand as she travels back in time through the mirror.Read More »

German family Schroeder is spending their Christmas holidays on the Thai island, Phuket. Of all the things, deep within the sleazy tourist bars and alleys of Patong, the youngest son Felix falls in love with a gorgeous Thai girl Fai who in return appears to mutually attracted to him. Fai holds a special secret. Following a sorrowful last goodbye to Fai at the end of his holiday, Felix decides while en-route to the airport, to follow the calling in his heart and stay a week longer.Read More »

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It doesn’t look spectacular at first. Two boys each talk separately about their experiences. In the end also on the sexual level. In the end they are also in the room together. In the end they don’t leave it at talking. Remember that homosexuality on film is banned in Thailand and so this film maker has been very daring.

Europeans on sex holidays to Thailand and transvestites who work in tourist areas may give a different impression, but this country is far from liberal in regard to homosexuality. A candid film maker like Thunska Pansittivorakul is therefore sure to come into contact with censorship sooner or later. So anyone who wonders why the two kids in this film keep their pants on right up to the end now knows the answer.Read More »

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A horrifying story of a shaman’s inheritance in the Isan region of Thailand. What could be possessing a family member might not be the Goddess they make it out to be.Read More »

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How do you put together the puzzle if the image is missing? You start from individual pieces and see how they fit together. There are the four young actors on a trip to Kanchanaburi, “a city so meaningful, I’d rather die if I don’t get to be with you”, as the song goes. They stay in a hut in the forest by the river, drink on the terrace, talk and watch the fireworks at night, the same scene they later re-enact on the stage set back in Bangkok. The harried young woman is lost in the same forest, or maybe in the young actress’ dream; when the screen splits into two distinct parts, it’s also not clear how they fit together. The foursome came to Kanchanaburi to see the museum, but it’s closed for refurbishment, although they still manage to walk along Hellfire Pass. You can hear the sounds of construction as the scenery rushes past on the train; you can see the rails rush towards you from the window of the theatre set. If you follow the Death Railway back from the west, you reach Bangkok too, which was once home to the Dusit Zoo; the actors also cluck, howl and bark, in city and country alike. What if the missing image isn’t one place or moment in time, but many?Read More »

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This documentary film explores the spread of nationalism according to the concept of “Homogeneous, Empty Time” by Walter Benjamin, a German Jewish philosopher and cultural critic. The theory as referenced in the book Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson stated that nationalistic ideologies originated from emptiness within an area where people have homogenous consciousness. This film, therefore, explores people in a variety of communities in Thailand, such as high school students, religious people, nationalistic right-wingers, military cadets, and people in the Southern border, in an attempt to find what foundation the Thai nation is formed upon.Read More »