Plot: A dysfunctional family falls from grace in the shadow of war.Read More »
Thai
-
Taiki Sakpisit – The Edge of Daybreak (2021)
2021-2030DramaTaiki SakpisitThailand -
Phuttiphong Aroonpheng – Kraben rahu AKA Manta Ray (2018) (HD)
Phuttiphong Aroonpheng2011-2020DramaThailandPhuttiphong Aroonpheng’s beautiful debut feature, about a Rohingya refugee and the Thai fisherman who rescues him, tells a complex story of friendship with minimalistic ease.
Dedicated to the Rohingya refugees who have perished at sea or were found dead in mass graves, Manta Ray ponders the concepts of identity and foreignness, and the reluctance to welcome “strangers” into our lives.Read More » -
Nonzee Nimibutr – Jan Dara (2001)
Nonzee Nimibutr2001-2010DramaEroticaThailandsynopsis
Jan Dara grows up in a house lacking in love but abundant in lust. He quickly picks up the sinful way of life of the man who married his mother after she became pregnant from being raped. His ‘father’s’ mistress welcomes the young boy into her literal bosom. Wanting badly to know his real father, Jan leaves the house, only coming back after Khun Luang’s daughter falls pregnant out of wedlock. Jan does a favor to his ‘father’ by marrying her, even though he is deeply in love with the mistress. The truth about his birth, as Jan will later learn, is as confusing and messed up as his present life and the lives of those around him.Read More » -
Ing K. – Censor Must Die (2014)
2011-2020DocumentaryIng K.ThailandQuote:
When Shakespeare Must Die, a Thai film adaptation of Macbeth is banned by the Thai government as a threat to national security, the film’s producer treks through the corridors of power to un-ban his Shakespearean horror movie–from the Cultural ministry to the Senate and the National Human Rights Commission, all the way to the Administrative Court where he is suing the government for abuse of power. Wherever he went, amidst political upheaval, his director followed with a camera. The resulting reality cinema is the living story of a struggle for justice and human dignity, for freedom of expression, which Thai filmmakers do not have. A dark cinematic record of democracy in action, in all its farcical, obscene and heartbreaking details.Read More » -
Mingmonkul Sonakul – I -San Special AKA Kuen pra chan tem doueng (2002)
2001-2010AsianDramaMingmonkul SonakulThailandThe Female GazeSynopsis
The soundtrack to a radio soap opera set in a luxury hotel is acted out by characters who are riding a ramshackle bus from Bangkok to a small town in Thailand’s Northeast. When the bus stops, the drama in the characters’ real lives can be seen. In different cirumstances, it’s not hard to imagine the characters – a young small-town girl (glamorous model), an older woman (hi-so boutique owner), an illegal Burmese immigrant (hotel waitress), half-Thai backpacker (handsome hotel owner), soldier (ladyboy hostess) and dodgy businessman (dodgy businessman) – assuming the lives of their larger-than-life soap opera alter egosRead More » -
Anocha Suwichakornpong – Jai Jumlong (2021)
Anocha Suwichakornpong2021-2030DocumentaryExperimentalThailandHow 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?(From Berlinale Forum)Read More »
-
Pom Bunsermvicha – Lemongrass Girl (2021)
2021-2030DramaPom BunsermvichaShort FilmThailandThe young Piano gets lumbered with the job of keeping the set dry during the shoot for Anocha Suwichakornpong’s latest film Come Here. Only she seems capable of warding off the rain.Read More »
-
Apichatpong Weerasethakul – A Letter to Uncle Boonmee (2009)
2001-2010Apichatpong WeerasethakulArthouseShort FilmThailandQuote:
A slowly moving camera captures the interiors of various houses in a village. They are all deserted except one house with a group of young soldiers. They are digging the up the ground. It is unclear whether they are exhuming or burying something. The voices of three young men are heard. They repeat, rehearse, memorise a letter to a man named Boonmee. They tell him about a small community called Nabua where the inhabitants have abandoned their homes. The wind blows fiercely through the doors, and the windows, bringing with it a swarm of bugs. As evening approaches, the sky turns dark. The bugs scatter and the men are silent.A Letter to Uncle Boonmee is part of the multi-platform Primitive project which focuses on a concept of remembrance and extinction set in the northeast of Thailand. Boonmee is the main character of the feature film of the project.Read More »
-
Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Hua jai tor ra nong AKA The Adventure of Iron Pussy (2003)
2001-2010Apichatpong WeerasethakulArthouseCampQueer Cinema(s)ThailandQuote:
She’s gorgeous, she’s dangerous – and she sings! Male convenience store clerk by day, fabulous drag queen/ secret agent by night, Iron Pussy must yet again come to the rescue! In this feature-length reprise, award-winning Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul and writer Michael Shaowanasai (who also plays Iron Pussy) have created a spy-thriller-kung-fu-musical-western-forbidden-love story that, like our heroine, defies convention.Read More »