Thai Cinema

Vithaya Pansringarm, Kristin Scott Thomas, Nicolas Winding Refn and Ratha Po-ngam at the daytime photocall for Only God Forgives in Cannes. The blood-spattered Bangkok-set crime drama Only God Forgives premiered to boos and mixed reviews in competition at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday. The violence in the film has been turn-off for the squeamish critics, even though some of them liked the movie. Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, Only God Forgives features his Drive star Ryan Gosling in the lead role. However, Gosling didn't turn up at the premiere, and sent his regrets to festival director Terry Fremaux. He is in Detroit shooting his directorial debut How to Catch a Monster. The Guardian rounds up some of the reactions, including a five-star review from The Guardian's own Peter Bradshaw in which he says "The first scenes made me think that Wong Kar-wai had made a new film called In the Mood for Fear or In the Mood for Hate." Other round-ups are at and Metro. Reviews include Variety, Screen Daily, AV Club and the Vulture. Liv Corfixen and her husband Nicholas Winding Refn hits the red carpet at Cannes with Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm and Ratha Po-ngam. Some of the critical loathing is directed at Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays Gosling's venom-spewing mother. She forcefully calls on her gangster son to take revenge for the death of his brother. But others are praising her bold turn, which the actress herself has said left her unsettled by the time filming was over. But it's Vithaya Pansringarm (profiled recently by The Nation) who plays the main antagonist, a sword-wielding former cop nicknamed the Angel of Vengeance who metes out his own form of justice. It's a breakout role for "Pooh" Vithaya, 50, who's only been acting for four years. He previously starred as the sleuthing monk in Tom Waller's Mindfulness and Murder and had bit parts in various foreign productions in Thailand, including The Hangover Part II. In real life, Vithaya is a kind, soft-spoken soul who runs a ballet school in Bangkok with his American wife. However, in the movie he pins a man to an armchair with knives and stabs him through the eye. Not unsurprisingly, he's earned the "badass" title and admiration from various quarters, including Twitch and First Showing. Hopefully, his appearance in Only God Forgives will be a shot in the arm for his and Waller's next project, The Last Executioner. Singer-actress Ratha "Yaya Ying" Po-ngam, among the stars in the recent Jan Dara remake, also appears in Only God Forgives, playing Gosling's girlfriend Mai. She, Vithaya and Scott Thomas joined the director on the Cannes red carpet and at a daytime photocall. Vithaya, as promised, waved the Thai cultural flag, turning up on the red carpet in a Siamese cut jacket and traditional black silk "jong kraben" trousers. Also in Cannes is Madame Ho actress "Chompoo" Araya A. Hargate. However, she isn't there as part of any movie, she's representing l'Oreal Thailand. Wearing a frilly green gown, she hit Tuesday's red carpet premiere for Behind the Candelabra, the Liberace biopic starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon and directed for HBO by Steven Soderbergh. And on Wednesday, she turned up in a slinky black number for All Is Lost. Chompoo is at Cannes representing l'Oreal. She attended premieres for Behind the Candelabra, left, and All Is Lost. ATTENTION: This is a post from Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal. The url for the source blog is http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com. If you're seeing this post anywhere besides your personal feed reader or a couple of social-networking sites, then it might be being misused against the spirit in which it is made freely available.

Fast and Furious 6The Fast and Furious circus jets over to London for another mindlessly fun hot-rod ride.According to producers, Fast and Furious 6 is the first of the franchise entries to not feature underground road racing as a major plot point. They felt they'd reached a "ceiling" in audience appeal, thinking that tuned Suburus and scantily clad race girls dancing to hip-hop weren't enough.But there's still plenty of thrills as gravel-voiced Vin Diesel and his gang drive their musclecars on the wrong side of the road in England.Franchise regular Paul Walker also returns, as do Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Sung Kang. And, surprise, Michelle Rodriguez is back. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson reprises his role from Fast Five. Joining the cast this time around is Welsh actor Luke Evans as the chief villain, plus MMA fighter Gina Carano from Haywire. And stick around for a post-credits scene to see the star of another car-chase franchise.Director Justin Lin, who's steered The Fast and the Furious series since the third entry Tokyo Drift, is back in the drivers's seat one more time. He's moving aside to concentrate on other projects as Saw director James Wan takes over on the already-in-production Fast and Furious 7.Following their big caper in Rio de Janeiro, Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and his crew of street-racing high-stakes thieves have retired but remain wanted fugitives. Diplomatic Security Service agent Hobbs (Johnson) gives them a chance for a clean slate when he asks for Dom's help in bringing down a British ex-special forces soldier (Evans) who is leading a team of mercenaries in daring highway heists across Europe. Among the team of criminals is Dom's supposedly dead girlfriend Letty.Critical reception is mostly positive, so far. Rated 15+.Also openingEpic – A teenage girl is shrunken down and discovers an incredible secret realm right in her own backyard. While trying to figure out a way to contact her nutty professor father and return to her normal size, she is caught up in a battle between the Leaf Men and their mortal enemies the Boggans. This animated feature is from Blue Sky Studios and is directed by Chris Wedge, the helmer of Ice Age and Robots. It is based on William Joyce's children's book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs. The voice cast is headed by Amanda Seyfried, along with Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Chris O'Dowd, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler and Beyoncé Knowles. Critical reception, so far, is generally positive. In 3D. Rated G.Crush – A shy lonely high-school girl (Crystal Reed) turns into a psycho when she experiences her first feelings of love, making life a living hell for a hunky sports star (Lucas Till from X-Men: First Class). Sarah Bolger also stars. This went direct-to-DVD in the States and critical reception somewhat mixed. Rated 15+.Also showingEuropean Union Film Festival – Wrapping up this weekend, tonight's feature is the Spanish drama Don't Be Afraid. Tomorrow, there are three movies: the Danish World War II drama This Life, the Polish black comedy Wonderful Summer and Julien Temple's documentary London – The Modern Babylon. Saturday's offerings are Stars Above from Finland, Goethe! from (where else?) Germany and Portugal's The Death of Carlos Gardel. And the fest closes on Sunday with Sweden's Beyond, starring Noomi Rapace, Cool Kids Don't Cry from the Netherlands and the Luxembourgish crime thriller Blind Spot. It's all at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. As always, tickets are free but you have to queue up to get them 30 minutes before showtime. This is a very popular festival, especially with the culture-starved expats, so be prepared for long lines. Check the festival website for the schedule.Baara (Work) – The Alliance Française screens free movies with English subtitles at 7.30pm every Wednesday. Next week's offering is this 1978 African workplace comedy-drama by Souleymane Cissé. It's set in a factory in Bamak

Thailand’s leading actress ‘Chompoo’ Araya Hagate walked down the Cannes Film Festival red carpet today wearing a Zac Posen aqua green puffy gown creation from his Spring 2013 collection. The dress looks like an upside down aqua-colored rose blossom. Interesting choice. She looks beautiful. Chompoo went to Cannes as a L’Oreal Paris spokesperson for Thailand. The two Asian ladies are keeping a close eye on Chompoo. The little details make this ensemble unforgettable. Straight from the catwalk to CannesSource: Pantip

At the Cannes market, Thongsuk 13 (?????? 13), a.k.a. Long Weekend, was picked up by Eurofilms Perú for distribution in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, according to Film Business Asia. The first release from a new production shingle, Wave Pictures, international sales for Thongsuk 13 are being handled by Five Star Production, which also found buyers in Asian territories for 3AM: The Second Night, another entry in Five Star's exploration into the realm of 3D horror. The slasher-thriller Thongsuk 13, directed by Taweewat Wantha, was featured at last month's Udine Far East Film Festival, where Film Biz Asia's Derek Elley gave it a reasonable review. Also worth a read at Film Biz Asia is the recent report, Good times, bad times. It's a look at the current state of the Thai film industry, from such highlights as the record-breaking box-office success of Pee Mak Phra Khanong and high-profile foreign productions like Lost in Thailand and Only God Forgives, to the problems, such as the continued censorship and banning of films and the failure to deliver on promised incentives to foreign productions, which could lead to film shoots choosing Malaysia instead of Thailand. ATTENTION: This is a post from Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal. The url for the source blog is http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com. If you're seeing this post anywhere besides your personal feed reader or a couple of social-networking sites, then it might be being misused against the spirit in which it is made freely available.

Paradoxocracy (???????????, Prachathipatai), Pen-ek Ratanaruang's documentary of Thailand's modern political history, is set for release at the end of next month. According to the movie's Facebook page, it'll get a limited run at Paragon Cineplex and Esplanade Cineplex Ratchada in Bangkok from June 24 to July 3. A pet project of Pen-ek's, Paradoxocracy was cleared by censors early in the year and was set for release in February. However, it ended up being delayed, with the blame at first attributed to "technical problems" but Pen-ek later admitted he'd encountered difficulties in finding a venue to screen it. Featuring a mix of archive footage and talking-head interviews with academics, Paradoxocracy covers such topics as the switch from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy in the 1930s and the violent political protests of the 1970s to the rise in political power of populist telecommunications tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra. A trailer is available on Facebook, and it's embedded below. ATTENTION: This is a post from Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal. The url for the source blog is http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com. If you're seeing this post anywhere besides your personal feed reader or a couple of social-networking sites, then it might be being misused against the spirit in which it is made freely available.

This is old, the beginning of the month of May 2013 old. It won’t be in Khun Chai Puttipat, we have to wait a few more weeks for this scene of James Jirayu giving Bella Ranee Campen a kiss in the last installment of the Gentlemen series in  ’Khun Chai Ronnapee’ with James Ma and Mint Chalida. It’s the last scene of the series where James Ma marries Mint Chalida with all his brothers and sister-in-laws present. At this point, Krong Kaew and Khun Chai Puttipat are happily married. She is wearing pink as one of the bridesmaid for her youngest brother-in-law’s wedding. In one scene, she gets a kiss from her husband. A real kiss between two people who unconditionally love each other. It’s well documented Bella and are close friends on set. They are playful together, she is seen in this clip bending his hands and then massaging him. The kiss that took several takes and it was a real kiss. Bella massaging James

It’s like I am a drug addict and the series ‘Khun Chai Puttipat’ is my crack–I can’t get enough of it and most likely I will suffer from withdraw symptoms when the lakorn ends this Friday May 24, 2013. It has been a long time since I have been MAJORLY obsess with a show, since the Korean series ‘Coffee Prince’–that was difficult since I had to reply on subtitles. With this, I can get all the spoilers I want, watch it live, it’s pretty satisfying getting a quick fix as much as I want. This lakorn transcends beyond James Jirayu, people seem to think the star of the series carries the show–to a certain extent it does but there has to be a good story executed well to make people cling emotionally to it. I think Khun Chai Puttipat is one of those rare gems for lakorns, it does have its flaws but I can overlook them because of the story and the chemistry of the cast. There is no weak characters–they embody what they are playing from the villains you hate to the good guy characters you love. It’s well-acted. I applaud the producers who chose their actors and actresses well. It’s Sunday May 19, 2013 and I have watched all the episodes of Khun Chai Puttipat that aired this weekend from episode 7-9, I think episode 7 was the weakness and it only went uphill from there. It got better and better. I just didn’t want it to end. Because each prime time lakorn is almost 2hrs long, when you are doing summaries, you want it to end. It’s NOT done but I am releasing it. I just didn’t realize how much important dialogue is in this episode. As they are dancing, Bai Bua’s people are plotting to kidnap Krong Kaew to give to Khun Pinit.  After the dance, they parted ways. Khun Chai Puttipat is disturb when he doesn’t see her in the ballroom, someone had asked Krong Kaew to see the host of the event but she is nowhere to be seen and the host is seen talking to other guests. Krong Kaew is lured outside and drugged with a chloroform cloth and placed in a car by Khun Pinit’s people. Ing On and her son Glai-Lerk intercepts Krong Kaew by attacking Khun Pinit’s people. Glai-Lerk attempts to assault Krong Kaew with his mom standing outside the car–what is wrong with this guy. Mom, he was like let me try it first that old guy won’t know about it. And you’re like ew. Luckily, Krong Kaew wakes up and pushed him back. Soon after Khun Chai Puttipat and his two younger brothers Ronnapee and Rachanon came to save her and beat up Glai-Lerk. Khun Chai Puttipat found one of her shoes when they were searching for her. Fighting for her well-being, Krong Kaew attacks Khun Chai Pat without knowing it. He carries her to his car. ‘It’s me, look at me, Kaew! Those people were trying to kidnap for Khun Pinit.’ She looks up and sees him and his two younger brothers. ‘You came to help me.’ Khun Chai Pat:’Right now, you are safe.’ The brothers advised Khun Chai Pat to take Krong Kaew into hiding, Khun Pinit is becoming more ruthless, he won’t stop until he has Krong Kaew, they must flee. Khun Chai Pat:’Will you go with me?’ He puts one of her shoes on for her:’I found this and I knew you were in danger.’ The brothers watched their hermit older brother with a smile, like fangirls. Aw. Khun Chai Pat:’We must quickly leave here.’ She lets out one tear drop and the brothers are like awwing in the background with smiles. Off they went off in his car. Krong Kaew:’I have cause you trouble again.’ Khun Chai Pat with a smile:’Who says that, you are helping me instead. Since I become a doctor I have never taken off not even a day. No one could ever remove me from the operation room until you Kaew.’ Kaew changes the subject:’The road is really dark.’ Khun Chai Pat:’Are you afraid?’ Kaew:’I am scared.’ Khun Chai

It’s a bittersweet win for Nadech as people are debating whether he should have won or not at Pantip and even at Sanook, it should have gone to ‘Porche’ Saran Siriluksana for his highly popular lakorn ‘Yok Luerd Mungkorn’ on Ch7 or even to Aum Atichart for his leading role in the historical Thai lakorn ‘Khun Seuk’ on Ch3 by TV Scene productions. Personally, I did not watch either of those lakorns I can’t make a comparison. I did however watch ‘Torranee Nee Krai Krong’ with Nadech and Yaya, I thought Nadech did well. Besides the whole Pinky and Tanya issue, this seems to be a hot topic. Some argued the Nataraja awards is not voted by popular vote it’s voted like the Oscars by people who work in the industry. Maybe they saw something in Nadech that a normal viewer might not have seen. The 4th annual Nataraja Awards 2012 took place today at the Royal Thai Navy Convention Hall in Bangkok, it aired live a few hours ago on Modern 9 TV. Channel 3 like always dominated the award show, winning nearly every category. Winners for lakorns: Best Lakorn:’Khun Seuk’ by TV Scene productions on Ch3 Best Director: Chanintorn Prasertprasat for ‘Rang Ngao’ on Ch3 Best Actor: Nadech “Barry” Kugimiya for ‘Torranee Nee Krai Krong’ on Ch3 Best Actress: Noon Sirapan Wattanajinda for ‘Buang’ on Ch3 Best Supporting Actor: ‘Pip’ Ravit Terdwong for ‘Rang Ngao’ on Ch3 Best Supporting Actress: ‘Tanya’ Tanyares Ramnarong for ‘Rang Ngao’ on Ch3 Best Cast: ‘Rang Ngao’ from Broadcast Thai Television on Ch3 Best Set: ‘Sin Chronicle’ on Ch3 Best Song: ‘Ngao Tee Mee Hua Jai’ by Min for ‘Rang Ngao’ on Ch3 Best Script:Wisuthichai Bunyakanjon for ‘Rang Ngao’ on Ch3 Best Cinematography:’Khun Seuk’ on Ch3 Best Editing: ‘Raak Boon’ on Ch3. Best Art Direction: ‘Khun Seuk’ on Ch3 Best Costume: ‘Khun Seuk’ on Ch3 ‘Mew’ Nittha Jirayungyurn from the Gentlemen series looking like AFf Taksaorn Pinky Savika with her friend Paul Michio  Nok Sinjai and husband Nok Chatchai Pip showing off his award The winners. Actress and singer ‘Mint’ Mintita Wattanakul with her award Mr. Porche Saran looking mighty handsome in a simple black suit. The ladies of the Sixth Sense Taew went goth for the  award show and it is got to be the weirdest dress of the night.  Is that fake hair? Nadech happily showing off his trophy on the way home? Source: Sanook

The feud  between Pinky Savika the mia noi (mistress) and the mia luang (head wife) ‘Tanya’ Tanyares Ramnarong will never end as Tanya takes a jab at her husband  ‘Peck’ Sanchai Engtrakul at the 4th annual Nataraja Awards today May 19, 2013 after winning the best supporting actress trophy for her portrayal of Nopnapa, a woman crazed by her cheating husband in ‘Rang Ngao’. After thanking the script writer, the producer, CH3 for her award, she thanked her husband and it got a lot of cheers, embarrassing Pinky Savika in the process who was also in the audience with her new boyfriend Paul. ”The last person, I REALLY have to thank my husband ka. My husband P’Peck who made me reach the emotions of Nopnapa consequently making me feel like a real mia luang (head wife) ka,’ said Tanya up on stage. It’s saying you cheated on me with Pinky Savika and it helped my acting with a crazed character in Nopnapa who is also being cheated on repeatedly in the lakorn ‘Rang Ngao’. Ouch. There have been some post on Pantip on how it was inappropriate and Tanya doesn’t know when to stop. You can watch her thank you speech clip at youtube, her thank you message to her husband starts around the 3:50 time mark.

Usually I don’t notice  a lot of things, this I noticed–a ‘Domo’ themed backpack near the end of episode 8 of Khun Chai Puttipat. They are at the market to buy food and they are arguing, she is thinking about starting up a shop selling appetizers and sweets in Ayutthaya and he is annoyed she is planning to leave him. Khun Chai Pat:’Why are you always thinking about leaving me?’ He walks away and she follows him. Kaew:’I must be able to raise myself up. I can’t disturb other people from now on.’ Khun Chai Pat:’Who are these other people?’ Kaew utters his name and in the backdrop there are backpacks hanging in a nearby shop, most notably a ‘Domo’ themed backpack. This is annoyed some Thai viewers who complained on Pantip that the Director was careless and this is a period lakorn set in 1961 (2504), why is there a Domo themed backpack when the Domo short-motion animation character was created in 1998 by Japan’s NHK television station. Some found it funny like  this Thai viewer:’5555 (meaning Ha ha ha), my mom found it really funny like huh back then they had Domo too?’ Or this, ‘I didn’t see it because I was too focus on Khun Chai Puttipat.’ Other people started to complain about other details in the lakorn such as the purse (I don’t know which one they are talking about) they didn’t have it back then, Khun Chai Pat’s surgery instruments, his surgery technique,  no blood, guy villain Glai-Lerk (played by DJ Man)’s fixed perfect teeth. ‘Whenever he talks I would notice DJ Man’s arranged teeth,’ wrote a observant Thai viewer on Pantip. And I thought wow, these people watch lakorn in such detail and I was proud I noticed one flaw in the series. One point for me–Oh yea! Some found it distracting, I think most still like the lakorn and are still ‘in’ to the Khun Chai Puttipat and Krong Kaew pair. Back to the scene. Khun Chai Pat:’What are we? Answer me what are we?’ Kaew struggles to answer him. ‘It’s just…’ Khun Chai Pat:’Just a marriage license that makes us husband and wife.’ Kaew:’I will quickly sign the divorce papers as soon as possible. I won’t postpone or delay the process at all.’ Khun Chai Pat:’So you really want to leave me as soon as possible.’–awww she doesn’t. Kaew:’It’s not like that.’ Khun Chai Pat:”Then what do you want?’ Kaew:’You have done a lot for me. You have sacrifice yourself to protect me from danger. You are also caring for my father. I have always been the one who is receiving. I am taking an advantage of you. The thing I want to tell you is that I want to build myself up to have a foundation, to have dignity, to have everything better than what I have now. When that time comes, I want to repay you back.’ Khun Chai Pat playfully:’You are the most conceited and arrogant woman ever.’ Kaew:’A person must stand on their own two feet, they must be beneficial to other people, they can’t just depend on other people forever.’ Khun Chai Pat:’Every word you say is ‘other’ people. Have you  never heard a husband and wife is one person according to the law.’ Kaew:’You keep saying that again.’ Khun Chai Pat:’Because it is the truth.’ He holds up his jade necklace from her neck. ‘Look at this, you are wearing my mother’s jade necklace which was intended to give to her daughter-in-law. Like this, how can we be other people to each other. Most importantly everything I have done is the responsibility of a husband.’ He holds her shoulders and stared into her eyes. ‘Your responsibility is to speak sweetly, act gentle, play the part well.  Don’t forget, the hoodlums are after you, they looking for an opportunity to har