Apichatpong-a-rama: Dilbar, For Monkeys, Cactus River stream online

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is "this week's visionary" at the arts-and-culture website Dazed, which is streaming three of his short films – Dilbar, For Monkeys and Cactus River.

Dilbar is a work by Apichatpong and Chai Siri, commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation. Dilbar, which means beloved, is a black-and-white portrait of a migrant laborer of the same name. One of the million of Bangladeshi workers who currently live and work in the United Arab Emirates, Dilbar is a voiceless soul who moves between construction site and labour camp. Ghostly images grace the screen amid the hypnotic rhythms of a machine and the buzzing of high-tension electric wires.

For Monkeys is an outgrowth of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. "The terrifying ghost monkeys rear their heads again in this hypnotic short film, which overlays chattering automation and an all-seeing neon eye on top of stone statuary to disquieting effect."

Cactus River, which I had trouble viewing, tells the story of Kick the Machine company player Jenjira Pongpas. "Her life unfolds along the Mekong River as she changes her name for good luck and marries Frank, a retired U.S. soldier from New Mexico. Weerasethkul documents their domestic lives alongside the ebbs and flows of one of Asia's largest rivers."

If you are also having trouble viewing Cactus River, fear not, it might turn up at a film festival near you. As noted by Mosquito Films Distribution, Cactus River recently flowed at the Next International Film Festival in Bucharest. It's among many Mosquito films buzzing their way around the world.

Also at Dazed, there's the Da-zed Guide to Southeast Asian Cinema, an A-to-Z primer on notable films and filmmakers. Although A is not for Apichatpong (it's for Vietnam's Ahn Hung Tran), it's still a very Apichatpong-centric list, with notes about Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century and Uncle Boonmee. Others on the list include Bangkok and Only God Forgives, the Luang Prabang Film Festival, Gareth Evans and The Raid 2, Tony Jaa and Ong-Bak, Filipino auteur Lav Diaz and the Pang Brothers. However, for the letter P, I would have picked Pen-ek.

Titles tipped for Film Destination Festival

More details have been revealed about the Thailand International Film Destination Festival, which only emerged from the planning stages about a week ago.

Set for April 1 to 10, the venue has been confirmed as SF World Cinema at CentralWorld in Bangkok.

Films to be screened include such made-in-Thailand blockbusters as The Hangover Part II, Danny Boyle's The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio, Luc Besson's Aung San Suu Kyi biopic The Lady starring Michelle Yeoh and the low-budget Chinese box-office surprise Lost in Thailand. There will also be Fabrice du Welz' weird 2009 thriller Vinyan, filmed in Phuket and starring Emmanuelle Beart. All those have screened before in Thailand.

Local premieres will include Formosa Betrayed, which has Thailand standing in for 1980s Taiwan, the Danish romantic comedy Teddy Bear and Lukas Moodysson's globalization drama Mammoth starring Gael García Bernal and Michelle Williams.

And, although it's been out on DVD for awhile, Elephant White will make its Thai theatrical premiere. Director Prachya Pinkaew's Hollywood debut stars Djimon Hounsou as an assassin hiding out in Bangkok. While holed up in a Buddhist temple, he takes on the job of protecting a mysterious woman and runs into conflict with a former friend, played by an oddly accented Kevin Bacon.

April 9 has been designated Pang Brothers Day, dedicated to the Hong Kong filmmaking twin brothers Danny and Oxide, who got their start in the film industry in Thailand in the late 1990s. Now back in Hong Kong, they continue to use Thailand as a filming location and setting as they also continue to favor the Bangkok post-production houses for all their films. Among the movies to be screened will be the 2007 crime thriller The Detective, featuring Aaron Kwok as a downtrodden private investigator in Bangkok's Chinatown. It features a rare car chase through the traffic-clogged streets of Bangkok.

Generously budgeted at around 80 million baht and organized by the Thailand Film Office under the Department of Tourism, the Destination festival's centerpiece is the Amazing Thailand Film Challenge, which has flown in 48 foreign teams to compete with two Thai teams for a grand prize of 1 million baht. They will have just about one week to find a subject, film it and edit their shorts for completion by the April 8 deadline. Winners will be announced at the celebrity festooned red-carpet closing ceremony on April 10.

The schedule has yet to be released, but keep checking the festival website in case, you know, you actually think you might want to see some films at this film festival.

Unfortunately, due to the hasty planning, the Destination organizers not only don't have a lot of time to promote their festival, they overlooked the fact that their event conflicts with another film festival, Salaya Doc 2013, which runs from April 1 to 7 at the Thai Film Archive and from April 2 to 7 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center.

(Via The Nation)

Roundup: Eternity and a flood of other Thai films around the world

Thailand is still coping with the severe flooding around Bangkok, which has disrupted the movie business, with a dozen or cinemas closed and World Film Festival of Bangkok postponed.

Movie-industry PR guy Scott Rosenberg, hit by floods himself, talked to the local multiplex chains to find out how they are doing.

Film programmer and publisher Sonthaya Subyen was flooded out and lost some 16mm films including footage of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Mysterious Object at Noon, according to the Bangkok Post, which also details how the Thai Film Archive's been surviving.

The release of some big movies like Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Headshot and Prachya Pinkaew's The Kick have been delayed until next month though some other Thai movies have gone ahead with their releases, which I've been noting on the Bangkok Cinema Scene blog, and done well in spite of the floods, according to Film Business Asia.

And there's stuff happening for Thai films elsewhere in the region and across the globe. Here's a look:

• The Cinemanila International Film Festival started today. It's always been an important platform for Thai and other Southeast Asian films. This year's roster will really confuse audiences as there are two films from Thailand called Eternity. One goes by the Thai title Tee Rak (ที่รัก). The debut feature by indie director Sivaroj Kongsakul is in the Southeast Asian Competition. And that other Eternity is Chua Fah Din Salai (ชั่วฟ้าดินสลาย), the lavish, big-budget costume drama by ML Bhandevanop Devakula and starring Ananda Everingham and Ploy Chermarn. It's in the non-competition Asian Cinema program along with Apichatpong Weerasethakul's celebrated Cannes Palme d'Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Quattro Hong Kong 2, which has a segment by Apichatpong. The musical documentary Baby Arabia is playing in the documentary section. Check out the whole line-up at the festival website.
• That other Eternity, that is the costume love-triangle drama by "Mom Noi" Bhandevanop, will also be featured at the Asean Film Festival in Bali on November 16 and 17. It's held in conjunction with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit and will include seminars other functions.
• And, to really confuse matters, the indie Eternity is playing on Sunday at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival. Just to be clear, this is Sivaroj's Tee Rak, not that other one. Twitch's Mack has a review.
• Classic Thai films are screening in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art's "In Focus: Fortissimo Films" program, which includes Wisit Sasanatieng's Tears of the Black Tiger, Pen-ek Ratanruang's Last Life in the Universe and The Eye by the Pang brothers. The program is a tribute to the Dutch-Hong Kong film company that helped introduce Asian films to the world stage in the early part of this century. Thai films especially benefitted from the guiding hand of Fortissimo co-founder Wouter Barendrecht, who died in 2009 at the age of 43. The Hollywood Reporter has more on the MoMA film series.
• Thai films were featured at the recent American Film Market, where a Thai Night was planned. Yuthlert Sippapak's boyband action flick Bangkok Kung Fu was screened there, represented by Golden Network Asia. Sahamongkolfilm International was promoting Prachya Pinkaew's The Kick and it picked up worldwide sales rights to 23:59, a Singaporean boot-camp horror thriller.
• And back closer to Bangkok, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's multimedia exhibition For Tomorrow, For Tonight goes on show from November 26 to February 10 at the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing.

10 Thai entries in 50 Best Asian Horror list

Ebossert at Cult Reviews recently compiled the 50 Best Asian Horror Films of the New Millennium's First Decade, and among the expected entries from Japan and South Korea are eight from Thailand – 10 if you count the Pang Bros.' The Eye and Re-Cycle, which were both filmed in Thailand with Thai crew and are really Hong Kong-Thai co-productions.

At No. 43 is The Victim (ผีคนเป็น, Phii khon pen), a 2006 thriller by Monthon Arayongkoon and starring "May" Pitchanart Sakakon as an aspiring young actress hired by the cops to re-enact the deaths of murder victims. May's performance, her likable character, the pacing and memorable scenes all earn praise, "the most notable contribution[s] though, are the various acts of deception on the part of the scriptwriters that keep the viewer off balance."

At No 39. is another by Monthon, 2007's The House (บ้านผีสิง , Baan phii sing), which stars Inthira Charoenpura as a reporter looking into serial killings. "Both the synopsis and title are generic, but this is amongst the higher-quality ghost films," says Cult Reviews. "This movie makes no qualms about making a bee line towards an inevitable conclusion at 100 miles per hour while tossing in a boatload of horror elements along the way for maximum pacing."

The Pang Bros.' The Eye (คนเห็นผี, Khon hen phi) is at No. 36 and is listed under "China", but the story is set mostly in Thailand, where a blind woman played by Angelica Lee visits after she starts experiencing ghostly phenomena when she receives a transplanted retina from a Thai woman. "The final 10 minutes are the most interesting, but much of the film is driven by soft camerawork, effective scoring, and slow pacing that create a very dreamy mood."

The first GTH horror omnibus 4bia (4 แพร่ง, See Phrang) is at No. 35. "Overall, this is a very impressive, entertaining anthology."

A surprise entry – not because it's necessarily bad but because I'm shocked anyone else actually saw it – is 2008's Memory at No. 33. The psychological thriller that paired Ananda Everingham with Mai Charoenpura "is slow but steady, and the horror elements ... are restrained to fuel the conflicts."

The Pangs' Re-Cycle is at No. 27. "Yes, it’s essentially a thin CGI fest, but it’s hella entertaining."

GTH's Shutter (ชัตเตอร์ กดติดวิญญาณ, Shutter: Got Thit Winyarn) comes in at the halfway point, No. 25. Directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom, the thriller starring Ananda Everingham as a haunted photographer is "considered by many to be the greatest horror film from Thailand ... despite borrowing the Japanese-style onryo ghost ..."

Banjong and Parkpoom's 2007 follow-up Alone (แฝด, Faed), starring Marsha Wattanapanich as a woman haunted by the spirit of her former conjoined twin sister, comes in at No. 19.

Another surprise, just for its high placement in the list is No. 18, 2007's Sick Nurses (สวยลากไส้, Suay Laak Sai). Directed Piraphan Laoyont and Thodsapol Siriwiwat this story about scantily clad nurses engaged in an organ trafficking scheme, has become a worldwide cult hit thanks to a DVD releases in the U.S. and Hong Kong. I'd probably go along with the praise the movie has received if only the very year Sick Nurses was released, Thai censors hadn't wanted to cut much-less-shocking hospital scenes from Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century. Sex and murder in a hospital is okay with the censors, but doctors having a nip of whiskey or stealing a few kisses while off duty are big no-no's. Yeah, I know the censors' decision to cut Syndromes wasn't the fault of the makers of Sick Nurses, but I still can't rationally watch Sick Nurses without getting angry about it.

The highest-ranked Thai film on the list is at No. 17: Phobia 2 (5 แพร่ง , Haa Phrang), with the five short tales, Novice, Ward, Backpackers, Salvage and In the End all earning praise.

The list also includes two from Indonesia, Kuntilanak at No. 40 and The Forbidden Door in 10th and an honorable mention for the Mo Brothers' Macabre.

Noted omissions from the list are Five Star Productions' Art of the Devil movies as well as Wisit Sasanatieng's The Unseeable and Nonzee Nimibutr's classic ghost tale Nang Nak (penned by Wisit).

(Via INAFF10)

Top Thai films of the 2000s and 2009: More lists

I've listed my own decade and 2009 bests. And earlier there was the Time Out New York and TIFF Cinematheque lists. Here's a look at others.

Nanoguy

Thai film blogger Nanoguy has a decade list. Among the alphabetical ordering of international releases are a few Thai films: Kongdej Jaturanrasamee's underappreciated Handle Me With Care (Kod) plus one by Apichatpong Weerasethakul that's on a lot of other lists, Tropical Malady. His list of the best Thai films of the decade includes Pantham Thongsang's Ai Fak (The Judgement) from 2004, last year's Slice by Kongkiat Komesiri, Apichatpong's 2000 debut Mysterious Object at Noon, 2004's The Siam Renaissance (Tawipob) by Suraphong Pinijkhar, the Pang brothers' original Bangkok Dangerous (I thought it was a 1999 movie but wasn't officially released in Thailand until 2000), 2005's Dear Dakanda (Puen Sanit) by Komgrit Treewimol and 2004's Citizen Dog by Wisit Sasanatieng. He's got a best performances of the 2000s too. It's in Thai, which you can Google on and find out more. Among them is Somlek Sakdikul from Monrak Transistor. Sure brings back great memories.

Thunska Pansittivorakul

Filmmaker Thunska Pansittivorakul listed his favorite films of the decade and of all time on his Facebook page. His No. 1 is a film that was actually made 12 years ago -- Ing K's controversial (and banned) My Teacher Eats Biscuits, which has had recent privately arranged screenings. It's provocative, but not a surprising pick from a guy who had his own film banned last year. His all-time best Thai film is an equally idiosyncratic and bold -- the silent, singular feature Birth of the Seanama, made in 2005 by Sasithorn Airyavicha.

Peter Nellhaus, Coffee coffee and more coffee

The Denver-based film critic and Coffee coffee and more coffee blogger lists Wisit Sasanatieng's Tears of the Black Tiger and Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love as his best of the decade.

Todd Brown, TwitchFilm.net

In his top and bottom of 2009, Twitch's chief gives a shout out to Paween Purijitpanya for being one of the "directors to watch", on the basis of Paween's strong segment, Novice in the Phobia 2 anthology, which Todd reviewed, and so did TwitchFilm.net's Onderhound.

Andrea James, Boing Boing

The Boing Boing guest blogger Andrea James recommends trans-themed films, name-checking Ekachai Uekrongtham's Beautiful Boxer, the 2003 biographical drama about transgender Muay Thai boxer Nong Toom.

Cahiers du cinéma

The French film magazine lists Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady at No. 3 on its top 10 films of the 2000s.

Film Comment

The magazine's critics' poll of the best 150 films of the 2000s lists four of Apichatpong's: Syndromes and a Century at No. 4, Tropical Malady at No. 8, Blissfully Yours at 39th and Mysterious Object at Noon at 130.

Mike D'Angelo, Listen Eggroll

Fist-licking? Tropical Malady is No. 17 on the top 101 films of the decade.

Michael J. Anderson, Tativille

Blissfully Yours tops the alphabetical list of the best films of the 2000s on Tativille, a blog by film scholar Michael J. Anderson. He writes: "In Asia, the southeast emerged, largely due to the considerable achievement of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Indeed, were I to single out a single director as the key figure of the decade, it would have to be Apichatpong ..." Aditya Assarat for Wonderful Town, Pen-ek Ratanaruang for Last Life in the Universe, Garin Nugroho for Opera Jawa and Tsai Ming-liang for I Don't Want to Sleep Alone are also mentioned.

The Telegraph

The English newspaper lists its top 100 "films that defined the noughties", with Tropical Malady at No. 97.

Time Out London

Tropical Malady is at No. 73 on Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade.

Paste

Apichatpong's Syndromes and a Century is at No. 18 on Paste's 50 best movies of the decade. "In one moment, his camera is idling in a verdant Asian village, and in the next it’s gazing through portals of time, like the mind-blowing films of Kubrick or Antonioni. "

Village Voice

Syndromes and a Century gets two votes on the best of the decade list. Tropical Malady gets one vote from Chuck Stephens and Blissfully Yours gets one vote. Uruphong Raksasad's Agrarian Utopia appears on the list of undistributed films in the Village Voice's annual year-end poll.

IndieWire

Tropical Malady appears on several lists in this IndieWire and Industry Top Tens of the Decade.

Sight and Sound

The British film magazine asks critics to submit the 10 best films they saw each year. Thai films on the list for 2009 are Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Nymph, from Naman Ramachandran, and Uruphong Raksasad's Agrarian Utopia on the list of Thailand's own Kong Rithdee of the Bangkok Post.

Kong Rithdee, Bangkok Post

The Post compiled a list of lists for the decade. For his decade best, Kong has Apichatpong's Tropical Malady as No. 1. Kong also did a top five Thai films for 2009 for the Post's entertainment year in review. Agrarian Utopia is his No. 1.

Noel Vera, Critic After Dark

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is chosen among the best directors of the decade on a list that also offers a look at "10 Filipino Films That Deserve to be Known Better".

Jit Phokeaw, Limitless Cinema

In his Senses of Cinema list, Thai cinemaphile Jit Phokeaw has Bodily Fluid Is So Revolutionary by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke as his top Thai film of the year. It's an interesting, eclectic list. Check it out. Jit has links to more lists at Limitless Cinema.

Filmsick

Filmsick lists Bodily Fluid Is So Revolutionary (ของเหลวที่หลั่งจากกาย) as his top short film of 2009.

The Golden Rock, Love HK Film

The Love of Siam makes The Golden Rock Top 25 Panasian Films of the Decade. "I don’t care for Achitpatong, Kim Ki-Duk, or Hong Sang-Soo," says the Rock. About LoS, "the center of this Thai film is a gay romance between two teenagers, but it’s about a lot more than that, and it works on those other levels too. Despite some awkward directing, the film runs surprisingly fluid, and the acting is uniformly strong. A Thai gay romance is rare enough already, but one that is this good is even more rare."

Senses of Cinema

Also on the 2009 World Poll by Senses of Cinema, Agrarian Utopia appears on the list of festival programmer Paolo Bertolin, Melbourne-based festival programming consultant Michael Campi, Canadian professor Peter Rist, Viennese critic Christoph Huber and Swiss teacher, curator and critic Barbara Wurm.

German cinephile Olaf Möller lists Ong-Bak 2 and Agrarian Utopia for his team.

Australian academic Conall Cash lists Nymph as does Melbourne university teacher Peter Hourigan.

(Via The Auteurs)

32 Thunwa outnumbers Avatar

In a big debut for the new production company M39, the romantic comedy 32 Thunwa (32 ธันวา, 32 December Love Error) opened at No. 1 at the Thai box office over the weekend.

According to the chart at NangDee.com, 32 Thunwa earned 37 million baht.

Directed by Rergchai Paungpetch (Noodle Boxer, Dumber Heroes), the romantic comedy stars Dan Worrawech as a young man named Note who has a psychiatric condition brought on a by a bump on the head. Note thinks he'll be cured if he finds the girl he truly loves.

"Nong" Choosak Eamsuk stars as Note's new friend, with "Saipan" Apinya Sakuljaroensuk as Note's stepsister, Ramida Mahapreukpong as Note's girlfriend, "Pai" Sitang Punnapob as another girlfriend, plus actors Padung Songsaeng and Sirat Wityatawonwong.

32 Thunwa is the first production by M39, which was formed as a joint venture with distributor M Pictures by former crew from RS Film's Avant company.

The Thai comedy unseated Avatar from the top of the Thai box office. James Cameron's record-setting billion-dollar sci-fi bonanza had held the top spot since debuting two weeks ago. Over the lengthy New Year's holiday weekend, crowds were still packing in to get a look at Avatar, with long lines waiting to buy tickets at the Krungsri IMAX box office at Siam Paragon .

Third place was the previous week's No. 2, Guy Ritchie's kung-flu flick, Sherlock Holmes.

The top five was rounded out by the Pang Bros.' Hong Kong martial-arts fantasy The Storm Warriors (Storm Riders 2) and the Taiwanese desert adventure, The Treasure Hunters, starring Jay Chou. Both are only in release with Thai-dubbed soundtracks.

The nostalgic romantic weeper October Sonata, released on December 23, has dropped out of the top five.

The coming weekend will be busy, with eight films coming out, including two Thai releases, the romance As It Happens, which as originally scheduled for release last week, and the action comedy See-Sing Confirm.

Taiwanese 'cute princess' becomes a horror queen in the Pangs' 3-D Eye film

The Pang Brothers are back in Thailand, working on the fourth in their Eye series, The Child's Eye, which is budgeted at US$4.5 million and touted to be the first Asian 3-D film.

Playing the lead role is Rainie Yang, a 25-year-old Taiwanese pop singer and TV-drama star who's been dubbed the "cute princess". The Nation's Sunday Leisure section had a story about Rainie and The Child's Eye this past weekend. A similar story is online at the China Post.

Here's a snip from Yasmin Lee Arpon's feature for Sunday Leisure:

Rainie’s appearance in a horror movie is not an expected choice for a young idol, but her choices have never been predictable. In her last outing, Spider Lilies, she played a webcam girl plying her sexy-cute wares nightly on the Internet.

Asked about Child’s Eye, Rainie says it’s not just another horror film out to scare people.

“I’m the lead actress, but I’m not constantly screaming, like you usually see in movies like this,” she tells us during a break in shooting in Bangkok, with the translation help of Cai Shanshan of the China Daily. “It was quite hard for me at the start because I’d never tried this before. It’s demanding, because it all depends on your own imagination. But I feel lucky that I could try such a special role, the kind that actors always want to try but rarely get the chance.”

She co-stars with Hong Kong actor Shawn Yu. He plays one of six tourists who come to Thailand and disappear. Rainie plays his girlfriend, who'se tryhing to get him back.

The Pang Brothers have more to say:

“The elements are quite the same, but the feeling is different,” Oxide Pang, who’s co-directing with sibling Danny, says, drawing comparisons with other pieces of The Eye series.

“The audience will be more scared,” he assures The Nation.

The shoot will take two months and post-production at least another six because of the 3-D effects.

“This being the first 3-D film in Asia is our selling point,” says Pang. “This means we have to spend more money on the special effects.”

The original background for the script was last November’s closure of Bangkok’s airports by anti-government protesters, but that’s been jettisoned.

“It’s basically a teenage movie about six travelers coming to Thailand and vanishing. There’ll be lots of supernatural effects.”

Early reports on the film mentioned a monster and an underworld that’s made of the paper facsimiles that Chinese traditionally burn as offerings to deceased ancestors.
The movie is set to premiere in Hong Kong next year.

Meanwhile, the Pangs have completed The Storm Warriors, their sequel to The Storm Riders. They filmed the Hong Kong martial-arts fantasy in a green-screen-equipped waterfront warehouse last year in Bangkok. It's due for release in December.

In memoriam: Wouter Barendrecht

As the co-founder of Fortissimo Films, Wouter Barendrecht helped put Thai cinema on the international map.

And seeing the Fortissimo Films logo flash up before a film, I've come to associate it with something momentous about to happen.

The Dutch producer was in Bangkok, working on his latest production, Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Nymph, when he died of heart failure. He was 43.

Fortissimo has issued a statement, which is found in full at IndieWire:

Fortissimo Films is deeply saddened to confirm that company founder and co-chairman Wouter Barendrecht died on Sunday, April 5, 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand where he had gone to screen a rough cut of Fortissimo’s upcoming Thai co-production Nymph.

Barendrecht was a passionate advocate of independent cinema for his entire career, the last 19 years of which were at Fortissimo Films and previously at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where he helped create the Cinemart co-production forum. His sudden death, of heart failure, is an inestimable loss: to his beloved family and co-workers, his international circle of friends, and film-making itself, where his enthusiasm and drive helped create enduring testaments to his memory.

Although just 43 when he died, Barendrecht’s vision helped a generation of film-makers reach a global audience, particularly in Asia where he moved to Hong Kong in 1997 upon the advice of acclaimed director Wong Kar-wai to set up the Fortissimo office along with subsequent business partner and co-chairman Michael J Werner. His commitment to Thai cinema, for example, led to repeated collaborations with directors such as Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Apichatpong Weerasethakul and his decision to establish a second home in Bangkok, where he died on Sunday night.

Barendrecht’s passing has shocked and saddened all his colleagues, his family, and his friends around the globe. His death comes shortly after a busy Filmart in Hong Kong for the company, and preparing for Fortissimo’s upcoming Cannes slate.

Fortissimo’s Michael J Werner said, “We are all too shocked for words by Wouter’s untimely death. He was a force of nature, my business partner, and one of the closest friends anyone could ever have. We at Fortissimo are all devastated by this news and we intend to celebrate Wouter’s life and work by proudly carrying on his vision of the company and the business. Everything is too early but we are in the planning stages of one or more memorial services, the details of which will be forthcoming."

Nelleke Driessen, Fortissimo’s managing director, said, “Wouter’s artistic collaborations were as numerous and far-flung as his friendships. His enthusiasm for life and art was infectious; he was a loyal friend and colleague. He will be missed by all who knew him.”

IndieWire also has a more extensive tribute to the Dutch producer.

Barendrecht was a co-producer with Thailand's Five Star Production on Pen-ek's past three films: Last Life in the Universe, Invisible Waves and Ploy. His company was a distributor and producer of Syndromes and a Century, the much-acclaimed feature by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Fortissimo also backed Pleasure Factory, the second film by Singapore-based Thai director Ekachai Uekrongtham. And Fortissimo was a sales agent for the Pang Bros. original Bangkok Dangerous and Tears of the Black Tiger, helping introduce Wisit Sasanatieng's debut feature to the world, as well as a dozen or so other Thai films.

Regretfully, I never met Barendrecht to tell him how much I appreciated his work. But I feel like I've lost a brother.

Update: Hollywood Reporter has an obituary.

Update 2: Screen Daily has a followup, with reaction from Asian film industry figures, and Five Star Production:

Thai filmmaker Pen-ek Ratanaruang, on whose film Barendrecht had been working at the time of his death, was too grief-stricken to comment on Monday. However, Five Star Production, the company that is co-producing Pen-ek's Nymph with Fortissimo, said: "We can't really think of words to describe our feelings right now. Wouter has been a pioneer in the success story of taking Thai cinema to the world. He believed in our directors and Thai cinema. He's a good friend and a very long-time partner."

And Kong Rithdee has a report in the Bangkok Post (cache):

Barendrecht, who has many friends in Bangkok, arrived in Thailand on Friday. He was scheduled to view the rough cut of the film Nang Mai (Nymph), which he co-produced with Thai studio Five Star Entertainment, on Monday morning. But on Sunday he could not be reached on the phone. He also did not show up at appointments. A friend finally found his body.

Barendrecht founded Fortissimo in 1991. He loved Asian films, and his taste for art house and independent movies meant he was instrumental in pushing small Thai films such as Fah Talai Jone (Tears of the Black Tiger), Satree Lek (Iron Ladies) and Khan Pipak Sa Khong Mahasamutr (Invisible Waves) into major film festivals and established Thai cinema as a player in the international art house scene.

In a Bangkok Post interview with Barendrecht in 2005, he said: "Only films that are honest to their local cultures will go far internationally. You can't make a film that has international fame by ignoring your own culture."

Update 3: Hollywood Reporter has more reaction.

Fortissimo has set up a condolences register and the Wouter Barendrecht Foundation "to discover and support new filmmaking talent around the globe".

(Via Screen Daily, Filmmaker Magazine)

Thai Spider-Man and movies from the headlines

As the "Thai Spider-Man" quickly became one of the most-Twittered and blogged-about stories of the day yesterday after it hit the BBC and wire services, I couldn't help but think about its parallels to a Thai movie.

In 2006's superhero yarn Mercury Man, a Thai firefighter is injected with a strange substance that gives him superpowers. Although he can't shoot webbing from his wrists, Mercury Man's powers and his costume are eerily similar to Spider-Man's. And Mercury Man's makers even gave shout-outs to Marvel Comics' webslinger, which included a spray-painted message to "Spidy" on a wall and child extras wearing Spider-Man pajamas.

The real-life story emerged a couple of days ago, when a fire brigade was dispatched to a school to rescue an 11-year-old autistic boy who had crawled out on a third-floor ledge because he was too scared to attend class.

Firefighter Somchai Yoosabai quickly assessed the situation and decided this was a job for Spider-Man. So he raced back to the fire station and changed into his Spider-Man outfit. The boy trusted the masked superhero, and allowed Spidey to grab him off the ledge.

Somchai keeps the outfit handy to entertain children at school assemblies, but he's also worn it to lead dancers through aerobic routines, according to a story in today's Daily Xpress.

I chose the outfit because Spider-Man is a very famous superhero. Most children know him and he's easy to remember. Spider-Man also shares characteristics with firemen: both wear red, climb high buildings and help people."

Somchai also dresses as Ultraman, and he once dressed as morlam singer Poifai Malaiporn, to talk a drunk man out of making a suicide leap.

Quick, somebody sign Somchai up, because he needs to be in a movie or two. Or at least a reality TV series. I just hope Marvel's lawyers don't come calling at the fire station.

The story also got me thinking again about the Pang Bros.' latest project, The Child's Eye, in which the Pangs again display their knack for ripping a movie plot from the current headlines.

Their original story for 2002's The Eye actually came from at least a couple of news stories -- one the Pangs read about a woman getting a corneal transplant, which made them wonder whether she'd see the same things as the original owner of the eyes. A major scene in the movie has a tanker truck exploding -- based on an actual event in 1990 in Bangkok, in which a liquid-propane-tanker truck crashed and exploded on Phetchaburi Road, killing 63 people and injuring 90.

The Child's Eye uses last November's shutdown of Bangkok's airports as a setting in which passengers stranded by the anti-government protests start having supernatural experiences.

Oh, and it'll be in 3-D!

This got Thai 101's Rikker thinking, and in the comments, he offered the following treatments:

• Ghost Parliament: In a wacky election gone awry, a ghost gets elected to Thailand's House of Representatives. Hijinx ensue as members debate the appropriateness of letting the spirit take office, but ultimately allow it, stating that at least he has a soul. Special cameo by George Clinton.
• Spirit Prison: In this screwball thriller, a mixture of Thai and foreign inmates are surprised to find that the penitentiary they've been sentenced to is staffed entirely by otherworldly entities! If you can't get enough bug-eyed screaming and people bumping into each other in the dark, then don't miss it!
• Apparition Physician: Somsak is in the top of his class at school, is very popular with the ladies, and dreams of finally completing his medical degree. There's only one hitch: he's no longer living! Killed in a freak accident with an electric mosquito bat, he isn't about to let death get in the way of his dreams. Join him in his journey from specter to doctor.

These will all be in 3-D, of course, says Rikker.

Just watch out. I can see Phranakorn Film rushing any one of these into production right now.

Filmart: Updates on Pen-ek, Wisit and Pang Bros.

Filmart is under way alongside the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and the reports are starting to seep in.

TwitchFilm.net's Todd Brown made the rounds yesterday, and he hoped to catch a glimpse of Pen-ek Ratanaruang's new film, but Nymph continues to elude him.

He also has updates on a "surreal" mystery project by Wisit Sasanatieng that will be filmed between parts one and two of his Red Eagle films -- good to hear there will be two parts after all, and another project as a bonus.

Also, Slice, the crime thriller penned by Wisit for Muay Thai Chaiya and Art of the Devil 2 and 3 director Kongkiat Komsiri has started filming.

Read his whole report.

Also from Hong Kong, there's more on the Pang Bros.' third sequel in The Eye franchise -- The Child's Eye, which is planned to be the first Asian digital 3-D horror film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Here's more:

The Child’s Eye in 3D tells the story of six stranded Hong Kong travelers during the shutdown of the Bangkok airport in the November 2008 anti-government protest and their supernatural encounters after the disappearance of three in the group.

The showpiece of the film will be an underworld made up of paper replica houses, filled with paper dolls and paper cars -- a city formed by all the paper-made facsimile of the real world burnt and offered to the deceased in the traditional Chinese ancestor worship ritual. The twins also will be introducing a monster in the film.

“The way to handle a monster is the same as creating spooky and suspenseful atmosphere, so it’s something we want to try in this film,” Oxide Pang said.

Yes! A thriller that cashes in on the current 3-D trend and is ripped from recent headlines.

It begins filming in Thailand in June.

Meanwhile, there are market screenings for Thai films at HAF. Among them is Happy Birthday from motif+ (formerly Mono Film), Super Hap from Avant, and Five Star is showing Before Valentine and Soul's Code.

Making its Asian Premiere, Uruphong Raksasad's Agrarian Uptopia is the only Thai film featured at this year's HKIFF, and it's getting a market screening as well. It's produced by Pimpaka Towira and Mai Meksawan of Extra Virgin.

Pang Bros update: Remaker on DVD in Hong Kong, Eye sequel in 3-D

Remaker (Kon Raruek Chat, คนระลึกชาติ), a 2005 karmic thriller directed by Mona Nahm and produced by Oxide Pang, is set for release on DVD this week by Kam & Ronson in Hong Kong.

It's the story of Tom, an antiques dealer on his way to deliver a Buddha statue, when his truck plunges off a bridge and into the river. He is rescued by a woman named Pim, who happens to be passing by. He is rushed to hospital and recovers, but finds he's having strange visions about the future, and somehow comes to understand that Pim's rescuing him wasn't just a coincidence.

Thai soap stars Andrew Gregson and Phiyada Akkraseranee are the principals.

If I remember correctly, Remaker might have been a loose remake of Oxide's 1997 directorial debut, Who Is Running?, or maybe it just explored similar karmic themes?

DDD House has it.

Meanwhile, it was announced awhile back that Danny and Oxide are planning a fourth film for their Eye franchise, The Child's Eye, and it'll be in 3-D. It'll be the third Eye sequel by the Pangs, following their 2002 hit that was remade by Hollywood with Jessica Alba, 2004's The Eye 2 starring Shu Qui and The Eye10 (or The Eye Infinity or The Eye 3), which was a teen-oriented horror comedy. Bloody Disgusting had more on The Child's Eye.

(Thanks Logboy!)

Blood Maple and the Passion of the Kid selected for HAF

The Hong Kong-Asian Film Financing Forum (HAF) has announced a 27-title lineup this year, and among the projects selected is Blood Maple and the Passion of the Kid by Chartchai Ketnust. It's being produced by Pantham Thongsang for Magenta Media Creation Co.

Other Southeast Asian entries are from the Philippines: Chop Chop by Brillante Mendoza, Porno by Adolfo Alix Jr. and Sampaguita (Our National Flower's Journal to Decay) by Francis Xavier Pasion; Singapore: Six "Brave" Warriors by Jack Neo; Vietnam: Vertigo by Chuyen Bui Thac; and Indonesia: The Dancer by Ifa Isfansyah.

Oxide Pang is producing Christmas Rose, the directorial debut for Hong Kong actress Charlie Young from Nicolas Cage's Bangkok Dangerous.

HAF runs from March 23 to 25 alongside Filmart (March 23-26) during the Hong Kong International Film Festival from March 22 to April 13.

(Via Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Screen Daily)

DVD roundup: Hard Gun with Tony Jaa and Panna, plus Chocolate, Mercury Man, Re-cycle

Hard Gun is another pre-Ong Bak Panna Rittikrai/Tony Jaa effort due out from Brentwood/BCI Eclipse, which earlier released Spirited Killer. Set for release in January, Hard Gun will be issued on both DVD and Blu-ray. It features Tony Jaa in a rare role as a villain, with Panna as the cop chasing him. HK Flix has the DVD and the Blu-ray available for pre-order.

Tasty Thai action choreographed by Panna and his stunt team can be seen in Chocolate, which has hit cinemas in the U.K. in a limited run for before the DVD and Blu-ray release on November 3. Reviews of Chocolate are rolling in, and there have been some advance looks at the DVD. But most importantly for Blu-ray folks is that the Chocolate Blu-ray release is zone-free, according to the DVD Talk forum. Stateside, Chocolate has been picked up by Magnolia, which plans to release the movie next year. So folks in the U.S. without region-free DVD players, who just say no to pirated movies and torrent downloads, will have to wait awhile longer to catch Jeeja Yanin and her chocolate-fueled martial-arts moves.

And from more or less the same action team is Mercury Man, which apparently has been picked up for release in the U.S. by Magnolia -- the new go-to company for Thai action from Sahamongkol. According to Amazon, the Magnolia/Magnet DVD will be released on January 27 and have an optional English dubtrack as well as the original soundtrack and English and Spanish subs. Made in 2006, Mercury Man, has been the subject of new attention after it was screened earlier this month at the Pusan International Film Festival as part of the Superheroes in Asia programme. It had previously been released in the West on a region-free "uncut & unedited" DVD by Bonzai Media, but that now appears to be out of print.

And finally, the Pang Bros.' thriller Re-Cycle, was released on Region 1 DVD and Blu-ray in September. I spotted a review of the disc sometime back on DVD Verdict, which praised the thriller for its loads of eye candy and compelling, tension-filled story. The Blu-ray and regular DVD releases are available at Amazon.


(Thanks Logboy! Chocolate screenshot via DVD Times)

Baan Phee Pob 2008 munches her way to No. 1

Baan Phee Pob 2008, the new installment of a long-running 1980s and '90s horror-comedy series, was the No. 1 movie over the weekend at Major Cineplex, Thailand's biggest multiplex chain.

Released by Golden A Entertainment, Baan Phee Pob 2008 is about a woman named Pob Yib who is possessed by the spirit of a gut-munching ghost. It's one of Thailand's most enduring ghost stories. Pob Yib is portrayed Nattanee Sitthisaman, who is reprising her role from the original series.

Also premiering was Cyborg She, a Japanese romantic comedy by Kwak Jae Young, the director of the hit Korean rom-com My Sassy Girl. It was No. 3 at Major Cineplex. A Thai-dubbed version of Cyborg She is playing in wide release in Thailand, but the original soundtrack with English and Thai subtitles is playing at the tiny Bangkok arthouse, House.

Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess With the Zohan, the previous week's top film, was at No. 2 in its second week.

The Top 5 was rounded out by Nicolas Cage's Bangkok Dangerous, holding steady at No. 4. The Pang brothers' remake of their own 1999 debut, it's been been in cinemas for three weeks.

Dropping from No. 3 to fifth place was the wildly popular teen comedy Boonchu 9, which has been in cinemas for four weeks.

Major Cineplex lists its top five box-office films on its website but does not provide revenue figures or the number of screens for each film.

Audiences not feeling the Burn

The newly released Thai thriller Burn, featuring a smouldering turn from starlet Bongkot "Tak" Kongmalai, failed to ignite with audiences at Major Cineplex, Thailand's biggest multiplex chain.

Blowing away Burn was the Adam Sandler spy spoof, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, which made its Thailand debut as the theater chain's top film. At No. 2 was the comedy Tevada Tokmun, which was in its second week.

Burn, a slick conspiracy thriller about spontaneous human combustion, came in fifth on Major Cineplex's weekly chart. The film is directed by Peter Manus, produced by veteran filmmaker Manop Udomdej and released by Sahamongkol Film International. Chalat na Songkla, Achiraya Pirapatkulchaya also star.

The three-week-old Boonchu 9 was at No. 3. Bangkok of the Mind recently reported that Boonchu 9 earned 50 million baht in its first 12 days of release and looks likely to be headed towards Boonchu 10.

The Nicolas Cage remake of Bangkok Dangerous was at No. 4 in its second week of release. Directed by the Pang Brothers and based on their own 1999 debut action drama, Bangkok Dangerous was No. 1 the previous week, topping the box office on the weakest opening weekend in seven years.

Major Cineplex lists its box-office standings on its website, but does not state revenues or the number of screens in its weekly tabulations.

Fortissimo extends U.K. licensing on Bangkok Dangerous, The Eye to Palisades Tartan

Fortissimo Films, the Netherlands-based producer and sales agent for many Thai films and other Asian films, has reached an agreement to extend U.K. licensing rights on 30 films to Palisades Tartan, the new company formed by Palisades Pictures to take over the shuttered Tartan Video label.

The titles from the old Tartan Asia Extreme line include the Pang brothers' original 1999 Bangkok Dangerous and The Eye.

Here's a statement by Fortissimo co-chairman Michael J. Werner, as quoted by Variety:

We are very proud of these films and extremely happy Palisades’ wonderful team will be continuing to bring these films to UK film lovers."

According to Variety, Palisades "will continue to acquire titles from Fortissimo Films for its growing U.S. theatrical and video distribution unit as well."

Palisades Tartan has stated plans to boost its entire catalog to up to around 2,000 titles.

What's happened to a distribution deal for Pen-ek Ratanaruang's latest film, Ploy? Is that on the table? How about it, Fortissimo?

Related posts:

• Palisades Media scoops up Tartan Films
  
• More on the demise of Tartan Films
  
• Tartan UK shuttered, Tartan USA's catalog acquired
• Tartan USA closes

(Via Variety)

Bangkok Dangerous tops box office on weakest weekend in seven years

Bangkok Dangerous was the No. 1 movie in the U.S. and Canada over the weekend, but it takes the top slot during what was the slowest weekend in seven years. It needed just US$7.9 million to best Tropic Thunder, which was in its fourth week of release. Coming in third was The House Bunny, which hs been in cinemas for three weeks.

"We're going to make a profit on it," Steve Rothenberg, studio Lionsgate's vice president of distribution was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "We lucked out. No one was going against it."

In Thailand, the country's biggest multiplex chain Major Cineplex has Bangkok Dangerous as their No. 1. Premiering at the No. 2 slot in Thailand is Tevada Tokmun, a "dharma comedy" from RS Film starring veteran comedian Thep Po-ngam. At No. 3 is the teen comedy Boonchu 9, which premiered the previous weekend at No. 1. Rounding out the top five are the Jason Statham vehicle Death Race and Ekachai Eukrongtham's horror film, The Coffin, which have both been playing for three weeks. Major Cineplex does not list its revenue figures.

Directed by Danny and Oxide Pang, Bangkok Dangerous is a remake of their 1999 debut. Remake rights were snapped up by Nicolas Cage's production company, and Cage stars as a hitman on assignment in the Big Mango. Shahkrit Yamnarm and Charlie Yeung co-star. It was filmed 2006 in Bangkok while there was a coup going on. Now it's playing in cinemas while there are massive anti-government demonstrations in Bangkok.

Bangkok isn't so dangerous, though. Happi Like a Hippo has more on that. But it's not necessarily safe to see the movie, which has fared poorly with critics, who were lining up their shots at the film before it even opened. Lakorn Central has a great roundup of the critical blurbs from Rotten Tomatoes.

And I haven't seen it yet myself. I've instead been opting to attend the Thai Short Film & Video Festival. Before I sink to seeing the Bangkok Dangerous 2.0, I want a refresher on the original.

(Via The Nation)

As Bangkok Dangerous release nears, Pangs are loving Hollywood

Bangkok Dangerous, now tipped as the first major Hollywood release of the North America's autumn movie cycle, opens in Thai cinemas on September 4, and elsewhere on September 5.

Directed by Oxide and Danny Pang as a remake of their 1999 debut film, it looks to be a Hollywood-tailored reimagining, with big explosions and the unstoppable force of nature that is Nicolas Cage and his ridiculous hair. Indeed, it was Cage's production company that snapped up the remake rights for the film.

Instead of the protagonist being a deaf mute as in the original, his handicap is that he's a conspicuous foreign assassin in Bangkok, where he doesn't know the language and is unfamiliar with the culture. But the hearing-impaired angle is still covered, in a romantic interest for Cage's character, played by Charlie Young. Thai actors Shahkrit Yamnarm, Panward Hemmanee, Nirattisai Kaljareuk and Dom Hetrakul also star.

The movie has been in the works for quite sometime, with principle photography taking place in Bangkok in 2006 at the same time a military coup was going on. (Gee, it's funny how times have changed.) One of the stories told about the production is that the only gunshots during the coup were fired on the set of Bangkok Dangerous. But this is perhaps apocryphal, as Danny tells Hollywood Reporter that they "were advised to film silent gunfire shots for their numerous gunfight scenes".

Danny says the Thai system of making movies prepared them better for Hollywood, than working in Hong Kong. Here's more from the Hollywood Reporter:

Bangkok Dangerous director Danny Pang said the Hollywood system is the perfect fit for him and his brother Oxide, twins collectively known as the Pang Brothers.

Having started their directorial career in Thailand, the Hong Kong-born brothers were used to the systematic approach of filmmaking in the country, which, incidentally, had a lot in common with the Hollywood process. Contrarily, the more improvisational approach opted by Hong Kong filmmaking was harder for the twins to accept.

Meanwhile, the first review for the new Bangkok Dangerous has been turned in by Variety. Critic Jordan Mintzer writes:

Heavy on the spice and cheap on the meat, Bangkok Dangerous adds plenty of Thai seasoning to the Hollywood lone-assassin recipe, but the result is only mildly pungent. Rehashing certain elements -- including striking location shooting -- that marked their much grittier 1999 feature of the same title, Hong Kong's Pang brothers increase the decibel level of the gunshots and the schmaltz level of the scenario, but such embellishments, not to mention a Nicolas Cage doused with Clairol, make this hefty remake seem less dangerous than incongruous.

The review goes on to praise the performances by Young and Shahkrit, and says one of the highlights is a boat chase through a canal community.

More about Bangkok Dangerous is detailed at Movie Cafe. And the trailer that's been playing in Thai cinemas for the past few months is embedded below.



Related posts:

• Bangkok Dangerous in their sights
• Still, posters for Bangkok Dangerous
• Bangkok Dangerous remake release delayed until summer
• Remakes: Posters for Bangkok Dangerous, Shutter

(Via the Golden Rock)

Tartan UK shuttered, Tartan USA's catalog acquired

First reported as a rumor by Grady Hendrix on Variety's Kaiju Shakedown blog and then confirmed by a Variety article, Tartan Films in the U.K. has shut down.

Employees found out their company was out of business when they showed up for work yesterday morning and found their London office doors closed.

The company had been struggling financially for much of the past year, Variety says, and had been in takeover talks with Capco Group.

The news of the Tartan U.K.'s closing follows last month's closing of Tartan USA.

Since then, Tartan USA's catalog has been acquired by Palisades Media Corp.. According to a posting on Blu-ray.com, Palisades has formed Palisades Tartan Film Acquisitions, which will work to continue Tartan USA's boutique DVD line.

Thai titles issued on the Tartan Asia Extreme label by Tartan Video in the U.K. include the Pang Bros.' original Bangkok Dangerous (cited as the "uncut U.K. version", it's probably best edition to have), as well as Ab-Normal Beauty, The Eye Trilogy and One Take Only. Other titles include Bangkok Haunted and Ghost of Mae Nak as well as Three Extremes and Three Extremes II.

(Via Bloody Disgusting)

Storm Riders sequel, now called Storm Warriors, about to wrap up shooting in Bangkok

Media day was held yesterday on the set of the Pang Bros.' Storm Warriors, which is about to wrap up shooting in Bangkok.

Originally under the working title of Storm Riders II and now called Storm Warriors, the martial arts fantasy stars Ekin Cheng as Wind and Aaron Kwok as Cloud, reprising their roles from 1998's Storm Riders, which was directed by Andrew Lau.

Mugging for the cameras with a little plush doll of the Sina.com eyeball were Kwok and Cheng, as well Nicholas Tse, Charlene Choi, Tang Yan and Kenny Ho. Here's more from China Daily:

[The] Pang Brothers said this upcoming book-to-film action movie is shooting in a completely digitalized realm and ninety percent of the scenes have used computer-animated effects. The total budget is around 100 million yuan, about 146,000 US dollars.

The shooting for the film will be completed within a week. It will be shown on the big screens both in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong at the end of 2009.

Storm Warriors and its predecessor are based on a comic book series titled Fung Wan by artist and writer Ma Wing-shing.

The new live-action fantasy film is in addition to a new animated feature, Storm Rider: Clash of Evils. It's due to be released in cinemas next month. Twitch and Animation Magazine are among the sites that have more on that.




Related posts:

• Storm Riders II, Street Fighter shooting it out in Bangkok

(Photos of Aaron Kwok and Tang Yan from ent.sina.com.cn)