Bangkok Cinema Scene special: European Union Film Festival, June 23-July 3, 2016

Sixteen films from 13 countries will screen for the general public in the long-running annual European Union Film Festival, starting next week at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld.

This year, the festival takes the theme “Look to the Past, See the Future”. Highlights include The Broken Circle Breakdown, a Belgian film that was a 2014 nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Finland’s The Fencer, a Cold War drama that was a Golden Globe nominee, and Victoria, an innovative German crime drama that won three awards at the Berlin film fest and has been noted for its cinematography.

Other films hail from the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Sweden, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

There’s also a hidden 17th film from another country, Italy, which offers a one-off, invitation-only opening-night screening next Wednesday of Tale of Tales, a horror-fantasy from noted director Matteo Garrone and starring Salma Hayek.

Here is the line-up for the general public:

• The Broken Circle Breakdown – Belgium’s Oscar-nominated drama takes its title from the American bluegrass music that brings together two musicians, a young man and woman, who have a daughter they name Maybelle. Tragedy then strikes.
• Family Film – In this 2015 black comedy from the Czech Republic, a mum and dad take off for a vacation, inexplicably leaving their children and the family dog to fend for themselves.
• The Sunfish – A third-generation Danish fisherman struggling to hold on to his livelihood finds unlikely romance when he invites a marine biologist aboard his vessel. This won many prizes, including Denmark’s 2014 Bodil Awards for best actor and supporting actress for Henrik Birch and Susanne Storm.
• Silent Heart – A second entry from Denmark has three generations of a family reuniting amid conflict as their ailing mother wants to die before her illness worsens. Directed by Bille August, it won many prizes including best film at the 2015 Bolid Awards.
• The Fencer – The award-winning Finnish drama is set in 1950, with a young man trapped between his World War II past and the future of Estonia as his country comes under control of the Soviet Union.
• Standing Tall – A French judge (Catherine Deneuve) and a schoolteacher (Benoit Magimel) take up the cause of putting a juvenile delinquent (Rod Paradot) on the straight and narrow. It was a major nominee for this year’s Cesar Awards, with Magimel winning best supporting actor and newcomer Paradot named most promising actor.
• The Sweet Escape – In another French entry, a middle-aged graphic designer seeks to change his urban lifestyle and takes up kayaking.
• The People vs Fritz Bauer – Germany’s embattled Nazi hunter, the attorney general Fritz Bauer, comes under attack after he covertly approaches Israel’s spy service for help in tracking down Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. It was a nominee for several German Film Awards, and won best film.
• Victoria – Winner of the Berlin Silver Bear for cinematography, this German thriller was shot in one eye-popping continuous take, and follows a young Spanish woman, a newcomer to Berlin, as she is befriended one night by four young men who turn out to be criminals.
• Afterlife – A neurotic young man encounters the ghost of his father and the two form a bond that seemed impossible when the man was alive. From Hungary, this 2014 comedy-drama was nominated for prizes in Karlovy Vary and Palm Springs.
• Bikes vs Cars – Sweden offers a documentary look at how bicycles stack up against other forms of transport in such cities as Los Angeles, Toronto, Sao Paulo and Copenhagen.
• Baby (a) lone – Luxembourg’s official submission to the Oscars has troubled teenagers, a boy and girl, who meet in a school-detention programme and form a bond as they take out their frustrations with society.
• Finn – A boy and his father, both mourning the loss the boy’s mum, who died in childbirth on Christmas Eve, find solace in music and religious symbolism. From the Netherlands, this family drama was a nominee for the Crystal Bear at the 2014 Berlin film festival.
• Jack Strong – Poland offers a taut Cold War thriller about top Polish military official Ryszard Kuklinski, who became a spy for the US, spilling Warsaw Pact secrets in a bid to keep his country safe. Marcin Dorocinski stars, along with Patrick Wilson as Kuklinski’s CIA handler.
• The Wolf’s Lair – Portuguese filmmaker Catarina Mourao lifts the covers off her family’s tragic past in this documentary, in which she seeks to unravel the secrets and mysteries of her family during Portugal’s dictatorship.
• Truman – A terminally ill man is visited by an old friend, and the two set out for one last adventure, accompanied by the man’s loyal pet dog.

The European Union Film Festival opens to the general public next Thursday and runs until July 3 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld in Bangkok. The festival will then be held from July 8 to 17 at SFX Maya Chiang Mai and from July 21 to 24 at SF Cinema City, CentralPlaza Khon Kaen.

Films will have English and Thai subtitles. Tickets are Bt120 in Bangkok, Bt80 in Chiang Mai and free in Khon Kaen.

The schedule can be found online. For more details, check www.SFCinemaCity.com.

(Cross-published in The Nation)

Bangkok Cinema Scene special: The Third Silent Film Festival in Thailand, June 16-22, 2016

Vampires, those fanged fiends who come out at night to suck our blood, have long been a staple of the silver screen, and one of the earliest examples of the genre, Nosferatu, will be the opening entry of the Third Silent Film Festival in Thailand, next Thursday, June 16, at the Scala theatre in Bangkok’s Siam Square.

Directed by F.W. Murnau, the 1922 German Expressionist horror was an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Names and details were changed when producers were denied the rights to the novel. So, for example, Count Dracula, as portrayed by German character actor Max Schreck, became Count Orlok. Stoker’s estate sued, and got a court to rule that all copies of the film should be destroyed. But just like vampires, Nosferatu was not so easily killed. And the film stands today as a masterpiece of cinema and an influential landmark in the horror genre.

Put on by the Film Archive (Public Organisation) Thailand, the Silent Film Festival will feature eight other films, including more examples of German Expressionism, from the master himself, Murnau, and others.

Among them will be Murnau’s The Last Laugh, about an elderly hotel doorman who feels disgraced after he’s put in charge of cleaning the washroom. Also from Murnau is his first Hollywood effort, 1927’s Sunrise, which many cinephiles consider one of the best of the silent era. It’s about a social-climbing farmer who falls in love with a city woman and attempts to murder his wife.

And the German slate is further filled out with 1925’s Variety, which depicts romance between high-flying circus acrobats. It’s directed by E.A. Dupont, whose Piccadilly was a hit with crowds at last year’s Silent Film Festival.

Sure to strike a chord with local audiences is a gender-bending 1921 German adaptation of Hamlet. Starring Danish actor Asta Nielsen and directed by Svend Gade and Heinz Schall, this version imagines what it would have been like if Hamlet was born female and disguised as a male to preserve the family’s lineage.

French film heritage is acknowledged in two entries, the romantic comedy Two Timid Souls from 1928, which was the last silent film by the French master Rene Clair, and 1920’s The Swallow and the Titmouse by Andre Antoine. Remarkably, The Swallow and the Titmouse spent 63 years on the shelf, unedited, before film editor Henri Colpi discovered more than six hours of footage. A World War I saga of families who operate river barges, Colpi trimmed the epic down to a tight 79 minutes.

Following on from the Silent Film Fest’s focus on early Hitchcock two years ago, there’s another example of the early British thriller, 1928’s Shooting Stars, directed by Anthony Asquith. It’s the twisting story of a film star falling in love with an actress whose married to another actor.

And no Silent Film Festival would be complete without an effort by one of the icons of the silent era – Buster Keaton. Paying tribute to the ever-daring comedy actor, who died 50 years ago this year, will be his laugh-filled western Go West from 1925. It’s the story of a hapless city slicker who lands a job on a cattle ranch.

Cue the music

A key component of the Silent Film Festival in Thailand is live musical accompaniment. As has been done in the past two years, world-renowned musicians who are experts in silent film are brought in just for the fest.

Performing on opening night will be German composer and multi-instrumentalist Gunter A. Buchwald. Acclaimed as a “world class improviser”, Buchwald has been performing with silent films since 1978, adding musical flourishes to more than 2,900 screenings.

He’ll alternate shows with Tama Karena, a New Zealander who has been the director of music at the Chinese International School in Hangzhou, China. He previously taught music in Hong Kong and at the New International School of Thailand. Kerena’s performances include the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy, which is the world’s top silent-film showcase.

Making opening night with Nosferatu at the Scala even more special will be the addition of Thai classical musician Anant Nark-kong, who will add traditional bamboo percussion to the accompaniment of Buchwald.

The Third Silent Film Festival in Thailand runs from June 16 to 22 at the Apex theatres in Siam Square.

The opening-night show Nosferatu will be at the Scala. Tickets are 200 baht. All other shows will be at the Lido, where tickets are 120 baht. Tickets are available now at the Lido box office.

For the schedule and more details, check www.Fapot.org or www.Facebook.com/silentfilmthailand.

(Cross-published in The Nation)

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening June 9-15, 2016

Where to Invade Next

Though it seems like he never really went away, Michael Moore returns from a hiatus of around six years with Where to Invade Next, in which he turns his eyes to progressive European countries and elsewhere to find examples of social policies that could turn troubled America around, and really, really make it great.

The documentary premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, and critical reception has been generally positive.

Where to Invade Next is the latest in the Doc Holiday series of The Documentary Club and SF Cinemas.

Shows are at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, SFX The Crystal Ekamai-Ramindra, SFC The Crystal Ratchapruek and SFX Maya Chiang Mai. Some of the screenings at CentralWorld will be accompanied by talks by various Thai advocacy groups.

For further details, please check The Documentary Club Facebook page or SF's bookings website. Rated G

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Also opening

Now You See Me 2 – The quartet of outlaw illusionists known as "the Four Horsemen" are in Macau, where they are tasked by a tech prodigy (Daniel Radcliffe) with stealing a powerful computer chip. Meanwhile, the FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) tasked with finding the Four Horsemen pursues a personal case – taking revenge on a jailed magic debunker (Morgan Freeman). Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco reprise their roles as the magician-thieves from the first film, joined this time around by Lizzy Caplan, who takes over for Isla Fisher, who had to bow out due to pregnancy. Other stars include Jay Chou and Michael Caine. Jon M. Chu (Step Up 2: The Streets, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) directs. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

The Conjuring 2 – Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga take another outing as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the American ghost-hunting couple who documented the "Amityville horror" and other paranormal events. In Conjuring 2, they head to England, to look into the case of the Enfield poltergeist. Franka Potente, Frances O'Connor, Simon McBurney and David Thewlis also star. James Wan, helmer of those Saw and Insidious movies, directs. Critical reception is generally positive. This was in sneak previews last week and now moves to a general release. Rated 15+

The Faith of Anna Waters – Demonic possession grips us. In Singapore, an American journalist (Elizabeth Rice) is seeking answers about the purported suicide of her sister. With help from her brother-in-law (Matthew Settle), she uncovers links to many mysterious deaths that point to an apparent demonic entity. This is billed as Singapore's first "Hollywood" supernatural thriller and is directed by Kelvin Tong, a well-known Singaporean director whose previous efforts include the 2005 horror The Maid and the Hong Kong action thriller Rule No . 1. It's at Major Cineplex. Rated 15+

Te3n – Amitabh Bachchan is a grandfather who for eight years has been on a quest for justice over the kidnapping and murder of his granddaughter. Ignored by the cops, he gets help from a former cop who is now a priest (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). Vidya Balan also stars. It's a remake of the 2013 South Korean thriller Montage. It's in Hindi With English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III, Pattaya and EGV Mae Sot. Opens Friday.

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Also opening

Bangkok Gay and Lesbian Film Festival – The second edition of the BGLFF opens tomorrow night with Tomcat, an Austrian drama that won the top-prize Teddy Award in Berlin this year. With many award-winning, much-acclaimed films, the entire lineup was profiled in a special blog post last week. I'm most interested in seeing the Filipino entry, Miss Bulalacao, an indie comedy about a drag performer who becomes pregnant. Another one is Nasty Baby, directed by and starring Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Silva. It's about a gay couple trying to have a baby, with help from a surrogate mother (Kristen Wiig, in a dramatic turn). The fest, which runs until June 19, is at the Quartier CineArt, and tickets can be purchased through the Major Cineplex website. Films will have English and Thai subtitles. For more details, check www.Facebook.com/BGLFF or Attitudethai.com/s/bglff.

The Friese-Greene Club – With the U.S. presidential race locking into focus, American politics are on the minds of barstool pundits at the Club, which tonight has Jay Roach's 2012 HBO comedy-drama Game Change, which recalls the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Tomorrow, it's The Killing Fields, the Oscar-winning drama about Cambodia's "Year Zero", as seen through the eyes of translator-reporter Dith Pran (played by Haing S. Ngor) and New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg (Sam Waterson). It was filmed in Thailand and is part of a line-up of "classics" made here. Saturday has "not-so-classic" movies made in Thailand, with 1976's Emanuelle in Bangkok. Sunday has 1941's The Little Foxes, directed by William Wyler and starring Bette Davis. Next Wednesday is a documentary on American politics, 2005's Our Brand is Crisis, about American political operators working on a Bolivian presidential campaign. It was recently adapted into a comedy with Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – Violence against women is in focus in two Academy Award-winning short documentaries from Pakistan at the FCCT at 7pm on Monday as part of the Contemporary World Film Series. From 2012, Saving Face deals with acid attacks. The short film follows a London-based plastic surgeon as he travels to Pakistan to perform facial-reconstruction surgery. And from 2015 is A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, which profiles a young woman who survived an "honor killing" by her father and uncle. She ran into conflict in Pakistani society for not forgiving the men. Both shorts are courtesy of SOC Films. Admission for non-members is 150 baht. Take note that there will be another entry in the Contemporary World Film Series, Le Meraviglie from Switzerland, on June 20.

Alliance Française – There are three French film events this week. Tomorrow night's French film with Thai subtitles is Un château en Italie (A Castle in Italy) in which a dysfunctional industrialist family is forced to sell their home in Italy. Saturday has a matinee for the kids, Les contes de la nuit (Tales of the Night), which has distinctive animator Michel Ocelot weaving together various fantastic stories. And next Wednesday's French film with English subtitles is Les châteaux de sable (Sand Castles), in which a young woman returns to her family home after her father's death and is reunited with an ex-lover. Shows are at 7pm except for the 2pm Saturday matinee. Admission for the general public is 100 baht.

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Take note

The Silent Film Festival in Thailand has issued its schedule, and will open with Nosferatu on Thursday, June 16, at the Scala. This is a change from the previous two editions of the festival, which had the Scala gala screening as the closing event. Tickets go on sale at the Lido tomorrow, which coincidentally is the 119th anniversary of the first film screening in Thailand, which was on June 10, 1897. I will aim to have a special post on the Silent Film Fest very soon.

Also next week is the Singapore Film Festival at CentralWorld. Details of the films and the schedule are now online at SF Cinema's website. The five-film lineup ranges from 1997's 12 Storeys to last year's much acclaimed seven-segment omnibus 7 Letters.

And the long-running annual European Union Film Festival has posted its lineup, which includes Tale of Tales, the latest effort from Italian director Matteo Garrone, which stars Salma Hayek. The fest runs from June 22 to July 3 at SF World.

Bangkok Cinema Scene special: Bangkok Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, June 10-19, 2016

Twelve films, many of them award winners, which deal with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender themes from 10 countries will be shown at the Quartier CineArt during the second edition of the Bangkok Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. It’s organised by Attitude magazine.

With the theme “Love Wins”, the BGLFF opens next Friday with Tomcat, an Austrian drama that earned accolades at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. The story of an orchestra musician and his boyfriend who live with their pet cat, Tomcat won the Berlinale’s best feature Teddy Award, a prize given by an independent jury to films with LGBT topics.

And the Teddy Award audience prize from this year’s Berlinale, Paris 05:59, is the BGLFF’s closing entry. It follows a young gay couple as they meet in a Paris bathhouse and pursue a relationship into the early morning hours.

In a move to boost the festival’s visibility, organisers have chosen a new venue, shifting from the hidden-away Esplanade Ratchadaphisek to the ritzy Quartier CineArt in the Em Quartier downtown.

“Last year was the first year for the Bangkok Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and we were really happy with the turn-out. All sorts of people came out to support us and our films,” says organiser Marut “Nume” Prasertsri, a senior writer at Attitude magazine. “This year we’re working hard to increase the visibility of the festival to non-LGBT audiences. The films we’ve picked are all quality, well-made films with a wide appeal. We’re looking forward to sharing them with a broad audience of people, not just LGBT folks.”

Along with the prize-winning opening and closing films, Marut suggests a French entry, the lesbian romance Summertime (La Belle Saison) as one film the “straights” might embrace. Set in 1971, it’s the story of a young woman from the countryside who moves to Paris and is attracted to a strong-willed older feminist, who then follows the girl back to her farm. “Non-LGBT folk will better understand what it means to grow up different and they’ll enjoy the romance scenes,” says Marut.

Several of the films in the BGLFF are from Asia, such as Japan’s A Cappella (Mubansô), which takes place during campus protests in 1969 Sendai. South Korea offers a documentary, Weekends, about a gay men’s choir in Seoul. Directed by Lee Dong-ha, it placed third in the Panorama Audience Awards at Berlinale this year.

Further Asian themes are explored in Spa Night, in which a young Korean-American man struggles to reconcile his obligations to his immigrant family with his life in the underground world of gay hookups at Korean spas in Los Angeles. Spa Night star Joe Seo won the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance at Sundance.

And there’s an award-nominee from India, Loev, about a businessman who heads out of town with an old friend, leaving behind problems with his boyfriend in the city. It was up for prizes at festivals in Jeonju, South Korea, and at the Black Nights of Talliin in Estonia.

The Asean bloc is represented by Miss Bulalacao, a quirky independent comedy about a drag princess who gets pregnant following an alien abduction. He is elevated to the status of a cult leader following rumours of immaculate conception. Directed by Ara Chawdhury, Miss Bulalacao won the festival prize at Manila’s Cinema One Originals Digital Film Festival and best first feature from the Philippines Young Critics Circle.

Latin American flavor comes in two entries, From Afar, from Venezuela and Four Moons from Mexico. Winner of the top-prize Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival last year, From Afar is about a 50-year-old man who pays for the companionship of young men. A meeting with the teenage leader of a street gang changes their lives forever. Four Moons, which won prizes in Montreal, Monterrey and Barcelona, has four stories of gay desire, love and self-acceptance.

And there are high-profile offerings from the U.S. and Canada, with Nasty Baby, which has Chilean actor-director Sebastian Silva working with Tunde Adebimpe in a story about a gay couple trying to have a baby with the help of a surrogate mum, played by former Saturday Night Live star Kristen Wiig. They have a violent run-in with a thug (Reg E. Cathey from The Wire).

And Closet Monster won the best Canadian feature film award and other prizes at the Toronto festival last year. Directed by Stephen Dunn, it’s the dramatic coming-of-age story of a high-school teen who dreams of being a special-effects makeup artist and finds new inspiration.

The Bangkok Gay and Lesbian Film Festival runs from June 10 to 19 at the Quartier CineArt at the EmQuartier mall. Films will have English and Thai subtitles. For more details, check www.Facebook.com/BGLFF or Attitudethai.com/s/bglff

(Cross-published in The Nation)

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening June 2-8, 2016

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

The pizza-loving martial-arts heroes in half-shells are back to save New York in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, which involves the emergence of a mysterious purple ooze that turns humans into animals.

Returnees from the 2014 entry in the franchise include Megan Fox as reporter April O'Neil and Will Arnett as her wisecracking cameraman. Stephen Amell from TV's Arrow joins the cast as the hockey-masked vigilante Casey Jones, and Tyler Perry is a new villain, the mad scientist who created the ooze.

Critical reception is just beginning to register. It's in 3D in some cinemas, including IMAX. Rated G

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Also opening

Me Before You – A quirky young woman takes a job as a caretaker to a wealthy young man, embittered after he is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. Emilia Clarke from TV's Game of Thrones stars, along with Sam Claflin. It is based on a novel by British writer JoJo Moyes, who also wrote the screenplay. Critical reception is mixed. This opened in sneak previews over the weekend and now moves to wider release. Rated G

Mr. Right – Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick topline this indie-leaning comedy about a heartbroken young woman who falls for a stranger who turns out to be a hitman with a sense of justice. Tim Roth also stars along with Anson Mount, James Ransone and RZA. The script is by up-and-coming screenwriter Max Landis, son of former leading Hollywood figure John Landis. Max's previous credits include Chronicle and Victor Frankenstein. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

High Strung – A street-busking violinist (musician-actor Nicholas Galitzine) falls for a classically trained ballerina (Keenan Kampa) and they decide to work together to take part in a big dance competition. Critical reception is mixed. Rated G

Timeline Next Gen (Timeline เพราะรัก..ไม่สิ้นสุด 2, Timeline Pror Rak .. Mai Sin Sut Song) – This is a followup to a 2013 indie gay romance, offering more stories of couples of various ages. Rated 15+

Housefull 3 – In London, three young men set out to impress the protective father of three wealthy and attractive daughters. This is the third entry in a hit Bollywood comedy franchise headed by Punjabi superstar Akshay Kumar, following the first in 2010  and the second in 2012. Other stars are Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, Lisa Haydon and Boman Irani. It's in Hindi With English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club – June's schedule focuses strongly on American politics with documentaries and dramas on Wednesday and Thursday. There are also foreign films made in Thailand, with classics on Friday and "not so classic" on Saturday. This is a run-up to the upcoming Thailand International Film Destination Festival, which focuses on foreign films made in Thailand. Sunday focuses on classic films made 75 years ago. Tonight, it's the first in a series of political dramas, Ides of March, with Ryan Gosling as a political operative who becomes disillusioned after he catches his candidate (George Clooney, who also directed) in a scandal and cover-up. The place is closed tomorrow for a private event, but is back open to general membership on Saturday with Emmanuelle, the infamous soft-core erotic film made in Thailand that was the first in a series of many. Sunday has Hitchcock's Suspicion, starring Cary Grant. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française – Tomorrow night's French film with Thai subtitles is Mon âme par toi guérie (One of a Kind), in which a man who has inherited his mother's gift of a healing touch wants nothing do with it. And next Wednesday's French film with English subtitles is Dans l'œil de Buñuel, a made-for-TV documentary on the influential Spanish filmmaker. The shows are at 7pm. Admission for the general public is 100 baht.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – American politics are also on the minds of members of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand and the FCCT's Contemporary World Film Series, which will screen Steven Spielberg's Academy Award-winning Lincoln at 7pm on Monday, June 6. Daniel Day-Lewis stars, giving a remarkable, Oscar-winning performance as America's 16th president as he cuts backroom deals with his Cabinet and Congress to ensure his legacy – the passage of the emancipation proclamation. The screening is courtesy of the U.S. Embassy, which will provide snacks and wine. Entry for non-members is 150 baht plus 100 baht for the snacks. The Contemporary World Film Series will have three shows this month, with Oscar-winning Pakistani short films on June 13 and the Swiss film Le Meraviglie on June 20.

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Sneak preview

The Conjuring 2 – Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga take another outing as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real-life American ghost-hunting couple who documented the "Amityville horror" and other paranormal encounters. In Conjuring 2, they head to England, to look into the case of the Enfield poltergeist. Franka Potente, Frances O'Connor, Simon McBurney and David Thewlis also star. James Wan, helmer of those Saw and Insidious movies, directs. Critical reception is ghostly, so far. It's screening from around 8 nightly from Saturday until Wednesday in most multiplexes, ahead of the wider release next week.

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Take note

There is yet another film fest coming up – the European Union Film Festival at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld from June 22 to July 3. Tickets will be Bt120.

That's in addition to previously announced events:

• Bangkok Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, June 10-19, Quartier CineArt
• The Third Silent Film Festival in Thailand, June 16-22, Apex Siam Square.
• Singapore Film Festival in Bangkok, June 16 to 19, SF World.

There will also be the Thai Film Archive's screening series in honor of His Majesty the King's 70th anniversary of accession, beginning in July, and the Thailand International Film Destination Festival, also in July. I hope to have details on those events soon.

Also, as mentioned in last week's post, House cinema on RCA is closed until June 15. The 12-year-old boutique twinplex has become worn in places and is undergoing much-needed sprucing up.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening May 26-June 1, 2016

Money Monster

Fresh from the Cannes Film Festival, Money Monster is former child star Jodie Foster's fourth effort in the director's chair.

The loaded cast boasts George Clooney and Julia Roberts, with Clooney as a brash TV financial guru and Roberts the producer who is always in his ear. They are held hostage during a live broadcast by a disgruntled man (Jack O'Connell from Unbreakable) who lost his life savings after he followed the guru's advice. The captor then forces the pair to get to the bottom of a deeper financial conspiracy. Dominic West, Giancarlo Esposito and Caitriona Balfe also star.

This is the biggest and first major studio-backed effort for Foster as a director. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and Foster did the rounds of all the talk shows, promoting the film and offering her recollections on working on such films as Taxi Driver and Silence of the Lambs.

Critical reception is mixed, with the consensus being it doesn't go quite deep enough. Rated 15+

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Also opening

Demolition – Jake Gyllenhaal is a Wall Street investment banker who goes off the deep end after his wife is killed in a car wreck, and he copes by dismantling everything in his life. An encounter with a problematic vending machine prompts him to send a complaint letter, which begins a series of confessional correspondence with a sympathetic customer-service rep (Naomi Watts). Chris Cooper also stars. It's directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, who previously earned accolades for his work on Dallas Buyers Club and Wild. Critical reception is mixed. It's in most multiplexes, including Apex, Century, Major Hollywood and SF, but not Major Cineplex, a development I'm told is because of a conflict between the country's biggest cinema chain and a small distributor. Rated 13+

Bastille Day – Idris Elba from TV's The Wire and Luther has had a busy season so far, lending his voice to Disney for The Jungle Book and Zootopia. Now the Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom star is back in front of the camera, offering his try-out to be the next James Bond in the gritty action thriller Bastille Day, which has the imposing British actor as a CIA agent in Paris. He's on the trail of a conspiracy that ropes in an American pickpocket (Richard Madden, the erstwhile King of the North from Game of Thrones). It's written and directed by James Watkins, who previously directed The Woman in Black and wrote The Descent: Part 2. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

Warcraft: The Beginning – The World of Warcraft fantasy online video game is adapted for the screen, with the human realm of Azeroth coming under attack from the Horde of Orcs. Duncan Jones, son of David Bowie, directs, moving into big-budget special-effects-laden fare following his well-received low-budget indie sci-fi debut Moon and the bit-bigger sci-fi thriller Source Code. His involvement alone is reason enough for me not to dismiss it outright. Following the pattern of other big Hollywood releases this summer, Warcraft is opening here a couple of weeks before it comes out in the U.S., giving the movie some breathing room in foreign territories. Nonetheless, early critical reception is not so good. Rated 13+

If Cats Disappeared from the World – Cute-cat movies are a sub-genre of Japanese cinema. The latest is about a young man having an existential crisis after he learns he is terminally ill. He is visited by a devil, who dangles the chance to keep living if he'll pick one thing to eliminate from the world. The drama is adapted from a novel that was first published in Japan on the Line social-messaging app. Takeru Sato (Rurouni Kenshin) and Aoi Miyazaki (The Chart of Love) star. It's in Japanese with English and Thai subtitles at Apex Siam Square, Esplanade Ratchadaphisek, House RCA, Major Cineplex Ratchayothin and SFW CentralWorld. Outside of the city, venues are EGV Khon Kaen, Major Cineplex Central Festival Chiang Mai, MVP Buri Ram and SFX Maya Chiang Mai. Rated G

Fathers (ฟาเธอร์) – Gay couple Foon (Uttsada Panichkul) and Yuk (Nat Sakdatorn) face challenges when they adopt a little boy and the kid becomes teased at school for having two dads. They then come to the attention of a social worker (Sinjai Plengpanich), who advises the fathers to track down the child's birth mother. Rated 15+

The Promise (คิดถึงครึ่งชีวิต, Kidthueng Khrueng Cheewit) – A young man returns to his home in rural Chiang Mai after he fails his university entrance exams. He helps out around his mother's food shop while studying for a do-over of the exam, and then meets a young Japanese woman (Akiko Ozeki), in Chiang Mai as a magazine writer, and memories of the past come flooding back. Rated G

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Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club – The month starts winding down tomorrow night with Peter Greenaway's best-known film, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, which really encapsulates everything that is Greenaway, with sudden violence, nudity and stylish eroticism. Saturday is classic Robert Altman, who has a sprawling cast in Short Cuts, an ambitious, interweaving adaptation of several short stories of Raymond Carver. And Sunday has one more Edward G. Robinson film, his final role, co-starring with Charlton Heston in the dystopian sci-fi Soylent Green. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française – Tomorrow night's French film with Thai subtitles is Je fais le mort (Playing Dead), in which a struggling actor takes a job playing victims in crime re-enactments. And June's schedule kicks off with next Wednesday's French film with English subtitles, L'affaire SK1, a fact-based crime drama about a young police inspector who makes connections that put him on the trail of a serial killer. The shows are at 7pm. Admission for the general public is 100 baht.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – Filipino director Brillante Ma Mendoza is a favorite of film festivals, winning many, many awards around the world. His latest triumph came at Cannes, with actress Jaclyn Jose from his Ma' Rosa winning best-actress, the first Filipina to win that honor. Mendoza is also a favorite of the FCCT's Contemporary World Film Series, which has its next entry at 7pm on Monday with Mendoza's award-winning 2012 drama Thy Womb, about a midwife who can't have children who wants her husband to remarry so he can become a father. Nora Aunor stars. Entry is 150 baht for non-members and 100 baht to partake in the gourmet popcorn and San Miguel laid on by the Embassy of the Philippines. June will have three more films in the series, with the U.S. Embassy offering up Spielberg's Lincoln on June 6, a pair of Pakistani short films on June 13 and the Swiss film Le Meraviglie on June 20.

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Sneak preview

Me Before You – The Mother of Dragons from Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke, ditches her blonde wig for Bjork buns and colorful leggings to take on the role of the manic pixie dream girl in Me Before You, portraying a quirky young woman who takes a job as a caretaker to a withdrawn wealthy young man (Sam Claflin) who is wheelchair-bound after an accident. It is based on a novel by British writer JoJo Moyes, who also adapted the screenplay. The film is possibly better known for its poster being used in the "Starring Jon Cho" campaign, criticizing Hollywood's lack of diversity and imagining what it would be like if big Hollywood films had an Asian-American leading man. Critical reception is just starting to form. This is in nightly sneak previews from Saturday until Wednesday at most multiplexes, ahead of a general release next week.

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Take note

House cinema on RCA will be closed from June 1 to 15 while some renovation and repair work is undertaken.

June and July are shaping up to be a very busy time for film enthusiasts, with the unveiling of more movie events.

Already mentioned is the Silent Film Festival from June 16 to 22 at the Lido and Scala.

Dovetailing with that will be the second edition of the Bangkok Gay and Lesbian Film Festival from June 10 to 19 at the Quartier CineArt.

And as if that isn't enough, CentralWorld's SF World Cinema piles on with the third edition of the freebie Singapore Film Festival in Bangkok from June 16 to 19, which will screen five award-winning Singaporean features.

Heading into July, the Thai Film Archive is formulating plans to start a series of screenings of films that were viewed in cinemas by His Majesty the King, starting with Santi-Vina, a 1954 feature that was misplaced for 60 years. It was rediscovered and restored and shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Santi-Vina will open the series of classic films in celebration of the 70th anniversary of His Majesty's accession to the throne, with one film a month being shown until December. The venue for this film series is yet to be announced. It is a similar idea to the Seen by H.M.K. series the Archive put on in 2012.

Also in early July, there will be another edition of the Thailand Film Office's bizarre and unique Thailand International Film Destination Festival at Paragon Cineplex, which will screen another oddball crop of little-seen foreign movies that were made in Thailand in recent years. That's in combination with the Amazing Thailand Film Challenge, a competition that jets in indie filmmakers to shoot short films in certain locations in just a few days with just a few baht.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening May 19-25, 2016

X-Men: Apocalypse

Comic-book-obsessed Hollywood turns the page to the X-Men franchise overseen by producer-director Bryan Singer and 20th Century Fox, with X-Men: Apocalypse, in a story that is set in 1983 and deals with the re-emergence of the immortal space-faring entity Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), who was worshiped as a god in ancient Egypt. He's back with plans to reshape the world to suit his needs and rallies disaffected mutants to serve as his four horsemen, among them the disillusioned Magneto (Michael Fassbender).

To counteract the threat, the telepathic mind-reader Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) puts together his own team of superpowered mutants, under the leadership of his shape-shifting blue-skinned childhood friend and off-and-on enemy Mystique, now rechristened as Raven (Jennifer Lawrence). Somehow, in the battle, Professor X will lose his hair, taking on the shiny-domed appearance he's best known for.

Actors portraying the rookie supers include Nicholas Hoult, Olivia Munn, Evan Peters, Sophie Turner (from Game of Thrones), Tye Sheridan, Lucas Till, Kodi Smit-McKee and Alexandra Shipp. Hugh Jackman, the only constant in the X-Men movie-verse, is also expected to put in an appearance, which isn't a spoiler because they've been teasing the his character's claws in the trailers for months.

X-Men: Apocalypse is the third film in a rebooted franchise that began with X-Men: First Class in 2011 and then 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past. It is under the banner of 20th Century Fox, and is thus mostly separate from the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe, even though those threads began to become intertwined with the MCU's Deadpool movie earlier this year.

Critical reception is mixed, making this not as good as Captain America: Civil War but perhaps not as bad as Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. It's in 2D as well as actual 3D in some cinemas, including IMAX. Rated G

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Also opening

Bolshoi Babylon – With yet another comic-book movie flooding theaters, the Documentary Club offers counter-programming with the release of an HBO Documentary Films feature from last year. Bolshoi Babylon exposes divisions in Russia's world-famous ballet troupe after its artistic director Sergei Filin was hit by an acid attack in 2013. Critical reception is generally positive. It's at SF World Cinema at Central World, SF Cinema The Crystal Ratchapruek, SFX The Crystal Ekamai Ram-Indra and SFX Maya Chiang Mai. For showtimes, please check the Documentary Club Facebook page or SF Cinemas' bookings website. Rated G

Pandemic – Following the outbreak of a virus and the collapse of society, a doctor (Rachel Nichols) and her team head to Los Angeles with the hope of finding uninfected survivors. Alfie Allen (Reek from Game of Thrones), Missi Pyle and Mekhi Phifer also star. Like the recent Hardcore Henry, this is another film made in the first-person point-of-view style, similar to first-person-shooter video games and other media. Critical reception is mixed. This appears to be at SF cinemas, as well as Major Hollywood and Century but not Major Cineplex; it was earlier listed on the leading chain's website and app but seems to have been removed. Rated 18+

Serd (เทริด) – The title means "crown", and alludes to the ornate headdress of the Manorah or Nora classical dance of southern Thailand. Singer-actor Ekachai Srivichai stars in and co-directs this drama. He portrays the ailing father of a young man named Singh (Paisan Khunnu) who rebels against family tradition and goes off to follow his dreams of being a pop musician. Singh then falls in love with Saithip (second runner-up Miss Universe Thailand 2015 Anchalika Na Phatthalung), a young woman who is a Manorah dancer. He is then inspired to return home and follow in his father's footsteps as a Nora master. Winai Kraibutr and Siwat Chotchaicharin also star, and Pakphum Wonjinda co-directs. Rated 15+

Sarbjit – Injustices and rocky India-Pakistan relations are highlighted in this female-centered tale about an Indian farmer who, as the story goes, had a bit too much to drink one night and strayed across the border into Pakistan, where he was captured, accused of spying and terrorism and sent to a prison's death row, where he languished for 23 years. Bollywood leading lady Aishwarya Rai sheds her usual glamorous looks to portray the man's sister Dalbir, who wages a decades-long campaign to clear her brother's name. Randeep Hooda also stars. It's directed by Omung Kumar, who previously did the biopic of Indian female boxer Mary Kom. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

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Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club – Orson Welles Thursdays continue tonight with Compulsion, which has Welles in front of the lens as a lawyer defending law students in a murder case. Tomorrow's "Over-rated or Under-appreciated?" entry is Peter Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts while Saturday has Robert Altman's Hollywood satire The Player, which opens with one of the best-regarded long tracking shots in cinema history. Sunday, it's adventure on the high seas with Edward G. Robinson in Michael Curtiz' The Sea Wolf. Next Wednesday's Jim Jarmusch offering is the unusual and wryly entertaining Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, which has Forest Whitaker as a mob hitman who adheres to the bushido code. It's one of my favorite movies. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Cinema Diverse: Director's Choice – The Female Perspective – The Bangkok Art and Culture Center's Cinema Diverse begins a new season this Saturday with Soraya Nakasuwan leading off the first in a series of screenings of films chosen by Thai female filmmakers. Soraya made her breakthrough with the 2007 commercially released documentary Final Score, about schoolboys struggling to prepare for the crucial, life-changing university entrance exams. She has chosen The Pearl Button, a nature documentary by Chilean director Patricio Guzmán, on the indigenous people of Chile’s remote Tierra del Fuego archipelago. “The Pearl Button tells the story of the history of Chile and how that history is profoundly intertwined with the ocean. Jemmy Button was a boy from a small island. He was one of the island's original inhabitants and he was sold in an exchange for a pearl button. Later he was unable to reconnect with his former identity upon returning to the island. The Pearl Button is presented like a film essay in narrative form with breath-taking and delicate cinematography,” says Soraya. Registration opens at 4pm with the show at 5pm on Saturday in the BACC's fifth-floor auditorium. Afterward, there will be question-and-answer time with Soraya, in Thai with English translation. Others taking part in the series are Wanweaw and Weawwan Hongvivatana on July 23, Pimpaka Towira on September 24 and Anocha Suwichakornpong on November 19.

Alliance Française – There is no Friday French movie with Thai subtitles this week because of the Visakha Bucha public holiday. Next Wednesday at 7pm, there's a French film with English subtitles, the 2015 romance La belle saison (Summertime), in which a French farmgirl moves to 1970s Paris and falls in love with a woman, a militant feminist schoolteacher. The next French film with Thai subtitles is on Friday, May 27. Admission for the general public is 100 baht.

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Take note

Details are beginning to emerge about the third edition of the Silent Film Festival in Thailand, which will have a 1922 adaptation of Hamlet as part of its program running from June 16 to 22 at the Lido and Scala cinemas in Siam Square.

Stay tuned also, for news of a local screening or screenings of Santi-Vina, a historic 1954 Thai romantic drama that was "lost" and resurfaced to be shown this year at the Cannes Film Festival.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening May 12-18, 2016

Embrace of the Serpent

The first film from the South American country of Colombia to be nominated for an Academy Award, Embrace of the Serpent is a look at the Amazon forest as seen through the eyes of a shaman and sole survivor of his tribe, in a story that tracks him over 40 years and covers his travels with two foreigner scientists who are searching for a sacred plant with psychedelic properties.

The story is based on the journals of German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg, who explored the Amazon in the early 1900s, and American botanist Richard Evans Schultes, who went there in the 1940s.

Filmed in glorious black and white, this rare motion picture is brought to cinemas by HAL Film, the indie distribution outfit that previously offered the unusual "foreign" films White God and The Tribe, and is determined to give movie-goers rewarding alternatives to the endless comic-book movies.

In addition to making the short-list of nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, Embrace of the Serpent won the Art Cinema Award at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as accolades at Rotterdam, Sundance and many other fests. Critical reception is overwhelmingly praiseworthy.

It's in the original soundtrack with English and Thai subtitles at Esplanade Ratchada, House on RCA, Major Cineplex Ratchayothin, Paragon, SF World Cinema at CentralWorld and SFX The Crystal Ekamai Ram-Indra. Rated 15+

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Also opening

The Man Who Knew Infinity – Dev Patel, the English-Indian actor who made his breakthrough in Slumdog Millionaire and was also featured on the HBO series The Newsroom, stars in this fact-based biographical drama, portraying Srinivasa Ramanujan, the Indian mathematician who instinctively pioneered many theories despite having little formal training. The British production follows his rise from a humble upbringing in Madras to his acceptance into Cambridge University, where he encounters discrimination as he attempts to prove his theories. Ultimately, his genius is recognized and he becomes a close collaborator with fellow pioneering maths theorist G.H. Hardy, who is played by Jeremy Irons. Other stars include Toby Jones, Stephen Fry and Jeremy Northham. Critical reception is mixed, leaning to positive. Rated 15+

The Angry Birds Movie – It's been seven years since the iPad time-waster rocketed to popularity. Now comes a movie that will further cement the addictive Finnish game's place in pop culture. The Sony Pictures Imageworks animated feature attempts to tell the origin story of the main angry bird, a feathered misfit named Red, who for some reason has a chip on his wings and is always angry. Assigned to attend an anger-management retreat, he becomes suspicious about the mysterious arrival of strange green pigs and struggles to rally the other birds against what he sees as an alien invasion. Jason Sudekis voices the main character with other voices provided by Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, Sean Penn, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Bill Hader and Peter Dinklage. This doesn't come out in the U.S. until next week, so the studios get a week to make bank in unsuspecting overseas territories without the benefit of mainstream critical reception. It's in 3D in some cinemas. Rated G

Equals – Two fine actors, Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult, star in this science-fiction romantic thriller about youngsters who live in a society where emotions have been outlawed and love is strictly forbidden. Nonetheless, biology tends to override any genetic engineering and they are tragically drawn to each other. Other stars include Jacki Weaver and Guy Pearce. This does not come out in the U.S. until July, and critical reception, so far, is tepid. Rated 15+

Embracing Khemarat (อ้อมกอดเขมราฐ, Aom-Kod-Khemarat) – Three loosely connected stories of romance take place in idyllic Khemarat, a small town in Ubon Ratchathani on the banks of the Mekong. They involve a young female physician who is posted to the local hospital and runs into cute conflict with the owner of a local coffee shop. Other stories have a young Lao immigrant woman who falls for a photographer and a "nerdy girl" who has attracted the eye of a quiet and shy schoolboy rock musician. Among the stars are Miss Thailand 2009 runner-up Kobkullaya Chuengprasertsri, who is an actual physician. Other stars are "Fluke" Teerapat Lohanan, "Palmy" Nantariya Namboon, "Tao" Phusin Warinrak, "Nong" Puttason Seedawan and "Golf" Anuwat Chucherdwattana. The film is written and produced by Dr Ritt Pokkrittayahariboon, a surgeon and businessman who settled in Khemarat and wanted to make a movie to promote the town and its attractions. The Nation had a bit more about it. Rated 15+

The Bodyguard – The formidable martial-arts actor Sammo Hung, the "big brother" of Jackie Chan who is still best known in Thailand as Hung Chin Pao for his string of 1980s Hong Kong action films, is back in action in The Bodyguard. He's an ageing former lawman from Beijing who has retired to a border town. He takes up the cause of protecting an innocent neighbor girl and runs into conflict with Russian gangsters, making this essentially a Chinese remake of Denzel Washington's The Equalizer. Critical reception is mixed. It's Thai-dubbed in most places but has the Chinese soundtrack with English and Thai subtitles at the usual downtown multiplexes, including Esplanade Ratchada, Paragon, Quartier CineArt and SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Rated 15+

Azhar – The life of controversial Indian cricketer-turned-politician Mohammad Azharuddin is dramatized in this Bollywood picture, chronicling his accomplishments as batsman as well as his involvement in a match-fixing scandal toward the end of his career. Emraan Hashmi stars along with Prachi Desai and Nargis Fakhri. In Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya.

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Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club – The club has a private event tonight but is back open tomorrow with sex and swimming pools in Peter Greenaway's erotic murder drama Drowning by Numbers from 1988. On Saturday, a housecat steals the scene in The Long Goodbye, Robert Altman's adaptation of a Philip Marlowe mystery, starring Elliot Gould. Sunday has another Fritz Lang film-noir starring Edward G. Robinson in Scarlet Street. And next Wednesday is a mid-career Jim Jarmusch feature, five taxi-cab tales in Night on Earth. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française – There is no Friday French movie with Thai subtitles this week because there is a jazz concert. Saturday has the monthly "kids' movie", with the animated feature Mia et le Migou, a fantasy-adventure about a girl in South America who leaves her impoverished village in search of her father and has an encounter in the jungle with giant beings. The show is at 2pm. Next Wednesday at 7pm, there's a French film with English subtitles, the 2015 romantic comedy Caprice, which involves a triangular romance between a hapless guy, the actress he has a crush on and the pesky girl who inserts herself into the situation. Admission for the general public is 100 baht.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – Small-town secrets are spilled in The Sweet Hereafter, about a lawyer trying to persuade families to take part in a class-action lawsuit over a school-bus crash that killed 14 children. The much-acclaimed 1997 drama is by Canadian director Atom Egoyan, and it won many prizes, including the Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for two Academy Awards. Ian Holm stars as the lawyer, who has his own conflicts to deal with on top of the dysfunction of the townspeople. Part of the FCCT's Contemporary World Film Series, the screening is at 7pm on Monday, May 16, and is supported by the Embassy of Canada. Entry is 150 baht for non-members and 100 baht for the wine and snacks. There will be another entry in the series on Monday, May 30, with Thy Womb, a drama by noted independent Filipino director Brillante Ma Mendoza.

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Take note

The landmark Scala remains committed to the profession of showing movies, despite being threatened with imminent closure by landlord Chulalongkorn University, which is keen to redevelop Siam Square. The Scala's devoted management recently installed a new screen because the old one was showing its age and was long past due for an upgrade. The result is a much clearer and brighter picture that makes going to movies at the Scala well worth your while. It is the best value in movie-going in Bangkok. Please support the Scala while it exists.

Meanwhile, general Thai public awareness of the Scala's plight is finally starting to emerge, perhaps too little, too late. There was a Nation editorial this week, and there is also a Thai-language Change.org petition that asks Chula U. to "keep Scala" open and recognize that its unique cultural and architectural values outweigh the supposed economic benefits of building yet another shopping mall in a city already saturated by shopping malls.