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.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening January 29-February 4, 2015

Life Itself

The incredible life story of influential and popular Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert is told in Life Itself, a documentary based on his best-selling 2011 memoir.

Directed by Steve James, whose 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams was enthusiastically championed by Ebert, Life Itself has footage and interviews with the critic during the final months before his death in 2013. He was suffering from cancer that had robbed him of his lower jaw and ability to speak, except through a computerized box. Despite his illness, Ebert harnessed the Internet and social networking platforms like Twitter to remain a vital voice, almost until he passed.

Friends, colleagues and family interviewed include his steadfast wife Chaz along with Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog and Errol Morris. It covers his early days as a Hollywood screenwriter with Russ Meyer on the cult film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. There's also a look at his often-stormy relationship with his friend and chief rival, Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel. Together, the pair hosted a popular movie-review show on TV, which popularized the phrase "two thumbs up".

Ultimately, it's a portrait for how Ebert, the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, transcended his chosen field's rather stodgy public image to become an influential cultural voice who brought critical thought about movies to the masses.

After premieres at Cannes and Telluride – festivals Ebert regularly attended – critical reception is overwhelmingly positive, which is hardly surprising. Despite all the acclaim, Life Itself missed the cut when it came to Academy Award nominees for documentary feature, but I tend to think that's how Ebert himself would have preferred it, to give the spotlight to other films.

Part of SF Cinema's ongoing Doc Holiday series, Life Itself screens this weekend in a very limited release, at 5pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld.

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Also opening

The Imitation Game – A war hero whose top-secret efforts saved countless lives but cost him dearly, Alan Turing was a brilliant mathematcian, cryptanalyst and computing pioneer who led British efforts during World War II to break the Nazis' Enigma code. He was also gay, and in return for his efforts, he was criminally prosecuted under the U.K.'s draconian indecency laws and chemically castrated. He's delicately portrayed in The Imitation Game by Benedict Cumberbatch, a Golden Globe and Oscar nominee. Fellow nominee Keira Knightly also stars, as Turing's confidant, the gender-barrier-breaking code-breaker Joan Clarke. Other stars include Matthew Goode, Charles Dance from Game of Thrones and Mark Strong. A nominee for eight Academy Awards, critical reception is generally positive. Rated 13+

Tracers – Twilight heartthrob Taylor Lautner shows off his muscles in this action drama. He's a New York bicycle messenger who is indebted to the mob. After a run-in with a beautiful but mysterious woman (Marie Avgeropoulos), he sees a possible way of pay off those debts when he's introduced to a crew of criminals who use the daring sport of parkour to pull off heists. Critical reception is unknown – this doesn't come out in the States until next month, so Bangkok viewers have a head start on letting the world know whether this is actually any good. Rated 15+

Project Almanac – Here we go with another fake “found footage” movie. This one chronicles the efforts of teenage friends to build a time machine to undo past mistakes. Well-meaning at first, they believe they are successful, but as they use their device for personal gain, they come to discover their actions have dire consequences. This is just coming out in the States this week, so critical reception is only just coming in. Rated 13+

Sean Sayong (เศียรสยอง , a.k.a. Under the Mask) – Thailand's revered and sacred classical masked dance – khon – provides the backdrop for this indie horror about a gang of miscreants who kidnap some party-goers and flee into a haunted forest that was once a center for dance training. There, they encounter a ghost dancer who dreamed of being the "khon yak" – the giant monster of masked-dance lore. Rated 18+

Gangnam Blues – Against the backdrop of the 1970s building boom that made Seoul’s luxurious Gangnam district what it is today, the relationship of two childhood friends is put to the test as gangsters and political powers vie for control of the lucrative real-estate market. Yoo Ha (Once Upon a Time in High School, A Dirty Carnival) directs and Lee Min-ho and Kim Rae-won star. It's currently topping the box-office in South Korea. It's in Korean with English and Thai subtitles at CentralWorld, Paragon and Esplanade Ratchada and dubbed elsewhere. Rated 18+

The Truth About Beauty – The obsession over cosmetic surgery is parodied in this Chinese romantic comedy. Recent college graduate Guo Jing (Bai Baihe) figures she lost her boyfriend and can’t find a job because she isn’t attractive enough. So she undergoes plastic surgery, then lands a job selling real estate and catches the eye of her boss (Ronald Cheng). Now her dilemma is what to do if her colleagues and friends discover her "ugly" past. In Mandarin with English and Thai subtitles at SFW Centralworld and House on RCA. Rated 15+

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Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club – Spanish surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's unsuccessful attempt to adapt Frank Herbert's sprawling sci-fi novel Dune is recounted in the cult-hit 2013 documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, screening tonight. Tomorrow is another documentary on a couple more cult-cinema figures, Werner Herzog and his frequent leading man, the volatile Klaus Kinski. Their stormy relationship is recounted in 1999's My Best Fiend. And the month closes out with one more look at our "strange future", the underappreciated 1985 neo-noir Trouble in Mind starring Kris Kristofferson, Keith Carradine and an excellent Devine, out of drag.For the February schedule, check the club's Facebook page. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22.  There's just nine seats, so book them.

Japanese Film Festival – Officially opening on Friday with an invite-only gala screening, one of Bangkok's longest-running film fests has a handful of films that have Thai ties. Saudade, screening at 5pm on Saturday, deals with the migrant-worker community in Japan, where two laborers bond over their shared interest in Thai culture, and especially, Thai women. Other highlights include Sunday's The Kirishima Thing, a much-acclaimed drama about cliques in conflict at a high school, and a bleak drama, The Light Only Shines There, Japan's official submission to this year's Oscars. The fest runs until February 8 at Paragon Cineplex, where you can buy tickets for 100 baht. Please see my previous posting for full details.

Filmvirus Kawaii Luv Luv – In addition to the Japanese Film Festival, Filmvirus' Sunday afternoon double features of Japanese films continues – sort of. Up first is Max, Mon Amour, a 1986 French comedy by Japanese great Nagisa Oshima. Charlotte Rampling stars as a diplomat's wife who has entered into a shocking love affair with a chimpanzee. Next up is Yuki and Nina, a 2009 childhood drama in which a Japanese girl facing the divorce of her parents finds solace with her French best friend. The show starts at 12.30 on Sunday in the Pridi Banomyong Library at Thammasat University Tha Prachan, in the Rewat Buddhinan Room, floor U2, the basement. Dress appropriately, bring an ID and inform the desk worker you are there to see a movie. For details, call (02) 613-3529 or (02) 613-3530.

German Open Air Cinema – Cross-cultural connections and conflicts form the backdrop for Kaddish for a Friend, a 2012 drama in which a Palestinian boy moves into a mixed neighborhood in Berlin. Pressured by his peers, he breaks into the apartment of an upstairs neighbor, an elderly Jewish man, and the two must come to some sort of agreement if the boy is to learn anything about life. It screens at 7.30pm on Tuesday, February 3, at the Goethe-Institut of Sathorn Soi 1.

Alliance Française – "Lost illusions" is the theme for February, which kicks off with La folie Almayer (Almayer's Folly), a 2012 drama about a Dutchman risking all in his search for lost pirate treasure in Malaysia in the 1950s. It's adapted from Joseph Conrad's debut novel. Chantal Akerman directs and Stanislas Merhar stars. It's in French with English subtitles at 7pm on Wednesday, February 4 at the Alliance.

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Sneak preview

The Theory of Everything – Young English stage and screen actor Eddie Redmayne has emerged as the actor to beat this awards season after pulling down the Golden Globe and other prizes for his portrayal of Dr. Stephen Hawking. Felicity Jones also stars in this biopic, which charts Hawking's life at university and his struggles in overcoming overwhelming disabilities stemming from rare early onset motor neurone disease. Critical reception is generally positive. This is in sneak previews from around 8 nightly before opening wider next week. Rated 13+

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening October 30-November 5, 2014

So Be It

Two very different boys – a poor hilltribe youngster and a half-Thai reality-TV star – ordain as novice Buddhist monks in So Be It (A-Wang, เอวัง), a documentary by acclaimed Thai writer-director Kongdej Jaturanrasmee.

The half-Thai, half-farang kid William was featured on the TrueVisions’ reality series Plook Panya Dharma Novice, which followed the daily lives of novice monks. After his stint on the series, he returns to the temple on his own to continue his studies into the Buddhist faith.

Meanwhile, there's Bundit, a Karen boy whose family is too poor to afford schooling. So he's sent to the Buddhist boarding school, but is uncomfortable and tries to leave.

The third indie-film effort by Kongdej, So Be It premiered at the recent Busan International Film Festival, which had supported the project through the Asian Cinema Fund. Variety gave it a good review. The Nation has more about it today.

It's at House on RCA. Rated G

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Also opening

The Eyes Diary (คนเห็นผี, Kon Hen Pee) – Director Chukiat Sakveerakul is best known for his sprawling family and friendship dramas like The Love of Siam and last year's Krian Fictions, but he got his start with thrillers, such as his 2004 horror Pisaj and the twisting 2006 thriller 13 Game Sayong, which was recently remade by Hollywood as 13 Sins. With The Eyes Diary (not to be confused with the Pang brothers' Eye franchise), Chookiat gathers young talent for this story of a young man (Parama Im-anothai) whose girlfriend (Focus Jeerakul) died in a motorbike wreck after they had a fight. He’s desperate to communicate with her “on the other side” and seeks help from a young woman (Chonnikarn Natejui) who's had a similar experience. Rated 15+

The Couple (รัก ลวง หลอน, Rak Luang Lon) – A newlywed bride is possessed by the evil spirit of her sister-in-law in this thriller from the new film company Talent 1. Sucha Manaying, Pitchaya Nithipisarnkul and Mali Coates star. This is the second feature from Talent 1, which made its bow last year with the well-received thriller Last Summer. It's run by producer Ladawan Ratanadilokchai, who takes a different approach to her films. She had a hand in the script with help from Thai indie filmmaking talents Kongdej Jaturanrasmee (who also has So Be It opening at House this week), Pimpaka Towira and Sivaroj Kongsakul. Rated 15+

Whiplash – The top award winner at Sundance, this acclaimed indie drama follows a young drummer (Miles Teller) as he joins an elite music conservatory's jazz orchestra and comes under the cruel tutelage of the tyrannical conductor (J.K. Simmons), who pushes the young man to the brink in his obsessive drive for perfection. Damien Chazelle, a young filmmaker making his sophomore feature effort, directs. Also a hit at the Toronto International Film Festival, critical reception is wildly positive. In sneak previews for the past couple weeks, Whiplash finally moves to a wide release. Rated G

The Equalizer – Denzel Washington is a former black-ops agent who atones for his dark past by volunteering his services as a private eye to those in need. His latest case involves a teenage prostitute (Chloë Grace Moretz) and leads him into a conflict with Russian mobsters. This is big-screen reboot of a 1980s American TV drama that starred British actor Edward Woodward and had an iconic theme by Police drummer Stewart Copeland. Antoine Fuqua (Olympus Has Fallen) directs this new version, reuniting with his Training Day leading man. Critical reception is mixed, with eyebrows raised over the extreme level of violence. Rated 18+

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Also showing

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – Tonight, the Czech Republic presents the documentary The Power of Good: The Nicholas Winton Story, about a British businessman who saved 669 Czech children from the Nazi death camps in World War II. The show is at 7pm. Entry is free.

The Friese-Greene Club – A disillusioned killer takes one last job in Wong Kar-wai's stylish drama Fallen Angels, screening tonight. Tomorrow's cult classic is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but it's fully booked. So find someplace else to toss your toast. Keep an eye on the club's Facebook page for further offerings in November. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. There's just nine seats, so book them.

Alliance Française – November's line-up starts with La France, a 2007 drama that's set during World War I. Young Camille receives a break-up letter from her soldier husband. So she goes in search, disguising herself as a man and signing up for the fight. She falls in with a group of soldiers who do not suspect her real identity. Sylvie Testud, Guillaume Depardieu, Guillaume Verdier star and Serge Bozon directs. It's in French with English subtitles at 7pm on Wednesday, November 5.

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Sneak preview

The romantic comedy Love, Rosie continues its sneak preview run, screening from around 8 nightly at most cinemas. It opens wider next Thursday.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening October 17-22, 2013

Machete Kills

What began as a tongue-in-cheek fake trailer for 2007's Grindhouse double feature of Planet Terror by Robert Rodriguez and Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino has blown up into an over-the-top action-movie franchise.

Machete Kills, the sequel to the 2010 first entry, has ex-convict, perennial bad guy, bartender and slow-moving desert reptile Danny Trejo again in the lead. He's a former Mexican "federale" who was betrayed and left for dead. Now working as an assassin for hire, he's tasked by the president of the United States (Charlie Sheen, credited under his real name Carlos Estévez) to battle baddies across Mexico and take down an eccentric billionaire arms dealer (Mel Gibson) who plans to launch a weapon into space.

Aside from cult icon Trejo, the cast boasts Lady Gaga, Desperado star Antonio Banderas, Damian Bichir, Walton Goggins, Spy Kids' Alexa Vega, William Sadler, Amber Heard, Vanessa Hudgens, Chilean stuntman Marko Zaror and Modern Family vixen Sofia Vergara, sporting a machine-gun-equipped bra as Desdemona. Returnees from the first entry include Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba and Tom Savini.

Critical reception isn't as strong as the first film, but if you're a fan of Rodriguez, Trejo and trashy, ultra-violent B-movies, then you'll probably want to see this. It's at SF Cinemas only. Rated 15+

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Also opening

Vikingdom – Vikings? In Malaysia? Yes. Vikings. In Malaysia. A showcase for the increasingly competitive Malaysian film industry – look out Thailand – the CGI-laden Vikingdom is aimed at the fantasy-film fans who might have liked 300 or Game of Thrones. Dominic Purcell stars as a Norse king leading the human forces against the hammer-wielding red-headed god Thor, played here by none other than seven-foot-tall bad-ass Conan Stevens, who was actually in Games of Thrones as "Ser Gregor, the Mountain". Critical reception is mixed, with praise for the special effects. In 3D. Rated 15+

Escape Plan – Having had a blast making The Expendables together, '80s action heroes Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger have teamed up again for this prison-break drama. Stallone is the world's top incarceration expert. He specializes in breaking out of prisons. He's given one last job – to escape from "The Tomb", a top-secret, high-tech, maximum security facility. But once inside, he finds he's been betrayed and has no way out. So he's forced into an alliance with the prison's top dog (Schwarzenegger). Journeyman Swedish helmer Mikael Håfström (1408, Shanghai) directs. Vincent D'Onofrio, Amy Ryan, Vinnie Jones and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson also star, along with Jim Caviezel as the warden. Critical reception, so far, is mixed. Rated 15+

Coffee Please (แก้วนี้หัวใจสั่น, Kaew Nee Hua Jai San) – Romance is brewing in the coffee plantations of northern Thailand where a young coffee aficionado (Akrapan Namat) meets Jane (Wanikar Pudchang), a lady architect who can’t tell the difference between a coffeemaker and a barista. Jenwai Thongdeenok and Pakasit Patarateeranon direct. Rated 15+

Is Am Are: A Reason to Live For – Three directors, among them celebrity Pasaweepit Sornakarapa, are behind this three-segment collection of morality tales. The stories cover a fan club member who writes about her favorite superstar who committed suicide 10 years earlier, a teacher trying to boost his self-esteem and advance his career by having sex with a mute prostitute, and an unemployed guy whose life changes when he bumps into an old man while getting off the bus. This is screening at the Lido in Siam Square, with Q-and-A sessions after some screenings. See Facebook for details. Rated 15+.

Code Name: Jackal – A female assassin (Song Ji-hyo) is hired to kill a pop singer (Kim Jae-joong). Trouble is, she makes her attempt at a hotel in full view of the police who are on the hunt for another killer, the notorious Jackal. In Korean with English and Thai subtitles at SF World Cinema at Central World. There is one show daily from today until October 22. For details, see FacebookCCC.KoreanMovies.

Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum – A catburglar steals Doraemon's magic bell, and as a result, the blue robot kitty starts acting more and more like a real cat. So his friends Nobita, Shizuka, Suneo and Gian go to the factory where all of Doraemon's gadgets are made. Thai-dubbed only. Rated G

Boss – Akshay Kumar stars in this comedy as criminal kingpin who was disowned in his youth by his schoolteacher father. With his younger brother in conflict with a corrupt cop, the father's only hope is to turn to his estranged older boy and ask for help. Mithun Chakraborty, Shiv Pandit, Aditi Rao Hydari and Ronit Roy also star. It's at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Pattaya and Rama III.

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Also showing

Karaoke Girl (สาวคาราโอเกะ, Sao Karaoke) – Documentary and drama blend in the debut feature by U.S.-schooled indie filmmaker Visra Vichet-Vadakan. It's the story of Sa, an exceedingly lovely young woman from the countryside who works in Bangkok as a bar hostess to support the folks back home. You'll get to know her through poetic camera work and contemplative moments, as well as trips from the beach and on the train back home. Bank notes flutter on the breeze and she stars in a karaoke video of her own. This played in Bangkok for a week a couple of weeks ago and now returns for a one-week run at House on RCA.

Spanish Film Festival – Continuing at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, the festival's offering at 7 tonight is Los Niños Salvajes (The Wild Children), an award-winning drama about three Catalan teenagers caught up in dysfunctional family and school lives. Tomorrow, it's the ripping action drama Grupo 7, about a tough anti-drugs police unit in Seville. There's two movies on Saturday, starting at 5 with
Una Pistola En Cada Mano (A Gun in Each Hand), a hit comedy is about eight men in their 40s, all dealing with various crises in their lives. And at 7 it's the casino-heist yarn, The Pelayos (Winning Streak), starring Daniel Brühl and Lluis Homar. The fest closes at 7 on Sunday with Silencio En La Nieve (The Frozen Silence), a mystery that unfolds during World War II on the Russian Front, where a former Spanish police inspector serving in the German army probes strange deaths.

The Friese-Greene Club – Matthew Broderick is a high-school teacher who runs into conflict with an overachieving girl (Reese Witherspoon) running for student-body president in Alexander Payne's Election. Tomorrow, learn all about wunderkind producer Robert Evans in The Kid Stays in the Picture. On Saturday, it's another John Hughes classic, The Breakfast Club, referred to by some critics as "the Citizen Kane of teen movies". On Sunday, Bette Davis is an expat in Singapore in a 1940 William Wyler mystery, The Letter. Next Wednesday, catch another "precocious" girl in The Lawnmower Man, about a girl who strikes up a friendship with the guy who mows the lawn. Shows start at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. With just nine seats, the screening room fills up fast, so please check the website to make bookings.

The Act of Killing – Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer (with Anonymous and Christine Cynn), this experimental documentary is executive produced by Werner Herzog and Errol Morris and has won scores of awards at festivals all over the world. It's a gripping and much-acclaimed account of the continuing and pervasive legacy of the Indonesian death squads of the 1960s. Critical reception is overwhelmingly positive. It's screening at 2pm on Saturday, October 19 at the Lido in Siam Square. Reservations are a must. For details, please check with the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival.

Innocence – Romance is rekindled for Andreas and Claire, passionate lovers in their youth, who meet 50 years later and attempt to pick up where they left off. Directed by Australian helmer Paul Cox, this much-lauded love story of two septuagenarians had tongues wagging when it was released 13 years ago. It screens at 8pm on Monday, October 21 at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand as part of the Contemporary World Film Series. Admission is 150 baht for non-members and 100 baht for anyone wanting to partake of the wine and cheese laid on by the Australian embassy.

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Take note

For some time now, the Major Cineplex chain, including EGV, Esplanade, Mega, Paradise and Paragon, has required viewers to purchase their own glasses for viewing 3D movies. This is a departure from the usual practice.

For example, I saw a 3D movie recently at an SF Cinema City, and I was handed glasses by an usher that then I handed back after the movie. The ticket price, if I recall correctly, was 200 baht.

Major Cineplex is different. They are selling 3D glasses for 150 to 400 baht, with the price depending on how basic or fancy the glasses are and whether you are a M Generation cardholder, which entitles you to a discount of up to 50 percent. Other than having to bear the inconvenience of remembering to take your own glasses when you go see a 3D movie, that's a one-time cost for you.

And Major is saving money by not having to maintain a stock of 3D glasses that have to be cleaned and repackaged after each show and replaced when they go missing or wear out.

And it seems the savings is being passed on. For example, I went to see a 3D movie at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit on a Monday night, when they have a Monday-Tuesday night promotional price of 100 baht for 2D movies. The 3D movie was just 20 baht more. So a better deal, it appears, than SF cinemas.
                                                                                                                                                                 
Next week, owing to the Chulalongkorn Day holiday on October 23, some movies will be opening a day earlier than usual. One of them will be the much-anticipated Thai martial-arts epic Tom-Yum-Goong 2, starring Tony Jaa. The first 3D effort by Jaa, this might be the one you'll want to buy 3D glasses for.