Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening December 30, 2010-January 5, 2011

The Tourist


Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie headline the cast of this popcorn-pleasing international comedy-thriller.

Depp is a lone American traveler in Europe who finds himself attracted to a mysterious woman, played by Jolie. She draws him into a series of increasingly dangerous and hair-raising adventures.

Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton and Rufus Sewell also star.

It's directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, maker of the Oscar-winning film about surveillance of citizens in communist East Germany, The Lives of Others. The Tourist marks his Hollywood debut.

The movie has scored three Golden Globe nominations in the best comedy/musical category, including best actor and actress for Depp and Jolie.

Critical reception is negative, with the consensus being that "the scenery and the stars are undeniably beautiful, but they can't make up for [the] slow, muddled plot, or the lack of chemistry between Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie." Rated 13+.

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Also opening


Yogi Bear – This is a live-action/computer-animated update to the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series that dates back to the late 1950s. Dan Aykroyd voices Yogi, a mischievous "smarter than the average bear" who thrives on coming up with inventive new ways to steal "pic-a-nic" baskets from visitors to Jellystone Park. His best pal Boo Boo is voiced by Justin Timberlake. Their adventure this time around involves nefarious forces who are trying to sell Jellystone Park to loggers, forcing Yogi and his nemesis Ranger Smith to combine forces to save the park. Critical reception is overwhelmingly negative, but the kids and their parents who were raised watching Yogi on Saturday mornings and after school likely won't care. Rated G.


The Incite Mill – Ten people are hired for the same lucrative temporary "job" and find themselves locked in an underground complex and forced to play a murder game for seven days. Hideo Nakata (Ring, Dark Water) directs. Critical reception is mixed. Japanese soundtrack with English and Thai subtitles at the Lido, Paragon and SFW CentralWorld. Rated 13+.


Sudkate Salateped (สุดเขต สเลดเป็ด ) – In what's become a New Year's tradition for new studio MThirtynine, Rerkchai Puangpetch (Noodle Boxer, 32 December Love Error) unwraps another New Year's treat for Thai moviegoers with Sudkate Salet Ped. Actor-musician "Pe" Arak Amornsupasiri portrays a young guy trying to get a break as a recording artist. "Yipso" Ramita Mahapruekpong, the glasses girl from the travel romance That Sounds Good, also stars. Comedic support is provided by the ubiquitous funnypeople Charoenporn “Kotee Aramboy” Onlamai and "Tukky" Sudarat Butrprom. Rated 13+.



Saranair Hen Phee (สาระแนเห็นผี ) – The comedy crew from the Saranair TV series are back for more ghostly laughs. Mario Maurer stars with Pongpit “Starbucks” Preechaborisutkul, the young actor who got his break in the first Saranair movie, 2009's Saranair Hao Peng. They're a couple of guys who run afoul of a mobster while hanging out in a bar. Actress "Aum" Patcharapa Chaichua plays a drunken coyote dancer who helps them out. Saranair cast "Ple" Nakorn is also featured. Rated 15+.

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Also showing


Eternity (Chua Fah Din Salai, ชั่วฟ้าดินสลาย) – The lush-period potboiler is even more epic in a director's cut by ML Bhandevanob Devakula. Running for 3 hours and 10 minutes – an hour longer than September's original theatrical release – the characters are literally and figuratively more fleshed out with lots more skin and sex. The story is adapted from a 1943 novella by Malai Choopinit. Set set sometime in 1930s Siam, it deals with a love triangle that develops between a Burmese timber baron, his attractive younger wife and the man's handsome young nephew. Among the iconic images from the story is that of the cheating lovers chained together for eternity. Ananda Everingham and "Ploy" Chermarn Boonyasak star as the lovers in this sizzling new adaptation. Theerawong Liawrakwong portrays the uncle. Chua Fah Din Salai: Director's Cut runs until January 5 at House on RCA, showing in digital HD with English subtitles. Rated 18+.


Le silence de Lorna (Lorna's Silence) – Belgian brothers Jeanne-Pierre and Luc Dardenne direct this 2008 drama, which won the best screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival. Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) is a young Albanian woman caught up in the marriage-for-sale racket. She's wed to a drug addict in a deal brokered by a low-life named Fabio. Their aim is the kill off the junkie Claudy so Lorna can marry a Russian guy and then eventually be free of the racket so she can settle down with her true love and open cafe. But Lorna's growing sympathy for Claudy might derail those plans. With English subtitles at 7.30 on Wednesday, January 5 at the Alliance Française.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Japanese Film Festival 2011 – Akira Kurosawa Centennial Retrospective

All year long, the Japan Foundation Bangkok offers free screenings of classic and contemporary films at its center on Soi Asoke, but the movies are generally only subtitled in Thai.

However, once a year, the Japan Foundation offers a gift to Bangkok's movie-going expat community with its annual Japanese Film Festival.

This year's festival, running from January 6 to 19, 2011, at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, is really special, with the Akira Kurosawa Centennial Retrospective, featuring 25 movies by the master, who was born on March 23, 1910. All titles will be lovingly presented on 35mm film! All will have English subtitles. And they are free!

The deal is, you have to get in line for the tickets, and the line forms 30 minutes before each screening. The festival is always very popular, and I expect this year's edition to be especially well-attended, so be on time and be prepared.

The schedule includes such internationally known classics as Seven Samurai (1954), Rashomon (1950), Yojimbo (1961) and The Hidden Fortress (1958) – epics that ought to be seen on the big screen to be fully appreciated. There's also early works like the Judo Saga (1943), The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945), No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), Drunken Angel (1948) and Stray Dog (1949).

Here's the full program:

Thursday, January 6

• 8pm: Rashomon (88 min) – This 1950 drama brought Kurosawa and Japanese cinema to the international stage, having been screened at the Venice Film Festival and winning the Golden Lion. Set during feudal times, the classic story is about the rape of a woman and the murder of her samurai husband, as recounted by differing and contradictory viewpoints. Two of Kurosawa's regular actors star, Takashi Shimura as the woodcutter and Toshiro Mifune as the bandit.

Friday, January 7

• 7pm: The Quiet Duel (95 min) – Toshiro Mifune stars in this 1949 drama as an idealistic young doctor working in a seedy clinic who's contracted syphilis by accident. He'll keep his illness a secret, at great sacrifice. Takashi Shimura portrays the doctor's physician father.

Saturday, January 8

• 11am: Sanshiro Sugata (81 min) – Part one of the Judo Saga, Kurosawa's 1943 debut film is the story of an impatient young man (Susumu Fujita) who comes to the city to learn martial arts. He stumbles upon judo, becomes determined to learn its nuances and in doing so, discovers a deeper meaning in his life.
• 1.20pm: The Most Beautiful (85 min) – This 1944 propaganda film is set in an optics factory depicts workers as they drive to meet and exceed production targets and help the Japanese Empire become victorious.
• 3:40pm: Sanshiro Sugata II (82 min) – Filmed in 1945 toward the end of World War II, part two of the Judo Saga finds Sugata as a judo master who demonstrates his superiority.
• 6pm: The Idiot (166 min) – This 1951 adaptation of the Fyodor Dostoevsky notel is set in Kokkaido, where a former insane-asylum inmate (Masayuki Mori) becomes involved with a woman (Setsuko Hara) who is the object of affection for another man (Toshiro Mifune). Jealousy will lead to tragedy.

Sunday, January 9

• 11am: No Regrets for Our Youth (110 min) – Academia is the initial setting for this fact-based 1946 drama. A professor is relieved of his position because of his radical anti-fascist views. Meanwhile, the professor's daughter is courted by two of her father's students, one a straitlaced guy and the other a rebel. The daughter is of course more attracted to the rebel.
• 1:40pm: One Wonderful Sunday (108 min) – The hardships of living in post-war Japan are depicted in this 1947 drama about a group of friends who have just 35 yen between them. They are determined to have a good time and to make it last.
• 4:20pm: Drunken Angel (98 min) – This 1948 crime drama marks the first of a long line of collaborations between Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune who stars as a small-time hood. He's treated by an alcoholic doctor (Takashi Shimura) and found to have TB. The doc advises him to clean up his life, but the life of this gangster will never be easy.
• 7pm: Scandal (104 min) – An artist (Toshiro Mifune) goes to court to fight against a tabloid magazine that took a photo of him with a famous singer (Shirley Yamaguchi) and spun a scandalous false story. Takashi Shimura also stars in this 1950 drama as a down-and-out lawyer with problems of his own.

Monday, January 10

• 7pm: Stray Dog (122 min) – Another showcase for the talents Mifune and Shimura, this 1949 drama is about a brash rookie police detective (Mifune) who loses his department-issued Colt pistol to a pickpocket. With the help of a wise, yoda-like senior detective (Shimura), he methodically works to retrieve the lost firearm.

Tuesday, January 11

• 7pm: The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (59 min) – This 1945 drama is set during Japan's feudal period, in which a fugitive lord and his bodyguards and followers, all disguised as monks, traverse a forest in trying to avoid capture by the border guards.

Wednesday, January 12

• 7pm: Ikiru (143 min) – A tour de force performance from Takashi Shimura in this 1952 drama, hailed as one of history's greatest films. He plays a lonely widowed veteran bureaucrat who finds out he has stomach cancer and a year to live. He then sets about to find meaning in his life.

Thursday, January 13

• 7pm: Seven Samurai (207 min) – The epic of epics, this adventure tale, set during Japan's Warring States period, is about a remote farming village under siege by bandits. Weary of having their crops stolen, the villagers decide to hire samurai to protect them. They find a cool-under-fire tactician (Takashi Shimura) who then assembles a band of five other skilled warriors. Toshiro Mifune also stars, playing the comic-relief drifter who insinuates himself into the group, making them seven. The movie was most famously remade as the Hollywood western, The Magnificent Seven.

Friday, January 14

• 7pm: I Live In Fear (113 min) – Reflecting post-war Japan's nuclear fears, Toshiro Mifune stars in this 1955 drama as a foundry owner who is so frightened and obsessed with the idea of nuclear extermination that his family decides to have him ruled incompetent. Takashi Shimura co-stars as a domestic court counselor who sympathizes with the old man.

Saturday, January 15

• 11am: Throne of Blood (110 min) – From 1956, Kurosawa adapts Shakespeare's MacBeth in this tale of a ruthless lord (Toshiro Mifune) who is egged on by his wife (Isuzu Yamada) to fulfill a prophecy that he will become emperor.
• 1:40pm: The Lower Depths (125 min) – Another adaptation, this one on a play by Russian writer Maxim Gorky, about a group of poor folks talking about their problems. It's set during the mid-19th century Edo Period, in a flophouse shared by around a dozen or so folks. Nearly a dozen of them are sharing a crowded barn, or bunkhouse of some sort. There's a fallen samurai, a tinker caring for his dying wife, an elderly alcholic actor, a gambler, a prostitute and a thief.
• 4:30pm: The Hidden Fortress (139 min) – This epic 1958 adventure tale loosely inspired Star Wars. The story is seen through the eyes of a bumbling pair of peasants who are promised gold to lead a feisty young princess (Misa Uehara) and her general (Toshiro Mifune) through enemy lines to her home territory.
• 6:30pm: Director talk (tentative)

Sunday, January 16

• 11am: The Bad Sleep Well (151 min) – This 1960 drama is loosely based on Hamlet and is also a commentary on a corporate corruption in post-war Japan. A young man (Toshiro Mifune) attempts to use his position at the heart of a corrupt company to expose the men responsible for his father's death. Takashi Shimura also stars, playing a top corporate man who is persuaded to join Mifune's cause.
• 2:20pm: Yojimbo (110 min) – It's back to the samurai era for this dark action comedy starring Toshiro Mifune as a ronin drifter who finds himself between warring factions in a remote village. This 1961 film has been remade several times, most famously as A Fistful of Dollars by Sergio Leone, with Clint Eastwood in one of his signature roles as the Man With No Name.
• 5pm: Sanjuro (96 min) – This 1962 sequel to Yojimbo gives Mifune's character a name. He takes nine young samurai under his wing in a plot to expose corruption in the leadership of their clan.
• 7:30pm: Madadayo (134 min) – From 1993, this is Kurosawa's 30th and final film. It's a light comedy-drama and is based on the life of academic and author Hyakken Uchida, and centers on his relationship with his former students, who care for him in his old age.

Monday, January 17

• 7pm: High and Low (143 min) – Kurosawa gets into film noir territory in this 1963 hostage drama. Toshiro Mifune stars as the embattled executive of a shoe company who becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped and held for ransom.

Tuesday, January 18

• 7pm: Red Beard (185 min) – This 1965 drama marks the final collaboration between Kurosawa and his leading man Toshiro Mifune, who had acted in 16 of Kurosawa's movies. He plays a hard-bitten veteran doctor at a charity hospital who takes a young intern under his guidance through the course of various difficult cases.

Wednesday, January 19

• 7pm Dodes'ka-den (140 min) – This 1970 drama is about the various residents of a garbage dump. It's Kurosawa's first color film, and his first without the usual stock company of actors he'd used in his previous films.

You can also check the Japan Foundation website for more details on the film festival.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening December 23-29, 2010

Chua Fah Din Salai (Eternity): Director's Cut


The lush-period potboiler Eternity (Chua Fah Din Salai, ชั่วฟ้าดินสลาย), is even more epic in a director's cut by ML Bhandevanob Devakula.

The director who's also known as Mom Noi has added one hour to the theatrical version that was released in Thai cinemas back in September, and was a summer sleeper hit, gradually gaining momentum at the box office as word of mouth spread.

The director's cut, which will screen for two weeks at House cinema, is said to be a more accurate presentation of Mom Noi's screenplay and will explain more about the motivation of the three characters.

After the Bangkok run, Mom Noi will submit his uncut version to film festivals.

Adapted from a 1943 novella by Malai Choopinit, Chua Fah Din Salai is about a love triangle that develops between a Burmese timber baron, his attractive younger wife and the man's handsome young nephew. Among the iconic images from the story is that of the cheating lovers chained together for eternity. Previous film adaptations include the 1955 version directed by Tawee "Khru Marut" na Bangchang and filmed by Ratana Pestonji.

Ananda Everingham and "Ploy" Chermarn Boonyasak star as the lovers in this sizzling new adaptation. Theerawong Liawrakwong portrays the uncle.

Chua Fah Din Salai: Director's Cut runs until January 5 at House on RCA, showing in digital HD with English subtitles. Rated 18+.

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Also opening


Tron: Legacy – Haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father 25 years before, Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) tracks down his dad's last known whereabouts – a long-shuttered video-game arcade. Behind a secret door is an old computer, still running. Sam reissues the last command and he's transported to the Grid, the virtual gaming world that his father created. Dad's still there, and so is his alter-ego gone-bad, Clu. Jeff Bridges, 61, reprises his role from Disney's original Tron in 1982, playing the naturally aged Kevin Flynn and through a digitized de-aging process as the still-young evil Clu2. Olivia Wilde, Beau Garrett and Michael Sheen also star. Critical reception is mixed, with the consensus that the humanity and the story get lost amidst the state-of-the-art special-effects dazzle. In 3D at some cinemas, including Imax. Rated 15+.


Hanamizuki – Two determined students meet and fall in love, but their divergent paths mean it will be a long-distance relationship, and it doesn’t last. But that’s not the whole story in this romantic drama that was a hit in Japan back in August. Yui Aragaki and Toma Ikuta star. At House and the Lido. Rated G.


Tees Maar Khan – Akshay Kumar is a slick international conman in this action-comedy co-starring Katrina Kaif and directed by Farah Khan. In Hindi with English subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit tonight and tomorrow at 8 and on Sunday at 7.30 and at Major Cineplex Rama III Saturday at 8 and on Sunday at 4. Call (089) 488 2620 or visit www.BollywoodThai.com.

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Also showing


Movies on the Beach – Thai films are being screened in the classic nang klang plang (open-air) style nightly until Sunday at the Ramada Plaza Menam Riverside Bangkok Hotel on Charoenkrung Road.

Filmmaker Pantham Thongsang curates the program, mixing classics with contemporary Thai movies. In keeping with the nang klang plang tradition, some of the films are dubbed live by a team of voiceover artists, who perform all the roles and handle the sound effects as well, mimicking gunfire with blows to the microphone and having swordfights with the forks and spoons they used for their dinner. They are often more entertaining to watch than what's showing on the screen.

Here's what's on tap from tonight:

• Thursday: Monrak Luk Thung (Magical Love in the Countryside) – This smash-hit musical stars Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat. It played in cinemas for six months in 1970.
• Friday: Insee Tong (Golden Eagle) and Insee Dang (The Red Eagle) – This double feature bookends the final film in the long-running action series that starred Mitr Chaibancha as a masked vigilante crimefighter. He died on October 8, 1970, in a fall from a helicopter that is featured as the final stunt in Insee Tong. Then there's The Red Eagle, the action-packed reboot of the franchise by director Wisit Sasanatieng and starring Ananda Everingham, who brings a fierce and unforgiving interpretation to the role of Thailand's Dark Knight.
• Saturday: Christmas night will offer spirituality and laughs in the Buddhist monk movies Luang Ta 3: Seeka Khang Wat from 1991 and 2005's smash-hit comedy Luang Phee Theng (The Holy Man).
• Sunday: Khang Lang Phab (Behind the Painting) – This 2001 romantic drama is the final film by the late director Cherd Songsri. "Ken" Theeradej Wongpuapan and Cara Pholasit star.

The showtime is sometime shortly after dusk. The hotel is easily reachable by a shuttle boat running every half hour to Saphan Taksin pier. Tickets are Bt350 for one screening and Bt450 for the double features, and the price includes a choice of drink and some food from the menu. Part of the proceeds will benefit the Thai Film Foundation. Call (02) 688 1000.


Naissance des pieuvres (Water Lilies) – The debut film by Céline Sciamma, this sexually charged 2007 teenage romantic drama is set at a swimming pool that's home to a girls' synchro-swim team. Adele Haenel is Floriane, the team's star. Her biggest admirer is the moody, plain Marie (Pauline Acquart), who's always hanging around watching Floriane. A love quadrangle is formed by Marie's best friend Anne (Louise Blachère), who has a hopeless crush on male swimmer François (Warren Jacquin) – Floriane's secret lover. It was nominated for three César Awards – best first film for Sciamma and most promising actress nods for Haenel and Blachère. It's showing with English subtitles at 7.30 on Wednesday, December 29 at the Alliance Française.