Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening August 27-September 2, 2015

Absolutely Anything

Robin Williams and the cast of Monty Python's Flying Circus all figure into the absurdist comedy Absolutely Anything, which stars Simon Pegg (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible) as a hapless Earthling who is granted powers by a bunch of jerkface aliens. He can make anything happen, but doesn't do much of consequence with his abilities, other than make his pet dog talk.

The Pythons' Terry Jones directs, and is also one of the voices of those trouble-making aliens, along with John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam, making Absolutely Anything the first time the Pythons have worked in a movie together since 1983's The Meaning of Life. Williams, in one of his last roles, is the voice of the dog. Kate Becksinsale, Eddie Izzard and Rob Riggle are also featured.

Despite the presence of Brit-comedy favorite Pegg, the Pythons and Williams, critical reception has been underwhelming. Rated 15+

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Also opening

Paper Towns – Following up quickly behind the popular success of the teen romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars, here's another movie based on a young-adult novel by author-of-the-moment John Green. Paper Towns deals with a teen named Quentin who has long had a crush on mysterious neighbor girl Margo. After an all-night adventure with her, Margo disappears, leaving behind clues that Quentin and his friends have to follow on a cross-country journey that will change their lives forever. Outspoken model-actress Cara Delevingne stars along with Nat Wolff and Austin Abrams. Jake Schreier (Robot and Frank) directs. Critical reception is mixed, leaning to positive. in limited release at Paragon and SF World at CentralWorld. Rated 13+

Khon Oak Hak (คน.อก.หัก, a.k.a. Love H2O) – In this Thai comedy, Naam (Natpapas Thanathanamaharat) is the editor of a romance magazine but her own love life turns rocky after her long-time boyfriend ditches her for someone else. She wants to find the perfect guy to take to her ex’s wedding and has a choice between old friend Doc (Tony Rakkaen), diplomat Joe (Navin Yavapollkul) or property tycoon Ohm (Ananda Everingham). Sutthasit Detinthonnarak (Club Friday: The Series) directs. Rated 15+

367 Won: Him and Her (367 วัน Him and Her) – And in this Thai romance, Tine (Chonluedee Amornlak) and Hade (Khanut Rojanai) have been a couple since high school. Now  graduated from college, Tine is set to head overseas, and she breaks up with Hade rather than have him wait for her to return. Thirawat Phadungkan directs. Rated G

Attack on Titan – After 100 years of living behind huge walls to protect themselves from man-eating giants, humanity is starting to fight back. Among them is teenager Eren Jaeger (Haruma Miura), who must use his special gift to defeat the titan race. This is the first of a two-part live-action adaptation of a popular manga and anime franchise in Japan. Part two, Attack on Titan: End of the World, is set for release there next month. Critical reception has been mixed. It's Thai-dubbed most places (including IMAX) but in Japanese with English and Thai subtitles at a few locations, including CentralWorld, Paragon and the Quartier CineArt. Rated 13+

To the Fore – Dante Lam, a Hong Kong director known for gritty, gripping crime thrillers, turns to romance with To the Fore, which is set in the world of competitive cycling, where four riders put their relationships to the test as they enter a big race. Eddie Peng, Choi Siwon, Shawn Dou and Wang Luodan star. Critical reception has been mixed. It's Thai-dubbed most places but is in Chinese with English and Thai subtitles at some locations, including Paragon and Quartier CineArt. Rated G

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Also showing

Bangkok Asean Film Festival – Lots of worthwhile stuff to choose from in the selection of Southeast Asian films put together by the Culture Ministry and the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand, running from tonight until Sunday at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. For broad comedies, there's the hilarious What's So Special About Rina? from Brunei and, if you like Thai TV comedies, then you'll probably like Huk Ey Ly 2 (Really Love 2) from Laos. There's drama with The Last Reel from Cambodia, Bwaya from the Philippines, Siti from Indonesia, 1021 from Singapore and Golden Kingdom from Myanmar. Vietnam has a gay angle with Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories, while Malaysia offers a darkly comic satire with Men Who Save the World. And Thailand looks to the South with the drama Latitude 6, with various stories of religious and cultural conflict against the backdrop of restiveness in the three southernmost provinces. Each film was further detailed in an earlier post. Tickets are handed out 30 minutes before the shows, so queue up well in advance to ensure you get a decent seat. The schedule is at the SF Cinemas website.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – A longstanding feud between Brazilian farming families boils over in Behind the Sun (Abril Despedaçado), a 2001 drama by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries), screening at 7 tonight. Part of the FCCT’s Contemporary World Film Series, the movie is courtesy of the embassy of Brazil. Admission is 150 baht for nonmembers, plus 100 baht for anyone wanting the snacks and drinks. Also upcoming at the club is the Belgian film Two Days, One Night (Deux Jours, Une Nuit) by the Dardenne brothers on September 7.

The Friese-Greene Club – Tonight is a special event, with a best-of selection from last year's Shnit International Short Film Festival. It's part of the run-up to this year's Shnit fest, which is set for October 7 to 18, and is held simultaneously in major cities worldwide, Bangkok among them. If you want to go, check the Facebook events page. Tomorrow is one more Bertolucci for the month, 1996's Stealing Beauty, with Liv Tyler as an American teenager visiting her late mother's hometown in Tuscany. She hopes to lose her virginity before the summer ends. Saturday's Terry Gilliam film is one his most celebrated, 1995's 12 Monkeys, starring Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe and an absolutely unhinged Brad Pitt. And the month wraps on Sunday with one more Sinatra film, 1958's Some Came Running, a small-town drama that features the first onscreen pairing of Sinatra with fellow Rat Packer Dean Martin. 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 – A depressed rock musician quits his band and stumbles on a new occupation as the caretaker of an old Paris apartment building in Dans la cour (In the Courtyard). He soon builds a rapport with residents, among them a mentally deteriorating retired woman. Gustave Kervern and Catherine Deneuve star. Pierre Salvadori directs. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, September 2, at the Alliance.

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Take note

The latest offering from the Documentary Club, Amy has moved to a wider release. It's at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, SF Cinema City Terminal 21, SFX Central Rama 9, SFX Maya Chiang Mai and maybe more places. For showtimes and bookings, please check SF Cinema's bookings page.

Upcoming events include another entry in the Bangkok Art and Culture Center's Cinema Diverse: Director's Choice series, which on September 5 has Pee Mak director Banjong Pisanthanakun screening one of his favorite films, The Chaser from South Korea. He'll be talking about the thriller afterward with director Na Hong-jin. Registration opens at 4.30pm with the show at 5.30pm in the BACC's fifth-floor auditorium.

Also in September will be a video-art exhibition, Behind the Painting, with work by inventive filmmaker Chulayarnon Siriphol. Organized by the Japan Foundation, the exhibition will be at Silpakorn University's Art Center, opening on September 11 and running until October 10. Don't miss it!

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening March 19-25, 2015

Lupin the Third

Lupin the Third, the live-action adaptation of a long-running manga series gets a limited release following its local premiere at last month's Japanese Film Festival.

Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus, The Midnight Meat Train) directs this adventure tale about the gentleman thief Lupin III (Shun Oguri) and his colorful partners in crime. While trying to stay a step ahead of Lupin III's dogged nemesis Inspector Zenigata (Tadanobu Asano), they come to a fictional Southeast Asian land that looks a lot like Thailand. There, they face a powerful enemy while trying to retrieve the priceless Crimson Heart of Cleopatra. There's a host of Thai talent in the cast, including Rhatha Pho-ngam, Vithaya Pansringarm and Nirut Sirichanya.

Critical reception has been mixed, mostly negative. But to me, it looks more interesting than the major Hollywood release this week. You can read more about Lupin III in an article at The Nation. It's at SF Cinemas, with the original soundtrack with English and Thai subtitles SFC Terminal 21 and SFW CentralWorld. Update: It's also at Apex Siam Square. Rated 13+

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Also opening

The Way He Looks – Blind teenager Leonardo struggles with independence, and spends most of his free time with neighbor girl Giovana. Their friendship takes a turn with the arrival of a new boy at school whom Leonardo feels instantly connected to. Directed by Daniel Ribeiro, this Brazilian coming-of-age gay romance won the Fipresci critics prize and the Teddy Award for LGTB-themed features at last year's Berlin International Film Festival. Critical reception is generally positive. This picture comes to us through the singlehanded efforts of indie film enthusiast "Ken" Thapanan Wichitratthakarn, who saw The Way He Looks at a Hong Kong festival and loved it so much, he just had to acquire the Thai theatrical rights for it. You can read more about that in an article in The Nation. It's in Portuguese with English and Thai subtitles at Apex Siam Square, House on RCA and SFW CentralWorld.

Insurgent – Just let me see if can contain my excitement for this week's big Hollywood tentpole release, the second entry in the latest adaptation of a series of best-selling young-adult science-fiction novels. Following the first entry Divergent, the story has young heroine Tris (Shailene Woodley) and her guy pal Four (Theo James) living as fugitives in a dystopian post-apocalyptic world. While they are hunted by the power-hungry Erudite faction, Tris must confront her inner demons and continue her fight against a powerful alliance that threatens to tear society apart. Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer also star. Critical reception is mostly negative, but movie critics aren't who this movie was made for. It's in fake 3D (why bother?) in some cinemas including IMAX. Rated 15+

2538 Alter Ma Jive (2538 อัลเทอร์มาจีบ) – It's Back to the Future for a young Thai guy who discovers a message on an old pager belonging to his parents. He first tries to call the number on his smartphone, but, in the way things always go with cellphones in movies, the battery is dead. So he finds a still-working old-fashioned phone booth to call the number, and is transported 20 years back in time to 1995, altering the events in which his parents met and fell in love. Danarun Ramnarong and Pimchanok Luevisadpaibul star. It's directed by "Sua" Yanyong Kuru-angkul. Rated 13+

Feel Good Roosuek Dee The Me Kan (Feel Good...เพราะรู้สึกดีที่มีกัน) – Three stories are depicted in this indie Thai romantic comedy. They involve a pair of newlyweds, two college kids and a young man who uses a science to win over the girl he loves. Ratcd 15+

Zhongkui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal – The anti-hero of Chinese legend Zhong Kui (Chen Hun) is forced into a battle among the realms of Heaven, Earth and Hell as he attempts to save his countrymen and the woman he loves (Li Bingbing). It's Thai-dubbed in most places, except for SFW CentralWorld and Paragon. Rated 13+

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Also showing

German Film Week – As covered in a special update last week, German films are screening at 7 nightly until Sunday at Paragon Cineplex. Tonight, it's the adventure yarn Measuring the World, about German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and geographer Alexander von Humboldt and their surveys of the world in the 1800s. Tomorrow is the road movie The Man Who Jumped Over Cars and Arab-Jewish relations are covered Saturday's Kaddisch for a Friend. The closing film is the 1954 adaptation of the famous children's book Emil and the Detectives. Tickets are free and can be booked by calling (02) 108 8231-32, e-mail programm@bangkok.goethe.org or check tinyurl.com/germanfilmweek2015. For more details, visit www.Goethe.de/bangkok.

The Friese-Greene Club – A barely literate 13-year-old girl (Wei Minzhi) is left in charge of a rural schoolhouse and pluckily rises to the challenge of stopping the school's loss of students in Zhang Yimou's 1999 drama Not One Less. Tomorrow, it's the Coen Bros.' Barton Fink, which they dashed off while experiencing writer's block on the screenplay for Miller's Crossing. Actually, they say, Barton Fink is about wallpaper. Saturday, Tim Roth is an enigmatic piano player born aboard an ocean liner in The Legend of 1900, another of the films of Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore. It features a score by the great Ennio Morricone. Sunday is another of Sir Carol Reed's film-noir thrillers, 1948's The Fallen Idol. Based on a Graham Greene novel, it's about a butler (Ralph Richardson) who is implicated in a murder by the towheaded boy who idolizes him. And next Wednesday is the final entry in a series of Jean-Pierre Jeunet films, the epic World War I romance A Very Long Engagement. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22.  For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Salaya International Documentary Film Festival – The schedule is now complete for the fifth annual edition of Salaya Doc, and seats can be booked online. The opener is at 1pm on Saturday at the Thai Film Archive with The Look of Silence, the follow-up to The Act of Killing, which probed genocide by the Indonesian military in the 1960s. Weekend highlights include Asean competition entries plus a pair of films about film, Flowers of Taipei: New Taiwanese Cinema and Love Is All: 100 Years of Love and Courtship. Frederick Wiseman's National Gallery screens at the Archive on Monday. The screenings then shift to the Bangkok Art and Culture Center from Tuesday until next Friday. Among the highlights are the films of this year's director in focus, Dutch-Indonesian auteur Leonard Retel Helmrich, who is known for his "single-shot cinema" technique. His films are Eye of the Day, Shape of the Moon, Position Among the Stars and Promised Paradise. More details of the festival are covered over at that other blog and in a special posting from last week.

A scene from No Word for Worry, screening on Tuesday at the BACC as part of Salaya Doc and on Thursday at the FCCT.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – In addition to Salaya Doc, more documentaries are on offer at the FCCT, which has Life and Death at Preah Vihear, director David A. Feingold's examination of the conflict of the disputed territory around the 11th century Hindu temple on the Thai-Cambodian border. That's at 7pm on Tuesday, March 24. And next Thursday is a Salaya Doc entry, No Word for Worry, Norwegian director Runar Jarle Wiik's look at the fast-fading "sea gypsy" culture of the Moken people in Myanmar's Mergui archipelago. For more details, please see the FCCT website.

Alliance Française – This month's films have featured stories of women going through major life changes, and the final entry next Wednesday is the 2013 comedy-drama Elle S'en Va (On My Way), starring Catherine Deneuve as a 60-year-old woman who is dumped by her lover and left with a financially troubled family restaurant. She gets in her car and just starts driving. It's in French and English subtitles at 7pm on Wednesday, March 25 at the Alliance.

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Sneak preview

Home – A fugtive member of an invading race of space aliens is befriended by a plucky teenage girl in this new feature from DreamWorks Animation. It's winning praise for voice work by Rihanna as the girl Tip. Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory) voices the alien named Oh. Jennifer Lopez and Steve Martin are also featured. Critics are mixed. It's in sneak previews from around 2pm in most cinemas from Saturday until Wednesday before opening wide next Thursday. Rated G

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Take note

Apologies for omitting several film events from last Thursday's update. I belatedly found out about German Film Week and quickly put up a special post. I wonder if there's anybody at the Goethe-Institut who can tip me off to the German film events? I only seem to find out about them after they'e already started. Other quickie updates of things I missed earlier, such as for the BACC's Cinema Diverse series last Saturday and yesterday's screening of Song of the Lao Elephant at the FCCT, were handled on my Twitter feed, so please keep on eye on that for late-breaking #BangkokCinemas updates.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening July 25-31, 2013

The Wolverine

Hugh Jackman again returns to the role of what's arguably the most popular character in the X-Men comic franchise – the gruff, steel-clawed Canadian superhero Wolverine.

The Wolverine covers Logan's exploits in Japan, where he fought in World War II, was trained in martial arts and battled samurai and ninjas. He returns to fulfill the request of a dying old man and faces a new challenge after he has his healing powers taken from him by an evil mutant doctor (Svetlana Khodchenkova).

This is the second stand-alone adventure for Wolverine, following 2009's Origins movie, which was a prequel to the whole X-Men movie franchise. The events here take place sometime after the third X-Men film, X-Men: The Last Stand.

Famke Janssen reprises her role as Jean Gray, fellow X-Men member and the unrequited love of Logan's life. She appears in dream sequences. Rila Fukushima also stars, playing Logan's self-appointed bodyguard. The cast also features Will Yun Lee and Hiroyuki Sanada.

Long in the works, the script is by Christopher McQuarrie with rewrites by Scott Frank and Mark Bomback. Darren Aronofsky was initially set to direct, but then backed out after he decided he didn't want to spend so much time overseas making the film. The March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused filming in Japan to be further delayed. A host of other names were bandied about but the job eventually fell to James Mangold (Walk the Line, Knight and Day).

Critical reception is mixed to positive. It's in 2D and converted 3D (including 4DX at Paragon and Major Ratchayothin). Rated 13+.

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Also opening

I’m So Excited – Technical problems aboard a flight to Mexico are mined for campy, light-hearted laughter by director Pedro Almodovar. To keep the passengers calm, the quick-thinking gay flight crew – go ahead, call them Shirley – resorts to administering drugs to everyone in economy class and offering free booze to everyone in business. The wacky cast of characters includes Almodovar regular Cecilia Roth as well as cameos by Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz and others. Critical reception is mixed. It's in Spanish with English and Thai subtitles at House and SF cinemas. Rated 15+.

Admission – A strict Princeton University admissions officer (Tina Fey) visits an alternative high school run by her former college classmate (Paul Rudd) and encounters a gifted but unconventional student who might well be the kid she secretly gave up for adoption years ago. Soon, she finds herself bending the rules for the boy and putting her career at risk. Paul Weitz (About a Boy) directs. Critical reception is mixed.

My Sweet Orange Tree – This coming-of-age drama is based on the partly-autobiographical 1968 novel by Brazilian writer José Mauro de Vasconcelos, Meu Pé de Laranja‑Lima. Popular as assigned reading for schoolchildren because of its simple style, it's been translated from Portuguese to 32 language and is popular all over the world. It's especially beloved by nostalgic Thais, who remember it as Ton Som San Rak, which was made into a TV soap opera. It's the story of a poor lonely misbehaving little boy who discovers he can talk to a small orange tree in his backyard. He also learns important life lessons from an elderly man who befriends him. It's in Portuguese with English and Thai subtitles at Apex in Siam Square.

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Also showing

Moviemov Italian Film Festival – Running until Sunday at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, the fest offers a mix of contemporary and classic Italian films and even a mini-selection of Thai horror. The classics are by Ettore Scola, a director known for his commedia all'italiana (Italian-style comedies) and award-winning dramas in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Highlights include Sunday's La migliore offerta (The Best Offer), the latest by Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore. Starring Geoffrey Rush as the eccentric head of an art-auction house, it's Tornatore's first English-language film, but it appears it's showing here with the Italian-dubbed soundtrack. Tickets are free, so you'll have to give yourself an hour or more beforehand to queue up to ensure you get a decent seat. For the schedule, please see the Italian Festival in Thailand website or the Thai-Italian Chamber of Commerce site.

Americano – The Alliance Française screens free movies with English subtitles at 7.30pm every Wednesday. Next week's show is Mathieu Demy's 2011 road-trip drama about a guy (Demy) who head to Los Angeles to take care of his late mother's estate and then sets out in search of the mysterious woman named in her will. Chiara Mastroianni, Geraldine Chaplin and Salma Hayek (again as a stripper) also star.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening July 11-17, 2013

Pacific Rim

Cult director Guillermo del Toro pays tribute to the classic kaiju monster movies with Pacific Rim.

A combination of Godzilla and the popular-in-Japan mecha and anime genres, Pacific Rim is a big-budget disaster movie, with giant monsters from deep underneath the sea emerging to wreak havoc on coastal cities. The only way to fight the monsters is with our own monsters, so giant, 25-story robots called jaegers are created. They are piloted by two mind-linked soldiers. To get a sense of the scale of these creatures, one of the jaegers grabs a ship from the harbor and uses it like a baseball bat to pummel a kaiju.

Among the characters are a washed-up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) who are paired up to pilot a legendary but seemingly obsolete jaeger from the past.

Other stars include Idris Elba (The Wire, Luther), Charlie Day and del Toro regular Ron Perlman.

Casual movie-goers might dismiss this as yet another giant-robot spectacle like Transformers, but genre-film fans and fans of del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth) know better. He left The Hobbit and ended up doing this, so it had better be good. Anticipation is high and critical reception so far is favorable.

It's in 2D in some cinemas and hybrid 3D in others, including IMAX.  Rated G.

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Also opening

Byzantium – The Crying Game director Neil Jordan returns with his first feature film in three years. I suppose it isn't a spoiler to say this is a vampire movie. Gemma Arterton stars as a 200-year-old vampire prostitute who moves with her daughter (Saoirse Ronan) to open brothel in a run-down English coastal resort hotel. Daniel Mays, Caleb Landry Jones, Sam Riley and Jonny Lee Miller also star. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 18+.

Arthur Newman – Colin Firth is a man going through a mid-life crisis who fakes his own death and buys another man's identity. Reinventing himself as a golf pro as he drifts around the Midwestern U.S., he attracts the attention of a young kleptomaniac (Emily Blunt) who sees through his scam. Together they embark on a cross-country crime spree, breaking into houses to "borrow" other people's lives. It's somewhat reminiscent of a couple of Asian films, South Korea's 3 Iron and last year's indie Thai release P-047. Becky Johnston (The Prince of Tides, Seven Years in Tibet) penned the screenplay with Dante Ariola as director of this indie feature. Critical reception is mixed, leaning to negative.

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Also showing

Estômago – A homeless man falls into a career as a restaurant cook that takes an increasingly darker path in this award-winning 2007 black comedy by Marcos Jorge. It screens at 8pm on Monday, July 15, at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, courtesy of the Embassy of  Brazil, which will lay on caipirinha and snacks. Entry for non-members is 150 baht and 100 baht for anyone wanting the food and drink.

Le voyage du directeur des ressources humaines (The Human Resources Manager) – The Alliance Française screens free movies with English subtitles at 7.30pm every Wednesday. Next week's show is Eran Riklis' award-winning 2010 tragi-comedy about a human resources manager at a Jerusalem bakery who sets out on a journey to save the reputation of his business and prevent the publication of a damaging article.

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Take note

Be sure to call before heading out to the Apex cinemas in Siam Square. Frequently, the Apex's crown jewel Scala is hired out for concerts and private functions on weekends, throwing the movie showtimes into disarray. Sometimes the Apex website is updated, but more often it is not. So to confirm those showtimes, call the Lido at (02) 252-6498, where, surprise, surprise, an actual person will pick up the phone and tell you when the movies are playing.

Also, keep an eye on House. They will frequently show "out of menu" movies from this library. This week, to get ready for next week's release of Only God Forgives from Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling, they are showing Drive.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening November 15-21, 2012

10th World Film Festival of Bangkok

A scene from Holy Motors, one of the highlights of the World Film Fest.

The 10th World Film Festival of Bangkok opens tomorrow night with the Thai premiere of Mekong Hotel, the latest feature by celebrated Thai independent filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The opening will also include the presentation of the festival's Lotus Award for lifetime achievement to French director Leos Carax, whose latest film Holy Motors is among the many highlights of this year's festival.

After Friday night's invitation-only opening at Paragon Cineplex, the festival shifts over to the Esplanade Ratchada, where it runs from Saturday until November 25.

In a recent article in The Nation, festival director Victor Silakong and deputy director Dusit Silakong, offered their Top 10 choices for viewing during the festival.

Holy Motors, which was one of the most buzzworthy titles at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is a fantasy drama about a shadowy man who assumes different roles each night as he hits the streets of Paris. Denis Lavant stars, along with Eva Mendes and Kylie Minogue.

Other picks include Le Havre, another typically wry-humored offering about a lost soul from Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki. It was a major hit on last year's festival circuit and was France's submission to the Oscars.

Others are the closing film Fados, about Portugal's enduring musical genre; the Taiwanese teen romance You Are the Apple of My Eye, the Thai documentary The Elephant Shaman, about the country's last living "elephant whisperer"; Under Snow, a unique look at the traditional lifestyle of Japan's snow-covered Echigo region; the polarizing Mexican family drama Post Tenebras Lux, the "Brazilian Cinema Paradiso" Cine Holliúdy, the Japanese documentary No Man's Zone about the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the South Korean adoption drama Barbie.

Download the schedule at the festival website, and show up whenever you have time. I can almost guarantee that you'll find something a lot more interesting than the only other movie opening in cinemas this week.

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Also opening

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 – Finally, after five movies, it's over. Or is it? Word is that author Stephanie Meyer and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg have penned a surprise ending to the film-franchise conclusion of The Twilight Saga. Directed by Bill Condon, Part 2 begins with Kristen Stewart in hyper-sneery mode as a newborn vampire and mother to fast-growing half-human daughter. The spawn of Bella and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) threatens to spark a war among the vampires. The Volturi ruling class wrongly assumes that Bella and Edward have transformed the kid into a vampire, something that is expressly forbidden, and gather forces to take down the entire Cullen clan. Meanwhile, Bella's bare-chested werewolf pal Jacob (Taylor Lautner) bonds with the girl and seeks to protect her from the rest of his Wolf Pack clan. This is being released in the U.S. this week, so there's not yet any critical consensus. Rated 15+.

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Also showing

Arjun: The Warrior Prince – This animated feature, adapted from the Indian epic the Mahabharata, is co-produced by Disney and tells the story of the young hero archer as he overcomes his various shortcomings and learns what it takes to be a man. Critical reception is generally positive. It's at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit and Rama III. Rated 13+.

Une jeunesse amoureuse – The Alliance Française Bangkok's month of documentaries continues with this offering from director François Caillat who depicts his early love life in the Paris of the 1970s – an intimate coming-of-age story along with the adventure of a generation of 20-year-olds discovering American counter-culture. It's at the Alliance Française at 7.30pm on Wednesday, November 21.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening November 17-23, 2011

The Thing



Mary Elizabeth Winstead follows in Sigourney Weaver's footsteps into an Alien-like female action role in The Thing, which looks like a remake but is meant as a prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 thriller that starred Kurt Russell.

Winstead is a plucky paleonthologist who faces an alien lifeform at an Antarctic research base. Joel Edgerton and Ulrich Thomsen also star. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. directs.

Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+.

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Also opening


Seeking Justice – Nicolas Cage is a schoolteacher turned outlaw vigilante after his wife is brutally assaulted. Also stars Guy Pearce and January Jones. Directed by Roger Donaldson, the thriller is also known as Justice. Af SFW CentralWorld. Rated 15+.


Vampire Strawberry (แวมไพร์ สตรอเบอร์รี่) – In what looks to be a broadly comic spoof of the Twilight movies, vampires feed only on the blood of females. Annie Brook and Chartchai Ngamsan star along with the usual cast comedians, including Kom Chuanchuen, Somchai Sakdikul and Anek Inthachai. Rated 13+.


Phantom of the Opera – The musical production celebrates 25 years with a special video presentation of the October 1 and 2 silver anniversary performance at the Royal Albert Hall. It's as close as you can get to actually sitting in the audience without having to actually be in London. Shows are at Paragon Cineplex until November 23. Check ThaiTicketMajor for prices and showtimes.

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Also showing


The Year My Parents Went on Vacation – This childhood drama is set in the tumultuous 1970s in Brazil, where a 12-year-old boy's leftist parents are forced into hiding and he's sent to live with his grandfasther. Though his country is in the grip of a dictatorship and the Vietnam War is raging, all young Mauro can think about is whether the Brazilian team will be Italy in soccer's World Cup. Cao Hamburger directs. Critical reception is mostly favorable. It screens at 8 tonight at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand, with caipirinha rum cocktails and cheesebread served by the Embassy of Brazil. Admission for non-members is 150 baht and it's 100 baht for anyone wanting to eat or drink.

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Take note

As the flood crisis in Bangkok continues, there are signs of the waters receding from some areas and the resumption of business as usual. Even though there is still water on the roads, the Central mall and the neighboring Major Cineplex in Pinklao have reopened. Plans are also to reopen Central Lat Phrao.

However, there are new warnings about flooding in new neighborhoods, including the Bang Kapi and Ramkamhaeng areas. So keep an eye on the water level in the canals near your home, and be wary of water rising from the drains on your street.

Unfortunately, a major English-language source of flood information, the #ThaiFloodEng hashtag on Twitter, has become practically useless due to trolls, general nonsense and stupid questions about whether tourism sites and shopping destinations remain open. Out of frustration, some of the reputable news sources and individuals have abandoned the hashtag's timeline. I suppose now it's best to track the flood news on the Bangkok Post and The Nation websites.

If you feel you must go to a movie, check for news about possible flooding in the area you plan to visit. And avoid contact with floodwater if at all possible.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening August 18-23, 2011

The Future


Multi-hyphenate writer-filmmaker-artist Miranda July follows up her critically acclaimed debut Me and You and Everyone We Know with The Future, a quirk-filled existential comedy about a slacker thirtysomething couple (July and Hamish Linklater) who think they are finally ready to start acting like adults.

So they decide to adopt a cat, who narrates the story. Yes, you read that right – this movie has a talking cat.

However, they have to wait 30 days, so the couple breaks loose with various weird activities before taking on the weighty responsibility of pet ownership.

The Future won praise at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. "A dark and whimsical exploration of human existence that challenges viewers as much as it rewards them," is the critical consensus.

It's at House on RCA. Rated 15+.

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Also opening


Come Rain, Come Shine – After five years of marriage, a couple prepares for their breakup. The woman (Lim Soo-jeong) is set to move her stuff out. The man (Hyun Bin), typically male in his inability to articulate his feelings, lends a hand and memories of the good times they had resurface. Lee Yoon-Ki directs. This romantic drama was in competition for the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival. In Korean with English and Thai subtitles at House and the Lido. Rated 15+.


One Day – After one day together – July 15, 1988, their college graduation – an idealistic working-class woman (Anne Hathaway) and a wealthy, spoiled charmer (Jim Sturgess) begin a friendship that will last a lifetime. Over the next 20 years, key moments are experienced over several July 15ths, chronicling their friendship and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. Danish-born filmmaker Lone Scherfig (An Education) directs. Critical reception, so far, is mostly negative. Rated 15+.


Final Destination 5 – If you've seen the previous four movies in the Final Destination franchise, you know what to expect – a group of people cheat a strange death thanks to someone's premonition, but it only delays the inevitable, and so the rest of the movie is a string of bizarre, gruesome killings. Here, a bunch of folks are saved from dying in a bridge collapse, but they will die anyway in other messed-up ways. What's different is this one's in 3D. Nicholas D'Agosto stars along with Emma Bell. "It's still only for the gore-thirsty faithful, but Final Destination 5 represents a surprising return to form for the franchise," is the critical consensus. Rated 18+.

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Also showing


15th Thai Short Film & Video Festival – Starting today, the fest opens at 5pm with registration and then the new short O.B.L. by the Baby Arabia trio of Panu Aree, Kaweenipon Ketprasit and Kong Rithdee. That's followed by Terribly Happy, the 30-minute drama by Pimpaka Towira that was the first Thai short to compete in the Berlin Film Festival. Only Terribly Happy will have English subtitles. The fest is at the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre with daily screenings until August 28 (except Monday). The line-up includes competition shorts by Thai and foreign filmmakers, student films, animation and documentaries. Special programs include the always entertaining "Best of Clermont Ferrand" showcase from the world's largest shorts fest, the S-Express packages from the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, Shorts for Kids and Queer shorts from all over the world. A special program this year is "B-Sides: The History of Video Art in Spain." Screenings are in the 5th floor auditorium and the 4th floor meeting room at the BACC. There's an English translation of the schedule spreadsheet and the screening timetable with partial notations about subtitles. Watch for updates on the festival's Facebook page.


Thai Film Archive – Movies with English subtitles screening this week are the Korean orphan's drama A Brand New Life today (Thursday, August 18) and the 2000 Brazilian romantic comedy Bossa Nova on Tuesday, August 23. A highlight comes on Wednesday, August 24, with another film in the "Memorial to Ratana Pestonji" program: Sugar is not Sweet, the final feature by the pioneering Thai director who died in 1970. Starring one of the era's top leading men, Sombat Metanee, the 1965 romantic comedy is the story of a dying hair-tonic mogul who is determined to marry off his playboy son Manas (Sombat) to his Indian business partner's daughter Namtan. Manas, who already has a girlfriend, isn't interested in the "roti". With an eye-popping color palette, rollicking musical numbers and wild comedy, Sugar is not Sweet is also a look at how Indians are disdainfully viewed in Thai society, even if, like Pestonji, who came from a family of Indian Parsis, they were born in Thailand. Through the end of the month, other movies to look forward to are the 1998 German bank-heist classic Run Lola Run on Thursday, August 25, and the acclaimed 2003 Spanish drama Take My Eyes on August 31. Show times are at 5.30pm in the Sri Salaya Theatre at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom.


Morbid Symptom – The DK Filmhouse (Film Virus) screening series alongside the Dialogic exhibition at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre continues on Saturday with two movies under the theme of "The New". At 3pm it's Cria Cuervos, a 1976 Spanish drama by Carlos Saura about an 8-year-old orphan girl who escapes into a fantasy world as a way of coping with the deaths of her parents. That's followed at 5pm by Xala, a 1975 Senegalese film by Ousmane Sembene. A satire about the corruption in post-independence African governments, the main character is a politician who is cursed with impotence upon the day of his marriage to his third wife. The screening venue is a corner of the BACC's ninth-floor gallery, on a bare white wall where there are a handful of beanbag chairs strewn around. If you want a seat, get there early.


Chulalongkorn University International Film Festival – It's time once again for the twice-yearly Chula film fest, put on by the Department of Dramatic Arts. Starting on Monday, August 22 and running until September 9, it offers a line-up of movies that have been acclaimed hits on the film-fest circuit and, with a few exceptions, somehow passed Bangkok by. The opener on Monday is Poetry by South Korean director Lee Chang-dong, about an elderly woman who begins to take an interest in poetry while struggling with Alzheimer's and an irresponsible grandson. Yoon Jeong-hee stars in her first film role since 1994. Awards included best screenplay at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and best actress at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Next Wednesday is the Indian hit Peepli Live, which BollywoodThai brought to the Bangkok big screen last year. It competed at last year's Sundance Film Festival and was India's official submission to the Oscars. It's a satire on impoverished farmers committing suicides and the media and political response that follows. Others in the screening series are the Japanese thriller Confessions on August 26, 2008's drugs drama Afterschool on August 29, Davis Guggenheim's documentary on the troubled US school system Waiting for Superman on August 31, Michelle Williams in the woman-and-her-dog road-trip drama Wendy and Lucy on September 2, the Greek arthouse thriller Dogtooth on September 5, the animated Cuban romance Chico and Rita on September 7 and French animator Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist, based on a screenplay by Jacques Tati, on September 9. After each screening there's a chance to share opinions with film critics Kittisak Suvannapokhin, Nopamat Veohong and Kong Rithdee. All movies are on DVD with English subtitles. Show times are at 5pm in the Mahachakri Sirindhorn Building, 9th Floor.


Une Vieille Maîtresse – Before getting married to the young daughter of an aristocrat, a notorious womanizer (Fu'ad Aït Aattou) makes a last visit to his long-time Spanish mistress (a torrid Asia Argento). The scandalous relationship has been the talk of Paris society, so before the man can wed his bride (Roxane Mesquida), the young woman's grandmother wants to hear everything about it. The man spills all sordid the details, but says it's over and he's now in love with the woman he intends to marry. And they do and are happy. But then the old mistress reappears and the man is forced to confront his past. Catherine Breillat directs this historical romantic drama, set in 1835. It competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. It screens with English subtitles at 7.30pm on Wednesday, August 24 at the Alliance Francaise.