Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening June 3-9, 2010

Po Taek


Funnyman Petthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkumlao teams up with veteran comedian Thep Po-ngam (สุเทพ โพธิ์งาม) in Po Taek (โป๊ะแตก), a satiric mockumentary-style behind-the-scenes look at the Thai film industry.

Watch the trailer, and check out Mum coaching his old mentor Thep on how best to act like a lizard.

There's shenanigans on the craft-service line and more wackiness during the traditional prayer ceremony to mark the start of production. You have thick-headed actors who can't take direction and stuntmen raising their amputated limbs to volunteer for a dangerous scene.

A host of other familiar comedians turn up, including Mum's Ching Roi Ching Lan TV castmates Choosak "Nong Cha Cha Cha" Iamsuk and Theng Terdterng, as well as Note Chern-yim, Kom Chuanchuen, "Tukky" Sudarat Butrprom and Apaporn Nakonsawan.

It's a busy time for Thep, who last year declared bankruptcy and put on a pair star-studded live benefit concerts to put him back on good financial footing.

During the red-shirt political protests there was talk of a boycott of Thep after the bald-headed comic appeared at "multi-color shirts" counter-protest rallies. Box-office results for Po Taek, in cinemas this Thursday, will show whether they were serious.

The Killer Tattoo star also leads the upcoming drama Friday Killers (or is it Friday Killer?), premiering as the closer of the Phuket Film Festival. It's part of the trio of hitman movies directed by Yuthlert Sippapak for Phranakorn.

And he's also supposed to do the documentary The Cult Maker with Yuthlert for Film R Us.

Produced by Workpoint, Baa-Ram-Ewe and Sahamongkolfilm International, Po Taek is covering similar ground to another film from Film R Us, Sam Yan, which opened on May 20. That trio of comedy stories has comedian Kohtee Aramboy as a director having behind-the-scenes troubles with his lead actor. Rated 15+.

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The Ghost Writer


Completed by director Roman Polanski while he was under house arrest in Switzerland, fighting extradition on 34-year-old sexual-assault charges back to the U.S., The Ghost Writer is an adaptation of The Ghost, a thriller by novelist Robert Harris.

Ewan McGregor stars as a writer hired to polish up the autobiography of a disgraced former British prime minister, menacingly portrayed here with Blair-like flair by ex-007 Pierce Brosnan. The deeper the writer digs in searching for the truth, the more his life becomes in danger.

Olivia Williams also stars, playing the Cherie Blair-like wife of the ex-PM.

And Kim Cattrall plays the ex-PM's personal assistant. It's a two-fer week for Cattrall in Bangkok cinemas; the British actress also stars in Sex and the City 2.

Having premiered earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival, critical reception is strongly favorable, with praise for Polanski's stylish direction, a tense screenplay (adapted by Harris), and a strong central performance from McGregor. Rated 18+.

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Also opening


Sparrow – Hong Kong director Johnnie To's lyrical thriller/romantic drama stars Simon Yam as the leader of a team of slick pickpockets, or "sparrows" in Hong Kong street slang. When he's not artfully lifting wallets, he's roaming the streets with his vintage camera, snapping photos. His life takes a turn when he glimpses a young woman (Kelly Lin) in his viewfinder. The other members of his gang also encounter the mysterious girl. A nominee for the Berlin Golden Bear in 2008, critical reception is highly favorable. At House. Rated 18+.


Sex and the City 2 – In the second big-screen outing for the 1998-2004 HBO series, two years have passed and Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her three friends have lives that are more stressful than ever. All are married except for Samantha (Kim Cattrall), who is 52 and trying to keep her libido alive while dealing with menopause. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) has a handful with two children and a husband whose eyes are roving to their nanny. Carrie's marriage to Mr. Big (Chris Noth) has settled down and Carrie worries whether she can ever truly be happy. Samantha then gets a PR job for a sheik in Abu Dhabi and invites Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) to visit, so the four friends get out of the city and visit the desert. Critical reception has been overwhelmingly negative, with the movie blasted for its thin plot, bloated running time and stereotyped, negative portrayal of the Middle East. Rated 15+.

Killers – Katherine Heigl is a hapless woman who meets and falls in love with a stranger and rushes into marriage only to discover her perfect man (Ashton Kutcher) is a contract killer for the CIA and she's now a target alongside him by rival assassins. Critical reception is nonexistent because studio Lionsgate has declined to screen it for critics – a move that usually means the movie stinks. Lionsgate says: "We want to capitalize on the revolution in social media by letting audiences and critics define this film concurrently... In today's socially connected marketplace blah blah blah blah." Rated 15+.


14 Blades – Switching from the contemporary martial-arts drama of Ip Man 2, Donnie Yen stars in this martial-arts fantasy. Set in ancient China, the tale has to do with 14 elite fighters, members of the emperor's secret Brocade Guard, trained in the use of 14 blades, eight being for torture, five for killing and the last one for suicide if their mission fails. As the leader of the Brocade Guards, Donnie is betrayed when he discovers a plot by eunuchs to usurp the emperor, something to do with a prince played by Sammo Hung and the Imperial Seal. He escapes and spends the rest of the film in fast-paced action sequences trying to get to the truth. Zhao Wei also stars, providing a romantic interest for Donnie. Critical reception is mostly positive. Thai-dubbed only. Rated 15+.

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Also showing


Remembering the Siam – Four Japanese movies that screened back in the day at the Siam Theatre are playing to benefit the merchants who lost their shops in the Siam Theatre fire: Nana at 12.15, Nobody Knows at 2.30, Always: Sunset on Third Street at 5 and Be With You at 7.30 daily until next Wednesday except Saturday at the Lido. Tickets are 100 baht, with half the proceeds going to help out the burned-out tenants.

Bangkok Cinema Scene special: 'Remember the Siam' benefit screenings, June 3-9, 2010

Four Japanese movies that were screened at the burned Siam Theatre will be shown at the Lido in a benefit screening from June 3 to 9.

Proceeds will go to assist the merchants who lost their businesses in the Siam Square arson fires.

The movies are Nana at 12.15, Nobody Knows at 2.30, Always: Sunset on Third Street at5 and Be With You at 7.30. The screenings are daily from June 3 to 9 except on Saturday.


Always: Sunset on Third Street was shown at the Siam in 2006. Directed by Takashi Yamzaki, it's a nostalgic look back at the characters in a close-knit Tokyo neighborhood in the late 1950s.

Another one from around 2005 or '06 is Nana, a comedy-drama about two young women who meet by chance, share the same name, have opposite personalities but strike up a friendship anyway. Kentaro Otani directs with Mika Nakashima and Aoi Miyazaki as the two Nanas.


Be With You, from 2004, is a drama about a widower father with a young son, struggling to cope with the death of his wife. They bring a young homeless woman with amnesia into their life.


And another from 2004 is Nobody Knows, director Hirokazu Kore-eda's drama about a 12-year-old boy left alone in an apartment by his irresponsible mother to care for his three younger sisters. Child-actor Yûya Yagira won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his debut starring role.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening May 27-June 2, 2010

Sin Sisters 2


After finally seeing the release of his studio-banned 2003 katoey sports horror-comedy Phee Tum Tim (ผีตุ๋มติ๋ม) last year, Sukij Narin now follows up his controversial cult-hit 2002 sex comedy Sin Sisters (ผู้หญิง 5 บาป, Phu Ying Ha Bap) with Sin Sisters 2.

No longer hindered by police censorship, Sukij seeks to take full advantage of Thailand's new motion-picture ratings system and make the movie he presumably wanted to make eight years ago.

Sin Sisters 2 has the rather dubious distinction of being the first commercially released Thai film to receive the 20- rating (unofficially stated as 20+) . This is the only restricted rating in the system, with I.D. checks at the theater supposed to be mandatory.

Previous 20- releases include Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (the first) and Anocha Suwichakornpong's Mundane History (yet to be commercially released in Thailand – it had a festival screening only).

The premise of Phu Ying Ha Bap 2 is roughly the same as the first -- five saucy women confess the sexual secrets they are least proud of. Only here, instead of sitting around in an apartment as in the first film, there are five women being held captive under torturous conditions by a mysterious person who urges them in a devilish voice to spill their secrets. It all looks rather exploitive, in a "Women in Prison" sort of way.

With the censorship panel being beefed up, it's anybody's guess whether more films like this will be allowed.

There's an English-subtitled trailer at YouTube.

It appears to only be playing at SF Cinemas. Rated 20-

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Kites



Hrithik Roshan stars in this Western-flavored Bollywood hit as Jay, a Hindi dance teacher in Las Vegas who's about to marry the daughter of a casino owner. In the past, Jay had a business of marrying immigrant women so they could get their permanent resident permit – popularly known as the green card.

It turns out Jay's future brother-in-law is about to marry one of Jay's past clients, a Mexican woman portrayed by Bárbara Mori. The brother-in-law is abusive and Jay wants to save the woman. Sparks fly and the star-crossed lovers have to go on the run.

Kangana Ranaut, Kabir Bedi and Nicholas Brown also star.

Shot on location in Las Vegas and the southwest American desert, Kites became the first Bollywood movie to crack the top 10 on the U.S. and Canada box-office chart when it opened last weekend.

Critical reception is mixed, leaning to favorable.

It's playing at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit on Friday at 5 and at Major Cineplex Rama III on Sunday at 4. Call (089) 488 2620 or visit www.BollywoodThai.com.

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Take note


Following the deadly May 19 crackdown on the red-shirt political protesters, a curfew remains in effect through Friday night, from midnight to 4am on Saturday morning, and there is much uncertainty and worry that Thailand's CRES state-of-emergency overlords might extend the curfew through the weekend and maybe next week.

The reduced hours are curtailing movie-going. In order to give cinema staffs the time to clean up, close down and make it home before midnight, the last shows start at around 6pm. This doesn't leave much flexibility when planning a night out at the movies. And if you stay out too late, there's the danger of getting caught out by extortionist taxi drivers.

Likely because of the curfew, it's a bit of a slow week at the cinemas, with only one new wide release for the multiplexes. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was due to open this week, but it's been postponed until June 10.

Good news is the cinemas around Siam Square have reopened – with the exception of the Siam (long live the Siam).

The Apex circuit's Lido and Scala are open, says the man who always answers the phone at the Lido.

Paragon Cineplex has re-opened and the Krungsri IMAX is offering 100 baht tickets on Iron Man 2: The IMAX Experience, with some action scenes filmed in the larger IMAX format. The IMAX is also playing the 3D Shrek Forever After, but you'll have to pay full price to see it.

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Giveaway


I'll buy tickets for the first two people to meet me at Siam Square's Lido cinemas on Sunday, May 30, for the 4.30 screening of A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop.

I've been trying to see it since it opened in Bangkok in early April, but the red-shirt protests prevented that from happening.

Directed by Zhang Yimou, who's better known for his lavish and sweeping Chinese historical dramas like, Raise the Red Lantern and Hero, A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop is a comedy. Also called A Simple Noodle Story, it's a remake of the Coen Brothers' 1985 debut, Blood Simple, transplanting their story from 1980s Texas to the dust-blown Chinese desert of 100 years ago.

I'll likely be hanging out at the coffee stall in the cinema lobby. Come out and see a movie with me, reclaim Bangkok's classic cinemas and if you're lucky, you might get in free.