Bangkok Cinema Scene special: Four short films for HM the King's 83rd birthday

Three Silpathorn Award laureates are among the directors of four short films that will screen at Bangkok's SF World Cinema at CentralWorld from today in a Film Festival in Commemoration of the Celebration on the Auspicious Occasion of His Majesty the King's 83rd Birthday Anniversary.

The films are:

• Terribly Happy (สุดสะแนน, Sudsanan), directed by Pimpaka Towira
• Superstitious (เกษตร ...ตะกอน), directed by Nonzee Nimibutr
• Six to Six, (เพลงชาติไทย, Pleng Chat Thai) by Aditya Assarat
• The Greatest Love, (รักที่ยิ่งใหญ่) by Sirisak Koshpasharin and Pranpaporn Srisumanant

Nonzee, Pimpaka and Aditya were given the Silpathorn Award in 2008, 2009 and this year, respectively. The prestigious contemporary-arts honor is conferred by Thailand's Office of Contemporary Art and Culture of the Ministry of Culture. Those government agencies are among the organizers of the film-festival project.

In Pimpaka's Terribly Happy, a young soldier stationed in southern Thailand takes his leave to return to his hometown in Udon Thani in the Northeast and finds that his girlfriend has a Westerner for a lover. He's angry as first, but learns forgiveness.


An e-mail from Pimpaka's production company Extra Virgin explains further:

Loosely translated as "terribly happy", Sudsanan is an Isaan expression meaning the state where all the sorrows and miseries end, leaving only the feeling of blissful happiness. Similarly, the main idea behinds this film is that human sufferings can be healed by learning how to give.

In a situation of severe conflict, we always think that there has to be a winner and loser. But the reality is that there is never a real winner. Any battle, big or small, always has a cause in greed, ego and self-centeredness.

The filmmaker is inspired by the speech of His Majesty the King on Compassion, which is one of the Ten Royal Virtues. The filmmaker hopes that this film will help bringing about the importance of compassion and generosity in our society on all levels, no matter what social status or language.

There's also a trailer for Pimpaka's Terribly Happy.

Aditya's Six to Six was completed very quickly, and in fact was only shot earlier this month! The Pop Pictures blog explains how they did it.

Here's more about Six to Six:

One afternoon, Kaen, Noi, and Pa Nit, employees of an old apartment building, are cleaning the master’s room on the top floor. They eat lunch, chat about this and that, and enjoy the cool breeze from the canal. At six o’clock they wait for the national anthem to mark the passing of another peaceful day in the kingdom.

Director’s Statement

I’m just a normal person. I’ve never met the King, never even seen him, except on TV. I suspect most Thai people are like me. So I wanted to make a film from the perspective of the small people living in this kingdom. As a man we may not know His Majesty, but as a symbol, his presence is felt all around us, like the warm sunlight or the cool breeze of an afternoon, a constant amid the conflicts currently afflicting our nation.

The Greatest Love, a melodrama extolling the virtues of His Majesty's "sufficiency economy" theories, is screened in 3D as well as 2D. The 3D version screens by itself at 10.30 daily until Friday. The 2D version is screened with the other three shorts.

There are also two feature films, So the short films aren't screening in all sessions. There's also The Ultimate Dream (ปิดทองหลังพระ ตอน ความฝันอันสูงสุด), about military heroes, starring Maj-Colonel Wanchana Sawatdee (Naresuan) and Sornram Theppituk, and 9 Mahasan-Ong-Rachan-Palang-Pan-Din (๙ มหัศจรรย์ องค์ราชัน พลังแผ่นดิน), which is a compilation of segments about nine miracles.

The screenings are at SFW CentralWorld. Free tickets are at a table in the lobby. You can also check this spreadsheet for the schedule.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening November 25-December 1, 2010

Let Me In


The boy from The Road, Kodi Smit-McPhee meets "Hit Girl" from Kick-Ass, Chloe Moretz, in Let Me In, a Hollywood remake of the acclaimed 2008 Swedish coming-of-age vampire thriller Let the Right One In

Shifting the story from snowy Sweden to New Mexico in the American southwest, Smit-McPhee is a lonely and bullied 12-year-old boy. He befriends his new neighbor (Moretz), a girl who appears to be about 12 but is in fact a lot older.

Richard Jenkins also stars, along with Elias Koteas.

Matt Reeves, who helmed the alien-invasion thriller Cloverfield, directs.

Critical reception is generally favorable, with the consensus being "similar to the original in all the right ways, but with enough changes to stand on its own." Rated 18+.

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Unstoppable


After their collaboration on the subway thriller The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, director Tony Scott and star Denzel Washington are back on track in Unstoppable, a fact-based action thriller in which an unmanned runaway freight train hauling hazardous cargo is barreling toward a city.

Washington, playing a veteran locomotive engineer, and a rookie conductor (Chris Pine, the young James T. Kirk from Star Trek), team up to try and stop that train.

The movie is based on the Crazy Eights incident of 2001, when CSX train 8888 ran unmanned with hazardous cargo at high speed through the state of Ohio before it was brought to a stop by a locomotive that caught up with it and coupled to the rear.

Critical reception is generally favorable, with Unstoppable praised "as fast, loud and relentless ... perfect popcorn entertainment – and director Tony Scott's best movie in years." Rated G.

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Also opening


My Soul to Take – Nightmare on Elm Street creator Wes Craven writes and directs this slasher thriller about seven teenagers who share the same birthday as the day a serial killer in their small town supposedly died. As they all near their 16th birthday, the remembers of the "Riverton Seven" find themselves stalked one by one, by the killer known as the Riverton Ripper. Critical reception is generally negative. In 3D. Rated 13+.


Guzaarish – Hrithik Roshan is a magician who is injured while performing a trick and becomes a quadriplegic. He ignites a controversy when he petitions a court to end his own life. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan also stars as his nurse. Critical reception is generally positive. It's showing at Major Cinplex Sukhumvit (Ekamai) on Friday and Sunday at 7.30 and at Major Cineplex Rama III on Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 4. Call BollywoodThai at (089) 488 2620.

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Also showing


A Design Film Festival – Part of the Bangkok International Design Festival, this first edition of A Design Film Festival is running at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld until Sunday. The traveling film event was launched this year in Singapore and has also popped up in Berlin. The line-up has Milton Glaser, a profile of the graphic artist who designed the iconic I Love NY logo; Rem Koolhaus: A Kind of Architect, about the Dutch architect and architectural theorist; Beautiful Loser, about a coming together of do-it-yourself subcultures in New York City; Herb & Dorothy, about Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, a couple that despite their modest means, have built up one of the world's most significant contemporary art collections; Visual Acoustics, about architectural photographer Julius Shulman; Craftwork, about a group of "creatives" who aim to keep a hands-on approach to their visual works; Extended Play, an eclectic selection of shorts; and J-Star, a sneak peek at new visual trends out of Japan. For the schedule, click to expand the e-card above and download or hit the festival website.


Science Film Festival – The sixth Science Film Festival, organized by the Goethe-Institut Thailand, the French Embassy and the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology, runs until November 30 in venues throughout Thailand. In Bangkok, the screenings are at the Esplanade Cineplex Rattanathibhet, National Science Centre for Education at Ekamai, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, National Science Museum, the NSM Science Square at Chamchuri Square and TK Park at CentralWorld.

Take note that the French documentary Elle s’appelle Sabine (Her Name is Sabine), will have an encore screening on Saturday, November 27, at 2 in the Media Library at the Alliance Française Bangkok. Admission is free.

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Sneak preview


The Social Network – David Fincher (Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) directs this drama that's based on the founder of Facebook. Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) wrote the screenplay, which is adapted froma book by Ben Mezrich. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Mark Zuckerberg, who founded the social-networking website while he was at Harvard. Justin Timberlake plays Napster founder Sean Parker, the dotcom entrepreneur who guided Facebook in its days as a booming startup. Critical reception is mostly favorable. "Impeccably scripted, beautifully directed and filled with fine performances [it's] a riveting, ambitious example of modern filmmaking at its finest," is the consensus. Sounds like an Oscar possibility. The Social Network is in nightly sneak previews through Sunday before going to a wider release next Thursday. Rated 13+.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening November 18-24, 2010

Fair Game


Naomi Watts stars Fair Game, a fact-based political thriller, about Valerie Plame, whose work as a secret agent for the CIA came to an end when she was exposed as a result of political maneuvering by the Bush White House.

Sean Penn portrays Plame's husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson, who wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times that refuted White House claims that Iraq had purchased weapons-grade yellowcake uranium from Niger, which poked holes in the Bush administration's stories about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

It's believed that Plame was exposed in retaliation for her husband's opinion.

Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Swingers) directs.

Critical reception is mostly favorable. It's in limited release at House on RCA, SFW CentralWorld and Paragon. Rated 15+.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1


It's almost over. The movie adaptation of the seventh and final book in author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series is split into two parts, with the first part out this week, and part two coming out next July.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Harry, Ron and Hermione escape from Hogwarts on a mission to find the Horcruxes, which hold the key to immortality and destruction of the evil Lord Voldermort. While the teenage wizards are all alone, the dark lord's powers are growing ever stronger, making things more dangerous than ever.

David Yates, who's helmed the movie series since the fifth entry, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, directs.

All the main cast returns, including Daniel Radcliffe as Harry with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Critical reception so far is highly favorable. While 3D is planned for Part 2, Part 1 is all in 2D, and includes an IMAX version. Rated 13+.

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Also showing


Science Film Festival – The sixth Science Film Festival runs until November 30 in venues throughout Thailand. The fest focuses on “family edutainment”, with an aim to explain the world in a fun way to young audiences, along with films for all ages in the categories of “Ecology and Environment”, “Natural Science, Life Science and Technology” and “Culture and History”. The festival is organized by the Goethe-Institut Thailand, the French Embassy and the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology and is supported by the National Science and Technology Development Agency and Bayer Thai. In Bangkok, the screenings are at the Esplanade Cineplex Rattanathibhet, National Science Centre for Education at Ekamai, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, National Science Museum, the NSM Science Square at Chamchuri Square and TK Park at CentralWorld.


ExploreAsia Film Festival – It's rare that the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand is open on a Saturday, and this special occasion, running from 10am to 4.30pm this Saturday at the FCCT, will have a selection of six short documentaries, selected by the Explorer's Club of New York.

Among the selection is The Last Elephants in Thailand, which was featured earlier this year at the Bangkok IndieFest.

Here's the lineup of the ExploreAsia fest:

• 10am – Hovsgol Nuur: Diving in the Land of Chinggis Khan (Mongolia)
• 11am – Hope from the Land of the Polar Bear, directed by George Meegan (Japan)
• 12.15pm – Lunch
• 1.15pm – Bordering Happiness in Chinas, directed by Yu Shu (China)
• 2.15pm – Crossing the Line (North Korea)
• 4pm – The Last Elephants in Thailand (Thailand)

All are narrated or subtitled in English. Come for one or a few films, or for the entire day.

Admission is 150 baht for FCCT members, students and children under 17; all others pay 300 baht.


Bangkok International Design Festival – A Design Film Festival is running at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld from November 23 to 30 as part of the Bangkok International Design Festival. The traveling film event was launched this year in Singapore and has also popped up in Berlin. It features a selection of documentaries on architecture, graphic design, art, photography, motion graphics and guerrilla capture. Here's the line-up:

• Milton Glaser – A profile of the graphic artist who designed the iconic I Love NY logo, which replaced the word "love" with a red heart.
• Rem Koolhaus: A Kind of Architect – The Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and professor at Harvard whose many works include the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing.
• Beautiful Loser – Here's a look at a group of like-minded outsiders who found common ground at a little New York City storefront gallery, and made it their home for a do-it-yourself subculture that included skateboarding, surf, punk hip-hop and graffiti.
• Herb & Dorothy – Using their modest means, Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and his librarian wife Dorothy have built up one of the world's most sigificant contemporary art collections. This is their story.
• Visual Acoustics – There are architects to design buildings and then photographers who take pictures of them. Julius Shulman is a photographer, whose celebrated images have captured nearly every major modern American architectural landmark, including works by Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry.
• Craftwork – Here's a look at a group of "creatives" who aim to keep a hands-on approach to their visual works in the digital age, stitching, knitting, collaging, sticking and folding things together.
• Extended Play – This is an eclectic selection of shorts that explore new approaches in graphic and alternative storytelling.
• J-Star – A sneak peek at new visual trends, including eye-popping sights, side-splitting fun and serene beauty in music videos, motion graphics and shorts from Japan.

Check the festival website for more details about the schedule at SFW CentralWorld.


Elle s’appelle Sabine (Her Name is Sabine) – Documentary Film Month continues at the Alliance Française Bangkok with this 2007 work by actress and director Sandrine Bonnaire about her autistic sister, Sabine Bonnaire. It recounts Sabine's story through personal archives, shot over a period of 25 years, and gives an account of her life today. It's showing on Wednesday, November 24 at 7:30pm and on Saturday, November 27 at the Alliance Française, with English subtitles. Take note that the documentary Une aventure musicale, l’Ensemble intercontemporain, will have an encore screening on Saturday, November 20, at 2 in the Media Library. Admission is free.