• Directed by Chartchai Ketknust, Manus Worrasingha, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit and Poj Arnon
• Starring Mai Charoenpura, Akara Amarttayakul, Supaksorn Chaimongkol, Sattawat Sethakorn
• Released in Thai cinemas on January 28, 2010; rated 18+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 4/5

There is an exploitive Grindhouse feel to the portmanteau horror Tai Hong (ตายโหง, Die a Violent Death), four short stories that are ripped bleeding from the gruesome front pages of Thailand's mass-market daily newspapers -- the ones that infamously splash gore-filled pictures of motorcycle wrecks on their front pages.

The segments deal with a fire in a nightclub on New Year's Eve, death in jail, a dead body in an apartment building's water tank and a haunted motel room.


Released by Phranakorn Film and put together by producer-director Poj Arnon, the results are grittier than the successful recent horror anthologies of other Thai studios -- GTH with its Phobia (Phrang) series and Sahamongkol's Haunted Universities (Maha'lai Sayong Kwan).

Joining Poj in his fun are three indie filmmakers, Chartchai Ketknust, Manus Worrasingha and Tanwarin Sukkhapisit.

Chartchai handles the first segment, Flame, which controversially addresses the blaze at Santika, a Bangkok nightclub where 66 people died as the result of a fire on New Year's Eve 2008-09. It still may be too soon for a movie to portray the events of that night with any sensitivity or respect. But somehow, through the lethal mix of flaming cocktails, rock band pyrotechnics and a goofy decapitation by Christian cross, there is surprisingly sweet closure for one guy, portrayed by "Golf" Akara Amarttayakul and his girlfriend (Pimonrat Pisolyabut).

Imprison, directed by Manus, is a psychological horror, about a man ("Tae" Sattawat Sethakorn) who's put in a jail cell where a suicidal inmate's corpse had just been removed. Guilt weighs heavily on the prisoner, and with the passing of each night night behind bars, the horrible reality of what he's done grips him tighter and tighter. It doesn't help that the prisoner in an adjoining cell (Attaporn Teemakorn) is creeping him out.


Revenge, by Tanwarin, is a sickening look at what happens when a deaf drug dealer (Weeradit Srimalai) stashes an overdose victim (“Dew” Arisara Tongborisuth) in the water tank of his apartment building. It's not clear how it occurred to him to put the body there, without thinking through the possibilities of what might happen to the building's water supply. But Tanwarin, to her credit, shows us in sickening and graphic detail as bits of skin start turning up in people's water glasses. It's the classic Asian hair ghost, with those long black locks streaming out of the faucets and shower heads. The neighbors complain about the horrible odor of their water. Actress "Kratae" Supaksorn Chaimongkol is a resident leading the charge. She complains to the stern uncaring landlady, played in a guest-starring role by Wonderful Town actress Anchalee Saisoontorn. While the residents boil rice and shower in the foul water, the drug dealer is visited by the young woman's gore-covered ghost.

Finally there is Haunted Motel, a hilarious segment by Poj that features two veteran actresses, Mai Charoenpura, vamping it up for all its worth as an aging prostitute, and Wasana Chalakorn, the crazy lady from last year's The 8th Day, again as a crazy lady. Picked up by two men on a motorcycle ("Moddam" Kachapa Tancharoen and Ratchanont Sukpragawp) and taken to one of Bangkok's many curtained drive-in short-time motels, Mai finds herself in the room with a pair of bumbling idiots and thinks she can quickly abscond with the Blackberry phone of one of the men. But the gold-toothed old cat lady who runs the motel gets in the way. Meanwhile back in the room, more about the relationship of the two men is revealed. The segment gives way to the typical Thai horror comedy of much running around in circles while screaming, but brilliantly, Poj parodies the convention that he himself has been guilty of falling for, with Mai stopping to ask herself, "oh, why am I running around screaming?"


The segments, which unspool consecutively, are tied together by an opening scene that has the various characters meeting up around the nightclub. Mai's crooked hooker pickpockets Akara before she departs in search of other fresh meat. Kratae appears in Imprison as a visiting friend of the inmate. These feel like unnecessary padding until a final flourish at the end makes it all worth it.

Seeing Tai Hong in a cinema, with an enthusiastic Saturday night crowd was a great experience. The Grindhouse atmosphere -- the exploitive, ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter, the cast of familiar actors being put through their paces and a Suspiria-like color palette -- was firmly felt when the reel broke almost toward the end. The lights came immediately and a smooth jazz soundtrack blared out of the speakers. After about five minutes, just when folks were starting to wonder if the movie was over, the lights went out and the movie started back up again, and Tai Hong roared to an ending that will likely seem a lot less impactful when seen at home on DVD.


Related posts:

• A horror omnibus from Phranakorn: Die a Violent Death

• Directed by Thunska Pansittivorakul
• Starring Panuwat Wisessiri
• World premiere at 2010 International Film Festival Rotterdam; reviewed on screener DVD
• Wise Kwai's rating: 5/5

I'll never look at an orange the same way again. In fact, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to eat one. Traumatized by citrus fruit is what I am, all thanks to Thunska Pansittivorakul and his new feature, Reincarnate.

Oranges actually cause the main character in Reincarnate to become nauseous. He explains his mother always gave them to him, and he never told her they made him ill. It's just one of the many mysteries of Reincarnate.

Full of Thunska's wickedly playful sense of humor, his indulgences and uncompromising viewpoints, Reincarnate is a quintessential work by the maverick gay indie filmmaker. It's a challenge to watch, at least it was for me, but is not without rewards. It may be his best work yet.

Thunska does not shy away from reveling in the naked flesh of the male form. His camera explores his young actor's body like it's a new world, waiting to be discovered. His hand reaches out and caresses that bare skin, and, at one point, massages a young man's penis to an erection and strokes it until he has what is purported to be legitimate Thai cinema's first money shot.

It's not the only thing that will provoke Thailand's censors, who take a dim view of just showing genitalia, let alone long, staring takes that serve as anatomical studies.

In prologue text, Thunska details the history of Thailand's first ratings system coming into effect in 2009 and the banning of his previous feature This Area Is Under Quarantine from the 2009 World Film Festival of Bangkok.

Quarantine addressed Islam and homosexuality in Thai society, and culminated in two young men -- one Buddhist from Northeast Thailand the other a Muslim from Southern Thailand -- having sex in a hotel room. But the reason cited for the film's ban wasn't because of the nudity and sex but because it contained suppressed footage from 2004's Tak Bai incident, in which male Muslim protesters were rounded up, bound and stuffed into trucks. Some 85 detainees died, mostly from suffocation.


Reincarnate -- the title signifying a rebirth or reboot -- also delves into Thai politics and society. The prologue text helpfully explains Thailand's color-coded political factions -- yellow for the middle- and upper-class Bangkok elite who supported the 2006 coup that unseated populist billionaire prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who's supported by the red-shirted rural poor. There's also the shadowy blue shirts who serve the self-interests of influential political coalition leader Newin Chidchob.

Lounging in their room at an island resort, the director-cameraman and his actor play the woodblock stacking game of Jenga. The blocks are painted red, yellow and blue. Build the wobbly tower up, pull one of the blocks out and watch it topple.

There is also allusive commentary about the proliferation of the invasive water hyacinth, an aquatic plant that chokes out native flora and fauna in the estuaries and rivers.

Yet through the jerking off and metaphors about Thai society, Reincarnate is actually a pleasure to watch.

An interesting effect is when the "student" stands in front of a window, one side of which is open and has bright sunlight streaming through, silhouetting the man's figure. The other side of the window is closed, filtering the light and providing a contrasting half. Another scene has the light streaming down at an angle, framing the man as he showers. Cigarette smoke hovers in the light. There's strobe effects in one scene and shaky cam in another as the subject is chased through ruined huts, causing me to think "oh, experimental".

The film travels the breadth and length of the country, hitting the historic island of Koh Si Chang, at one time a royal retreat but now an anchorage point for freighter ships and weekend getaway for Bangkok holidaymakers. Trat province further down the Eastern Seaboard, next door to Cambodia is another location. And there is documentary footage of a son visiting his mother in Songkhla in the South, crediting Thai indie film godfather Apichatpong Weerasethakul as producer.

Like the orange, Reincarnate is a luscious, juicy film. Beautifully framed and full of infectious playful energy and experimentalism. And hard to categorize. Travelogue, documentary, romantic drama, political satire and social commentary make an intoxicating, sticky and possibly volatile cocktail. Just watch out where you're sticking that thumb.

It will likely never be shown publicly in Thailand. See it if you dare!


Related posts:

• Berlin screening added for Reincarnate
• Reincarnate, Slice selected for NETPAC competition at Rotterdam
• Full program for 39th Rotterdam fest is online
• Thunska's Reincarnate to make world premiere in Rotterdam

Anocha Suwichakornpong's Mundane History Jao Nok Krajok) is among the recipients of the VPRO Tiger Awards at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

The jury consists French actress and singer Jeanne Balibar, Polish-Dutch filmmaker Úrszula Antoniak, former director of the Singapore International Film Festival Philip Cheah, Mexican filmmaker and jury chair Amat Escalante and Ugandan actor and activist Okello Kelo Sam. Their statement about Mundane History:

Constantly surprising, this film offers philosophical and political dimension of Thai society, while presenting a seemingly mundane story. To us, this film appeals to both intellect and spirituality. We are impressed by the film's accomplished way to interplay abstract ideas and harrowing reality.

Three winners were selected from the field of 15 films by first- or second-time directors. The other winners were Agua fría de mar (Cold Water of the Sea) by Paz Fábrega (Costa Rica, France, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico) and Alamar (To the Sea) by Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio (Mexico).

The Tiger Award is another great success for Anocha, who was earlier awarded the €15,000 Prince Claus Grant for development of her sophomore feature, By the Time It Gets Dark.

Update: More thoughts about Mundane History at The Auteurs.

Anocha Suwichakornpong's By the Time It Gets Dark was awarded the Prince Claus Fund Film Grant at the close of CineMart 2010 on Wednesday night at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

According to an IFFR press release, the jury chaired by documentary filmmaker Bregtje van der Haak was impressed by the “unconventional episodic storytelling” of Anocha's proposal, which is described as "a highly personal take on contemporary Thailand".

The €15,000 award, now in its tenth year, is given to a CineMart project by a filmmaker from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Caribbean, to support early-stage project development.

Here's more about the project, via an e-mailed press release from IFFR:

The storyline chronicles the adventures and misadventures of a strong woman who is looking for freedom in the way she lives. Despite its metaphorical sounding title, the film is based on the physical realities of everyday life.

The jury is impressed by the use of unconventional 'episodic' storytelling to evoke a strong and highly personal perspective on contemporary Thailand. The story is only advanced by the inner desires of the main character, while exploring the physical realities of everyday life and digging deep into the landscapes, whether they be the factories and high rise buildings of the expanding mega polis of Bangkok or the natural beauty of Thailand. It is a portrait of Thailand that will never make it to the tourist-billboard dotted Bangkok. By The Time It Gets Dark will be the second feature film of a young, yet mature filmmaker that has already impressed the jury with her first feature film Mundane History, supported by the Hubert Bals Fund and currently in competition at IFFR.

The scrīpt evokes a strong and unique perspective on Thai culture; as marvelous sceneries combined with images and sound overtake established conventions of storytelling. To quote director Anocha Suwichakornpong, "It is my intention to make a film that digs deep into the landscapes, whether they be the man-made landscape or the natural landscape [....] it is the heroine’s inner conflicts and her emotions which remain the core of the story, and thus the main subjects of study in this film."

Anocha's Mundane History, is making its European premiere in the VPRO Tiger Awards competition at IFFR. It is among many Thai titles at the fest, which includes the premieres of Thunska Pansittivorakul's Reincarnate, Jakrawal Nilthamrong's Unreal Forest as well as Slice by Kongkiat Komesiri, Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Nymph and the short film Four Boys, White Whiskey and Grilled Mouse by Wichanon Somumjarn, produced by Anocha's Electric Eel Films.

The festival runs until Sunday.

Update: Here's a video message from Anocha, telling you why you should watch Mundane History.



(Via Extra Virgin)

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations have been announced, and Thailand missed out on a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Yongyoot Thongkongtoon's Best of Times was submitted but didn't make the cut for the shortlist.

But Thailand and Southeast Asia are still represented -- in the Best Documentary Feature category with Burma VJ, directed by Anders Østergaard. It's the second consecutive year for a nod by a Southeast Asian documentary. Last year The Betrayal, Laotian filmmaker Thavisouk Phrasavath's story, co-directed with Ellen Kuras, was a longshot to win an Oscar.

Chronicling the work of brave dissident video-journalists during the September 2007 "Saffron Revolution" uprisings led by Buddhist monks in Burma, Burma VJ focuses on a shadowy figure named Joshua, whose real name and identity are kept secret in order to protect him from harm by the Burmese military government.

When it became too dangerous for Joshua to work in Burma, he crossed the border into Thailand and set up shop in Chiang Mai, where he monitored satellite transmissions and e-mails from his VJ colleagues in Rangoon, and forwarded footage to his Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma network, which then provided the clips to major news organizations.

It's an amazing and moving documentary, almost universally praised, though Time magazine critic Andrew Marshall has faulted the film for its use of reconstructed footage. Marshall says:

No scene is labeled as a reconstruction. Some are convincingly real, yet others are so simply betrayed as re-enactments by their wooden dialogue that soon I began to anxiously question the authenticity of every scene. I felt moved by a sequence showing protesters gathering on a Rangoon backstreet in defiance of the junta. But when I learned that it had been shot from scratch in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, I felt something else: manipulated.

I think that all documentary films tend to have manipulative elements -- some more overt than others. Some documentaries may not intend to be manipulative but they can't help it. In the case of the Burma VJ, I wonder if the reconstructed protest scene Marshall mentions was really necessary? Would the movie have less impact without it? And will the Academy voters consider it when they are casting their ballot?