Thai Cinema Roundup For 2005

[sabaijai]

2005 was another dreary year for mainstream Thai movies, but indie

filmmakers offered a glimmer of hope

Story by KONG RITHDEE

To look for the accomplished Thai films of 2005, we need to turn our

backs on the vapid multiplex releases and scour the fringes. As

pictures made by major studios nosedived into a dreary zone during the

past 12 months, small movies made through unconventional means _ and

modestly shown to small public gatherings _ have increasingly become a

lush playground for veterans and newcomers driven by ideas. More than

ever when the term "Thai movies" is mentioned, one needs to think

beyond the gaudy carnival of expensively promoted yet ineptly made

studio flicks, to see the fertile turf of short and independent works

outside "the system".

Clearer than ever, too, is it that we can draw a frightening comparison

between the country's political climate and the state of the local

movie business. As the motto of self-sufficiency is ruthlessly trampled

by the powers-that-be _ as the national economic engine encourages

excess rather than adequacy, form rather than content, texture rather

than quality _ Thai movie companies have gleefully served up the

equivalent of the ruling party's populist policies: they treat us to

movies that look good on their advertising posters (and how much they

spend on those posters!), but contain near-zero substance and paltry

entertainment value.

In the mid-1990s, critics bemoaned the fact that the local industry was

capable of producing a mere dozen titles each year. But within that

small trove, the average picture quality was higher than in the first

half of the 2000s when investors, worked up by rampant capitalism, have

made more and more movies that were pure junk. Observers now lament that

it'd probably be better if we could go back to producing a dozen movies

each year _ and wish that along with such self-sufficiency will come a

great cultural virtue.

Mainstream Thai movies of 2005

Thirty-nine Thai movies opened in the theatres last year, but not a

single one of them turned out to be a gem _ either as an aesthetic

specimen or prize entertainment. To put it bluntly, there was no "best

Thai film of 2005", not in the theatres at least.

Paradoxically though, 2005 was an exceptionally lucrative year for the

local film industry. Three films made it past the 100-million-baht

mark, and the combined revenue of the 39 films exceed one billion baht

(last year there were 45 movies, with total receipts of 850 million

baht). This invites several interpretations. Firstly, the hefty sum

means there's more money circulating in the system, which ensures even

more film productions in 2006. Secondly, since 90 percent of the

mainstream films last year were of mediocre quality, it doesn't lift

our hearts to think how many dreadful duds we'll see over the next 12

months. The increasing revenue, moreover, has to be regarded in

relation to the increasing production _ and promotion _ cost of each

title.

An elephantine factor that boosted the receipts of the industry was the

release of Sahamongkol Film's Tom Yum Goong in August. The film reigned

as the box office's champion when it grossed 200 million baht (second in

history after Suriyothai), though it severely suffered from critical

barbs over its appalling quality. But what Tom Yum Goong showed was how

an advertising blitz _ and Jaa Panom's individual brilliance _ could

overcome the effects of bad word-of-mouth. If the formula is to be

repeated, we're sure to see the talented Jaa in many more bad movies in

the years to come.

Two other flicks that coasted through the 100-million-baht milestone

were both slapsticks targeted at suburban viewers. A true dark horse,

Luang Pee Teng (The Holy Man) racked up 141 million baht thanks largely

to the routine tomfoolery of its star, TV funnyman Teng Terdterng.

Meanwhile, another television buffoon, Mum Jokmok, who co-starred in

Tom Yum Goong, took a provincial farce called Yaem Yasothorn to join

the century club despite its shabby quality.

Both comedies proved that comedians are the only reliable superstars of

Thai showbiz. For studio chiefs, it doesn't matter if Teng's and Mum's

movies are simply a longer (and dirtier) version of their weekly

television gigs as long as their droll faces on the posters continue to

draw the crowds _ especially during the first weekend. So, again, the

formula will definitely be repeated, and we'll be sure to see more

coarse-textured, subpar comedies featuring prominent jesters this year.

The most diligent company was obviously Sahamongkol Film, with a dozen

movies released, way ahead of other major studios like R.S. Film, which

had five, GTH, with three, and Five Star Production, with just one movie

launched. The rest were pictures produced by minor studios like

Phranakorn Film, which celebrated its jackpot with The Holy Man, CM

Film, Mangpong and Mono Film.

When 2005 began, all hope was heaped upon Jira Malikool's Muang Rae (The

Tin Mine) for his meticulously made movie, an adaptation of a popular

memoir by national artist Archin Panchapan, promised to raise the

artistic standards of local cinema. The finished film, however, was

insipid to say the least, whereas its box office performance was even

more depressing. Muang Rae's flop was a shocking blow to the

young-blooded studio GTH, and the consolation only came with its

October release of Puen Sanit (Dear Dakanda), a cute, saccharine-coated

teen romance that earned 80 million baht to shore up the studio's

reserves.

Two Thai documentaries supplied meaty stuff to the multiplexes usually

swamped with feature films. Both of them _ Santi Taepanic's Sua Rong

Hai and Nisa Kongsri and Areeya Jumsai's Dek Toh _ at least helped pry

open the door for the release of alternative cinema and refreshed the

audience's perception that documentaries do deserve a space on the big

screen.

But in retrospect, if there was a movie worth remembering, though we'd

be hard pushed to proclaim it the best film of the year, it was Kongdej

Jaturanrasamee's poignant, contemporary, overlong and quite unoriginal

Cherm (Midnight My Love). Comedian Mum Jokmok (him again!) stars as a

stoic, wounded, night-shift cab driver who falls for a massage parlour

girl. Kongdej's talent and confidence have significantly grown in his

second movie, and he represented a small glimmer of brightness in the

rather dim year of mainstream Thai films.

Gems on the fringe

Let's cut to the chase: the best Thai films of 2005 include Apichatpong

Weerasethakul's Worldly Desires, Thunska Pansittiworakul's Vous Vous

Souviens de Moi? and Pramote Sangsorn's Tsu.

Don't wince if you haven't seen, or even heard of, these titles. Most

people haven't either. But isn't it necessary _ when the big money

spent by studios has resulted in soul-depleting cine-trash _ for us to

search for passion and restore our faith in cinema elsewhere?

The three films I mentioned are examples of a hundred more home-made

pictures, mostly shorts, that shake loose the industry's straightjacket

to practice a form of self-sufficiency by producing small movies that

feed the minds of their makers and viewers.

The monopoly of the mainstream financing scheme _ which avoids taking

any artistic risks _ has produced a reaction among independent

filmmakers. Hence it's likely that as long as the Thai studios continue

to supply the theatres with junk, the non-mainstream scene's reactionary

creativity will acquire great strength to make even more interesting

pictures.

Apichatpong is definitely one of the greatest thinkers of cinema alive

today. His Worldly Desires is a playful, oddball video diary of his

affection for the jungle, the preferred location in his feature-length

movies Blissfully Yours and Tropical Malady. Like all his films, this

40-minute work is a refraction unto itself _ and to what came before

it. The concept of the movie is a Chinese Box high-jinx: Apichatpong

invited his filmmaker friend, Pimpaka Towira, to shoot a movie, which

tells the story of two lovers who've fled into the jungle, and

Apichatpong himself video-ed his friend while she and her crew were

shooting that film-within-a-film. The light feeling of the movie is

nurtured by the relaxed virtuosity of this shrewd structuralist in

control of his medium. (The film was shown at the Bangkok Short Film

and Video Festival in August).

Darker in temperament, and more eager to belch fire all over taboo

subjects, Thunska Pansittiworakul is an enfant terrible who admits his

obsession with penises. His prolific video works sometimes have the

rash quality of a movie made after a scandalously drunken night in

somebody's garage, but in Vous Vous Souviens de Moi?, he manages to

structure a melancholic tale of a robot boy who wants to feel love

inside a hallucinatory shell of his fragmented storytelling. The

seven-minute movie (which of course contains a shot of an erect penis)

was shown at First Frame Festival in January 2005, and recently at the

4th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival.

Pramote Sangsorn's Tsu, meanwhile, is a short made to commemorate the

tsunami disaster. It is part of a 13-film package, and to me its

elusive nature, which centres around a boy who goes around changing the

warning flags on a wind-swept beach, makes it the most luminous among

the bunch. Pramote's film was premiered at the World Film Festival of

Bangkok in October.

Flame-haired Pramote is a former child star who shows such exciting

promise as a movie director, but his struggle to get his feature-length

script made into a movie has hit so many bumps since the investors

deemed it as having limited commercial appeal. If that remains the fate

of a young, committed, talented director in this country, we'll have to

continue to look for hidden gems in the wild territory of the

independent scene, while keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that

the situation in the mainstream circuit won't get any worse than it

already has.

source: Bangkok Post

Thai cinema 2005

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I just got a cold shiver down my spine when i remembered how laughibly poor Tom Yum Goong was.

That movie was an absolute joke - unbelievable when you consider how brilliant Ong Bak is.