Thai cinema has a long history of misrepresenting the Lgbtqia+ community. Early films, such as “It's All Because of Katoey” (1954) contributed to the assignation of homosexuality as a social deviance. Today, Thai media have made significant progress in presenting nuanced experiences of Lgbtqia+ individuals in modern Thai society. This article presents a chronological list of 12 Thai fiction films that help understanding this evolution.
1. The Last Song (1985) by Pisan Akaraseranee
“The Last Song” tells the bittersweet story of Somying (Somying Daorai), a beautiful and successful showgirl working in a famous transvestite cabaret in Pattaya. Through her thwarted love affair with a handsome male singer, the film highlights the difficulties of being trans in Thai society. It is one of the first films to cast a transgender woman in a leading role. The film's release was a revolutionary moment, not only for the Thai entertainment industry, but also for the Lgbtqia+ community.
1. The Last Song (1985) by Pisan Akaraseranee
“The Last Song” tells the bittersweet story of Somying (Somying Daorai), a beautiful and successful showgirl working in a famous transvestite cabaret in Pattaya. Through her thwarted love affair with a handsome male singer, the film highlights the difficulties of being trans in Thai society. It is one of the first films to cast a transgender woman in a leading role. The film's release was a revolutionary moment, not only for the Thai entertainment industry, but also for the Lgbtqia+ community.
- 3/19/2024
- by Hugo Hamon
- AsianMoviePulse
Veteran Thai filmmaker Pantham Thongsang has rejoined Tifa Studios to spearhead international co-productions as Thai authorities gear up to enhance the country’s global competitiveness through soft power.
Pantham, who has 30 years of producing and directing experience, is a pioneer of international co-productions for Thailand, having produced through Tifa 2004’s Cannes award-winner Tropical Malady and 2006’s Syndromes And A Century. Both films were directed by Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Pantham was most recently HBO’s country lead for original productions in Thailand and a senior executive at Thailand’s The One Enterprise public limited company, responsible for the launch of...
Pantham, who has 30 years of producing and directing experience, is a pioneer of international co-productions for Thailand, having produced through Tifa 2004’s Cannes award-winner Tropical Malady and 2006’s Syndromes And A Century. Both films were directed by Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Pantham was most recently HBO’s country lead for original productions in Thailand and a senior executive at Thailand’s The One Enterprise public limited company, responsible for the launch of...
- 3/13/2024
- ScreenDaily
Five years after the remarkable success of “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” that won the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 2010 and many more festival awards, director and eclectic Thai video artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul presented “Cemetery of Splendour”, another imaginative and enigmatic work that elaborates on the author's fascination with the act of sleeping as a means of accessing deeper layers of consciousness and understanding.
Cemetery of Splendour is screening at Metrograph
In order to be enchanted by the director's imaginative and hypnotic world you need to unlock a certain receptiveness towards a non-traditional narrative, a storytelling that is more stratified than linear. The film takes place in the town of Khon Kaen, Isan province, Northwest of Thailand where the director grew up, and more than a story, there are many places and many stories. There is a former school transformed into a small country hospital in a...
Cemetery of Splendour is screening at Metrograph
In order to be enchanted by the director's imaginative and hypnotic world you need to unlock a certain receptiveness towards a non-traditional narrative, a storytelling that is more stratified than linear. The film takes place in the town of Khon Kaen, Isan province, Northwest of Thailand where the director grew up, and more than a story, there are many places and many stories. There is a former school transformed into a small country hospital in a...
- 2/14/2024
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Beware, spoilers! You may witness the most astonishingly beautiful allegory of death in a movie. The kind of long takes that flashed your mind and remains diffused long after the details of the plot are forgotten. But Shh… these few words should be enough to convince you to watch “Tomorrow is a long time”, the first feature-length film of Singapore's brilliant new formalist, Jow Zhi Wei.
Tomorrow is a Long Time is screening at Black Movie
In a fantasized Singapore, as an archetype of any tropical Asian modern city, the 17 years old Meng is raised alone by an austere hard-working father after his mother has left home, seemingly without an address. Meng's narrative has been clearly devised upon two distinct movements. The first part immerses us in the day-to-day life of this dysfunctional family surviving in a cold and harsh society. While the silent Meng is struggling to exist among...
Tomorrow is a Long Time is screening at Black Movie
In a fantasized Singapore, as an archetype of any tropical Asian modern city, the 17 years old Meng is raised alone by an austere hard-working father after his mother has left home, seemingly without an address. Meng's narrative has been clearly devised upon two distinct movements. The first part immerses us in the day-to-day life of this dysfunctional family surviving in a cold and harsh society. While the silent Meng is struggling to exist among...
- 2/6/2024
- by Jean Claude
- AsianMoviePulse
Every 10 years, the British Film Institute pulls together critics from around the world to vote on its “Sight and Sound” poll to determine the best films ever made. In the most recent poll, traditional heavy-hitters like “Vertigo” and “Citizen Kane” were pushed aside as a new film was crowned the greatest.
According to the critics, the best film ever made is “Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels” from 1975. You can catch this classic with a 7-day free trial of Max. In fact, a whopping 41 films from this list can be found on Max.
7-Day Free Trial $9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com
The list contains masterworks from geniuses like Kubrick, Chaplin, Scorsese, Wilder, Godard, Miyazaki, and Hitchcock. The most recent films on the list both come from 2019: “Parasite” and “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”
So pop the popcorn and fire up your favorite streaming device. Here’s the list of movies that surpass all others.
According to the critics, the best film ever made is “Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels” from 1975. You can catch this classic with a 7-day free trial of Max. In fact, a whopping 41 films from this list can be found on Max.
7-Day Free Trial $9.99+ / month Max via amazon.com
The list contains masterworks from geniuses like Kubrick, Chaplin, Scorsese, Wilder, Godard, Miyazaki, and Hitchcock. The most recent films on the list both come from 2019: “Parasite” and “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”
So pop the popcorn and fire up your favorite streaming device. Here’s the list of movies that surpass all others.
- 12/29/2023
- by Ben Bowman
- The Streamable
It’s often said that the sign of a true craftsman is the ability to make complex tasks look effortless. No 21st-century filmmaker more breezily captures the multiplicity of modern life than Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who across seven solo-directed features and dozens of short films has created worlds both cosmic and intimate. Less than two years after Memoria‘s U.S. premiere shook Lincoln Center’s foundation at the 59th New York Film Festival, he has been invited back for a full-career retrospective paired with screenings of works that inspire, inform, and challenge his own body of work.
Ahead of the series, kicking off this Thursday at Film at Lincoln Center, Apichatpong joined us over video chat from Thailand to discuss his career, process, and future.
The Film Stage: A little note before my questions begin: In 2011, when I was 17, I reached out to you through the comments section of your production company,...
Ahead of the series, kicking off this Thursday at Film at Lincoln Center, Apichatpong joined us over video chat from Thailand to discuss his career, process, and future.
The Film Stage: A little note before my questions begin: In 2011, when I was 17, I reached out to you through the comments section of your production company,...
- 5/2/2023
- by Jason Miller
- The Film Stage
While we’ve known the results of Jeanne Dielman Tops Sight and Sound‘s 2022 Greatest Films of All-Time List”>Sight & Sound’s once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll for a few months now, the recent release of the individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400+ films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
- 3/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Above: US Teaser poster for Crimes of the Future. Design by Bangers & Mash.In the middle of the Venice Film Festival, and in the lead-up to the Toronto and New York fests, still the most “liked” poster of the last six months of my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram was a teaser poster that appeared in the run-up to Cannes in the spring. The poster was for was one of the most anticipated films of Cannes, a film that has since been disseminated to the world with a much tamer big-head poster and even tamer home video art. The Crimes of the Future teaser racked up nearly 2,000 likes and not far behind it was a gorgeous art print for Cronenberg’s 30-year-old Naked Lunch by the very talented (and seemingly Cronenberg-obsessed) Nick Charge that I posted a few months later. As I’ve been doing for the past few years,...
- 9/9/2022
- MUBI
“We use ambience to tell the story. It’s more important than music. Ambience.” —Akritchalerm KalayanamitrApichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria starts with a sonic sensation, a “bang” that wakes up Tilda Swinton’s Jessica Holland. The noise propels her body and thus the narrative, inasmuch as it sets the viewer’s trajectory onto the realms of sound. In other words, the film becomes all about sound; about hearing, listening and feeling; about the whole notions of the smallest details the sound can produce, which we, the viewers-listeners, microdose along with the screening. To talk about the sonic sphere of Apichatpong’s works, I met with Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr, one of the most active sound designers in South East Asia, who worked with the Thai director on most of his films and art installations, including the latest one, Memoria.The conversation started about a vinyl compilation, “Metaphors.” “A happy customer!”, said Akritchalerm (also...
- 4/19/2022
- MUBI
The presence or absence of sound in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films is a fundamental element, as is its timing. Sound is a character alluding to memory, touch, the erotic, the urban and natural world. At just under two hours, this mix is a dreamscape journey into Apichatpong’s cinema sonics. From the opening edit, we’re surrounded by the luscious sounds of Syndromes and a Century (2006), traveling through the Thai director’s singular vision of place, love, desire, family, the body, history, and the conscious versus unconscious. Moments of song or dialogue tend to break the chapters. A jolt of song at the titles (not necessarily approaching at the presumed moment) making way for the next act, a motorcycle ride, or a much-favored exercise class, music bursts out momentarily relieving ambient trance. Here there's a focus on several films, Syndromes and a Century, Blissfully Yours (2002), Tropical Malady (2004) and Mysterious Object at Noon...
- 1/26/2022
- MUBI
Whether shooting in the enspirited jungles of his native Thailand or the mystical rainforests of Colombia, Apichatpong Weerasethakul has a sleeping problem. His head keeps exploding. Imagine a cannon in your brain with a will of its own, an ever-ticking time bomb detonating at random inside your skull. It’s called Exploding Head Syndrome and, well, it keeps him up. How precious is the peaceability of stillness when the alternative is bone-rattling booms? The silver lining: he’s been busy.
The Palme d’Or-winning writer/director, known for still, ethereal, and inscrutable works like Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Tropical Malady, is back with his ninth feature. Memoria marks his first film outside of Thailand, his first in Spanish and English, and his first working with a professional lead actor in Tilda Swinton. The longtime friends have been angling at a project together for over ten years,...
The Palme d’Or-winning writer/director, known for still, ethereal, and inscrutable works like Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Tropical Malady, is back with his ninth feature. Memoria marks his first film outside of Thailand, his first in Spanish and English, and his first working with a professional lead actor in Tilda Swinton. The longtime friends have been angling at a project together for over ten years,...
- 12/31/2021
- by Luke Hicks
- The Film Stage
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose film oeuvre is gentle, perplexing and slightly trippy, immersed himself in things foreign for “Memoria,” only to find that many elements were decidedly familiar.
The movie, which screens this week at the Tokyo International Film Festival, was Weerasethakul’s first shot outside his native Thailand. The picture was also the first time that he got to work with his long-time friend, Scottish actor Tilda Swinton. Speaking more Spanish than English, she plays a foreign woman (Jessica) in Colombia who goes off in search of an ominous sound.
“Something I had dreamed of for a long time was working with Tilda. But we had to find a country that was foreign to both of us. We embraced the idea of not knowing, of exploring and to try to understand. The film is also about that too,” Weerasethakul said this week.
The director, who has a habit of describing...
The movie, which screens this week at the Tokyo International Film Festival, was Weerasethakul’s first shot outside his native Thailand. The picture was also the first time that he got to work with his long-time friend, Scottish actor Tilda Swinton. Speaking more Spanish than English, she plays a foreign woman (Jessica) in Colombia who goes off in search of an ominous sound.
“Something I had dreamed of for a long time was working with Tilda. But we had to find a country that was foreign to both of us. We embraced the idea of not knowing, of exploring and to try to understand. The film is also about that too,” Weerasethakul said this week.
The director, who has a habit of describing...
- 11/3/2021
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Distributor Neon has lined up a most unusual release plan for Thai filmmaker Apichatpong’s latest film “Memoria,” which won the Jury Prize at Cannes and is next playing at the New York Film Festival. IndieWire has the exclusive news on the release plan.
Rather than a traditional platform release in multiple theaters simultaneously, the Tilda Swinton-starring film will be rolled out with a “deliberate and methodical approach,” says Neon, “moving from city to city, theater to theater, week by week, playing in front of only one solitary audience at any given time.” The idea is to frame “Memoria” as a kind of never-ending, moving-image art exhibit. The film will only play in theaters, and it will not become available on DVD, on demand, or streaming platforms.
The launch will kick off at the IFC Center in New York on December 26, where it will play for a one-week exclusive theatrical run.
Rather than a traditional platform release in multiple theaters simultaneously, the Tilda Swinton-starring film will be rolled out with a “deliberate and methodical approach,” says Neon, “moving from city to city, theater to theater, week by week, playing in front of only one solitary audience at any given time.” The idea is to frame “Memoria” as a kind of never-ending, moving-image art exhibit. The film will only play in theaters, and it will not become available on DVD, on demand, or streaming platforms.
The launch will kick off at the IFC Center in New York on December 26, where it will play for a one-week exclusive theatrical run.
- 10/5/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
"It's like a rumble from the core of the Earth." Neon has unveiled the first official trailer for the mysterious new drama Memoria, the latest film from acclaimed Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, best known for his films Tropical Malady, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Mekong Hotel among many, many other creative projects. This is premiering in the main competition at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival this week, and Neon already has plans to release it soon. A woman from Scotland, while traveling in Colombia, begins to notice strange sounds. Soon she begins to think about their appearance. That's about all we know. Tilda Swinton stars with a cast including Elkin Díaz, Jeanne Balibar, Juan Pablo Urrego, Daniel Giménez Cacho, and Agnes Brekke. The director explains his idea for this: "While researching, I often heard a loud noise at dawn. It was internal and has occurred in many of the places I visited.
- 7/12/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Ever the weaver of mysterious, transcendent dramas that unfold across far-flung landscapes that stir awakenings in his protagonists, Apichatpong Weerasethakul returns with the long-awaited “Memoria.” This marks the Thai filmmaker’s English-language debut and his first pairing with Tilda Swinton. The film, which premieres July 15 at Cannes, will be released later this year in the United States by distributor Neon. An official trailer has been released in the meantime. Check it out below.
The drama is centered on a Scottish woman who, after hearing a strange banging sound at daybreak, begins to experience a bizarre sensory syndrome while she’s traveling through the jungles of Colombia.
Weerasethakul has remained comfortably outside of any studio system, making the films he wants to make, from the beautiful and beguiling queer love story “Tropical Malady” to the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning folk tale “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.” But distribution...
The drama is centered on a Scottish woman who, after hearing a strange banging sound at daybreak, begins to experience a bizarre sensory syndrome while she’s traveling through the jungles of Colombia.
Weerasethakul has remained comfortably outside of any studio system, making the films he wants to make, from the beautiful and beguiling queer love story “Tropical Malady” to the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning folk tale “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.” But distribution...
- 7/12/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
A sweeping and melancholic first trailer has arrived for Neon’s secret omnibus film project, “The Year of the Everlasting Storm.” Featuring seven stories from seven auteurs from around the world, the film chronicles an unprecedented moment in time, and is a true love letter to the power of cinema and its storytellers. The seven-segment film is set to debut at the Cannes Film Festival this year (re-opening its doors for an in-person event after last year’s cancelled one), alongside two other Neon titles, “Memoria,” directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (who has a segment in “Everlasting Storm”) and “Titane,” directed by Julia Ducournau.
“The Year of the Everlasting Storm” has been slotted as Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival this year. (The full lineup for the French festival was just announced on Thursday.) The film features contributions from seven major award-winning directors: Weerasethakul, David Lowery, Laura Poitras, Jafar Panahi,...
“The Year of the Everlasting Storm” has been slotted as Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival this year. (The full lineup for the French festival was just announced on Thursday.) The film features contributions from seven major award-winning directors: Weerasethakul, David Lowery, Laura Poitras, Jafar Panahi,...
- 6/3/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
In remaking local versions of Thai and Chinese language content Bangkok- and Beijing-based Artop Media may have lucked onto one of the hottest trends of the moment in the Asian TV space.
That’s because Thai content is increasingly successful on mainland Chinese streaming networks, and, as multiple speakers have noted in the first two day of FilMart, Thai content is increasingly working across East and Southeast Asia too.
At FilMart this week Artop is pitching currently in-production series “My Lucky Star” an adaptation of an earlier Taiwanese show. The new version is directed by Pantham Thonsang, well known as a producer and line producer of films including “Shutter,” and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Tropical Malady” and “Syndromes and a Century.” It stars Thanapat Kawila and Anchasa Mongkhonsamai (Bifern) as the male and female leads.
For 2021, it also has 2021 “Meow Ears up!” which was previously a novel in China and an...
That’s because Thai content is increasingly successful on mainland Chinese streaming networks, and, as multiple speakers have noted in the first two day of FilMart, Thai content is increasingly working across East and Southeast Asia too.
At FilMart this week Artop is pitching currently in-production series “My Lucky Star” an adaptation of an earlier Taiwanese show. The new version is directed by Pantham Thonsang, well known as a producer and line producer of films including “Shutter,” and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Tropical Malady” and “Syndromes and a Century.” It stars Thanapat Kawila and Anchasa Mongkhonsamai (Bifern) as the male and female leads.
For 2021, it also has 2021 “Meow Ears up!” which was previously a novel in China and an...
- 3/16/2021
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
We speak with Sompot Chidgasompongse about Railway Sleepers, trains, Thailand, his collaboration with Weerasethakul and many other topics
Tell us a bit about the British you talk to at the end of the film. The dialogues seemed kind of surrealistic.
It’s getting late at night, and you start to talk about your past, about your life. But then the morning comes, and you’re not sure if you were dreaming or not. The British character was constructed from real historical figures who have worked on Thai trains since the very beginning. They are all dead by now, so I needed to re-create the character. The dialogues were also based on actual academic studies, historical research, oral-histories, diaries of many people. I wanted to create a dreamlike feeling where you cannot be sure what is real and what is not. History is also like that.
You have collaborated with Apichatpong Weerasethakul a number of times,...
Tell us a bit about the British you talk to at the end of the film. The dialogues seemed kind of surrealistic.
It’s getting late at night, and you start to talk about your past, about your life. But then the morning comes, and you’re not sure if you were dreaming or not. The British character was constructed from real historical figures who have worked on Thai trains since the very beginning. They are all dead by now, so I needed to re-create the character. The dialogues were also based on actual academic studies, historical research, oral-histories, diaries of many people. I wanted to create a dreamlike feeling where you cannot be sure what is real and what is not. History is also like that.
You have collaborated with Apichatpong Weerasethakul a number of times,...
- 7/12/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.
To fill the void left by the absence of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, for the next two weeks, this column will be dedicated to films that premiered at the festival over the course of seven decades.
Ghost monkeys. Reincarnation. Catfish cunnilingus. The inspired weirdness is so off the charts with “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” it almost sounds like a lark. Instead, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s mesmerizing Palme d’Or winner redefines the notion of “movie magic,” by conjuring images and experiences that transcend the boundaries of the screen. Ten years later, it remains a haunting, wondrous incantation — a movie that gives new meaning to fantasy filmmaking by refusing to escape the world, and instead attempting to see...
To fill the void left by the absence of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, for the next two weeks, this column will be dedicated to films that premiered at the festival over the course of seven decades.
Ghost monkeys. Reincarnation. Catfish cunnilingus. The inspired weirdness is so off the charts with “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” it almost sounds like a lark. Instead, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s mesmerizing Palme d’Or winner redefines the notion of “movie magic,” by conjuring images and experiences that transcend the boundaries of the screen. Ten years later, it remains a haunting, wondrous incantation — a movie that gives new meaning to fantasy filmmaking by refusing to escape the world, and instead attempting to see...
- 5/12/2020
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has, unsurprisingly, turned contemplative in quarantine, during which he’s been sheltered in Thailand, as IndieWire learned last month when the Thai filmmaker shared a thoughtful letter. The “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” and “Tropical Malady” director has another message for moviegoers, as revealed in a recent letter shared on Filmkrant. His utopian hope for the future of moviegoing is that the temporary pause put on the fast pace of life as it was before the coronavirus will inspire slower, more patient, and a more “stop and smell the roses” kind of film-watching. That’s exemplified, as he illustrates, in the films of Béla Tarr, Tsai Ming-Liang, Lucrecia Martel, Pedro Costa, and, of course, his own movies. Check out an excerpt from the letter below:
To keep our sanity, some of us have embraced mindfulness techniques. We try to observe our surroundings, emotions, actions,...
To keep our sanity, some of us have embraced mindfulness techniques. We try to observe our surroundings, emotions, actions,...
- 5/3/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has always been a filmmaker working outside the margins, so it seems appropriate that he’s found poetry in the isolation of the ongoing quarantine. That update comes courtesy of distributor Strand Releasing, which asked filmmakers, artists, and friends, how their lives were affected by the pandemic. The project is part of a collaboration with Criterion, which hosted the the “30/30 Vision” anthology celebrating Strand’s 30th anniversary last fall.
As shared exclusively with IndieWire, the “Tropical Malady” and “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” director has a message for fans from Thailand, where he lives and works. See below.
More from IndieWireHow Marvel's Go-To Previs Company Mobilized to Work Around the Global LockdownFujifilm, Camera and Film Giant, Is Leading Japan's Fight to Cure Coronavirus
I have a marian plum tree at my home. Previously I didn’t pay much attention to it because I was mostly away.
As shared exclusively with IndieWire, the “Tropical Malady” and “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” director has a message for fans from Thailand, where he lives and works. See below.
More from IndieWireHow Marvel's Go-To Previs Company Mobilized to Work Around the Global LockdownFujifilm, Camera and Film Giant, Is Leading Japan's Fight to Cure Coronavirus
I have a marian plum tree at my home. Previously I didn’t pay much attention to it because I was mostly away.
- 4/5/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Thai independent filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul has remained defiantly outside of any studio system, making the films he wants to make, from the beautiful and beguiling queer love story “Tropical Malady” to the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning, avant-garde folk tale “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.” His next project, and first solo feature since 2015’s “Cemetery of Splendor,” is “Memoria.” Shot and set in Colombia with Tilda Swinton — who practically has always seemed fated to star in a Weerasethakul outing — the film is yet another rumination on memory from the “Syndromes and a Century” director. Now, the publication La Tempestad has shared exclusive first images from “Memoria,” and a new interview with the filmmaker, offering the first taste of what’s sure to be another cosmic mystery from Weerasethakul.
Filmed in the mountains of the municipality of Pijao and Bogotá, “Memoria” centers on Swinton as a woman from Scotland who,...
Filmed in the mountains of the municipality of Pijao and Bogotá, “Memoria” centers on Swinton as a woman from Scotland who,...
- 2/14/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
30 Major Filmmakers Salute Strand Releasing’s 30 Years of Arthouse Distribution With New Short Films
For three decades, Strand Releasing has remained at the cutting-edge of arthouse distribution in America. Now, many of those filmmakers are returning the favor. For its 30th anniversary this fall, the company has commissioned 30 new short films shot on iPhones directed by world-class filmmakers. Entitled “30/30 Vision: 3 Decades of Strand Releasing,” the shorts will screen at several venues around the country this fall. The selection of shorts was produced by filmmaker Connor Jessup (“Simon’s Forest”), who also contributed to the selection.
Each short runs around one minute. Contributors include auteurs such as John Waters, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Catherine Breillat, in addition to emerging filmmakers like Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), Andrew Ahn (“Driveways”), and Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux”). Two shorts from the project, from filmmakers Karim Ainouz and Fatih Akin, can be viewed here.
Strand Releasing was founded in 1989 by partners Jon Gerrans, Marcus Hu, and Mike Thomas. The company took...
Each short runs around one minute. Contributors include auteurs such as John Waters, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Catherine Breillat, in addition to emerging filmmakers like Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), Andrew Ahn (“Driveways”), and Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux”). Two shorts from the project, from filmmakers Karim Ainouz and Fatih Akin, can be viewed here.
Strand Releasing was founded in 1989 by partners Jon Gerrans, Marcus Hu, and Mike Thomas. The company took...
- 9/18/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
The director’s cut of Woodstock plays on 35mm this Saturday.
The Pasolini retrospective continues.
The restorations of A Bigger Splash and Audition still screen.
A series on documentarian Kevin Rafferty runs this weekend.
Whale Rider and Max Mon Amour play at opposite ends of the day.
Museum of the Moving Image
“See It Big!
Metrograph
The director’s cut of Woodstock plays on 35mm this Saturday.
The Pasolini retrospective continues.
The restorations of A Bigger Splash and Audition still screen.
A series on documentarian Kevin Rafferty runs this weekend.
Whale Rider and Max Mon Amour play at opposite ends of the day.
Museum of the Moving Image
“See It Big!
- 7/12/2019
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles who are looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms — and there are more of them all the time — caters to its own niche of film obsessives. From chilling horror fare on Shudder, to the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel, and esoteric (but unmissable) festival hits on the newly launched Ovid.tv, IndieWire’s monthly guide will highlight the best of what’s coming to every major streaming site, with an eye towards exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.
Here’s the best of the best for June 2019.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime isn’t offering its subscribers much in the way of exclusives this month, and — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — the brunt of the platform...
Here’s the best of the best for June 2019.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime isn’t offering its subscribers much in the way of exclusives this month, and — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — the brunt of the platform...
- 6/3/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The peppy exhortation to “live every moment as if it were your last” has always been a source of annoyance, not least because it’s so redundant: Every moment we experience is our last — as in, the latest in a long line of moments that terminates in the present with only the chirruping crickets of an unknown future ahead. With his fifth feature, Malaysian-born Taiwanese filmmaker Ho Wi Ding has basically made a hymn to that observation, in the form of the seamy, secretive, sorrowful “Cities of Last Things” — winner of the Toronto film festival’s juried Platform section — a fatalistic film noir that uses a non-chronological structure to invoke the elusive idea that every encounter is an abandonment and that all we are is the sum total of all those last things.
And so it begins with an end — while an incongruously cheerful, old-fashioned Chinese doo-wop song plays, a...
And so it begins with an end — while an incongruously cheerful, old-fashioned Chinese doo-wop song plays, a...
- 9/17/2018
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
“Facing the jungle, the hills and the vales, my past lives as an animal and other beings rise up before me.”
Even though he had been gaining a reputation over the years, it was not until “Uncle Boonmee…” won the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethaul received wider recognition. While his other five features including “Mysterious Object at Noon” (2000), “Blissfully Yours” (2002) or “Tropical Malady” (2004) had come from a similar foundation, to be honored for a work like “Uncle Boonmee…” must have been very special to the filmmaker given the amount of time and energy he had spent on the project long before he worked on most of his other films.
In his notes on the so-called “Primitive Project”, a video installation by the director which, for example, is part of an exhibition at the Tate Modern, Weerasethakul recalls some of the most important inspirations for the film.
Even though he had been gaining a reputation over the years, it was not until “Uncle Boonmee…” won the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethaul received wider recognition. While his other five features including “Mysterious Object at Noon” (2000), “Blissfully Yours” (2002) or “Tropical Malady” (2004) had come from a similar foundation, to be honored for a work like “Uncle Boonmee…” must have been very special to the filmmaker given the amount of time and energy he had spent on the project long before he worked on most of his other films.
In his notes on the so-called “Primitive Project”, a video installation by the director which, for example, is part of an exhibition at the Tate Modern, Weerasethakul recalls some of the most important inspirations for the film.
- 9/1/2018
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Malaysian director Wi Ding Ho’s non-linear relationship drama to premiere in Platform section.
Wild Bunch has acquired world sales rights to Taiwan-based director Wi Ding Ho’s drama Cities Of Last Things ahead of its premiere in Toronto’s Platform section next month.
The Paris-based international sales powerhouse will handle most territories including North America, Japan and Europe but excluding France, Taiwan, China and additional Asian territories.
The non-linear drama revolves around an ordinary man’s relationships with three women, focusing on one night with each of them which resulted in a life-changing event.
“Only in film and literature,...
Wild Bunch has acquired world sales rights to Taiwan-based director Wi Ding Ho’s drama Cities Of Last Things ahead of its premiere in Toronto’s Platform section next month.
The Paris-based international sales powerhouse will handle most territories including North America, Japan and Europe but excluding France, Taiwan, China and additional Asian territories.
The non-linear drama revolves around an ordinary man’s relationships with three women, focusing on one night with each of them which resulted in a life-changing event.
“Only in film and literature,...
- 8/24/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
In the 2015 omnibus film Ten Years, five Hong Kong filmmakers offered visions of what their country might look like in 2025. Dystopian and fiercely critical of China’s interference in Hong Kong politics, it proved a massive public hit despite the Chinese government’s efforts to suppress its distribution. In light of that success, the Ten Years International Project was born with the intention to export the concept and give voice to filmmakers from other Asian nations. The first of these to be completed is Ten Years Thailand – two more from Japan and Taiwan are in the works – featuring contributions by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Wisit Sasanatieng, Aditya Assarat, and Chulayarnnon Siriphol.
Aditya’s opening short could easily take place in the present. Shot in black-and-white, it is set in a small art gallery that is hosting a photography exhibition. A group of soldiers arrive and order the pictures to be taken down...
Aditya’s opening short could easily take place in the present. Shot in black-and-white, it is set in a small art gallery that is hosting a photography exhibition. A group of soldiers arrive and order the pictures to be taken down...
- 5/11/2018
- by Giovanni Marchini Camia
- The Film Stage
As part of the Meet the Filmmakers series, A.W. A Portrait of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, is now screening on the Criterion Channel on FilmStruck. Directed by Connor Jessup, who will be most familiar to viewers as a cast member on Falling Skies and American Crime as well as his breakthrough lead performance in Stephen Dunn’s Closet Monster, he is also a filmmaker in his own right with two short films under his belt, Boy and Lira’s Forest. Jessup is influenced by the work of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, for whom his admiration runs very deep. A mid-length documentary that leans neither towards behind-the-scenes nor bio formats, A.W. is a leisurely and meditative piece that matches the filmmaker’s easygoing personality and patient rhythm. Made well ahead of the production of his next feature, Memoria, which will be set in Colombia and star longtime friend Tilda Swinton, Jessup...
- 3/20/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
At a pop-up guesthouse, Sleepcinemahotel, Palme d’Or winning Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has installed beds – and a hypnotic 120-hour ‘film’ to nod off to
It’s late at night. I’m not sure exactly when, because my phone has been off for hours and I’ve long since lost track of time. From my perch, I can see a giant circular screen which seems to be floating in midair like a mesmerising moon. Dreamy images flit across its surface and cast a faint glow into the darkness, which is permeated with sounds of breaking waves and gently creaking wood. I could be on a ship, sailing across the sea. Or, perhaps, back in my mother’s womb, viewing the outside world via a mysterious portal.
Where I actually am is in a large hall inside the Beurs-World Trade Center in Rotterdam. For this year’s Rotterdam film festival, the...
It’s late at night. I’m not sure exactly when, because my phone has been off for hours and I’ve long since lost track of time. From my perch, I can see a giant circular screen which seems to be floating in midair like a mesmerising moon. Dreamy images flit across its surface and cast a faint glow into the darkness, which is permeated with sounds of breaking waves and gently creaking wood. I could be on a ship, sailing across the sea. Or, perhaps, back in my mother’s womb, viewing the outside world via a mysterious portal.
Where I actually am is in a large hall inside the Beurs-World Trade Center in Rotterdam. For this year’s Rotterdam film festival, the...
- 2/2/2018
- by Giovanni Marchini Camia
- The Guardian - Film News
"My sense is that Joe and his films bring out the best in people. And that his swift rise to prominence, to the upper ranks of the cinema republic has not lessened but strengthened his - and our - desire for films, and a film culture, where things are done differently, dreamily, democratically." —Alex Horwath, p. 6
The series of books put out by FilmmuseumSynemaPublikationen, devoted to the likes of Romuald Karmakar, Gustav Deutsch, and James Benning (among other people and topics) has done well in its recent-ish collection on Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Before getting to the content, it's a fine object—matte paper, almost square in its dimensions, double columned text, and tasteful photographs in color throughout. The Thai tyro has risen even further in the ranks of international art cinema in the wake of his Cannes Palme d'Or for the tremendous Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010). So...
The series of books put out by FilmmuseumSynemaPublikationen, devoted to the likes of Romuald Karmakar, Gustav Deutsch, and James Benning (among other people and topics) has done well in its recent-ish collection on Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Before getting to the content, it's a fine object—matte paper, almost square in its dimensions, double columned text, and tasteful photographs in color throughout. The Thai tyro has risen even further in the ranks of international art cinema in the wake of his Cannes Palme d'Or for the tremendous Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010). So...
- 5/2/2011
- MUBI
Here’s the trailer for the film that won the Palme d’Or, the grandest prize of them all at the Cannes Film Festival, which ended today. It’s a Thai film called, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Cineastes would be familiar with Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s film Tropical Malady (Sud pralad), which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004!
- 5/24/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Toronto -- Asian films, led by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Syndromes and a Century," dominated the Toronto International Film Festival's best-of-the-decade poll results released Monday.
Weerasethakul's 2006 two-part drama captured the top spot with 53 votes in a poll of 60 film curators, historians and programmers conducted by the festival.
In second place with 49 votes was Jia Zhangke's "Platform," who also grabbed third place for his Venice award winner "Still Life" and its 48 votes.
French filmmaker Claire Denis earned fourth place for "Beau Travail" with 46 votes, followed by Wong Kar-wai's "In the Mood For Love" with 43 votes.
Weerasethakul also earned sixth place for "Tropical Malady," which garnered 38 votes in the TIFF poll.
Romanian director Cristi Puiu was next with "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" and its 35 votes, the same tally for "Werckmeister Harmonies" from Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr.
Rounding out the best-of-the-decade competition was Jean-Luc Godard's "Eloge de l'amour" in...
Weerasethakul's 2006 two-part drama captured the top spot with 53 votes in a poll of 60 film curators, historians and programmers conducted by the festival.
In second place with 49 votes was Jia Zhangke's "Platform," who also grabbed third place for his Venice award winner "Still Life" and its 48 votes.
French filmmaker Claire Denis earned fourth place for "Beau Travail" with 46 votes, followed by Wong Kar-wai's "In the Mood For Love" with 43 votes.
Weerasethakul also earned sixth place for "Tropical Malady," which garnered 38 votes in the TIFF poll.
Romanian director Cristi Puiu was next with "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" and its 35 votes, the same tally for "Werckmeister Harmonies" from Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr.
Rounding out the best-of-the-decade competition was Jean-Luc Godard's "Eloge de l'amour" in...
- 11/23/2009
- by By Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- The Festival de Cannes on Thursday announced the selection of 18 young filmmakers to participate in the second edition of the Atelier du Festival, which gives them a chance to present their projects to producers. This year's participants include such recognized talents as Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose Tropical Malady won the jury prize at Cannes in 2004; Romanian writer-director Cristi Puiu, who won the Un Certain Regard prize last year; the U.S.' Richard Press, whose 2÷3 won a special mention at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2000; Haiti's Michelange Quay, whose L'evangile du cochon creole was nominated for a short-film Palme d'Or in 2004; South Africa's Teboho Mahlatsi, whose Portrait of a Young Man Drowning won a Silver Lion at Venice in 1999; and India's Dev Benegal, whose first feature, English, August, won a special jury prize at the Torino International Film Festival for Young Cinema in 1994.
- 3/16/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall added another honor to its collection Thursday by being picked the winner of this year's BBC Four World Cinema Award 2006. Hirschbiegel flew in from Vienna to collect the award at a ceremony at the National Film Theater in London that was broadcast live on U.K. digital channel BBC Four. Hirschbiegel's movie secured the prize ahead of nominees 2046, House of Flying Daggers, Look at Me, The Sea Inside and Tropical Malady. Starring Bruno Ganz, Downfall portrays the complexity of Adolf Hitler's character in the greater context of his downfall, revealing a realistic and intimate portrayal of madness and human tragedy. A panel of judges -- including producer-turned-director Stephen Woolley and movie critic Jonathan Romney -- chose the winning film. BBC Four controller Janice Hadlow said picking the winner had been a challenge. Hirschbiegel's movie is the third BBC Four World Cinema Award. Last year's winner was Russian director Andrea Zvyaginstev's The Return.
- 1/27/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
SEOUL -- The year's Pusan International Film Festival is shaping up, as organizers have announced this year's juries and the winners of the Asian Filmmaker of the Year and Korea Cinema awards. The jury for the New Currents competitive section of PIFF includes Sergey Lavrentiev (program director of the Sochi International Film Festival) who will serve as jury president, along with Dito Tsintsadze (director of Gun-shy), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady), Fruit Chan (Little Cheung), and Kim So-young. The winner of the New Currents section is awarded $10,000. There are also awards for best Korean short film and best documentary from the Wide Angle section of the festival, both of which award 10 million won (about $8,500) toward each director's coming projects.
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