This is my comment in Peter Nellhaus’ blog:
http://www.coffeecoffeeandmorecoffee.com/archives/2008/03/fun_bar_karaoke.html#more
I like FUN BAR KARAOKE very much. I even prefer this film to 6IXTYNIN9 (1999, Pen-ek), TRANSISTOR LOVE STORY (2001, Pen-ek), or LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (2003, Pen-ek). I also like Fay Atsawet, the leading actress, very much. I regret that she didn’t star in more films.
I agree with you that FUN BAR KARAOKE is historically important. Personally, I think the year 1997 is the most important year for my Thai-film watching activity. The year 1997 is not only a year of FUN BAR KARAOKE and DANG BIRELEY AND THE YOUNG GANGSTERS (1997, Nonzee Nimibutr), which helped reviving Thai cinema, but also the year of the FIRST BANGKOK EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL, which showed a short film of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and two short films by Sasithorn Ariyavicha. 1997 is also the year of the FIRST THAI SHORT FILM FESTIVAL, which showed short films of many Thai directors who later went on to direct some feature films, such as Boonsong Nakphoo and Witthaya Thongyooyong. I think Soraya Nakasuwan, who directed FINAL SCORE (2007), might have a short film screened in the STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL in 1997, but I’m not sure about that.
I think you have made a very apt comparison. Maybe 1997 for Thai cinema is like 1959 for French cinema.
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This is my comment in Black Forest’s blog:
http://blackforests.blogspot.com/2008/03/moment-of-innocence-in-pid-term-yai.html
ดิฉันเองก็รู้สึกอินกับส่วนของน้องโฟกัสมากที่สุดค่ะ และก็รู้สึกว่าเธอเป็นตัวละครที่รู้จักใช้ประโยชน์จากกิเลสของตัวเองได้ดีมากๆ เพราะกิเลสของเธอคือ "ความบ้าผู้ชาย" แต่เธอกลับเอากิเลสนั้นมาใช้เป็นพลังงานขับเคลื่อนในการพาตัวเองไปเรียนภาษาจีน
แต่คุณ black forest ไปเรียนภาษาญี่ปุ่นด้วยเหตุผลอะไรหรือคะ ฮ่าๆๆๆๆ :-)
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2 comments:
I've come across your blog a few times now and each time have been fascinated with it. It's great. About 1997, there is a correlation with That literature as well, where writers and editors suggest that 1997 was a year for a shift toward new global genres in contemporary thai-language literature. Was it politics, a new constitution? Economics of moving outside of domestic studios and markets when they failed? France in 1958 spawned a birth of creativity when the studios failed, and their subject matters turned global (hiroshima mon amour, the american expat in Godard's Breathless, etc.).
Thank you very much for your kind words, Noah. And thank you for sharing your knowledge. Actually I don’t know much about anything, especially the Thai film industry.
What I wrote in the post above is about coincidences, I guess. The revival of good-quality Thai films, the first Thai Short Film Festival, and the First Bangkok Experimental Film Festival might happen in the same year just by chance.
The most important event in 1997 might be the financial crisis, which happened in the middle of the year. So the financial crisis wasn’t the cause of any of these things, because these things must have been planned in advance before the financial crisis.
I don’t know the real reasons why those two film festivals took place in 1997. But as for Nonzee and Pen-ek, I think one reason why they became famous is because Thai audience were so bored of Thai crap films at that time. In the 1990’s, there were a lot of bad Thai teenager films. The number of Thai feature films which are really good during the 1990’s may be not more than five a year. Thai cinema really reached the bottom in the middle of 1990’s, and then there came Nonzee and Pen-ek. After that, many Thai short film directors who participated in the Thai short film festivals in 1997, 1998, …started directing feature films.
After ten years have passed, I think I’m a little bit satisfied with Thai cinema now. In my personal opinion, I think Thai cinema is much inferior to Philippine cinema. The number of Thai mainstream films to which I would like to give A+ are not more than ten a year. But there are still many Thai short films or video art that I like.
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