บทความนี้เขียนขึ้นในช่วงต้นปี 2013
THAI CINEMATIC REVELATIONS IN 2012
The article "Mysterious Objects
from Thailand" was written in February-April 2012. A year has passed since
it was written. So we would like to add some information about other
interesting Thai filmmakers who have emerged during the past year.
40. Teeranit Siangsanoh
Teeranit Siangsanoh made a lot of
films before 2012, but 2012 is his year, because 24 new films of his were shown
to the public in 2012, and at least six of them are masterpieces: (..........)
(2012, 35min), The Burnt-Out Star (2012, 65min), Phenomenon (1)
(2012, 29min), Shadow (2012, 27min), Sun Part 2 (2012, 57min),
and Unknown (2012, 30min). Many of his films use long static takes like Ruhr
(James Benning, 2009), and divide the audience into two camps like James
Benning's films: those who extremely love the films and those who extremely
hate the films.
For Teeranit's devotees, the long
static takes in his films are unexplainably powerful and captivating. Night
Sky (2012, 15 min) lets us take some long static looks at fluorescent light
for 10 minutes while hearing some women gossiping about other people. The
Burnt-Out Star shows a woman burning some photos for 22 minutes
continuously in a few takes. Unknown shows some blue lights and green
lights for 6 minutes, and takes a voyeuristic look at men exercising in a park
for 5 minutes. Shadow presents a long static take of a dark sky for 13
minutes. (..........) presents a long static take of the moon for 12
minutes, then a few different takes of the moon for 9 minutes, and then views
of Bangkok in the dark for 9 minutes. The last scene of the film shows a nearly
complete dark screen for 2 minutes. What we see on the screen is only a tiny
spot of the moon. (..........) is undoubtedly one of the most suitable
Thai films to be screened together with James Benning's films.
Many of Teeranit's films comprise
unconnected parts which are joined together poetically. For example, Phenomenon
(1) shows us scenes of rain, the moon, a bicycle race on TV, streets with
people at night, a spider in a field, reflection of a flickering neon light,
the sun, a building under construction, a taking down of a sign in front of a
bank, empty streets at night, a room which looks like a jail, a fire burning in
the darkness, the strange apparition of a human face in the dark,
superimposition of toilet scenes, a woman looking at the camera, a god statue,
the blue reflection of TV light on a blanket, the extreme close-up of a TV
screen, and the screening room in which the film is shown. We don't know what
this film means, and we don't know why these scenes are put together. All we
know is that it results in one of the most beautiful Thai films ever made.
Many of Teeranit's films have the
quality of home movies. All of them were shot by inexpensive cameras, and many
of them comprise scenes of ordinary events in ordinary lives. For example, Sun
(2012, 57min), Sun Part 2 (2012, 57min), and Sun (Good Morning Sun)
(2012, 49 min) present the life of a friend of Teeranit who works as a curtain
installer in the south of Thailand. Instead of focusing on interviewing his
friend, this trilogy focuses on various ordinary things in his friend's life.
In this 163-minute trilogy, what we see include a long gaze on wasteland, a
dark swamp, garbage, people playing on a beach, people fishing in a river, daytime
streets, nighttime streets, a forest near a pool of water, his friend eating
breakfast, his friend eating dinner, his friend searching for a DVD, daytime market, nighttime market, children
playing at night, friends hanging out together, his friend's long drive to
work, his friend working at a customer's house, his friend's working at a
hospital, tension on the street because of the security issue in the
southernmost part of Thailand, customers in a bank, atmosphere in a shop, a
wedding, raining, a girl combing her hair, etc. Instead of letting us hear
people talk clearly, what this trilogy focuses on seems to be the sound of the wind.
By focusing on mundane events, ordinary activities, and everyday life,
Teeranit's films somehow end up being ones of the strangest Thai films ever
made.
In conclusion, we know Teeranit's
films are indescribable, like Ruhr, or Zoetrope (Rouzbeh Rashidi,
2011), and what we have described here cannot convey even one percent of the
power of his films.
บทความนี้เขียนขึ้นในช่วงต้นปี 2013
41. Ukrit Sa-nguanhai
Ukrit has directed at least four
short films: Microwave Man (2010, 23min), The Pob's House (2010,
15min), Ghosts in the Classroom (2011, 3min), and Celestial Space
(2012, 28min), which is his masterpiece. Celestial Space shows us the
romantic relationship of two construction workers from upcountry. There are
many interesting things about this film, including the linking between the
small space in which this poor couple inhabit and the whole universe, the
portrayal of loving laborers in a more down-to-earth style than in such films
as Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2002), and the
self-reflexivity.
Celestial Space begins with a scene telling us some information about a faraway
star. Then it shows us Rug and Noi, two construction workers who reside near a
construction site. They try to make love, but Rug gives up after a while. He
can't perform the sexual act because of some problems, and the viewers are not
sure why. Then we see Noi taking a bath under the moonlight. We see her peeing
and washing her vagina. We see them quarrelling about who stole the money from
a cookie box, and about who may cheat on his/her lover. We see them kissing
each other and trying to pose for some photos. Then we see them fondling each
other and making love, before the camera zooms out from their bed and makes the
light emanating from their room look like the light from some twinkling stars
in the sky.
The words "we see" in the
paragraph above are important, because the act of seeing is emphasized in Celestial
Space. At first the film doesn't tell us if it is a documentary or a
fiction. We see Rug and Noi talking very naturally to each other. Their
conversation looks very real at first. Then we see them trying to make love, so
we can assume then that what we see must be a fiction. Then the film becomes
self-reflexive when Noi says to Rug that no one is watching them making love.
But we are watching them making love. The viewers start to feel unsure about
many things: Are we the reason why they can't make love? Are we a part of the
universe or the story in this film? How does the film regard us--viewers,
voyeurs, or obtrusive voyeurs?
While many things in Celestial
Space look so real, the film also shows us many things which emphasize its
fictional quality. In one startling scene, we see an eye peering out of a hole
in the wall. What does this eye stand for? Us the viewers? We see Rug and Noi
trying to pose for some photos. This scene may represent the making of this
film, because both this scene and the film are artificial making of an intimate
relationship. In the middle of this film, we also see what looks like a draft
script of the film, because suddenly the film shows us a piece of paper on
which the dialogue of Rug and Noi is written. The intervention of the script
text in this film can be compared to the presence of scripts in other great
Thai films such as Danger (Director's Cut) (Chulayarnnon Siriphol, 2008)
and Politically Lawyer and Narrative Cinema (Chaloemkiat Saeyong, 2009).
In the middle of Celestial Space,
we also see one of the best scenes in Thai cinema in 2012. In this scene, Noi
is looking for Rug in a building under construction. The scene is as blurred as
some scenes in A Lake (Philippe Grandrieux, 2008). We see Noi and hear
her voice calling out for Rug. We hear Rug's response from the right side of
the frame. Noi moves into the darkness. Then the camera pans to the left side
and we see Rug in another room searching for Noi. What is real? The film seems
to tell us indirectly many times that though the lives of laborers in this film
look realistic, the film does not and cannot show the whole reality. A part of
reality exists outside the frame or outside the film. What we see is only a
part of something and we must also use our own imagination. Celestial Space
is great because it shows laborers' lives very realistically and acknowledges
at the same time that reality also exists outside the frame and the film.
That great scene in Celestial
Space can be compared to another marvelous scene in The Pob's House,
in which fiction turns into reality in the middle of the film. At first The
Pob's House shows us a fictional story of an old woman and her
granddaughter in a rural village. The old woman is wrongly accused of being a
Pob, or a cannibalistic ghost. The villagers beat her young granddaughter very
hard, and force the old woman to drink her own urine to prove if she is Pob or
not. Suddenly a young boy in this torture scene turns back and looks at the
camera. He seems to smile, and it indicates that he is just an amateur actor
who can't act convincingly as a misguided villager in this film. The image of
this boy freezes. The screen turns black. Then The Pob's House
continues, but the story is shifted from fiction into reality. The second part
of The Pob's House shows the working of the film crew. The film crew
also talk to the villagers who act in this film, asking the villagers if they
understand or not that the fictional story in this film is meant to show
"structural violence."
Structural violence is also the
theme of Ghosts in the Classroom. In Ghosts in the Classroom, we
see an old female teacher punishing severely or using force on a young male
student in front of the class. The scene is repeated 4-5 times but with
different angles or perspectives each time. Sometimes we see only the front of
the class. Sometimes we see this act of violence from the back of the class. We
also see that the other students in the class seem to be very obedient and dare
not try to intervene in this act of violence. Another remarkable thing in Ghosts
in the Classroom is that the film seems to have no beginning and no ending.
The film begins and ends with the same image. It's a half-still, half-shaking
image of this act of violence. This act of violence seems like a loop which
will be repeated forever.
There is no indication what Ghosts
in the Classroom stands for. Does this film intend to condemn only Thai
people's belief in seniority like another great Thai film My Elephant
(Songyos Sugmakanan, 2002, 10min)? Or does this film have some political
connotations, like other Thai films, such as Demockrazy (Duangporn
Pakavirojkul, 2007, 9min), and Class Room (Sutee Kunavichayanont, 2012,
video installation), both of which also use classroom as a symbol of Thailand
after the coup in 2006? It's up to each viewer to answer this question by
himself.
Some viewers may ask, "Who will
be the next Apichatpong?" To that question we would like to answer,
"We don't know. But if you like Apichatpong's films, we strongly recommend
the films of Eakalak Maleetipawan, Sittiporn Racha, and Ukrit Sa-nguanhai. And
we hope some critics will compare, contrast, and analyze deeply the films of
these four filmmakers in the future."
บทความนี้เขียนขึ้นในช่วงต้นปี 2013
42. Viriyaporn Boonprasert
No one knows for sure who Viriyaporn
Boonprasert is. Seven films of Viriyaporn were shown to the public in 2012.
Three of them are masterpieces: Ghost of Centralworld (2012, 8min),
I'm Gonna Be a Naive (2012, 24min), and Hungary Man Boo (2012, 26min).
But Viriyaporn still hasn't revealed herself to the public yet. Viriyaporn has
a facebook account, but it doesn't show the real face of Viriyaporn. Many Thai
cinephiles are not sure if Viriyaporn is a man, a woman, or a group of
filmmakers working under a single name. Thus, we are not sure which pronoun we
should use for Viriyaporn: he, she, or they. But for the writer's convenience,
the pronoun "she" and "her" will be referred to Viriyaporn
here.
What is certain is that Viriyaporn
is one of the most talented filmmakers working in Thailand now. Most of her
films rely on found footage, and her use of found footage is as powerful and
clever as The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (Andrei Ujica, 2010), Dial
H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (Johan Grimonprez, 1997), Disorder (Huang Weikai,
2009), An Escalator in World Order (Kim Kyung-man, 2011), The
Festival of Demon Spirit (Sittiporn Racha, 2011), and Videogram of a
Revolution (Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica, 1992). Ghost of Centralworld
uses clips showing the Centralworld department store while it was burnt down
during the massacre in Bangkok in May 2010, and also a clip of an opening event
at Centralworld. Some texts appear on the screen, telling the true story of
Kitipong Somsook, a red-shirt protester who was killed during the fire at
Centralworld. However, the main message of this film may not lie in the texts
and the clips, but it may lie in the juxtaposition of the clips.
I'm Gonna Be a Naive uses found footage from various sources, including a TV reality
show, TV talk shows, TV advertisements, an awarding ceremony, a TV series, a
news clip, a news photo, a music video, a karaoke music video, etc. There are
no new voiceover, no new texts, and no new images in this film. All of this
film is made of found footage, but the film can talk about some important topics in Thailand very
effectively. The various topics in this film include how Thai bourgeois people
wrongly perceive poor people, how selfish Bangkokians are, the drastically
changing status of Chinese people in Thailand from the past to the present, how
propaganda-like Thai advertisements are, the behaviors of some Thai
conservatives, etc. The juxtaposition of the clips in this film is brilliant.
The selection of the clips is great. Many advertisements shown in this film are
the advertisements which we have seen a thousand times before, but they yield
some new meanings when they are presented in this film. In a way, what Viriyaporn
did for this film corresponds to what Thomas Heise said in the booklet for his
DVD of the film Material (2009). Thomas Heise said, " In a dictatorship,
the idea is to amass hidden stores of images and words, portraying the things
that people living under the dictatorship might have actually experienced, but
that could not necessarily be seen or heard. Then, when the dictatorship was no
more, those images bore witness to it. Similar to the mole, the work of
collecting those images required a certain nose for the worthwhile as well as
practice, since a picture seldom makes it immediately apparent what it depicts
and a sound seldom tells us of the part we can't hear."
Hungary Man Boo, which has its premiere in December 2012, uses both found footage and new footage. The
film is more abstract and more difficult to understand than the first six films
of Viriyaporn, but it is no less powerful. Hungary Man Boo comprises
many different parts, the links of which are not clear. Its structure is like
some films by Alexander Kluge. What we can see in this film includes a quote
from Mughom Wongtes, a Thai female writer who bravely fights for free speech, some
buildings at Sanam Luang, a clip of three women performing Thai traditional
dance, a clip of Chaipattana aerator, new experimental footage presenting the
suffering of poor people who have to take public bus in Bangkok, and a scene
showing white screen and dark screen alternately for a long time like in the
film Arnulf Rainer (Peter Kubelka, 1960). Hungary Man Boo does
not say anything directly, and it may be because Thailand is a country which is
totally against free speech.
Other films of Viriyaporn are
interesting, too. The Opening Scene (2012, 11min) comprises a long
static scene showing the screening room in which the film is shown. Viriyaporn
stated that this film is meant to be a site-specific video installation. This
film is like a mirror, which reflects different periods of time in the same
location. The Opening Scene is also dedicated to Édouard Manet's
painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) and many artists in Postmodernism
who use mirrors in their works. In our opinion, The Opening Scene can
also be compared to Phenomenon (1) (Teeranit Siangsanoh, 2012, 29min)
and Resistant Poem (Prap Boonpan, 2008, 20min), both of which also
depict the screening room in which the films were shown.
Sarcastic humor is inherent in
Viriyaporn's films. We can see this sarcasm in the juxtaposition of some scenes
in I'm Gonna Be a Naive and Hungary Man Boo, and this sarcasm is
the main thing in Seeing Film and Love Country (2012, 3 min). This film
shows an online conversation between two persons, talking about how to be
patriotic. The answer given in the film is that you can be patriotic by illegal
downloading some Thai patriotic films, such as the film series Naresuan.
บทความนี้เขียนขึ้นในช่วงต้นปี 2013
43. Vorakorn Ruetaivanichkul (born
1989)
Vorakorn directed Mother
(2012, 65min), which mixes documentary and fiction in an interesting way. The
film begins as a documentary, showing Vorakorn returning home, meeting his own
family, including his mother who looks normal and kind. After that, the film
enters a fictional world by showing us some reconstructed scenes from
Vorakorn's past, using an actor to play Vorakorn, and a veteran stage actress
to play his mother who actually has severe physical and mental problems. Then
the film goes deeper into the fictional world by showing us some surrealistic
scenes to properly portray the inner world of his mother, and sometimes to disrupt
the linear timeline of the story.
The blending between fiction and
documentary in Mother yields a stunning result. Mother is as
touching and hurtful as Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette, 2003), which also
deals with a director and his problematic mother. Vorakorn is not as lucky as
Caouette in the way that Vorakorn hasn't shot a lot of home movies in the past,
so he does not have old documentary footage which can be used in this film.
However, he cleverly solved this problem by shooting some reconstructed scenes
and doesn't try to limit this film to be only "realistic", but gives
priorities to the emotions and the poetic aspect of the film. The resulting
film is quite heartbreaking and brave, and it stands apart from many Thai films
which depict the directors' own mothers only in a good light.
After Mother, which is his
thesis film, Vorakorn directed two good documentaries: The Director of
Southpole (2012, 18min) and Neighborly Labor (2012, 26min). The
Director of Southpole frankly captures a drunken moment of his three
friends. Neighborly Labor gives us an interview of two servants from
Myanmar who work for a Thai family in Bangkok. It is an episode in a great TV
documentary series called K(l)ang Muang .Both films by Vorakorn are interesting
because they make the viewers feel very intimate with the subjects of the films.
The viewers feel as if they are close friends of the subjects of The
Director of Southpole, and feel as if they just get to know new friends
from Myanmar in Neighborly Labor. We can also say that both these films
and Mother are very humanistic. They present human beings through a
kind, loving, and truthful eye.
บทความนี้เขียนขึ้นในช่วงต้นปี 2013
44. Wichanon Somumjarn
Wichanon's first film is W.C.
(2005, 8min), which is about a ghost in a toilet. At first glance W.C.
seems to be similar to numerous Thai short films telling the same kind of
stories. But there is something existential and unexplainable in the story of W.C.,
and these qualities help set it apart from other ghost-in-toilet Thai films
which aim to be only horrors, comedies,
or horror-comedies. Wichanon said that W.C. is partly inspired by Fight
Club (David Fincher, 1999). That may help explain why W.C. is more intriguing
than other films in this Thai sub-genre, though the best film in this sub-genre
is still Hallucination (Sopon Sakdapisit, 2002, 16min).
After that, Wichanon directed The
Hitman (2007, 20min), which is a gangster film about two hitmen and a crime
boss who deceive one another. He also directed A Brighter Day (2007,
17min), which is a political film condemning both corrupted politicians and
military dictators. Both The Hitman and A Brighter Day are just
average narrative films. However, it is interesting to compare A Brighter
Day with Wichanon's later film L L P (2011, 2min) in order to see
how Wichanon's filmic style has evolved. A Brighter Day sends its
message about the director's hope for democracy directly, while L L P
sends its message about liberty and freedom in a subtler way. L L P is
composed of only three shots. The first shot shows three guys wearing Che
Guevara T-shirts playing takraw together. The second shot shows a glimpse of
sunrise, and the third shot shows the painting Liberty Leading the People
(1830) by Eugène Delacroix. We don't know if Wichanon's political thinking has
changed from the past or not, but his filmic style seems to have evolved a lot.
The first great film of Wichanon is Four
Boys, White Whiskey and Grilled Mouse (2009, 10min). It shows that
Wichanon's filmic style has changed from the style of genre films (W.C.,
The Hitman) to the contemplative style which can be found in many arthouse
films from Southeast Asia. Four Boys, White Whiskey and Grilled Mouse
presents a small moment in the lives of four rural boys. These four boys eat a
grilled mouse, drink white whiskey, and talk about various things, such as a
plan to have sex with a girl, a god in a banknote, etc., in a little shack in
the rice field in the afternoon. They leave the shack one by one, until the
protagonist is left alone. Then the protagonist watches TV news in his house alone
later in the evening. The film is quite poignant, and seems to
"tangentially" touch on political topics. This latter quality can
also be found in Wichanon's later films--L L P and In April the
Following Year, There Was a Fire (2012, 76min). These three films don't
talk about politics directly, but present lives of ordinary people who are
indirectly affected by politics--the boy who watches TV in Four Boys,
the guys who wear Che Guevara T-shirts in L L P, and the guy who listens
to radio/TV news about the crackdown of a political mob in Bangkok in In
April the Following Year.
In April the Following Year and Four Boys have a few things in common. Apart from the
intriguing use of radio/TV news in both films, both films are also partly
inspired by Wichanon's real life, and both films present rural lifestyles very truthfully.
Local dialects, which are rarely found in films made by other directors, are
used in both films. And both films share the contemplative style. Both films
don't tell stories full of exciting events or conflicts, but they present
slices of ordinary life. Both films present lives of people while they are
drifting around a little bit aimlessly. The characters in both films don't like
to overtly express their emotions. They seem to feel something, but they hold
most of their emotions and feelings inside.
What is interesting about In
April is that the film tells two stories at the same time. One is about
Nuhm, a guy who loses a job in Bangkok. He decides to return to his homeland in
the north-east of Thailand. He meets Joy, a woman he likes. He drinks with
friends. He looks after a horse stable of his estranged father.
Then, in a way which may remind one
of Our Beloved Month of August (Miguel Gomes, 2008), In April also
presents its documentary part. We learn from the film that Aun (the nickname of
Wichanon) returns home in April, talking to his dad about Aun's resigning from
an engineering school in order to make films, talking to his brother about his
brother's being attacked by a jellyfish many years ago, reminiscing about the
fire which destroyed his house and which made him move to Bangkok many years
ago, looking at his father's stable, and making a film about a guy who returns
home.
The blending between fiction and
documentary in In April is very interesting. Nuhm in the fictional part
is not only the representation of Aun, but also of other people in Aun's life.
Though Nuhm returns home and does many things like Aun, Nuhm was also attacked
by a jellyfish like Aun's brother. Aun seems to transfer the memories of his
own brother into his own memory and then transfers it to Nuhm, a character whom
he created. Life and film blend into each other. The fictional film in In
April is not a straight autobiography, but it is something new made from
Aun's life and many other things.
The presentation of rural people in In
April is also very interesting. Nuhm in this film is not a poor, uneducated
laborer like rural characters in most Thai films. He is a guy who can't fit in
both his homeland and Bangkok. Both he and Joy are alienated characters. Nuhm
used to work as a foreman in Bangkok, but he wants to make films, and he seems
to return home just because he has no other better choices. All he can do in
his homeland is carrying a tripod around. Joy is a woman who likes to read
Albert Camus' books, talks philosophically, and sings some modern songs, but
she has to sing karaoke of some country songs with her colleagues in order to
fit in with her society.
The characters in both Four Boys
and In April give some poignant, melancholic feelings. Their lives are
far from being a tragedy. Their lives are ordinary. They are not real losers.
But there are some kinds of disappointment and loneliness in their lives which
make their stories very touching. Apart from the boy who is left alone at the
shack in Four Boys, Nuhm, and Joy, another character who belongs to this
group is Aun's brother in In April. After Aun's brother was attacked by
the jellyfish, his father tried to heal him by rubbing his wound with beach
morning glory. But the sand which came with the plant made thing worse. It
turned the wound into a scar. And this scar prevented Aun's brother from
entering a cadet school. Aun's brother can't fulfill his dream because of his
own father's mistake.
In April ends with some intriguing scenes. It ends like a documentary,
showing people walking in Ratchaprasong area and other areas which used to be
the scene of bloodshed in April-May 2010. This ending fits the film very well,
because this film does not talk about political activists, but about ordinary
people who unknowingly and unavoidably become a part of political structure or
political system.
-----
Apart from the five directors above,
other interesting Thai filmmakers in 2012 include Abhichon Rattanabhayon, Ajon
Srivadhana Kibreab, Banyong Phoonsap, Fari Tesprateep, Kongdej Jaturanrasamee,
Kong Pahurak, Manasak Khlongchainan, Monthon
Arayangkoon, Pitchayakorn Sangsuk, Sarayut Vannagool, Setthasiri Chanjaradpong,
Siwapond Cheejedreiw, Somghad Meyen, Soraya Nakasuwan, Suphisara Kittikunarak, Teeraponk
Panyakam, Theeraphat Ngathong, Tongpong Chantarangkul, Warit Deepisuti, and
Wassachol Sirichanthanun. Let's hope all
of them will continue making films in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment