Thailand Voice

Kongkiat Komesiri’s gory crime thriller Slice ( Cheun ) continues to collect accolades and positive reviews. I just noticed that Maggie Lee of The Hollywood Reporter caught Slice in Rotterdam , and her review is now posted . Here’s the intro : In the slasher-thriller Slice , a cop-turned-convict tracks down a serial killer by … Read full story >>>

ThailandVoice.com has an excellent collection of useful information about the rally, as well as links to blogs, Twitter accounts and newspaper articles worth monitoring for the latest news about the political rally in Bangkok this March. Read full story >>>

Sahamongkol Film International writer-director Chookiat Sakveerakul is among the 20 young showbiz executives chosen for The Hollywood Reporter’s Next Generation Asia Class of 2010 . “Asia is growing up,” “Ma-Daew” Chookiat tells THR , which then keys on his statement for a look at the region and… Read full story >>>

Crack open a Heineken and raise a toast to cinematographer Christopher Doyle, the subject of In the Mood for Doyle , a mid-length documentary that will be featured in the second edition of the Terracotta Far East Film Festival in London. Directed by Yves Montmayeur and made for French… Read full story >>>

The city’s short-film omnibus Sawasdee Bangkok ( สวัสดีบางกอก ) is screening in the Panorama section of the Deauville Asian Film Festival , which starts tomorrow and runs until Sunday. It’ll be the short version of Sawasdee Bangkok , which premiered last year at the Toronto International Film … Read full story >>>

Bangkok Post : “ Govt lowers security net “: The cabinet is due today to endorse the invoking of the Internal Security Act to cover all of Bangkok ahead of the red shirt rally this weekend . Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, in charge of national security, yesterday said the security monitoring committee would … Read full story >>>

The Boun Pravet festival is concerned with re-telling the story of the penultimate life of the Buddha, for Thais the favourite and best known of the Jataka stories. It is the Mahachad , ‘the great story’. It tells of Prince Vessandorn ( Pravet ), son of King Sri Sanjaya… Read full story >>>

The Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum has dedicted an award to the memory of producer Wouter Barendrecht, which will go to new filmmakers. Barendrecht is credited with helping a generation of Asian filmmakers reach a global audience. In addition to such names as Wong Kar-wai and Iwai Shunji, the producer and co… Read full story >>>

Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s latest feature Unreal Forest will screen in Milan at the 20th African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival . Via production company Extra Virgin , there’s a trailer for Unreal Forest at YouTube and it’s embedded below. It’s part of the Forget … Read full story >>>

I first heard of the Tiger Temple over 10 years ago on a TV documentary but it’s taken me this long to get around to going there. The documentary showed the temple in a good light, a few conservationists argued against it, but their argument was that tigers should be… Read full story >>>

Slice , Mundane History , A Letter to Uncle Boonmee and Lumphini 2552 will be featured in the 34th Hong Kong International Film Festival , which opened for businss yesterday . Slice ( Cheun ), is a top nominee for both the Thailand National Film Association Awards and the Bangkok Critics Assembly , and… Read full story >>>

The 14th Thai Short Film & Video Festival is calling for submissions for the fest to be held in August. Shorts can be about anything, made in any style, but not longer than 30 minutes, except documentaries, and completed on or after January 1, 2009. The fest has an international competition… Read full story >>>

  I’m updating the next edition of Lonely Planet’s Laos guide, and have based myself in Vientiane, that country’s capital. I’ve rented a colonial-era shophouse strategically located within walking distance from an excellent Lao restaurant, a traditional Lao sauna, the city’s evening market, two very good French bakeries and the… Read full story >>>

Makha Bucha is one of the 3 major Buddhist Holidays in Thailand. Buddhist holidays are calculated on the Lunar Calendar and this year, 2010, Makha Bucha falls on Sunday 28th February. Makha Bucha is also a national holiday in Thailand but because it falls on … Read full story >>>

Uruphong Raksasad’s Agrarian Utopia ( Sawan Baan Na ) has won another award! At the !f istanbul International Film Festival , which wrapped up on Sunday, it shared the prize with Gigante , by Uruguay’s Adrian Biniez. The two directors split the purse of $15,000. The jury, comprised of Icelandic filmmaker Dagur Kari, Sundance … Read full story >>>

CPJ: Thai media were caught in the middle of a political conflict that entered its fourth year of destabilizing antigovernment street demonstrations and tough government responses. Both sides in the conflict—supporters and opponents of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra—threatened journalists, some of whom were openly aligned to Read full story >>>

Agrarian Utopia and Mundane History , two of my picks for best Thai films of 2009 , are showing at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival . Two Thai shorts are in the line-up as well, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s A Letter to Uncle Boonmee and In Space by Visra Vichit-Vadakan. Uruphong Raksasad’s Agrarian Utopia ( … Read full story >>>

It would seem that my source was correct last week with it being confirmed by the Bangkok Post this morning. “Thai Airways International has succumbed to political pressure and will keep flying between Bangkok and Ubon Ratchathani, one of the three loss-making domestic routes that was supposed to end later this … Read full story >>>

The Chinese New Year Festival 2010 which this year fell on Valentines Day, the traditional day for lovers, ushered in the Year of the Tiger. The Year of the Tiger promises to be a difficult year for many but in Thailand at least, … Read full story >>>

Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Mundane History follows its recent Tiger Award win in Rotterdam with a North American premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of the BAMcinématek ’s Rotterdam@BAM series. The screening is at 6.30pm on Saturday, March 6. You can get tickets at the BAM … Read full story >>>

There are many questions that cannot be asked in Thailand, the title to this post is just one of them and most are so dangerous that it is not possible even to hint that we know what they are. How has… Read full story >>>

As we approach the Feb. 26 court verdict in the Thaksin asset case, there has been much speculation — in the local media and from the Thai government — about upcoming Red Shirt protests. What form will the demonstrations take? When will they happen? Will they turn violent? The Thai government… Read full story >>>

Mark it: November 5 to 14, 2010. The 8th World Film Festival of Bangkok . The fest is calling for submissions , with an entry deadline of October 1. The countdown begins now. ATTENTION: This is a post from Wise Kwai’s Thai Film Journal. The url for the source blog is … Read full story >>>

Maj Gen Sanan Kachornprasart was previously Secretary-General of the Democrats and Minister of Interior, but is now a member of Chat Thai Pattana, a coalition partner of the current government. The Bangkok Post reports: Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he is unaware of Read full story >>>

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… Read full story >>>

Justin Thomas McDaniel, Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words: Histories of Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Thailand . Seattle and London, University of Washington Press, 2008. pp. xiii + 358. Reform of Theravada Buddhism occurred in different parts of Southeast Asia in different circumstances at different times. … Read full story >>>

Ghosts in Thailand are two a penny, or nowadays better described with the Thai baht currently riding high on the worlds currency exchange as one a baht. If you’ve been to Thailand and haven’t heard a ghost story then have you really been at all. This week I picked up on … Read full story >>>

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 … Read full story >>>

The Phangan Film Festival , featuring a lineup of documentaries on “nature and spirit”, is set for February 12 to 14. The open-air fest will be held at the Holiday Beach Resort on the island in the Gulf of Thailand. Most of the movies are… Read full story >>>

Time again for an update on the case of Juthamas Siriwan, the former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand who has been indicted in the U.S. for taking bribes from convicted Hollywood producers Gerald and Patricia Green so the husband-and-wife team could run the Bangkok International Film Festival and other… Read full story >>>