Thailand Voice

Slice ( Cheun ) and October Sonata ( Ruk Te Ror Koi ) are tied with nine nominations each in the 11 categories to be awarded by the Bangkok Critics Assembly (ชมรมวิจารณ์บันเทิง). Both are up for best film. Kongkiat Komesiri is nominated for best director and shares a screenwriting … Read full story >>>

The Blu-ray of Ong-Bak 2 has done well since being released in the U.S., charting at No. 6 for the week ending February 7 and managing a record 43% Blu-ray market share, according to Blu-ray.com , which bases its report on figures from Home Media Magazine and Neilson Videoscan … Read full story >>>

As blogged about earlier , Nak Prok ( นาคปรก ), the long-shelved monks-with-guns crime drama, is finally getting released in Thailand, and is now set for cinemas on March 18. It’s the story of thieves who bury their loot on the … Read full story >>>

I must warn you that this post contains the pictures of a young girl who was killed in a car/motorbike accident and was plastered on the front page of one of Thailand’s newspapers. The pictures are saddening and could be extremely upsetting for some . The pictures are graphic; … Read full story >>>

He was captured. He was tortured. He was destroyed. But when a tyrant rules the land, he must come back. With more fury, more force, more vengeance. It’s the teaser for Ong-Bak 3 . ( Via EvilDollaR ) ATTENTION: This is a post from Wise Kwai’s Thai Film Journal. … Read full story >>>

It’s the movie that started it all for Tony Jaa and Thai action movies on the international scene. Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior , the U.S. version of Tony Jaa’s original 2003 Muay Thai-stunt extravaganza, is coming to Blu-ray on February 2 . Twentieth Century Fox … Read full story >>>

Directed by Surasee Patham Starring Petthai Wongkumlao, Pichet Kongkarn, Fonfa Patham, Asongkai Saengtam, Panna Rittakrai, Kampanee Wongtongkam Released in Thai cinemas on January 14, 2010; rated 13+ Wise Kwai’s rating: 2/5 I’ve not had the benefit of seeing the original 1978 version of Kru Bannok . By… Read full story >>>

Dr. Saul Kruggerand, the renowned Ph.D. economist and native of South Africa, whom we last heard from in his article titled Thailand to Tackle World’s Desire Deficit in which he outlined the present economic structure of Thailand’s Desire Sector (DS) along with an insightful and detailed … Read full story >>>

The Bangkok Post: The GT 200 is made in Britain by a different company. It is a hand-held device and has a remote substance detector and chip cards.Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban yesterday tried to quell worries over the GT 200, saying: “We use a Read full story >>>

Watch out Jija, Quentin Tarantino has his eyes on you. “The Thai film Chocolate ” is No. 5 on the Inglourious Basterds director’s Top 8 films of 2009 , as listed to The Hollywood Reporter in a video clip . Chocolate , the 2008 debut for Jija, got a limited theatrical run … Read full story >>>

Shadow of the Naga , the “monks with guns” movie that premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival , finally has a release date. It’s penciled in on Pantip’s 2010 calendar to open on February 4. Selected for TIFF’s Contemporary World Cinema program by programmer Raymond Phathanavirangoon, Shadow of the Naga got a decent reception in … Read full story >>>

Tony Jaa’s Ong-Bak 2: The Beginning is coming to Blu-ray and DVD in the US. The release is set for February 2. Amazon has a listing . Extras are said to include HDNet: A Look at Ong Bak 2 , behind-the-scenes, making-of, interviews with cast and crew including Tony Jaa and… Read full story >>>

Krungthep Turakit quotes the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs as stating that former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is now using a foreign passport in the name of Takki Shinegra, so they are needing to amend requests to foreign countries to also seek the return of Takki Read full story >>>

Former Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej died yesterday morning. He had been Bangkok Governor, Interior Minister, Transport Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and finally became Prime Minister last year. BP wrote a biography on Samak’s time up until 1992 here. Matichon has a reasonably… Read full story >>>

Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story ’s four-week hold on the top spot of the Thai box office was broken over the weekend by the Hollywood disaster flick 2012 , which had lines of people snaking through the lobby of the giant Paragon Cineplex. As the thunderous… Read full story >>>

Like Bangkok’s streets, it’s gridlock at the top of the Thai box-office chart, with GTH’s Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story ( Rot Fai Faa … Maha Na Ter ) stuck at No. 1 for a third consecutive week. Surprisingly, it tops Michael Jackson’s This Is It , which is the No. 1 movie… Read full story >>>

Ong-Bak 2: The Beginning opens in U.S. cinemas this Friday, October 23, and to celebrate, distributor Magnet has posters signed by star and director Tony Jaa to give away to U.S. readers of this blog. The first two readers who send me an e-mail get the posters… Read full story >>>

Should war resume in parts of Burma’s borderlands, the country will simply return to its pre-1989 situation, and the challenges of national reconciliation and local sustainable development will begin again. – Extracted from David Scott Mathieson , “ Peace in name only ”, The Irrawaddy , October 2009. Read full story >>>

This week various websites in the culture-starved world outside Thailand seized upon a teaser image for Ong-Bak 3 and called it “new” despite it having been released in Thailand by Sahamongkol Film International and published on various websites late last year. It was … Read full story >>>

Reuters on whether there may be delay in the auction over a legal battle over the ownership of AIS and DTAC with True at the forefront advocating it was against national security for “foreign companies” to get 3G spectrum rights. Key quote: Athueck Asvanund, vice … Read full story >>>

The number of “dissolved companies” (= dissolved and bankrupt : LTD companies + LTD partnerships + Ordinary Partnerships) has exploded by +428 % in august, compared to august 2008 (5 329 versus 1 009). And furthermore, the striking jump in may (12 384 companies dissolved) was … Read full story >>>

Last Sunday, September 6th, were local elections in many of the Tambon administrative organizations (TAO). Since it is impossible to report on all the results, at least the English newspapers have focused on the irregularities during the election, most prominently the vote-buying. Bangkok Post writes Poll cheats… Read full story >>>

Quick follow-up to the Singapore DVD release of Sahamongkol’s actioner Somtum and the thriller Burn , there’s also the kiddie Muay Thai comedy-drama Power Kids . MovieXclusive has it . In many ways, Power Kids is a companion piece to Somtum… Read full story >>>

There are a few issues over the next month or so.1. The negotiations with Cambodia over demarcation and oil/gas (one could throw in Preah Vihear too). PAD are skeptical of govt response and state that land has been seized by Cambodia. PAD are now even questioning Kasit on this.2. The old … Read full story >>>

Raging Phoenix probably has executives at studio Sahamongkol Film International boiling over after the highly touted new action movie from Chocolate star Jija Yanin failed to reach No. 1 at the Thai box office last weekend. Known in Thailand as Jija … Read full story >>>

From the statoids page on the Thai districts I already knew that the National Statistics Office (NSO) had used a different set of codes the districts than those used by DOPA and now standardized as TIS 1099:2548 . However in all those data files for the census 2000 … Read full story >>>

Wei Yu Hua sits on the floor of his bamboo hut in the hilly Chiang Rai province of northern Thailand. The hut looks back over the steep fields he worked in after fleeing from nearby Myanmar, the culmination of a journey that began at the age of 13. At a time when… Read full story >>>

It’s officially open Last year the Thai Short Film and Video Festival was one of the first events to break in the then-new Bangkok Art and Culture Center , and the fest feels like it’s home this year. But the BACC officially becomes official today with a visit by Her … Read full story >>>

It seems there is an unwritten rule and that is any newspaper story about the Emergency Decree in the Deep South (i.e State of Emergency Emergency Decree, yes it is mouthful) must incorrectly state what the law is. The Bangkok Post is at it again today: … Read full story >>>

The Ubon Ratchathani National Museum is located on the corner of Khuanthani Road and Upparat Road in a very attractive building. It was built in 1918 and was originally used as the offices of the Provincial Governor. A new City Hall was built in 1968 and in 1983 the then… Read full story >>>