Thailand Voice

Belay that order! Thai film fans in the U.S., if you’re still thinking about getting that Taiwanese disc of Queens of Langkasuka ( Puen Yai Jome Salad ), you might want to pause for a bit — Nonzee Nimibutr’s historical pirate epic will … Read full story >>>

Raging Phoenix , the sophomore star turn by “Jija” Yanin Wismistananda, is out on DVD in Singapore. MovieXclusive has it Jija portrays a dour young loner socialite who is rescued from kidnappers on bladed-pogo-stilts by a group of guys led by Kazu Patrick Tang, who mix hip-hop dance moves, Muay Thai… Read full story >>>

posted Shop-house Fire yesterday. Read full story >>>

The Nation: Although the Bhum Jai Thai Party has highly value its coalition alliance, the Democrats appear unappreciative of its loyalty, House Speaker Chai Chidchob on Wednesday.Chai reminded the Democrats that his son and faction leader Newin Chidchob might go back to the Thaksin camp just as the same way as when he… Read full story >>>

Erawan Erawan National Park Often more resembling a bank holiday weekend at the public swimming pool than a tranquil beauty spot, Erawan is still one of most stunning places in Thailand. Each of the seven tiers of the waterfall are quite swimmable, complete with carnivorous fish, cooling turquoise colour waters and thronging masses of local… Read full story >>>

AP: Thailand's economy bounced back in the fourth quarter, posting year-on-year growth after 12 months of contraction amid a recovery in exports, private investment and household spending.Southeast Asia's second-largest economy expanded by 5.8 percent in the October-December period from a year earlier, the National Economic & Read full story >>>

It’s taken two years since Queens of Langkasuka ( Puen Yai Jome Salad ) hit cinemas in Thailand for a licensed and legal English-friendly version to come to home video. Envisioned as a two-part big-budget epic but cut down to two hours by the … Read full story >>>

Two Thailand-related stories that I was too busy to post on Fri., but which I wanted to point out: WSJ : “ Long Shot: The New Asean Basketball League Tries to Win Over the Thais .” Sports has always had its share of lovable long shots, plucky underdogs that fans pull for despite… Read full story >>>

Ambika in Reuters: “Widespread violence on the scale of April 2009 is unlikely in the near term. The reds are in disarray and they have learned from the April riots. They may opt for a battle of attrition instead of an all-out showdown,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Chulalongkorn Read full story >>>

Fireball , Thanakorn Pongsuwan’s bloody and violent blend of Muay Thai and no-holds-barred basketball, hits Region 2 DVD and Blu-ray on January 18. Check it at Amazon or Play.com . Details about specs or extras are thin on the ground, but… Read full story >>>

Songyos Sugmakan’s award-winning romantic comedy, Hormones ( Pid Term Yai Huajai Wawun , ปิดเทอมใหญ่ หัวใจว้าวุ่น ) has been released on DVD in Singapore. And yes, unlike a previous release elsewhere , it has English subtitles. MovieXclusive has it. Here’s the synopsis: This summer break, the love stories of four distinctive … Read full story >>>

Hot and spicy stuntman action in Somtum and the sizzlingly sensationalist thriller Burn — two of last year’s offerings from Sahamongkol Film International — can now had on English-friendly subtitled DVD from Singapore. MovieXclusive has them . Somtum , one of my favorites from last … Read full story >>>

Meeting number 23 of board 1 from July 3 2009 with 24 TAO upgraded to subdistrict municipalities. Dan Sai, Dan Sai district, Loei province, effective on July 31 2009, upgraded and renamed to Si Song Rak ( เทศบาลตำบลศรีสองรัก ), to avoid confusion with the municipality Dan Sai ( เทศบาลตำบลด่านซ้าย ). The TAO was created in 1997, covers 118.5 km², 14 villages and… Read full story >>>

But investigations by the media and concerned agencies in the next few weeks will find whether the ideal goal of forming a grand alliance against the hated military regime is too late or can still be a dream come true. – Extracted from “ The fall of Kokang raises questions ”, Shan Herald Agency … Read full story >>>

One of the best Thai films to come out in the past few years, 2006’s 13 Beloved or 13: Game of Death , has been released on DVD in the United Kingdom by Revolver Entertainment . Directed by Chookiat Sakveerakul and adapted from a comic book by Eakasit Thairaat, this taut thriller is the story of a down-on… Read full story >>>

Source Bank Of Thailand (table EC_XT_002) . Do we have -at last- some Green Shoots to season our salad ? Yes. Will It last ? My bet : no. Exports reached 437,85 billions THB versus 421 billions in june. But that’s still a drop of 23,9 % compared to… july 2008 … Read full story >>>

[Bloomberg] Thailand’s SET Index May Rise to 750, Kasikorn Says[Thailand’s benchmark SET Index has gained 45 percent this year, set for its best annual performance since 2003 after a 48 percent slump last year.]tags: economy[Reuters] Fitch sees bad debt at Thai banks rising into next year[The amount of bad debt at Thai commercial banks will… Read full story >>>

The acclaimed gay teenage romance and family drama Love of Siam will be released on Region 1 DVD on October 13. Amazon has it ready for pre-order . No surprise that Strand Releasing — which specializes in queer-oriented titles, among them Bangkok Love Story — is the one that’s picked this up. How the film is being … Read full story >>>

The other day Miss Noot, Nong Ja and I ventured to a temple we try and visit once a month. I have posted about Wat Sa Prasan Suk before and there are lots of pictures here and here if you want to see more of it. Here Nong… Read full story >>>

Christmas in August Part 2 (for the first part, read here ). Motorists will again enjoy cheaper diesel by two baht a litre starting next week, after Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva demanded that the state Oil Fund subsidise prices . The result, said an Energy Ministry official who declined to… Read full story >>>

THAI TAKES By PHILIP GOLINGAI GUESS what Thailand’s sexiest actress doesn’t see when she looks at herself in the mirror naked? Sexiness. Araya “Chompoo” Hartgett, a 28-year-old lakorn (Thai for soap opera) star, confesses that she is oblivious to her sex appeal. “I’ve been with myself for 28 years. I take a … Read full story >>>

The chances that I may one day see Paul Spurrier’s 2005 horror P just got a little better. Earlier this week, it was announced that Palisades Tartan would be continuing the Asia Extreme line of DVDs, and the first release since Palisades Media purchased the shuttered Tartan Video will be P , which has long been … Read full story >>>

Terima kasihI caught my first film at the World Comedy Film Festival last night — Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly, which is not really a comedy in the strictest sense, though it is funny at times. More on that later, I hope. What was … Read full story >>>

Plans to have a handful of original-soundtrack screenings of Bangkok Adrenaline ( อะดรีนาลีน คนเดือดสาด , or Adrenaline Kon Deuat Sat ) have fallen through and so this action-film about English-speaking foreigners getting into trouble in Thailand has opened in Thai cinemas today, playing with only a dubbed … Read full story >>>

Bitter/Sweet and its Thai cast won’t get to bask in the opening-night gala spotlight now that the Phuket Film Festival has been cancelled , but they still have reason to celebrate, with the film recently winning awards at the WorldFest-Houston International Film and Video Festival . The cast… Read full story >>>

A year has passed since Thai 101 last looked at the significant offerings of older Thai films on DVD. For part 2 of Rikker’s Thai Movie Roundup, he looks at the Memory Collection from GMM Grammy . For this DVD series, Grammy is mining the… Read full story >>>

The Thai-Taiwanese supernatural psychological horror thriller The Fatality is out on DVD in Taiwan. Which means it has English subtitles in addition to the soundtrack that’s in Mandarin and Thai. It’s available at YesAsia . Directed by Tiwa Moeithaisong, The Fatality ( Tok Tra Phee was released in Thailand in January… Read full story >>>

Extra Virgin, the indie production, distribution and sales marque of filmmakers Pimpaka Towira and Mai Meksawan , has unveiled its own Web domain, www.ExtraVirginCo.com , upgrading from a Wordpress blog . Most exciting of all is that Extra Virgin has followed… Read full story >>>

The wait for a DVD of Ong-Bak 2 with English subtitles is over. And it comes not from Hong Kong . But from Keris Video in Malaysia. HK Flix has it , and “all product features … have been physically verified by HKFlix staff.” A further note says: “This DVD is labeled as Region-3, but is actually all region. The English …