Thai cinema in 2005 consisted of several contradictory currents, and that's led to an unpredictable situation. What will happen next is anyone's guess. On the surface, anyway, the industry looked good last year. For the first time, there were seven films taking more than US$1 million. The top grosser of the year belonged to martial arts idol Tony Jaa and Tom Yam Goong. With its US$4.96 million take, it became the runner-up in the all-time Thai film box-office chart.
Tom Yam Goong also brought some changes to the film industry. It was the first Thai film to be simultaneously released in territories beyond Thailand. While the movie was breaking records in Thailand, Tony Jaa was travelling to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea to promote the sequel. At the same time, the distributor Sahamongkol Film called for a new deal with the country's five regional distributors (the north, the north-eastern, the central, the eastern and the southern regions). Instead of buying the rights at a flat rate, the regional distributors agreed to share proceeds from tickets sales equally. During the release, the theatres also exercised strict security measures to prevent piracy. Guards were hired to prevent any illegal recording during film screenings and several arrests were reported in local newspapers as a warning.
The year's movie phenomenon actually turned to be a crappy B-grade comedy called The Holy Man, which took US$3.55 million. The film has no art house spirit and lacks even good commercial qualities. This nonsensical tale of a bad-boy-turned monk trying to bring back the Buddhist faith to villagers would never stir the hearts of Apichatphong Weerasethakul's fans - or the foreign fans of Ong Bak. But it became a sleeper hit here because it was released just before the school break, the quietest time of the year.
Aside from Tom Yam Goong and The Holy Man, the top ten grossers of the year included Hello Yasothorn, Dear Dakanda, Rahtree Returns, Dumber Heroes, Necromancer, Midnight My Love, Street Fighter 2 and The Eye Infinity. Of these, only Dear Dakanda, and Midnight My Love were good dramas. The rest were all exploitation - horror, comedy, and action. Most of Thailand's releases last year consisted of these three genres, or combinations of them.
Yuthlert Sippapak, the studios' darling, continued exploring horror legend. In 2005, he made Rahtree Returns, the sequel to Flowers of the Night. Rahtree Returns follows the afterlives of the two ghosts, who still haunt room 609 of the otherwise-deserted apartment. Chaos ensues when the place is selected as a refuge by a gang of bank robbers and a young blind woman. Their fates become intertwined when the stolen money is accidentally left in room 609.
This year Yuthlert crafted one of his best pictures, Ghost of Valentine. A blend of drama, horror and romance, it tells the story of a heartbroken nurse who starts working at a dilapidated hospital. There she finds out that she's a krasue - a ghost which looks human during the day but detaches its head and eats placentas at night. Ghost of Valentine is a melancholy, delicate work which reflects on love and the Buddhist cycle of karma. Yuthlert, a master of commercial filmmaking, proves that he has the potential to make art-house films with this.
GTH opened the year with the cash-strapped comedy M.A.I.D from internationally acclaimed director Yongyuth Thongkongthun. In his third feature since the Iron Ladies sequel, the director smartly chose to play with the lives of one of the most popular characters of every Thai TV-series. A group of maids are asked by a police chief to investigate their suspected bosses. With the casting of lead TV star Pornchita Na-Songkhla, it unsurprisingly rocketed up the box-office charts.
GTH's The Tin Mine, directed by GTH's creative head Jira Maligul, was a biopic of the country's famous novelist Archin Panjapan. After being retired from university, he was sent to learn the "reality of life" in a tin mine in the south of Thailand. The Tin Mine is a film of substance, a coming-of-age film with high production values. But there were poor performances and many continuity issues. The film didn't attract young audiences, and completely flopped.
Oops, There's Dad seemed to shine at first by bringing alive some old stars. A sequel to the popular Wai Olawon of thirty years ago, it turned out to be targetting the wrong audience group. As a mother of teenagers, director Rutaiwan Wongsirasawad chose to focus on the feelings of her generation. The movie was heavy on parental encounters with the changing lifestyle of today's generation and never attracted a teenage audience.
GTH's fourth film of the year, Dear Dakanda, helped it out of bankruptcy. It's the story about a young man who falls for his best friend and has to suppress his true feelings. It was made by Khomkrit Treewimol, one of the six directors who became successful after My Girl in 2003. He smartly adapted a popular award winning novel into a nice, funny love-story. Despite its overlong narrative, Dear Dakanda caught young audience's hearts and not surprisingly hit the jackpot.
GTH's youthful directorial chemistry is now shared by some other companies. RS Film gave Kittikorn Laiwsirikun Ahimsa: Stop to Run; and Sahamongkol Film gave Santi Taepanich Crying Tigers and Kongdej Jaturonrassamee Midnight My Love. Quirky and groovy Ahimsa: Stop to Run brought Kittikorn Laiwsirikun back to the critical acclaim he received for The Goal Club. Ahimsa: Stop to Run plays with strange incidents which might be caused by drugs or karma.
First-timer Santi challenged the mainstream with Crying Tigers, about the lives of north easterners who struggle to live and survive in Bangkok. Kongdej crafted his second work Midnight My Love around the decadence of a lonely taxi-driver who falls for a bar girl. All of these filmmakers highlight the abilities of new or sophomore directors. But their potential will only flourish if they are given chances to do something different and new, and not limited to popular genre films.
Pen-ek Ratanarung finally finished his work on Invisible Waves, a Thailand-South Korea-Netherlands-Japan co-production. It was the first Thai film in 25 year to compete in Berlin. The international co-production set-up did affect the story and characters. Though most of the crew are Thai, the lead roles are taken by Japanese actor Asano Tadanobu and Korean actress Gang Hye-Jeong. Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle shot it. It details the guilt of a Japanese cook who is lured by his mafia boss to kill his lover.
The cost of overusing three popular genres is now being felt by the industry. Not all the comedies, horrors or actions can go platinum. It is also hard to predict what kinds of movies Thai audiences enjoy these days, and a number of genre pictures flopped. Comedians like Mum Jokmok or Theng Therdtoeng often draw wide audiences - but not always.
Mum Jokmok appeared in almost every movie going. His popularity led to a cool US$2.5 million take for his second directing project, Hello Yasothorn, in which he also took the lead. But Ghost Variety only broke even despite the fact that it was directed by well-known producer/director Adirek Wattaleela. Even the female actioner Dangerous Flowers unexpectedly failed, though famous sex bombs and singing superstars were in the cast.
Thailand's film industry is now full of uncertainty. Bad quality films seem to be becoming less frequent. So things might get better. But there's always a chance they could get worse. We'll have to wait and see.