Sadly, 2012 was deemed a bad year for Thai cinema.
Only one local film managed to cross the one hundred million Thai baht (2.5 million Euros) threshold, and more than half of the releases underperformed. There were some changing trends in genres, narrative style, and format. But they were mostly present in copycat or tasteless productions. There was some novelty, like the arrival of romance and romantic comedy, the nonlinear editing of omnibus films, and the growth of 3-D films. But they generally had no artistic qualities and abruptly disappeared. 2012 should be a warning to those artless filmmakers to learn to do things better, and not to repeat their mistakes.
There were 61 official releases in 2012, compared to 52 titles the year before. Half of these were produced by five well-known studios – Sahamongkol Film, GmmTaiHub (GTH), Phranakorn Film, Five Star Production, and M-Thirtynine.
The rest were from the so-called commercial independents, with eight titles from arthouse indies. That should be a good sign, but it isn’t. There were too many indies, especially those who merely exploited the system by copying the studio’s themes and genres to make bad pieces of work. Most of these were distributed by M Pictures, an affiliate of Thailand’s biggest theatre chain Major Cineplex Group.
The company uses a moderate distribution system – about 10 theatres per release – which should be enough of a platform for such small productions. But M Pictures has many films each year, including foreign productions, and does not provide any special promotion and marketing plans for smaller films. Worse, any films which perform badly during the opening weekend (Thursday to Sunday), are pulled off screens immediately.
The brief arrival of romance movies that started two years ago is one example of the low quality on show.
Last year, 21 movie titles had the word “Love” in them.
Many of them were quickly adapted – or plagiarised – from cheap online novels. So it was no surprise that only half of these titles made the breakeven point of 250,000 Euros. Several of them performed incredibly badly, and one – Love Is – had the all-time lowest takings for a Thai film, grossing just 2,000 Euros.
The abundance of bad pictures last year is partly responsible for the decline in the box-office. Ticket prices have continued to be go up every year, and a regular ticket price is around 5 Euros for the weekend show.
But Thai box-office still dropped. Only GTH’s romantic comedy ATM grossed 3.8 million Euros, due to the company’s feel-good brand and loyal fans. Influenced by Korean director Kwak Jae-yong’s My Sassy Girl (2001), ATM delights in the female protagonist’s superiority over her male partner. But instead of focussing on gender problems, it is written in a vey comical way.
GTH hit the jackpot again with urban romance in the omnibus picture Seven Something, originally scheduled for the company’s seventh anniversary. This featured three generations of lovers – teens, fading thirtysomething stars, and a woman experiencing a midlife- crisis – and was directed by Paween Purijitpanya, Adisorn Tresirikasem and Jira Maligool. Despite the decline of interest in romance films, it came second in the box office chart, with takings of 1.66 million Euros.
At the end of the year, GTH changed its image and tried a new style with Countdown, the directorial debut of Nattawut Poonpiriya. Developed from his short film, which had achieved a big buzz, Countdown tells of the lives of three spoiled youngsters in New York who plan to celebrate New Year’s Eve in a cool way. They call Jesus to deliver what they need. But Jesus does not only come to please them with drugs, but with everyone’s secrets.
Then come the nightmares. Countdown is a film with a tense, rhythmic pace. Familiar GTH stars twisted their usual images to play extreme characters. Best of all was Jesus, played by unknown actor David Asavanant. He made every moment of The Countdown count.
The biggest studio, Sahamongkol Film, released the latest works of Nonzee Nimibutr, Kongkiat Khomsiri, and Chukiat Sakveerakul. Nonzee Nimibutr challenged himself with the award-winning psycho-thriller script Distortion, which involved a psychiatrist, a forensic scientist, his former classmate, and his patient in the investigation of a mysterious serial killer. Everyone is interconnected and becomes a victim of the past.
Kongkiat Khomsiri worked with Sahamongkol Film for the first time for his fourth work The Gangster, a remake of Nonzee’s 1998 directorial debut Dang Bireley’s and the Young Gangsters. Based on the true story of a real Bangkok mafia man in the 1960s, The Gangster this time focuses on the life of Jod, instead of Daeng Bailey. In Nonzee’s version, this real-life character was barely glimpsed in order to avoid a direct reference which might lead into a legal action, as Jod was still alive at that time.
But The Gangster puts Jod in the front line. Director Kongkiat smartly cuts between the gangster society of 1969 and Jod’s life by using both a documentary and feature styles.
The first part of his life is illustrated with real-life interviews before it turns into a feature highlighting Jod’s life. With its violence, dramatics, and stylistic structure, The Gangster saw moderate success, taking 680,000 Euros
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Viewers had been waiting for a new film from Chookiat Sakveerakul since 2008’s The Love of Siam. Home personalises the director’s own life and family in his northern hometown through the stories of three generations of lovers: two gay teenagers, a hesitant bride and groom, and a middle-aged wife coping with her husband’s death. As with The Love of Siam, Chookiat keeps the film’s mood and tone masterfully subtle.
This success was not shared by other omnibus films.
There were 10 of them last year, but only two were worthy of feature compilations – Tanwarin Sukhapisit’s It Gets Better (shown in Udine 2012), and the experimental horror 9-9-81. It Gets Better plays with the three stages of a transgender person’s life: identity problems in early adulthood, a last visit to her family, and the son’s encounter with the dead father. The horror 9-9-8-1 treated the narrative of a woman’s mysterious death experimentally. It was broken into nine stories told by several related people – the fiancée, the best friend, the neighbour, the groom, the maid, the inspector, the mother, and the father – and directed by nine directors. Other omnibus titles, including GTH’s Seven Something, Chookiat Sakveerakul’s Home, Sakchai Deenan’s Miss You Everyday, Anuchyd Mualphrom’s Virgin Am I, and Saranyoo Jiralak’s Together, were unnecessary compilations of several shorts compiled solely to make money. Horror returned after an absence of three years.
Eight spooky terrors haunted Thai audiences last year, and there were two more in the first quarter of 2013. All of them sold out at the box office and broke even. The biggest horror film of the year heralded the return of superstar actor Jetsadaporn Pholdee (Dang Bireley’s and the Young Gangsters, 1998) who played a doctor who could not forget his dead fiancée in I Miss You (directed by Monthon Arayangkul). Based on the true story of a mysterious man who kept on putting flowers at his girlfriend’s death scene, it took 1.1 million Euros.
Five Star Production returned to the screen with two 3-D horrors, 3 AM and Dark Flight, which took 915,000 Euros and 857,750 Euros respectively. 3 AM is an omnibus consisting of three shorts revolving around the Thai belief that ghosts appear at 3am. Dark Flight tells the story of a flight on an old airplane that crashed, killing all the passengers except a young air hostess.
Five Star Production was also appointed as the sales agent for an emerging production house, Wave Pictures, which is a collaboration between Thai broadcasting mogul Channel 3 and several industry people. Its debut Long Weekend has been sold to eleven Asian countries, after its local release in February. Long Weekend is the victorious return of forgotten director Taveewat Wantha (Sars Wars, 2004), whose cult work had always been overlooked by local audiences.
This time Taveewat tells of a weekend trip to a deserted island where many religious worshippers were killed.
The director proves himself a cult film master, making startling new images of dancing ghosts, and producing terrifying moments through editing, and playing a clever trick on the audience. This is the first movie for two years that makes you close your eyes during the ghost scenes.
Another company that should be closely watched is the blockbuster booster M-Thirtynine. In 2012, it produced four movies – a dramatic horror I Miss You (directed by Monthon Arayangkul), two in the Sweetie comedy series (Rirkchai Puangphet), and Madame Ho, a comedy (also Rirkchai Puangphet). All of them drew the crowds and surpassed a million euros at the box office. M-Thirtynine’s productions have so far been a combination of good and bad film elements. Scripts are mostly bad and television-like. But some good things appear, too, as in the dramatic horror I Miss You. But normally, it’s the superstars featured that draw the audiences.
While Wave Pictures and M-Thirtynine are breaking into the Thai film industry, another company is thought to be dying. Phranakorn Film has long been known as the producer of low-quality works that attract only lower-class audiences, especially in rural areas. (Not surprisingly, most of their films do not even have English titles). In 2012, it made several films – two comedy of the “Hor” (Dorm) and “Plon” (Robbery) series – all being directed by Poj Arnon. Other titles included Thanit Jitnukul’s Ghost Day and Assachan Satkovit’s gangster My True Friend. Except for the Poj Arnon series, the rest flopped.
In 2012, there were four 3-D movies – two horrors by Five Star Production (Dark Flight and 3 AM), Kantana Production’s animation Echo Planet, and Mae Nak Legend. But the 3-D releases in Thailand have 2-D releases, too. The old format is also screened because of the limited amount of 3-D theatres.
As we continue into 2013, only two movies have been released each month, excluding arthouse independents and online homosexual films. Arthouse independents usually screen once a day for a week, while online homosexual films offer a one-week screening in a theatre before going online. The return of Kongdej Jaturanrasmee (Handle Me with Care, P-047) with Tang Wong, his fifth work, is a highlight of the year.
It premiered in Berlin’s Generation competition.
The most awaited films to be released in April were Banjong Pisanthanakul’s (Shutter; Alone) Pee Mak and Kittikorn Leosirikul’s (The Goal Club, 2001) The Sunset. Both are remakes and reinterpretations of popular Thai stories.
Pee Mak gives the male perspective on the legendary ghost story Mae Nak, and is presented in a comic way. The Sunset, a second world war story, includes a Japanese soldier’s point of view in an adaptation of a popular novel about a Japanese soldier and a Thai woman.
This novel has been adapted into three movies, five television series, and one musical. Both films are expected to break box office records.
Recent experience has proved that a high number of films cannot guarantee the future of Thai cinema. Fewer works of a better quality is the way to go. That will lead to a rich year ahead.
Anchalee Chaiworaporn