A few years before the new millennium, the Thai film industry and the Far East Film Festival had something in common – their cinematic emergence. At the same time as Thailand welcomed the rise of Thai New Wave, Udine started its Asian-focused film festival. Thailand celebrated the silver anniversary of the New Thai Cinema last year, and the Far East Film Festival celebrates a similar achievement this year.
The New Thai Cinema in 1997 was actually a renaissance which reversed the decade-long decline of Thai cinema during the mid-1980s and 1990s. Due to the arrival of video, most viewers preferred to enjoy movies at home, and the majority of works tried hard to attract teenagers. The rise of record companies in this decade ensured teen films were prioritized. Parallel to this trend, popular B-grade movies were made and screened in some local markets, especially the north-eastern region. Panna Rittikrai, who gave rise to the Thai boxing martial arts films and brought Tony Jaa global fame a decade later, was active.
Since the arrival of multiplex theatres in 1994, local productions had suffered from the superior quality of Hollywood productions. As a result, Thai cinema had to improve its quality so that it could win over exhibitors. In the midst of the doom, two emerging directors debuted and became the pioneers that put Thailand on the global map – Nonzee Nimibutr and Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Both came from advertising, a sector that had long focussed on quality.
In the early months of 1998, Ratanaruang’s debut feature was invited to premiere in the Berlin International Film Festival’s Forum section, a full two decades after the last Thai film had appeared there. Fun Bar Karaoke depicts the superstitious and crime-prone city of Bangkok through the eyes of two lonely teenagers. A few months later, local audiences were thrilled by another debut, Dang Bireley's and Young Gangsters by the advertising team, director Nonzee Nimibutr and scriptwriter Wisit Sasanatieng. Based on real events, all generations of filmgoers were attracted to the film about gangsters’ lives in the 1950s by new filmmakers, with new stars and a new look. The protagonists Dang Bireley’s and his friends were known as men of violence, but they loved Elvis Presley and rock and roll. With its eye-catching colours, the film became a blockbuster, taking more than €2 million. Both films can be considered groundbreaking features that ushered in a new trend of cinema – both locally and naturally.
Ratanaruang and Nimibutr gained even more attention when their second features were released two years later. Ratanaruang’s 6ixtynin9, which followed a young woman who faced the 1997 economic downturn that hit Thailand and the surrounding region, was selected by Berlin. Nonzee Nimibutr achieved even more with Nang Nak (1999), a film which is based on a shared Asian myth of a pregnant-mother-turned-ghost, which was invited to Udine. This time, their international success was even bigger, and they drew attention from international sales agents like Fortissimo Film Sales and Golden International Network. As a result, more opportunities were given to other advertising creatives. By the turn of the millennium, the international path triggered by both Ratanaruang and Nimibutr had established a large global presence.
Nimitbutr’s scriptwriter Wisit Sasanatieng made his debut Tears of the Black Tiger, a postmodern genre pastiche of forbidden love across the class divide, in 2000, and it became the first Thai movie to be selected for competition at Cannes. Parallel to the international film festival circuit, Thai popular film genres – horror, martial arts and romance – were successful across Asia. The market for Thai genre films subsequently extended across the globe, with the surprise comedy hit about a transvestite basketball team, Iron Ladies (Yongyoot Thongkongthun, 2000), grossing $9 million worldwide.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul silently and individually came to the filmmaking world via a different route (architecture and art school) and with a completely different style. By 2000, his documentary debut Mysterious Objects at Noon had premiered at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, and his feature debut Blissfully Yours (2002) was selected for the Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2002.
Since then, Thai cinema has been celebrated everywhere, and more opportunities have been given to newcomers. Thai cinema has been internationally recognised at both ends of the continuum. On one end, we have genre films, especially horror and martial arts, while at the other end we have art house cinema like the films of Apichatpong
Anchalee Chaiworaporn