Like everywhere in the world, the Thai film industry was battered by the pandemic in 2021. Cinemas were shut for 158 days, from 26 April to 30 September. As a result, only 19 domestic titles were released last year. However, amidst the loss and disaster, Thai cinema gained momentum due to the local and international achievements of its popular and arthouse filmmakers.
Good news arrived during the lockdown, when Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s ninth feature Memoria grabbed the Jury Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival. A few weeks later, the locals applauded again when the Bucheon International Film Festival gave the Best Film award to Banjong Pisanthanakun for his sixth feature The Medium, a Thai-Korean co-production. The mockumentary horror from GDH and producer Na Hong-jin follows a family who can communicate with a village spirit. Pisanthanakun had an opportunity to cast unfamiliar performers from theatrical backgrounds in the movie so that it looked like a real documentary. However, due to the South Korean influence, the story turns into a zombie raid. According to Korean Film Council (KOFIC) data, it finished in sixth place out of Korean films in 2021, with a gross of US$7.32 million and 831,126 admissions, as of 26 September 2021. In Thailand, it was released a few months later in October, and took over 3.1 million euros.
But the real local champion of the year was a newcomer – both in terms of investment and directing. 4 Kings marks the debut of a new production company, Neramit Nang Film, and a new director Phuttipong Nakthong. Drawing from his own background in a vocational college, the director tells the story of long-term violence and conflict between boys in several vocational schools in Thailand. Whenever they encounter each other, they always end up in fights. During the film’s release, many incidents were reported after the film’s curtain call in theatres. Due to its success, a sequel has been announced. 4 Kings was the top box office grosser of the year, taking more than 4.70 million euros.
Due to the lockdown, most studios only released a few films last year. Major Group, with its several affiliates – Major Pictures, Tai Major, M Picture, and CJ Major – had the lion’s share of local films. Its South Korean-joint venture CJ Major stood out with its first horror, Cracked, directed by an advertising executive, Surapong Ploensang. Starring Thai K-pop star Nichkhun Horvejkul, the film tells of a single mother who returns home to a remote part of Thailand to take on her heritage after her father’s death. Back home, she meets an art restorer who has been hired to repair an old painting. Strange incidents ensue. CJ Major often works with popular scriptwriter Eakasit Thairaat – one of the outstanding horror writers in Thailand, who has penned successful works such as 13 Beloved (Chookiat Sakweerakul, 2006) and Body (Paween Purijitpanya, 2007) – on remakes of Korean films.
GDH had only three works in theatres, the co-production The Medium and the Wong Kar-wai-produced One for the Road, in which the studio is involved solely as a distributor. This road movie portrays the journey of two young men walking back to encounter their past mistakes. Integrated with Poonpiriya’s past experiences in New York and Thailand, One for the Road has a unique 1990s urban Thai atmosphere. The film won the Sundance Film Festival’s World Dramatic Special Jury Award in 2021.
Poonpiriya became one of the busiest directors around after the global success of Bad Genius (2017). In addition to One for the Road, Poonpiriya has several international projects in hand. Together with Hollywood film studio SK Global Entertainment (Crazy Rich Asians; Palmer) and a long list of producers/filmmakers, his upcoming deal involves the famous Tham Luang series in which a local football team of 12 players and one coach were locked inside a flooding cave in Chiang Rai. Poonpiriya also has the first English-language horror-thriller The Innkeeper for Crazy Rich Asians and Midway backer Starlight, detailing the story of a man who encounters with own trauma after his twin brother disappears in a Thai hotel. Poonpiriya is now one of the most in-demand directors at the international level.
GDH will also release Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s eighth feature Fast and Feel Love, which the director claims will be an “action movie” driven by speed and love, to work against accusation that his previous works are slow. At the time of writing, the plot has not been disclosed, but another blockbuster is expected.
Another movie that had been released outside Thailand during the lockdown incorporates the remake of television series 2gether the Movie, produced by television producers The One and GMM Pictures, and directed by Noppharnach Chaiwimol, Kanittha Kwanyu, and Weerachit Thongjil. Based on a popular gay love story that has been broadcast for years, 2gether the Movie has international fans in several countries including the Philippines and Japan. Originally planned for release in April, it was postponed due to the closure of theatres and then was released first in Japan.
Mono Film also released one movie, Om! Crush on Me (Nasorn Panungkasiri), last year. It was about the son of the historical Japanese adventurer Yamada Nagamasa, who gained considerable influence in the Ayutthaya Kingdom at the beginning of the 17th century. But when the monarchy changed, Lord Yamada was executed, leaving his son wandering alone from town to town until he encountered his paternal enemy. Even with the casting of Thai superstar Jirayu Tangsrisuk, and several emerging young actors and actresses, the film still flopped.
Although many films can’t break even with a theatrical release, most of them get some additional revenue from selling the streaming rights to Netflix. Several local movies played in cinemas for just a week, something which was even true of Five Star Production’s Game Changer. Directed by Tiwa Moeithaisong, the story features teenagers who get involved in deception and corruption after the death of a mafia boss.
Netflix was the most active entertainment operator in the two years of the pandemic. The first director of content for Thailand was appointed, and director Yongyoot Thongkongtoon (Iron Ladies) signed on. Due to the arrival of Netflix, several companies saw movement in their executive boards – from GDH to Netflix, from Major Group to GDH, and from Sahamongkol Film to Neramitr Film. Several filmmakers also moved Netflix to direct original films or series. Thriller and horror expert Kongkiat Komesiri extended his violent and gloomy atmospherics into Bangkok, in a story seen through the eyes of volunteers of a rescue service in Bangkok Breaking. The series was praised for its acting and directing, but criticised for its rushed storytelling. It ultimately turned out to be a failure for the director.
Other directors who worked on Netflix original features included Wisit Sasanatieng (Tears of the Black Tiger), whose The Whole Truth was about teenagers discovering secrets in their grandparents’ house. GDH also collaborated with the company by streaming its horror Ghost Lab on the channel. Directed by Paween Purijitpanya, the film tells the story of two medical students who try to experiment with afterlife, and their patients suffer the consequences. Arthouse director Anucha Boonyawatana (The Blue Hour; Malila: The Farewell Flower) directed the first HBO Asia series, Forbidden. This follows four friends who travel to a remote village in the mountains for a funeral. Events become intertwined with a haunting mystery.
Boonyawatana’s art-film circle is still productive, and it had several openings in Europe last year. Taiki Sakprasit’s directorial debut The Edge of Daybreak won the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique for its reflection on the social and political consequences of bloodshed in the 1970s and 2006. Anocha Suwichakornpong also finished her fourth feature, Come Here, an artistic piece revolving around four friends who visit the World War II memorial site of the “Death Railway.” Her film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival, rather than the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, which had premiered her earlier films. Another independent filmmaker, Jakkrawal Nilthamrong, also finished his third feature, Anatomy of Time. This was a nostalgic view of Thailand seen through the eyes of a woman in a rural part of Thailand from the 1960s to the present. The film won Tokyo FilmEx’s Grand Prize.
In general, a mode of independent filmmaking in which just a few films are made each year has been shared by most film studios, with the exception of the Major Group. Several new production houses seem to emerge each year, in both mainstream and arthouse circles. Amidst the chaos of the pandemic, some filmmakers still seem to have a starry future ahead of them.
Anchalee Chaiworaporn