Showing 1 - 10 of 21
In Cannes, it's cinema as usual
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/05/2022
» After the cancellation in 2020 and a bump to the month of July in 2021 -- with smaller attendance as international travel was still interrupted -- the Cannes Film Festival returns to its usual mid-May slot, keyed up and fully prepped to show the world that it's cinema, and the cinema business, as usual.
Time for Asean films to shine
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/12/2021
» The pandemic notwithstanding, it has been a stimulating year for Southeast Asian cinema. Reflective, heartfelt and oddball new titles from Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have won major prizes or become critical favourites at international film festivals throughout 2021. Now, many of these films are coming to the big screen in Thailand as the Bangkok Asean Film Festival 2021 (BAFF) is set to open tonight.
The Year of Great Reckoning
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/12/2020
» For filmgoers, it was a year of mortal dread. The screen went dark, like a coffin nailed shut, and is still like that in many places. Faith in cinema as we've known it was rattled, challenged, and endangered with a Biblical overtone; it's a plague we're dealing with, after all. It was a year unlike any other we had seen before in the 125 years since cinema was invented. And while that sounds dispiriting, 2020 has also been a "Year of Great Reckoning" during which the equilibrium was recalibrated and the idea of moving images continues, as it should, to evolve.
Climbing the one-inch barrier
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/02/2020
» Hollywood gasped with embarrassment and sudden realisation when Bong Joon-ho, the director of Parasite, said in his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes: "Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to many more amazing films."
A night of surprises, some splendid
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/05/2019
» The odds weren't in Asia's favour, since there were only two films from the continent in competition. But South Korea did it, just like Japan had last year. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite won the Palme d'Or at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival, making it the second year in a row that an Asian film has won world cinema's most coveted prize, after last year's victory of Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters.
Dream, murder and reality
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/05/2018
» The 11-day Cannes Film Festival will close tomorrow, and as the race for the Palme d'Or is the most breathtaking in years, we look at some of the highlights of the second week of the world's largest movie festival
Cannes at 70 still going strong
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/05/2017
» Stars, film professionals and journalists have descended en masse to the South of France as Cannes Film Festival opens its 70th edition tonight. Still the world's most influential cinema event despite the shifting landscape brought by streaming services and the rise of TV, Cannes is steadfast in its mission to celebrate world cinema with its programme of established auteurs, as well as discoveries. That, and then the celebrity pages online and in print, will have a busy period as stars and film personalities walk the famous Cannes red carpet during the next 10 days.
Cannes Film Fest opens today
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/02/2017
» The 69th Cannes Film Festival opens today with Woody Allen's Cafe Society, and the world's most influential film festival will play out its drama until May 22. As the glamour and the art of cinema fill the airwaves, here are some of the talking points worthy of note as more reports from the Croisette will follow over the next 10 days.
A patriotic romp
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/01/2017
» Smooth, slick and unabashedly patriotic, Korean spy thriller The Age Of Shadows has cooked up a winning formula. It's the 1920s, the oppressive Japanese army rules over Korea while a band of stylishly dressed resistance fighters lurk in the shadows, rattling the colonial sabre. The Japanese -- a villain du jour given that this week at the cinemas we also see Jackie Chan fighting them in World War II-set Railroad Tigers -- are punishing and manipulative, meanwhile the Koreans are clever and heroic (and fashionable). There will be a final explosion so huge the cinema shakes, and you know who'll get blown to bits.
The non-Hollywood contenders
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/12/2016
» Thailand has submitted the monk drama Arpatti to compete with 84 other countries in the Oscar race for best foreign-language film. Here we look at some highlights from around the world before the nominations are announced on Jan 24.