Organisers of Asia’s largest film festival have issued a rallying cry to its supporters as the event emerges from years of starring in its own political drama.

The Busan International Film Festival hopes to draw a line under its role in a bitter row over the sinking of the Sewol ferry – one of South Korea’s deadliest ever disasters – which divided and traumatised the nation.

“This edition of the festival is a reunion,” said Lee Yong-kwan, chairman of the Biff organising committee.

“This year is about our recovery and a return of our status. It’s about expansion and reformation.”

The festival opens today with the world premiere of South Korean director Jero Yun’s “Beautiful Days”, which focuses on a North Korean family reunited after the mother escapes south looking for a better life.

Lee Yong-Kwan, chairman of the Busan International Film Festival, speaks at the press conference for the event.

Its theme of reconciliation seems a fitting one considering the troubles Biff has endured since the festival screened a controversial documentary about the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014.

“The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol” was critical of the then-government’s handling of the tragedy in April 2014 that left more than 300 people dead, most of them school children.

Investigations into and charges against festival organisers followed, along with significant funding cuts, as the dispute between Biff and the government played out in public.

Lee and former deputy festival director Jay Jeon were initially removed from their posts but have been reinstated for this year’s edition, while the new government of President Moon Jaein has thrown its support behind the festival.

“We hope this year to become a place that once again brings filmmakers together and that the festival can be back on track,” said Biff programmer Nam Dongchul.

The 23rd edition of the Biff runs through October 13 and features 323 films from 79 countries, including 115 having their world premieres.

The Korean film industry is expected to be out in force on opening night with an array of local celebrities gracing the red carpet, including star of the opening film Lee Na-young, as well as Park Haeil and Moon Sori, who have brought the Zhang Lu-directed romance “Ode to the Goose” to the festival.

Joining them will be the likes of Hollywood producer Jason Blum (of Oscar-nominated “Whiplash” and “Get Out” fame), acclaimed Chinese arthouse darling Zhao Tao (“Ash is the Purest White”) and Indian hitmaker Rajkumar Hirani (“3 Idiots”).

Oscar-winning Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto will also be in town to accept Biff’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award as well as to perform on opening night.

Highlights of the festival’s main programmes include the world premiere of multi-award-winning Hong Kong auteur Stanley Kwan’s latest, the theatre-themed “First Night Nerves”.

Local films as always feature prominently, with 16 world premieres in the Korean Cinema Today section including the debut as a lead actress from sometime K-Pop star Choi Soo-young (Girls Generation) in “Memories of a Dead End”.

The festival’s main competition – the New Currents award for first or second-time Asian filmmakers – will this year be contested by 10 films from seven countries.

It features a rare Bhutanese production, the drama “The Red Phallus” from Tashi Gyeltshen.

Hong Kong filmmaker Yuen Woo-ping – famed for his work on the Oscar-winning “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and on Hollywood’s “Matrix” franchise – has returned to the director’s chair for the action movie “Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy”.

The film will bring the festival to a close on October 13 with its world premiere.

“The unique part of Biff is that it represents a wide range of cultures and filmmakers,” said Yuen.

Thailand has three movies in the Window on Asian Cinema segment, namely Aditya Assarat and Wisit Sasanatieng’s “Ten Years Thailand”, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s “Manta Ray” and the Thai-German production “Nakorn Sawan” by Puangsoi Aksornsawang.

First-time Malaysian director Zahir Omar is also among the new talents on show.

Omar is bringing his stylised thriller “Fly By Night” to Biff for its world premiere and said being accepted by the region’s preeminent festival felt “surreal”.

The Busan festival “allows us the space and support to develop our art,” said Omar.

“Many international festivals overlook [Asian filmmakers’] efforts, but [Biff] has become a festival that we all aspire to get into at some point in our careers.

“To say it is a big event would be an understatement.”

Talking with director Boonsong Nakphu about his latest film “Nen Kradote Kampaeng” (“The Wall”), it quickly becomes clear that it is a chronicle of his life as a novice monk.

“But it is not a personal film,” he quickly adds. “The movie has a message I want to share with those who see it and that is about a man who chases his dream for years and hurts his loved ones along the way. It’s painful when looking back,” he says.

“The Wall” is his seventh film and is centred on a stubborn filmmaker (Boonsong) who is scouting for locations for his latest film. He goes back to the places where he lived as a child and a temple where he spent his teenage years as a novice monk. In so doing, he sees the reality of the present, the reality of the past, the dreams and expectations and a mysterious darkness from which he tries to hide.

Director Boonsong Nakphu works on the set of “Nen Kradote Kampaeng” (“The Wall”), shooting in the same temple where he spent 10 years as a novice.

Boonsong wrote the story while a student of Dramatic Arts at Chulalongkorn University. He received Bt1 million in funding from the Ministry of Culture but says it was far too little to make a film about novice life.

The script has been changed due to the budget constraints. It originally was what he calls a “period film” about life as a novice monk in the 1980s but later morphed into the story of a stubborn director who finds himself back in his hometown and visiting the temple where he once lived. Memories are told through flashbacks – sneaking out to watch a movie, developing a crush on a local girl – interspersed with the dream that enveloped him during his time at the temple. Even though life as a novice meant he studied dharma and had to adhere to temple rules, he incessantly thought of what lay outside.

“Even though I am not good looking, I would dream of being an actor. Soraphong Chatree was my idol at that time. I tried so hard to get into university so I could learn how to become an actor,” says the director.

Like many Thai kids born into poor families, Boonsong was sent into the monkhood so he would have a chance of getting into a higher education facility. And so he left his home in Sukhothai for Phetchabun to study at Wat Praison Sakdaram in Lomsak, where he wore the saffron robe for 10 years.

While he achieved one part of his parents’ dream – a place at a top university – his decision to study acting came as a shock to his family.

“By leaving home and pursuing my dream in Bangkok, I left my mother behind and hurt so many people along the way. And on top of all that, I am still not successful either as a director or actor,” he says.

He has since reunited with his mother, who is now old and unable to walk. She is a regular in his films, appearing in “Wangphikul” (“Village of Hope”) as well as “The Wall” in which his young son plays Boonsong as a child.

After the film had its premiere at the Bangkok Asean Film Festival in July, Boonsong trimmed 20 minutes and reshaped the story, making it leaner and more centred on the message he wants to convey.

“The novice in this movie is just like a real novice. These boys are ordinary people in the saffron robes. There is no religious criticism; it’s just a story about a person who has a dream,” he says.

He adds that the wall in the film can be anything from the physical temple wall that prevents the novice from chasing his dream or an insurmountable barrier that prevents him from seeing other sides of the real world.

The film, he says, is probably the last he will make based on his own life. “I am too old to look back with nostalgia. In the future I will focus on human stories,” says the 50-year-old director.

Boonsong has struggled throughout his filmmaking career and self-produced all of his films, none of which has enjoyed even modest box office success.

“The ideal ‘successful filmmaker’ for me means that they make money at the box office and are able to make the stories they want to. I’ve only achieved the second of these goals,” he says.

“Even though money is not a priority, I wish my movies would do well too as this implies that I have an audience. My hope is for my film to be powerful enough to be seen by a wider group rather than a limited community. I’d love to have an audience of more than 10,000 that increases every year.

“I sometimes wonder if I am chasing an empty dream and if I would do better giving up and going home to farm the land I’ve prepared. This uncertainty is reflected in the movie too,” he says.

“The Wall” ended up with a funding shortage that forced him to dip into the family savings set aside for his son.

He supplements his meagre income for his films by working as an actor, lecturing about film at various universities, scriptwriting, and as an acting coach and producer.

With “The Wall” now done and dusted, he will continue with other projects including an anthology of 11 short films with his students at Naresuan University, the story of a teenage girl from the Northeast who pursues a better life by working at a karaoke bar in Bangkok and a tale focusing on Buddhist philosophy.

Boonsong made his directorial debut with “Khon Jone Phoo Yingyai” (“Poor People the Great”) and followed up with “Wangphikul” (“Village of Hope”), based on short stories by noted Thai authors.

His film “Sathanee See Phaak” (“Four Stations”) won a jury prize at last year’s Deauville Asian Film Festival and was also screened at the World Film Festival of Bangkok. His recent films include “Thudongkahwat” (“Wandering”) about a man suffering in life who ordains at a forest temple then goes on a Buddhist pilgrimage and the latest “Mahalai Wua Chon” (“Song from Phatthalung”).

Another brick

– “The Wall” is now on limited release and showing at House RCA, Bangkok Screening Room and Doc Club Theatre at Warehouse 30.

– A film talk and special screenings of Boonsong’s previous films are being held both at Bangkok Screening Room and Doc Club Theatre.

– Find out more at Facebook.com/PlapenFilmStudio.

French director Claude Lelouch has started shooting a sequel to his classic romance “A Man and a Woman” with the same actors, 52 years after the original was a box office smash.

The movie has gone down in film legend for its theme tune of the same name, with its “chabadabada, chabadabada” refrain.

Lelouch’s production company confirmed last week that filming had begun in Deauville on the northern French coast, the same resort where the 1966 double-Oscar-winning love story unfolds.

Its co-stars Anouk Aimee, now 86, and 87-year-old Jean-Louis Trintignant have both taken up their original roles as a widow and a widower who refind love.

Lelouch said he wanted to go back to the heartbreaking story one more time after making a first sequel, “A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later”, in 1986.

“In this film I want to tell how life is stronger than death.

In this file photo taken on May 12, 1986, French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant, right, actress Anouk Aimee, second right, director Claude Lelouch and his wife Marie-Sophie, pose during a press conference at the 39th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, southern France.

“‘A Man and a Woman’ is a homage to life. It is a love story that tells us that there is always a second chance,” he said.

“The same actors have retaken up their roles. The script is secret, it will be a surprise,” his production company Films 13 said in a statement.

As well as its double Oscar victory, the original film won two Golden Globes and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival.

Trintignant came back from a 14-year retirement in 2012 to make the Oscar and Palme d’Orwinning “Amour” after Austrian director Michael Haneke wrote the film for him.

He revealed in July that he had prostrate cancer, declaring that he never wanted to make another film.

“I am afraid I would not be able to do it physically,” he told the Nice Matin daily.

But the veteran – a thrill-seeking racing car driver in his youth – clearly found the strength from somewhere for one last performance.

Both actors are living legends in France, with Aimee adored for her iconic roles in Jacques Demy’s “Lola”, Fellini’s masterpiece “La Dolce Vita” and the American Robert Altman’s “Pret a Porter”.

The original film also made the theme song by Pierre Barouh and Francis Lai a global hit.

“We didn’t know that it would be such an optimistic film at the start,” Lelouch recalled.

“When I wrote it first I thought to myself, ‘Bloody hell, it’s sad.’ The optimism came from the music; we showed that life was stronger than death and they were a match,” he added.

As “Game of Thrones” finishes filming after a decade in Northern Ireland, HBO is celebrating the show’s legacy by converting several filming locations into tourist attractions.

Fans of the Emmy-winning series will have the unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of Westeros.

In true Game of Thrones fashion, the Legacy attractions will be on a scale and scope bigger than anything ever seen. Each site will feature not only the sets but also displays of costumes, props, weapons, set decorations, art files, models and other production materials.

The visitor experience will be enhanced by state-of-the-art digital content and interactive materials that will showcase some of the digital wizardry the series is known for.

“We look forward to opening the gates and sharing the excitement of stepping inside these amazing sets with fans from around the world,” says Jeff Peters, vice president for licensing. “The opportunity to celebrate Northern Ireland’s pivotal role in the life and legacy of the show and share its culture, beauty and warmth is also a huge inspiration behind these Legacy projects.”

John McGrillen of Tourism NI says the Legacy project will be “a game-changer for Northern Ireland on a global tourism level. We look forward to attracting many more visitors to our beautiful country as a result.”

Plans are underway to include the standing sets for locations such as Winterfell, Castle Black and Kings Landing alongside a formal tour of Linen Mill Studios that will showcase a wide array of subject matter from the series, spanning all seasons and settings.

A description of the full scope of the Legacy project will be revealed after the exploratory process is completed.

 In an era where many of us are choosing to consume our entertainment on our personal devices, it comes as little surprise to see some of the biggest names in filmmaking turning their talents to making content for television or streaming services. Despite the pressure from cinemas and the decision taken by a few of the major film festivals to ban films without theatrical distribution from playing in competition, others are welcoming them with open arms and even rewarding them. A case in point is Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma”, which in September became the first Netflix movie to win the prestigious Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.

The recently ended Toronto International Film Festival, one of the biggest film events in the world, introduced its Primetime programme in 2015. This a special showcase for cinematic television, defined as television series made with cinematic quality that can also be presented on big screen. For the first time this year, television from Southeast Asia was recognised in the Primetime segment with “A Mother’s Love” and “Pob”, two episodes of “Folklore”, a new horror anthology by HBO Asia produced by award-winning Singaporean film director Eric Khoo and directed by Indonesian filmmaker Joko Anwar and Thai auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang respectively. Anwar, who enjoyed recent success across the region with his latest film “Satan’s Slave”, was unable to make it to Toronto to attend the premiere of his work, but Pen-ek and Khoo were both on hand to meet the audience after the screenings.

PenEk Ratanaruang’s episode for HBO Asia’s anthology horror series “Folklore”, focuses on the famous Thai ghost “Pob”. /Photo courtesy of HBO

“Eric emailed me to say he was producing a horror series for HBO Asia,” Pen-ek tells XP. “I’ve never directed horror before, except for ‘Nymph’, which is not really a horror film. He told me it was a TV film and there needed to be a ghost in it, so I asked Eric to give me a week to make a decision. The concept was to assign every filmmaker in the project to make a television film about a famous ghost in their own country. And Thailand is spoilt for choice with its krasue, krahung, pob and Mae Nak ghosts.”

After consulting with veteran producer Soros Sukhum and asking him to work on the project, Pen-ek decided to make a film about the pob ghost. Pob, which feeds on human intestines, has appeared in many horror-comedies, among them the “Baan Phee Pob” film series between 1989 and 1994. In those films the pob ghost is presented as an old woman who chasing humans for their intestines. Pen-ek’s pob, though, is different. “It’s the story of a ghost who enters a man’s house to find something to eat only to discover that the house is inhabited by a farang (foreigner). The ghost can’t speak English so is unable to communicate with the farang, and the farang thinks the ghost is a kind of beggar. Soros and I wanted to make our ghost the victim of the farang because he’s afraid of speaking English. I told Eric about our idea and he approved it,” Pen-ek expains.

In Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s latest work “Folklore: Pob”, an episode of a television series for HBO Asia, he tells the story of Pob ghost (Parama Wutthikornditsakul) who goes into a house of a farang with whom he can’t communicate./Photo courtesy of HBO

The film shows how the pob ghost loses confidence after failing to communicate with the farang and gets so frustrated that he kills him. Later the ghost meets a journalist and confesses the murder.

“I wrote a seven-page treatment and sent it to the HBO team. I received some feedback but I decided not to change anything. Although I have no experience of the horror genre, I did learn from one of my previous works that having a lot of producers on board is confusing. At first I thought it could be great to get comments to help me make a better film, but it didn’t work out that way. Those who commented are all excellent producers but their comments confused the images in my head. I was questioned in much the same way as at film school – the motivation of the characters, stuff like that. But I am not that kind of director. I am not that kind of screenwriter. Everything is visual in my mind, and I combine all the visuals into a story.”

“After I received comments, I didn’t feel comfortable. I sat down for a whole day in front of my computer and replied to each comment one by one. HBO replied that they believed in my vision, so I started writing the screenplay right away,” Pen-ek says.

“Pob” is made in black and white, which is unusual for television, and some channels, HBO among them, normally don’t allow anything but colour.

“HBO learned that the film was being shot in black and white while we were shooting and told me this wasn’t allowed. I pointed out that I had written a note in the script stating that the entire film would be in black and white except scenes 14, 27 and 36. They replied that they had misunderstood. I still filmed it in black and white and when HBO sent someone to check on the production, they asked me to stop the filming and go back to talk.

“The lighting for colour and black-and-white is different and we’d used camera effects for the scenes in which the ghost appears. We’d already shot all this and it was far too late to change. But I have to give credit to HBO for finally allowing me to do it my way. I finished the production and the editing and sent the rough cut in black and white. Now everybody likes it in black and white.”

Pen-ek’s films normally feature well-known Thai actors but here again, he has veered from convention. The main characters in “Pob” are Nuttapon Sawasdee, Parama Wutthikornditsakul and Thomas Burton Van Blarcom, all of them new to film. “All my films used stars, which is a condition for marketing, but for this film, there’s no such condition as it is a television film. I will never agree with that kind of condition again. The guy who plays the journalist is a friend of an artist friend and the person who plays ghost is an extra in Thai films.”

The director has in fact made two versions of “Folklore: Pob”, one the 53-minute version for HBO Asia, and the other a 61-minute version, which was the one screened in Toronto.

“All the scenes are intact but I trimmed some of them down. The executives at HBO prefer the 53-minute version,” Pen-ek says.

“Folklore: A Mother’s Love & Pob” were well-received at Toronto, and the series starts screening on HBO this month. Pen-ek’s episode will premiere on October 28 but the fate of the 61-minute theatrical version remains uncertain.

“It’s HBO’s film,” Pen-ek says with a shrug.

The complainant, identified only as John Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court file, alleges that Spacey groped him during a massage session in Malibu, California, two years ago.

A representative of Spacey allegedly contacted the plaintiff requesting a massage for the actor at a private home.

The complainant said that after he went to the home and began performing a massage on Spacey the actor pulled his hand into the actor’s genital area.

A startled Doe was eventually able to get away with his massage table but, in his rush to depart, left sheets and oil behind, the suit says.

Spacey was considered one of the finest actors of his generation. His career has nosedived following allegations by more than a dozen men in the United States and Britain.

He has not been charged but remains under investigation in both countries.

The first public report of alleged abuse by him came from actor Anthony Rapp, who claimed that Spacey sexually abused him when Rapp was 14, in 1986.

Spacey apologized to Rapp, claiming not to remember the incident, but remained silent as accusations against him mushroomed.

As a result, Netflix dropped Spacey from its political thriller series “House of Cards,” and he was dumped from his scenes in Ridley Scott’s film “All the Money in the World.”

Spacey is one of the most high-profile scalps in the torrent of allegations that have brought down male power players from the worlds of politics, finance, entertainment and journalism, in the wake of accusations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein a year ago.

Taped before a live audience at the Eventim Apollo and featuring the Conchords performing songs from their recent “Flight of the Conchords Sing Flight of the Conchords Tour,” Flight Of The Conchords: Live In London will air on HBO on November 21 at 10.50pm, and HBO Signature on December 20 and 31 at 7pm and 9pm respectively.

The two New Zealanders will play new, never-before-televised songs on the special, as well as some of their classics.

McKenzie and Clement debuted on HBO in 2005 in an edition of the comedy series “One-Night Stand”, returning to the network in 2007 for the debut season of the series “Flight of the Conchords,” which followed fictionalised versions of their lives in New York City. The show was praised by critics and beloved by fans, turning the cult favourites into an international sensation. “Flight of the Conchords” earned ten Emmy nominations over its two-season run on HBO, while their album “The Distant Future” won Best Comedy Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

The Conchords have also enjoyed individual success. Clement’s film credits include the “Rio” movies, “Men in Black 3”, “What We Do in the Shadows” and “The BFG,” and he has also been seen in a recurring role on HBO’s “Divorce.” McKenzie was the music supervisor for “The Muppets,” which won him an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Man or Muppet,” and “Muppets Most Wanted”.

WHAT WOULD it feel like to be trapped at the bottom of a six-metre deep pool with no possibility of climbing out and no one around to help? Director Ping Lumpraleng clearly remembers thinking about such a scenario when he first saw that pool 12 years ago while scouting locations for his directorial debut “Kote Rak Aeng Loei”.

That feeling is also what inspired him to write the script for his thriller “Narok 6 Metre” (“The Pool”), which hits cinemas tomorrow.

“The Pool” tells the story of Day (Teeradej Wongpuapan), an insecure prop man who is left alone to clear up a deserted six-metre-deep pool after a shoot. He falls asleep on an inflatable raft and wakes up to find that the water level has sunk so low that he cannot climb out of the pool on his own. He screams for help but the only thing that hears him is a creature from a nearby crocodile farm.

“My first idea when I started writing the script was ‘Nothing can pull us out from the lowest point of our lives except love’,” he tells The Nation.

Ping, who always introduces a personal account to his films, says that the story dwells on a man in his 40s who has yet to find success in life and faces an uncertain future. He likens Day to the way he was when he was working on his directorial debut.

Even though back then he was actually a well-known scriptwriter, Ping says that he was a nobody in terms of his filmmaking career. Just like Day who follows the orders of his much younger colleague, he was frustrated with his life.

But when Day is trapped at the bottom of the pool and his girlfriend injures herself jumping off the springboard to surprise him, he realises he has to find a way out for the one he loves and that shapes him into a better person – if, of course, he survives.

“When a man reaches 40 and has achieved nothing in life, he will feel down about himself. I was like that 12 years ago, so I asked myself, if I were Day, what should I do to get out from the pool? How do you emerge from the lowest point in your life?” he asks.

Ping was at the 40-year-old mark when he was working on his first film. “I felt uncertain and at that time I was nobody so it wasn’t easy as a director to order my crew to do what I wanted. Today I am surprised at my success and Day will be like me if he can escape from his lowest point,” says the 53-year-old director.

Despite finishing the script 10 years ago, Ping was unable to find funding and was delighted when Visute Poolvoralaks, formerly of GTH and the founder of production company T-Moment Film, greenlighted the project after reading the treatment.

Surprisingly over the 10 years he had been hawking the script to studios, Ping never even thought about changing the structure.

“Actually I never change my scripts once I finish them. I did fix some elements that weren’t there in the beginning because of the budget conditions. Also for “The Pool”, even though the story requires a great deal of CG technology, the storyline has nothing to do with how the world is changing. It is still about a man trapped at the bottom of the pool with his girlfriend and a furious crocodile and how he survives the situation,” he says.

To meet the CG demands, T Moment joined up with Riff Animation Studios, whose previous works include “May Nai Fai Raeng Fer”(“May Who?”).

But whether or not the “trapped in a situation” plot will appeal to local audiences suspicious of Thai skills in CG techniques and a storyline they have rarely encountered, is another matter. Since the trailer was released, the plot has become a hot topic online and opinion is firmly divided.

Those who are for it say it’s great that a new idea is being introduced to a Thai movie and they will go to watch it.

Others say the plot is irrational, ask why Day’s girlfriend is so stupid as to jump into an empty pool, why the pool doesn’t have steps and comment that a crocodile would never show up in such a location. In the film’s defence, some point out that diving is not a popular sport in Thailand so the majority of people know nothing about such pools.

The director smiles at those comments and says it’s good that the trailer is stirring up criticism because it provokes curiosity and he provides all the answers in the movies.

“But you know what? They comment on everything from the plot, the CG to the location but no one complains about the actor Ken Teeradej. I really appreciate that he said yes to this project. I can’t see any actors at this age (40) that can handle the whole story from the beginning to the end. Having him in this film is not just about his acting talent but his ability to be totally convincing as Day,” Ping says.

To overcome the flaws of a CG crocodile, Ping added backup shots using both a mechanical crocodile and also the real live reptile. And even though Thailand has plenty crocodile farms, convincing one to act as they wanted was no easy task.

“We filmed each scene involving the crocodile three times to give us some choice. However most of the scenes that appear in the movie are actually Riff’s CG ones. I doubt very much if the audience will be able to differentiate between the two.”

Visute earlier told The Nation that he gave the green light after reading the plot. “We have seen such plots in Hollywood movies like “The Shallows” or “127 Hours” but never in a Thai film. “The Pool” is a new idea for local audiences and we felt it had a good chance of success,” he said.

“We can’t do bombings or car explosions at the Hollywood level,” adds Ping “What we can do is bring a character into a high-pressure situation and give the story a good rationale. This film is neither a ghost or horror story but the story of a man who is trapped in a life or death situation.

Neither is “The Pool” an action fantasy where human fights against monster. So how and why does the crocodile fit in? Ping reiterates that he provides all answers in the film.

“We see news about crocodiles escaping from the farms every now and then, right? So it is a normal and believable situation. My intention was not to make a monster movie but a realistic drama that focuses on the character’s development,” he says.

“The Pool” finished shooting in July last year and the last 12 months have been spent on visual effects and post-production. The director praises T Moment for dedicating time and money to make the story complete despite the long lead-in period.

The first draft of the movie was too long at around two hours, 30 minutes and Ping painfully tried to trim little by little before Visute asked if he could help. The end result is a thriller that lasts 100 minutes without the loss of anything important. Here too Ping is full of praise for Visute’s editing style, so much so that he credits him as a co-director.

Ping has worked as the scriptwriter for 25 years but he has always wanted to be a filmmaker.

“Filmmaking is the job that nurtures my spirit while script work is how I make my living. So I’ll do the movie jobs I want to do and am happy to wait even if it takes 10 years,” he says.

He adds that the success at the box office doesn’t affect him as a director but he would still like “The Pool” to be a blockbuster.

“The Pool” is the third project of Visute’s T Moment and the first two films were financial flops despite earning good reviews.

“I am worried that the Visute will give up if it fails and the film industry will lose momentum. Finding success at the box office but putting out a poor quality film is not a good result. They should go together,” he says.

After the lackluster performance of the latest installment in the wildly popular “Star Wars” saga, Disney is tapping the brakes on the franchise — an acknowledgment that there can be too much of a good thing.

In an interview published Thursday, CEO Bob Iger told The Hollywood Reporter that Disney plans to slow down the “Star Wars” release schedule, admitting that it had been a mistake to shuttle a new film into theaters every year.

“I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast,” Iger said.

“You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to make films.”

Disney — which paid $4 billion for Lucasfilm in 2012 — had promised a new “Star Wars” movie every year after the hotly-anticipated 2015 release of “The Force Awakens”: news they believed would delight fans around the world.

After all, “The Force Awakens” picked up 30 years after the events of 1983’s “Return of the Jedi” — and came a decade after the previous “Star Wars” movie of any kind.

But Disney, whose initial plan was to alternate releases between chapters in the main series launched in the late 1970s and one-off films expanding the “Star Wars” universe, seems to have learned that anticipation is part of the equation.

Earlier this year, the standalone “Solo: A Star Wars Story” earned $400 million worldwide — a stellar result for most movies, but a mediocre return for a “Star Wars” film, leading many industry observers to speculate about franchise fatigue.

In contrast, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which was released just six months before in late 2017, earned more than $1.3 billion worldwide.

The next film — “Episode IX,” announced as the last installment in the main Skywalker saga, and directed by JJ Abrams — is due for release in December 2019.

“‘Star Wars’ became a global phenomenon, of course, as a rare and infrequently-served delicacy,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University.

“‘Star Wars’ movies were like locusts, or blue moons: impressive but not often. That’s all changed and Iger is probably right in his assessment,” Thompson told AFP.

But he added: “The franchise may be beginning to show its age, but ‘slowdown’ or no slowdown, I expect to see lots more attempts to squeeze it for all it’s worth.”

‘A little bit more careful’

Indeed, in February, Lucasfilm announced that the team behind “Game of Thrones” would create a brand new “Star Wars” series.

The films by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators of HBO’s Emmy-winning smash hit fantasy epic, would be separate both from the main storyline and the trilogy being developed by Rian Johnson, writer-director of “The Last Jedi.”

“We have creative entities, including Benioff and Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven’t been specific about,” Iger said in the Hollywood reporter interview, without offering more details.

“We are just at the point where we’re going to start making decisions about what comes next after (Episode IX),” Iger told The Hollywood Reporter.

“But I think we’re going to be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that.”

Exhibitor Relations senior box office analyst Jeff Bock said despite the issues, the franchise was hardly in jeopardy.

“There is so much potential with the ‘Star Wars’ TV element that the movies can take a back seat for a while if need be,” Bock told AFP.

Directed by Thai-Irish Tom Waller and starring Vithaya Pansringarm in the lead role, the film is based on the wellknown “Father Ananda Mystery” novels by noted Bangkok-based American writer Nick Wilgus and deals with the highly topical issue of corruption in a Thai monastery.

The film opens with the corpse of a young, homeless monk found in a Buddhist temple. As the cops don’t seem to be too bothered, Father Ananda of the monastery, formerly a homicide detective, decides to investigate. He travels through the canals and streets of the city, to seek the truth, and is shocked to learn that all is not holy within his monastery. The tension remains high till the end, as everyone in the monastery seems suspect.

The movie appeared at more than 20 international film festivals and was nominated for five Subhanahongsa awards.

The director recently announced he would be making a movie about the rescue of 12 boys and their coach trapped in Chiang Rai cave. The title is “Nang Non” (“The Cave”) and shooting is planned for November.

The director and the actor will be present for the screening and the Q & A that follows.

The film is in Thai with English subtitles.

A reception will be held after the screening courtesy of the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel.

Admission is free but reservations are required. Send a mail to rcbfilmclub@gmail.com.