Director Wisit Sasanatieng returns to Thai cinema screens on Thursday with not just one movie but two. It’s an unusual situation and not one Wisit was particularly prepared for, especially as the press reviews were also organised for the same day and saw the director scurrying across the street from Paragon Cineplex to Scala Theatre.

The two films in question are his latest full-length feature “Singsoo” (“Reside”) and the anthology “Ten Years Thailand” on which he worked with three other directors.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard that my two projects were coming out on the same day, but there it is,” says Wisit, who made his name with his debut feature “Fah Talai Jone” (“Tears of the Black Tigers”) back in 2000. He has made a few films since, the latest being “Runpee” (“Senior”), which was released two years ago. And it looks like he will remain in the spotlight for the near future at least following the announcement by Netflix last month that Wisit will co-direct with Sittisiri Mongkolsiri the first of the two original Thai series “Oubatikaan” (“Shimmers”) for the streaming service.

“Singsoo” is set in a house that serves as the headquarters for the cult known as Jit Asongkhai (Infinity Spiritual Centre). Madame (Tarika Thidathit) and her apprentices Dej (Ananda Everingham), Prang (Natthaweeranuch Thongmee), Soy (Ploy Sornarin), Kruea (Jarunan Phantachat), Krit (Teerawat Mulwilat) and Nop (Peerapol Kijreunpiromsuk) are gathered around a dead body, chanting as they call on a spirit to come to the body. But things don’t go quite as planned and a group of vagabond spirits attempts to come inside and possess the cult members. Matters are further complicated by a massive storm and flooding that leaves them trapped, even as they try to fight off the spirits and discover why they are so determined to reside in their bodies.

Wisit says he was inspired by the idea of possession and also by parapsychology, or the study of situations that can’t be explained scientifically such as paranormal and psychic phenomena, telepathy and psychokinesis.

“I’m interested in what happens when someone’s personality suddenly changes like in the movie ‘Primal Fear’ where Edward Norton switches in seconds from a good person to a scary person,” he says, adding that “Reside” is neither a Thai style black magic nor a ghost movie, but a hybrid horror tale with a nod to the Hollywood possession genre.

He compares the notion of possession to the Thai dislike of Rohingya asylum seekers and other refugee groups, and how they use hate speech to express their fear.

“Perhaps they forget that the land they are living on belonged to others before they were born. Many of them are Chinese descendants, so why don’t we have more compassion for them and tone down our overprotection of our country?” says the director.

The fear of refugees is similar to the framework for the fear in the film. “In ‘Reside’, the spirits want to inhabit our bodies forever not just possess them temporarily. The spirits will attack those who are afraid and once they take control of the body, they will live like a normal person forever.

But for all that, he is quick to point out that this concept is not overly obvious in the movie. “Reside”, he says, is essentially an entertaining horror film with the scares coming from the fierce spirits and tethered together by how each character’s background leads them into the situation.

There are shades of an Agatha Christie drama too, with the story of each character revealed through the tense situation.

“Cinephiles will recognise the tribute to great horrors films like ‘The Exorcist’, ‘The Shining’ or ‘The Evil Dead’. It’s not like ‘The Unseeable’,” says the director, referring to his 2006 cult horror release.

In many ways, “Reside” came about quite by accident. Earlier this year, Wisit, who now works as a content creator at Transformation Films, realised that the team would be unable to finish their project “Sang Krasue” this year, meaning that Transformation would have no 2018 release. To fill the gap, Wisit offered a few ideas and the team eventually chose “Reside”. As the idea for the film came from him and he had already written the script, Transformation decided he should also direct.

Time and budget constraints presented challenges and there were times when Wisit wondered how he could create a horror film in a single location without using visual effects. The answer lay in the skills of the actors and creating the atmosphere through production design and storytelling.

Performance artist Teerawat Mulwilai helped Wisit with the acting while Natthaweeranuch and Ananda conjured back up the same chemistry that made such a success of “Shutter”.

Ploy Sornarin, left, plays Soy while Silpathorn artist Jarunan Phantachat portrays her aunt Kruea./Courtesy of Transformation Films

Ploy is a rising star who picked up the Subhanahongsa Award for Best Supporting Actress in “Siam Square”.

“She’s brilliant as Soy,” enthuses Wisit of the actress who bears a strong resemblance to veteran screen star Jintara Sukkhaphat.

“Teerawat has really helped me on this project especially in the way we show the spirit taking over a body. He blends performing art with his acting,” he says.

And indeed performing art plays a major role in the film, with the actors drawing on butoh techniques to demonstrate the act of taking possession. It also celebrates the coming together of three Silpathorn artists –Wisit, Teerawat and Jarunun have all been recognised with the prestigious award in the fields of film and performing arts.

Wisit is known for casting actors of yesterday in his films, such as Sombat Methanee in “Fah Talai Jone” and the long-retired Pornpan Kasemmatsu in “Runpee” (“Senior”).

He does it again with “Reside” bringing in the veteran actress of the late 1970s and 1980s Tarika Thidathit as Madame. “She is one of my favourite actresses. I was thrilled when she agreed to play a prostitute role and shaved her head for real in the 1978 movie “Nua Kwa Rak,” he says.

Wisit knows that fans are keen to see a horror film like “The Unseeable” but insists he is not interested in repeating what he has done before.

His films are often received critically acclaimed but fail at the box office. “Guess the audience prefers to see them on TV or pirated DVD,” he says.

Director Wisit Sasanatieng on the set of his latest horror film “Singsoo”./Courtesy of Transformation Films

And he is probably right. “Tears of the Black Tiger” was the first Thai film ever to be chosen for the Cannes International Film Festival but flopped back home. “The Unseeable” is often held up as one of the best Thai horror flicks of all time but only became popular when it was shown on television.

“As a filmmaker, it doesn’t matter as long as our works are being seen by a wider audience though it doesn’t benefit for the investor or the movie as a whole.”

And while film fans will no doubt be hankering for more from Wisit, he prefers to stay in the background.

“My energy has run out and despite still having plenty of ideas, I can’t do it on my own. As a content creator, I can share my ideas and my experience with the younger generation who still have energy to do it,” he says.

 “Singsoo” (“Reside”) and |“Ten Years Thailand” open on Thursday. “Reside” is on wide release meanwhile “Ten Years” will have a limited run at Major Cineplex, SF Cinema, House RCA and Bangkok Screening Room.

The film, a dystopian anthology made by four Thai filmmakers, is based on the 2015 Hong Kong film “Ten Years”.

The film is directed by Aditya Assarat, Wisit Sasanatieng, Chulayarnon Siriphol and Apichatpong Weerasethaku, the winner of a Palm D’or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 for his film “Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives”.

Running 95 minutes “10 Years Thailand” presents the filmmakers vision of Thailand’s future. A fifth segment by Chookiat Sakveerakul, which was not included in the Cannes screening, is set to be part of the full cinema release.

The stories range from a black-a-white film in an art gallery, to an Earth where the last human is made to live in a Cat dominated world.

A constant theme of censorship and forced conformity rings out throughout the film, and its directors have found a platform to visually represent their concerns for their country and its future.

Rather than a form of social commentary for what has happened or is happening, the focus is on how we might help shape and mold the future.

The film premieres nationwide on December 13, with English subtitles, following its Cannes screening in May. Screening will be held in Bangkok at SF Cinemas, House RCA and Bangkok Screening Room. It will also show in Phuket, Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen, Chian Mai, Chonburi, Pathum Thani, Maha Sarakham, Udon Thani.

Source: thethaiger.com

Gaffigan, who has five specials streaming on Netflix, became in December 2014 one of only 10 comics to sell out Madison Square Garden and has even performed for Pope Francis.

In 2016, Forbes magazine named Gaffigan one of the world’s highest-grossing comedians. His books “Dad is Fat” (2013) and “Food: A Love Story” (2014) have sold exceedingly well.

Billed as “one of our most intelligent observational humorists”, Gaffigan’s most recent performance film, “Noble Ape”, matched the success of last year’s Netflix special “Cinco”. “Noble Ape” pools footage from sold-out performances around the world, including in China and Japan.

Gaffigan has also appeared in the feature films “Super Troopers 2” and “Chappaquiddick” and voiced characters in “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” and “Duck, Duck Goose”.

Seats cost Bt1,800 and up at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and (02) 262 3456.

To mark the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the European Union and its Member States are hosting the 2018 edition of the European Union Film Festival as an open-air event.

The festival, which continues through December 17, see the residences of EU Member State Ambassadors and EU cultural institutes in Bangkok opening their doors for the screening of 19 premium quality European movies.

“This is a truly rare opportunity as seven EU ambassadors will open their residences to the public for film screenings, thus enabling the audience to enjoy a unique open-air film festival experience at European heritage venues right in the heart of the city,” said Pirkka Tapiola, the ambassador of the European Union to Thailand.

The film screening venues include the residences of the ambassadors of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK, the Alliance Francaise Bangkok, the Goethe-Institut Bangkok, and House No 1.

The festival kicked off last Thursday at House No 1, a historical house with European heritage located on Captain Bush Lane with the screening of “Mademoiselle Paradis”, an Austrian film by a new-generation director Barbara Albert, which was showcased at both the San Sebastian and Toronto film festivals.

Other highlights include “The Other Side of Hope”, a Finnish comedy-drama which won its veteran director, Aki Kaurismaki, the Silver Bear Award for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival 2017; I Am Not a Witch”, a British drama which was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival; and “The Commune”, a Danish drama which won its actress Trine Dyrholm the Silver Bear for Best Actress award at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival.

The European Union Open-Air Film Festival 2018 runs until December 17. All films will be screened in their original languages with Thai and English subtitles.

Admission to all film screenings is free, however, pre-registration is required for entry to each film screening.

For the list of films, synopses, trailers and screening programme, visit http://www.facebook.com/events/1126897370798882.

It’s not only K-pop that has made South Korea famous around the world. The country’s TV dramas too have been wowing audiences as far afield as China and the US with romantic comedies, modern and period pieces, action and horror all in the mix.

Now they are bringing yet another new element to the small screen with the release on Netflix of the augmented reality drama “Memories of the Alhambra”, which debuted this weekend in South Korea and is showing the world over.

Starring Hyun Bin and Park Shin-hye, “Memories of the Alhambra” is centred on Yoo Jin-woo (Hyun Bin), the chief executive of an investment company holding company who is attempting to win the rights to a video game. He travels to Granada, Spain in search of the mysterious creator of this innovative augmented-reality (AR) game, young programmer Jung Se-joo (Park Chan-yeol from K-Pop boyband EXO), and ends up at a hostel owned by former musician Jung Hee-joo (Park Shin-hye) and dons his company’s innovative “smart lens” to play the game.

The cast of “Memories of Alhambra” at the press conference in Seoul: from left, Park Hoon, Hyun Bin, Park Shinhye and Kim Euisung./Netflix photo

The story is written by the acclaimed scriptwriter Song Jae-jung, who has won praise for bringing fresh ideas to Korean drama. Her previous hits include “Nine: 9 time times travel”, where she plays with the idea of time travel when the key character obtains 9 incense items, which allows him to go back 20 years in time. In “W”, she tells the story of a super wealthy man who exists in the webtoon “W”, and a woman who is a surgeon in the real world.

The series is directed by Ahn Gil-ho of “Strangers” fame, whose realistic directing style is in direct contrast to the writer’s fantasy plot.

“We wanted to make it as realistic as possible. So rather than use too much computer graphics, we’ve based it in reality,” says the director. “The most difficult part about expressing AR is how you are going to execute it. AR is different from virtual reality so it had to be very real and when we did use CG, we had to find the right point to put these together.”

In the first two episodes, the audience is introduced to the world of AR through Jin-woo as he starts playing the game for the first time.

For the 16-episode series, the director has again opted for non-linear storytelling just as he did in “Stranger”, with details and secrets revealed in jigsaw form then pieced together in a way that keeps the audience glued to their seats.

But Ahn Gil-ho is quick to insist that while “Memories” is full of new technological elements, it doesn’t have a complex plot that non-gaming audiences would find hard to follow.

Netflix Photo

“It is a future technology so there’s a fantasy factor at play. The AR game is just a topic that we use in the drama but it doesn’t play the biggest part. We try to explain the story through the acting. Also, it is not just about a game; there’s romance in there too,” he explains.

“The idea was to bring this fantastic script to life and the actors achieved that. I think everybody will imagine it playing out in their own way,” he adds.

The title refers to the Alhambra palace and fortress complex in Granada, Spain and it is there than the AR game takes place.

“Why Spain? Historically speaking, Granada has an Islamic backdrop as well as traditional Spanish culture and those two factors make it a very unique city. Its medieval feudal scenery is the perfect match to the game backdrop of our story,” he says.

“I’ve never worked with augmented reality before and I was really curious to see how it would actually come out after all the post production work and CGI had gone into it. I guess curiosity really drove me to participate in this project,” says Hyun Bin, who has been away from TV dramas for the last three years. The actor, who reached the height of his fame in “Secret Garden” back in 2011, has preferred feature films to TV dramas since coming out of the army, starring in “Confidential Assignment”, “The Swindles” and Rampant”.

Director Ahn Gil-ho/Netflix Photo

Park Shin-hye of “Doctors” fame has also been away from small screen dramas for two years.

“I put a lot of thought into my next project, asking how I could rediscover myself. AR was a new topic for me and it wasn’t simply a matter of playing a game. It’s not like just an arcade game. I thought there was a message within and I could really connect to the script, which addresses some social issues as well. Also the character I play, she’s very human and very warm,” says the actress.

“Gaming is an industry that is loved the world over. It’s cultural content that everybody in the world really enjoys and we melted this into the narrative of the drama to make it more fun. We made a conscious effort to ensure that people who don’t play games can follow our story and I think we have created a world where they feel like they’re really enjoying a game,” says the director.

Actor Park Hoon plays Cha Hyung-seok, the chief executive of IT company New World. A former school friend of Yoo Jin-woo, he co-founded Jaywon Holdings.

“My company makes a smart lens that you wear when you log into the game. In fact, that’s how you start playing: your put these smart lenses into your eye and people who aren’t accessing it via the smart lens don’t see what’s going on in the game. I had to really use my imagination to play it. For example, I’m fighting a certain character with certain weapons that can only be seen through the lens so while I can see what’s going on, people will look at me and wonder what’s wrong with me. That means we had to shoot from many different angles so that the audience is seeing what’s going on from my perspective and from the perspectives of others,” the actor explains.

He adds that time constraints complicated the shoot somewhat. “We were overseas and needed to repeat the shoots as many times as possible within a limited amount of time and that was quite difficult. I found it awkward at first but when I started playing the game, my acting levelled out and things improved. I’m at a very high level right now in terms of game acting capability,” he adds with a smile.

“The series has a lot of fantasy-based scenes and that makes it difficult to relate it to most Korean dramas. Yet I think we have found a Korean chord in explaining this fantasy world. The shifting relationships between the characters is also interesting,” says Park, who appeared in “Descendants of the Sun” as a smart solider in the squad of Captain Yoo Si-jin (Sung Joong-ki).

K-pop idol Park Chan-yeol, who plays programmer Jung Se-joo, was recommended by actress Park Shin-hye and Ahn Gil-ho found him particularly suited to the role.

“He’s a great actor and he has the image that really goes with Chan-yeol’s character. He connects all the characters together but that’s all I’m revealing,” laughs the director.

And of course the fact that he is a member of a superstar band is going to draw his fans all over the world to tune in.

The drama started shooting in May and the final scenes are now being shot. Ahn Gil-ho says the post production work on the visual effects is still to be completed.

He admits that it is a burden to live up to expectations after his acclaimed “Stranger”.

“‘Memories of the Alhambra’ is completely different from ‘Strangers’, the direction is different, the overall story and the style are different.

“We’ll be competing with a lot of other Netflix content but I think we have our own unique colour. Song has written a very tight story with solid characters and our actors have expressed it in a very immersive manner so I think it will capture audience attention on the global stage,” he says.

Filmed entirely in Taiwan with an all-Taiwanese cast, the second season stars Kuo Shu-Yao as she reprises her lead role as Xiao Zhen, alongside new cast members including two-time Golden Bell Award-winning actress Wen Chen-Ling (“The Last Verse”) and rising star, Fandy Fan (“HIStory”).

The eight-episode second season of “The Teenage Psychic” is scheduled to premiere in 2019 and will be available across Asia on HBO GO, HBO, and HBO On Demand.

“We are delighted that the first season of “The Teenage Psychic” was well-received in the region and even received the prestigious recognition at the Golden Bell Awards in Taiwan. It was an obvious decision for us to renew the series for a second season – the show absolutely deserves it,” says Jonathan Spink, chief executive of HBO Asia. “We are always looking for opportunities to produce more local language productions such as ‘The Teenage Psychic’ and working with local talents and crews across Asia.”

The new season of “The Teenage Psychic” continues with Xiao Zhen trying to lead a typical teenage life while going through high school. Meanwhile, Xiao Zhen’s beloved drama club is also facing the possibility of being shut down with news of her best friend relocating overseas with her family and reducing the number of members in the club even further. Juggling the multiple pressures from school, the drama club and the demands of the spirit world, things are about to take a turn for the worse for the 17-year-old.

New cast members for season two include award-winning actress, Wen Chen-Ling, who plays Zhan Xiao Tong, a neglected student with low self-esteem. Receiving encouragement from Xiao Zhen, Xiao Tong joins the drama club and discovers her talent for acting. As her life begins to turn around, she soon finds herself faced with more challenges. Also joining the cast is Fandy Fan who plays Zhang Yu Xuan, a sickly teenage boy who is raised in a restricted and overprotected environment. Unhappy to remain silent, Yu Xuan is determined to take control of his own life and escape the constraints of his upbringing.

“The Teenage Psychic” season two will be directed by up-and-coming director Liu Yan-Fu (“Life List”). Chen Ho-Yu, director of “The Teenage Psychic” season one, will executive produce.

The first season of “The Teenage Psychic” told a coming-of-age story that revolves around a teenager who just wants to lead a typical teenage high school life. Born with the ability to see spirits, her life will never be normal. Throughout the series, she had to juggle the pressures of teenage life – first love, academic success and peer pressure – with the demands of the spirit world.

“The Teenage Psychic” season one clinched the coveted Best Mini-Series (TV Movie) award and Best Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series (TV Movie) award for Nana Lee at Taiwan’s 52nd Annual Golden Bell Awards 2017 and received two nominations at the 22nd Asian Television Awards 2017 for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Chen Mu Yi and Best Cinematography.

“The Teenage Psychic” has also inspired HBO Asia’s one-hour original Mandarin documentary, “The World Behind The Teenage Psychic”, which explores how the distinct blend of Taoist, Buddhist, Chinese folklore and indigenous belief systems continue to flourish in modern Taiwan. “The World Behind The Teenage Psychic” premieres on Sunday, December 16 at 7pm on HBO. The documentary will also be available on HBO GO via AIS Play and AIS Playbox.

The New Zealand Film Festival returns for its second edition tomorrow as it marks 62 years of diplomatic relations with Thailand and sets out to teach us all a little about art, culture, history and living.

The three films selected for this year’s event will also showcase the distinctive geography that has made New Zealand famous for location shoots for such big-budget movies as “Lord of the Rings”, “The Hobbit”, “Avatar” and “The Chronicles of Narnia”.

The event kicks off tomorrow night with “My Year with Helen”, a 2017 documentary that presents the views of former prime minister Helen Clark as she sits alongside the leaders of the world superpowers in the United Nations. It portrays the discord between media, diplomats and women’s defenders amidst attempts to change while the new pope is elected. It also follows Clark’s work while serving as executive director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and as she campaigns for the position of UN Secretary-General as well as staying in daily contact with her 94-year-old father back home in New Zealand.

The action comedy “Pork Pie” (2017) tells the story of Jon, a charming but not very lucky author trying to reconcile with his girlfriend by surprising her while travelling to a friend’s wedding. Jon lives in Auckland, the wedding is being held in Wellington, and his good-for-nothing car breaks down on the way. He’s forced to rely on the yellow Mini Cooper of a young man named Luke without knowing that Luke has stolen the car. Chaos ensues.

The festival closes out with “Boy”, a comedy-drama film that swept many awards from international film festivals including Melbourne and Berlin and earned a nomination at Sundance. It’s centred on a boy named Boy who dreams of becoming a famous singer like Michael Jackson. He lives with his brother, Rocky, and relatives and imagines that his father was a deep-sea diver and a hero from the war. In fact, his dad was a man without a permanent occupation, a gangster and is in jail for stealing. After the older man returns home after 7 years away, he has to face up to the fact that his father is not a hero and learn how to live with him.

The New Zealand Film Festival runs from tomorrow to Sunday at SF World Cinema, CentralWorld.

The movies have Thai subtitles and admission is free. Tickets can be obtained at the Information Desk on the seventh floor 30 minutes before the movie. Tickets can also be booked through http://www.NZSocietyThai.com/nzff2018.

For more information, contact the SF Call Centre at (02) 268 8888 or visit http://www.SFCinemaCity.com.

Kritsada has been working as a colourist during the post-production process since colouring was still part of the computer-generated imagery (CGI) department. He is now a technical director at One Cool Production. His notable works include “Die Tomorrow” and “BNK48: Girls Don’t Cry”.

“Before digital colour grading technology, the colour of a movie mainly came from film processing. “The Phantom of the Opera” is one of the earliest films implementing the Technicolor 2 Strip technique, which marked the beginning of the colour feature films era,” he says.

Released in 1925, “The Phantom of the Opera” is a silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel “Le Fantome de l’Opera” starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.

 The movie is in English with Thai subtitles and the running time is 93 minutes.

The film venue is at the Auditorium, 5th floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

Entry is Bt60 per person (with a free programme). Tickets are available from 3pm and the screening starts at 5pm.

The post-screening talk will be in Thai with English translation.