Movies Archive

21

The golden Swan trophy goes to…

To be honest with you, I have seen some of the films nominated for the 20th annual Supanahongsa Awards (The Thai Oscars), they were not so great. I’ll leave it at that.

Winners for the 20th Annual Supanahong Awards:
1. Best Visual Effects- Insee Daeng (Red Eagle)
2. Best Make Up-9 Wat
3. Best Costume Design-Chua Fah Din Salai (Eternity)
4. Best Art Direction-Chua Fah Din Salai (Eternity)
5. Best Original Score- Samurai of Ayodhya
6. Best Original Song- Rao Song Sam Khon (That Sounds Good)
7. Best Recording and Sound Mixing-Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
8. Best Film Editing- Chua Fah Din Salai (Eternity)
9. Best Cinematography- Sawan Baan Na (Agrarian Utopia)
10. Best Screenplay-Rao Song Sam Khon (That Sounds Good)
11. Best Supporting Actress- Intira ‘Sai’ Jaroenpura for Nak-Prok
12. Best Supporting Actor- Sa-aad Peampongsan for Nak-Prok
13. Best Actress- “Nuna” Neungthida Sophon, “Hello Stranger (Kuan Meun Ho)”
14. Best Actor- Ananda Everingham, Chua Fah Din Salai (Eternity)
15. Best Director- Uruphong Raksasad, Sawan Baan Na (Agrarian Utopia)
16. Best Picture- Chua Fah Din Salai (Eternity)

I love Nuna’s dress, it’s pixie, it’s cute, it’s pink, it’s suits her.

At the event, “Nuna” Neungthida Sophon lead actress in “Hello Stranger (Kuan Meun Ho)” and winner of the Best Actress award at the event cried up on stage. Ploy Chermarn cried too, not because she lost to Nuna in the Best Actress category, she cried out of shock because her film “Chua Fah Din Salai (Eternity)” won for Best Picture. ?? Okay. Emotional much?

“I was shocked when the film received the award because the crew and all the actors were exhausted by this film and especially when my teacher who is Mom Noi (the director of Eternity) went up to accept the award, I was very glad,” Ploy Chermarn explaining why she cried at the event.

Today not only did you come with Tar (Navin Yaowapalakul, Ploy’s bf) you brought your mother too, did you secretly have expectations this award (the best actress award), reporters asked Ploy.

Ploy said Tar being there or not, it didn’t matter;  Tar comes to these types of events with her often anyways. “If I don’t get that is fine because P’Tar comes to all my events. I’m very happy for Nuna who received this award. Up on stage, I even congratulated her. I don’t feel upset about it, I was delighted.”

The event was held at Central Pattana shopping center in Pattaya today. The special awards went to producers Charoen Iamphungporn from Five Star productions and “Sia Jiang” Somsak Techaratanaprasert from Sahamongkol Films productions.

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18

Young man, put your shirt back on!

It’s just weird, maybe I’m getting old, I just can’t look at him in that way. He was once one of the youngest members of the Thai boy band B.O.Y (Blood of Youth); they sang sappy bubblegum pop songs, they were like cute little puppies with long razor Korean haircuts.

Young “Mouse” Natcha Jantapan is 20 years old now, an actor now, taking off his shirt for a film role now. I can’t take it. He cut his hair, that I can take. Those B.O.Y members needed a haircut and most of them got one, thank gosh– the Korean razor hairstyle on young Thai men is just…er.

Mouse is taking a break from singing and showing off his muscular chiseled chest in his first film role in the teen comedy from M39 productions, “Love Julinsee (Ruk Man Yai Mak)”, opening nationwide in Thai theaters on March 3rd, 2011.

The scene where Mouse takes off his shirt for his co-star “Ida” Irada Siriwut is a fantasy sequence scene filmed in the middle of Siam Square.  Mouse said this about the scene: “It was a scene that was filmed around the Siam (Square) area. We went early in the morning, it is the scene where Ida is waiting for her mother to pick her up. When she saw me, she smiled, and picked up a phone call from her mother. Then I approached her. It was just that, but since Pla, Ida’s character, is a fan of Korean men (meaning she is a fan of Korean series and boybands) everything had to go in that way. Thus this task was thrown at me. We filmed again, she saw me and smiled, I approached her, it started to rain. In her imagination, I was like a Korean leading man. I walked towards her, I spoke in Korean, “hah-say-yo (hello)”. Then I took off my school uniform shirt to shield her from the rain. Ida picks up the call from her mother, she talks, she smiles. Though on the phone with her mother, she should be speaking normally, instead she had to speak in Korean. As we acted, we got amused by the language we spoke wrong and some we spoke right.”

Mouse said he didn’t feel stress about taking off his shirt. He joked that if you have a good thing, show it. “With the directors P’Kay and P’Chik, whatever they tell me to do, I am a professional, I have to listen to what they say. It was easy. Just taking off my school uniform shirt, I did my homework well. I frequently go to the fitness center,  it wasn’t a problem at all. Before we filmed, I asked for 15 minutes to build up confidence.” He did 50 push-ups to tone up his muscles.

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13

SuckSeed Teaser out

The teaser to GTH’s new film “Suckseed”, a teen comedy directed by newcomer ‘Moo’ Chayanop Boonprakop starring Kao’ Jirayu La-ongmanee, and 3 new faces ‘Peach’ Pachara Chirathivat,  ‘Earth’ Thawat Pornrattanaprasert, ‘Nat’ Nattasha Nauljam. It is set to roll out in Thai theaters nationwide on March 17. The story centers around two best-friends shy guy Ped (Kao) and the obnoxiously outrageous Khung (Peach) as they form a band to attract girls and to prove themselves to everyone around them. Eventually they will compete for the same girl played by Naet. 

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4

Teaser posters for “Suckseed” out

The teaser posters for Kao’s upcoming film “Suckseed”, opening nationwide in Thailand on March 17, 2011.

The posters look nice, better than the “Love Julinsee” posters, but I would have preferred a video teaser than a poster.

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8

Kao is a shy guy in his new film “SuckSeed”

It’s their final year of high school and they have a lot to prove in the Thai film “SuckSeed” about 2 band members aiming to compete in the hard-rock “Hot Wave Music Awards”, a no-joke battle of the high school bands competition. Back in 1996, Bodyslam then known as La-oon took first place at the competition and is now one of the top rock bands in Thailand. A decade ago, the now broken up rock band Clash competed and also won first place at the competition.

In the film, ‘Kao’ Jirayu La-ongmanee is playing ‘Ped’, a young man driven by his love for ‘Earn’ played by newcomer ‘Nat’ Nattasha Nauljam. She is described as narak (cute, lovable) and like an angel to our shy guy Ped. Earn taught Ped the meaning of love for music, she once told him, ‘when listening to a song, it is like having a friend beside you.’ Earn loves rock music and guitar hero. Under those bland blue and white Thai school uniforms, she is a hardcore rocker chick at heart. Our young man Ped starts getting into rock music, starts playing an instrument (a guitar), he wants to transform himself from an ‘ai yae kee aai (spineless shy guy)’ to a ‘rocker’ just for his secret crush Earn.

Ped is friends with Khung played by ‘Peach’ Pachara Chirathivat. Khung lives in a house that is a pawnshop. He has a personality that would make him the ‘idol’ of the school, but he is overshadowed by his twin brother Kay who is the better student and is oddly better looking than him though they look exactly alike. I love in the synopsis they put ‘even though they look alike’ in parentheses after they described how Kay is better looking than Khung. Poor kid. Most importantly, Kay is a guitarist in a band that has been chosen to compete in the “Hot Wave Music Awards” competition. Kay’s ‘hotness’ has turn Khung into a person only known as ‘Fah Faet Kay (Kay’s twin)’ in most people’s eyes. Poor kid again.

It’s their final year in high school, Kay’s band with Earn as their lead singer is competing in the “Hot Wave Music Awards” competition, the boys have to do something, so they form the band “SuckSeed (a play on words for ‘succeed’) to prove to everyone they are not losers and nobodies like everyone thought. Ped wants to prove himself to his first love Earn where as Khung wants to prove to everyone he is not just Kay’s twin brother. He’s someone too.

“SuckSeed” is produced by GTH and is directed by newcomer ‘Moo’ Chayanop Boonprakop. It will roll out in Thai theaters nationwide on March 17, 2011. This film is described as a teen romantic comedy.

Kao leads the pack in this film because he is the only recognizable person here, at least from my perspective. Following Kao, we have 17 year old turning 18 this May, ‘Peach’ Pachara Chirathivat. You know Peach has an older sister named Pear, she is a singer. He is the middle child and his younger sister is named ‘Pi’ or “Pie”. So it’s not so strange his nickname is ‘Peach’. After doing a little research on Peach, he is from  one of the richest families in Thailand, they own Central World group–you know Central World shopping center, like one of the biggest shopping complex in Thailand. Dear GOSH! A quirky tidbit about Peach is that he hates spiders.

Next is 17 year old newcomer ‘Earth’ Thawat Pornrattanaprasert, followed by the oldest and our lead girl in the film 19 year old ‘Nat’ Natcha Nuanchaem. In her profile, Nat stated the two things she hated the most are ghosts and liars. Her talent is singing, Thai traditional dance, and the guitar.

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13

Kao wants you to be open-minded about his film

I don’t think we need to be, but okay. Thai politicians are making it out to be more than what it is. It’s a teen flick, it shouldn’t be that controversial. Just watching the teaser, I don’t think it is going to win any Supanahong Awards (Thai Oscars) or the Thai Film critics awards, let me reiterate, it’s a teen flick about love, raging hormones. There are worst things. Then again, I grew up in the US, the ‘almost’ kissing scene in  the”Love Julinsee (Ruk Man Yai Mak)” teaser is nothing compared to what I have seen. The teaser shouldn’t be banned because they showed teenagers kissing and some where wearing their school uniforms.

I been reading some of the comments at Manager news website, many seem to agree, the ban is appropriate, kids shouldn’t be kissing. Kao is too young to be kissing in films, said several.  A peck on the cheeks is more than enough. He has committed career suicide even before he got started, said another

At the Kom Chad Luek awards, Kao defended the film from criticisms from Thai netizens.

“From the internet discussions, it is the personal opinions of the viewers. It’s alright. I can accept everyone’s opinions. I do want people to consider, there are many types of love. In this film, it is showing one type. You should try it and wait to see what happens. The discussion on the internet saying the film was too risque, I have read some of them. There were comments like that. Some comments said it wasn’t too risque. There are some teenage love like this. It’s not strange. The film made it realistic as possible.”

Kao said he doesn’t know if this film will ever have a light of day in theaters or whether scenes will be cut to accommodate the Thai censors.

“I don’t know if this film will air or not, but right now, they are in a rush to cut scenes. As of now, I don’t know how much has been cut out. I just know this it the responsibilities of the elders to edit the promotion. I don’t know what they will use and how they will use it. I don’t know anything about the news. My thought is that it is a scene in a movie, just one scene, because in a film you have to have a lot of moods. You have to be able to play every part. In the film, that is not my only part, I have many, I want everyone to watch it first. Regardless, I gave my support to the film crew.”

To the public, Kao begged them not to prejudge the film, watch it first, then judge.

His female co-star he kissed in the film, he did have a rumor with her but denies any romantic ties. He is too young to have a girlfriend and she is just a friend, he told reporters. Sure, they all say that. It’s okay Kao, you can have a girlfriend. I wouldn’t be surprise if you did.

Lastly some have even said this film is the kids version of  “Namtan Daeng (Brown Sugar)”, last year’s erotic film produced by Sahamongkol Film International. Below is the teaser to “Namtan Daeng”.