I apologize if this has been posted already. - Serena.
Destination: BANGKOK
Reel life in Bangkok
Film festival fast becoming Southeast Asia's key movie event
By JIM SLOTEK, TORONTO SUN
Action star Steven Seagal with government representatives.
Panon Yeerum, stunt hero of Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, greets officials.
DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER Agnes Varda arrives at a Bangkok filmfest gala in her honour. -- Jim Slotek, SUN
Outside the flashing multiplex at the unfortunately-named World Trade Center mall, Dr. Sa-nga Pinijpichitkul is standing by. Occasionally, someone is ushered out or carried out to him on a stretcher. One distraught man is helped out of the theatre and tries to stab himself with a pair of scissors. He is subdued, saving Dr. Pinijpichitkul the trouble of administering sutures.
Thankfully, this is not the typical moviegoing experience at the Bangkok Film Festival. Rather, it is the traditional kickoff to the event, a Guinness World Record-setting movie-marathon in which sleep-deprived Thais annually set new benchmarks for keeping their eyes open in front of a screen.
Out of 172 entrants, only 17 lasted the 64 hours and 58 minutes, which now stands as the new world record. Each participant received 18,925 baht (about $800 Canadian) for their efforts (another 29 received 13,444 baht for lasting beyond the previous 53-hour world record).
Unless you want to tough it out for a world record, no one will actually pay you to watch movies during the Bangkok Film Festival. But the starry festival -- fast becoming the key movie event in Southeast Asia -- represents the best of all worlds for Western tourists.
For fans of international films, the Bangkok Festival -- the 2004 version runs Jan. 22 to Feb. 2 -- is a holding house for the best worldwide festival entries of the previous year from Toronto to Berlin to Cannes. The past Bangkok fest in January featured such Toronto Fest darlings as Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without A Past, Phillip Noyce's The Quiet American, Brian DePalma's Femme Fatale and Ararat by Atom Egoyan.
For fans of Asian cinema, it's a first look at some of the films that will be playing Western festivals in the year to come. For example, the amazingly well-choreographed Thai action film Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior -- the most talked-about movie in the Midnight Madness series at the Toronto International Film Festival in September -- was the closing gala in Bangkok in January.
For stargazers, it's a bizarre diversion on the other side of the world, which this year attracted the likes of Viveca A. Fox, 'N Sync's Lance Bass, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme (the Thais are crazy for kick-boxers and martial artists), Jennifer Tilly and marquee idols of Thai and Hong Kong cinema. They attended everything from swank galas presided over by members of the Thai Royal family and crazed public events, like the pyrotechnic and martial arts demonstration which took place in front of thousands in Siam Square.
And for movie fans in general, the Bangkok Film Festival is like going to heaven, with walk-up ticket prices in the neighbourhood of $3 and seating that is joyously publicly available compared to other festivals.
That seating situation should be even better this year, with the hiring of a new Canadian-born artistic director, Jennifer Stark, whose innovations will include a version of the "rush seats" policy that's in place in the Toronto Festival. This, essentially, means throwing open all reserved VIP seats that aren't taken 15 minutes before a screening. And with an event as heavily sponsored as the Bangkok fest, this stands to be a veritable windfall.
"What was happening was they were holding X number of seats for sponsors, but the sponsors often wouldn't show," says Stark, who most recently was artistic director of the Palm Springs Film Festival (which ironically is held at the same time as Bangkok). "People would go in and see a third of the theatre was empty because those seats were already given to the sponsors. So now what's happening is sponsors have badges, and they'll have up to 15 minutes before showtime to get their bum in a seat. Once they're seated, the rest of the seats will be given away."
No matter what you're used to, you should be impressed by the theatres in the bustling Siam Square shopping district, conveniently accessible via the new SkyTrain line. All the festival filmhouses are within easy walking distance.
"The theatres actually put North American theatres to shame," Stark says. "I think the quality of the projection, the sound [is] amazing. And the theatres themselves have about one-third fewer seats in the same area, because the seats are larger and roomier."
Why the comfort factor? Part of the answer lies a few miles away -- a few stops by SkyTrain -- in the infamous Patpong night market. There, movie piracy is such a booming black-market business that first-run movies are available as video bootlegs before they're even released to theatres. (Don't bother buying, they're on a different format than North American DVD players and TVs.) In Bangkok, dealing with the problem involves improving the theatre experience itself.
As for the evolution of the Bangkok Film Festival, Stark sees its role expanding, marking off a territory and a part of the calendar separate from other big film festivals in Singapore, Hong Kong and Pusan, Korea.
"There's still going to be a section of international films, because part our mandate is to create a broader audience for them," Stark says. "So some festival favourites like (Denys Arcand's) Invasion Of The Barbarians, or, say Lost In Translation, we're going to invite.
"But we're also going to create a focus on the films specifically from that 10-country region called Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. It's really an interesting area, one of the last areas of film that hasn't been uncovered. Films from South Korea have been nurtured and are very hot right now because of the festival in Pusan. And Hong Kong films are very well known now. So really, we're out to shine a spotlight on some very good movies and an indigenous film industry that maybe doesn't get the recognition it deserves."
As for celebrities, Bangkok will be in there swinging -- although the competition is increasingly fierce. The festival has been moved back a few weeks in 2004 so as not to compete with Robert Redford's Sundance Festival.
"But then we start to get caught up in the Golden Globes thing," Stark says. "Then you've got the Berlin Festival and the Academy Awards. Sometimes it seems like you can't win for trying. But we will be trying."
Destination: BANGKOK
Reel life in Bangkok
Film festival fast becoming Southeast Asia's key movie event
By JIM SLOTEK, TORONTO SUN
Action star Steven Seagal with government representatives.
Panon Yeerum, stunt hero of Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, greets officials.
DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER Agnes Varda arrives at a Bangkok filmfest gala in her honour. -- Jim Slotek, SUN
Outside the flashing multiplex at the unfortunately-named World Trade Center mall, Dr. Sa-nga Pinijpichitkul is standing by. Occasionally, someone is ushered out or carried out to him on a stretcher. One distraught man is helped out of the theatre and tries to stab himself with a pair of scissors. He is subdued, saving Dr. Pinijpichitkul the trouble of administering sutures.
Thankfully, this is not the typical moviegoing experience at the Bangkok Film Festival. Rather, it is the traditional kickoff to the event, a Guinness World Record-setting movie-marathon in which sleep-deprived Thais annually set new benchmarks for keeping their eyes open in front of a screen.
Out of 172 entrants, only 17 lasted the 64 hours and 58 minutes, which now stands as the new world record. Each participant received 18,925 baht (about $800 Canadian) for their efforts (another 29 received 13,444 baht for lasting beyond the previous 53-hour world record).
Unless you want to tough it out for a world record, no one will actually pay you to watch movies during the Bangkok Film Festival. But the starry festival -- fast becoming the key movie event in Southeast Asia -- represents the best of all worlds for Western tourists.
For fans of international films, the Bangkok Festival -- the 2004 version runs Jan. 22 to Feb. 2 -- is a holding house for the best worldwide festival entries of the previous year from Toronto to Berlin to Cannes. The past Bangkok fest in January featured such Toronto Fest darlings as Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without A Past, Phillip Noyce's The Quiet American, Brian DePalma's Femme Fatale and Ararat by Atom Egoyan.
For fans of Asian cinema, it's a first look at some of the films that will be playing Western festivals in the year to come. For example, the amazingly well-choreographed Thai action film Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior -- the most talked-about movie in the Midnight Madness series at the Toronto International Film Festival in September -- was the closing gala in Bangkok in January.
For stargazers, it's a bizarre diversion on the other side of the world, which this year attracted the likes of Viveca A. Fox, 'N Sync's Lance Bass, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme (the Thais are crazy for kick-boxers and martial artists), Jennifer Tilly and marquee idols of Thai and Hong Kong cinema. They attended everything from swank galas presided over by members of the Thai Royal family and crazed public events, like the pyrotechnic and martial arts demonstration which took place in front of thousands in Siam Square.
And for movie fans in general, the Bangkok Film Festival is like going to heaven, with walk-up ticket prices in the neighbourhood of $3 and seating that is joyously publicly available compared to other festivals.
That seating situation should be even better this year, with the hiring of a new Canadian-born artistic director, Jennifer Stark, whose innovations will include a version of the "rush seats" policy that's in place in the Toronto Festival. This, essentially, means throwing open all reserved VIP seats that aren't taken 15 minutes before a screening. And with an event as heavily sponsored as the Bangkok fest, this stands to be a veritable windfall.
"What was happening was they were holding X number of seats for sponsors, but the sponsors often wouldn't show," says Stark, who most recently was artistic director of the Palm Springs Film Festival (which ironically is held at the same time as Bangkok). "People would go in and see a third of the theatre was empty because those seats were already given to the sponsors. So now what's happening is sponsors have badges, and they'll have up to 15 minutes before showtime to get their bum in a seat. Once they're seated, the rest of the seats will be given away."
No matter what you're used to, you should be impressed by the theatres in the bustling Siam Square shopping district, conveniently accessible via the new SkyTrain line. All the festival filmhouses are within easy walking distance.
"The theatres actually put North American theatres to shame," Stark says. "I think the quality of the projection, the sound [is] amazing. And the theatres themselves have about one-third fewer seats in the same area, because the seats are larger and roomier."
Why the comfort factor? Part of the answer lies a few miles away -- a few stops by SkyTrain -- in the infamous Patpong night market. There, movie piracy is such a booming black-market business that first-run movies are available as video bootlegs before they're even released to theatres. (Don't bother buying, they're on a different format than North American DVD players and TVs.) In Bangkok, dealing with the problem involves improving the theatre experience itself.
As for the evolution of the Bangkok Film Festival, Stark sees its role expanding, marking off a territory and a part of the calendar separate from other big film festivals in Singapore, Hong Kong and Pusan, Korea.
"There's still going to be a section of international films, because part our mandate is to create a broader audience for them," Stark says. "So some festival favourites like (Denys Arcand's) Invasion Of The Barbarians, or, say Lost In Translation, we're going to invite.
"But we're also going to create a focus on the films specifically from that 10-country region called Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. It's really an interesting area, one of the last areas of film that hasn't been uncovered. Films from South Korea have been nurtured and are very hot right now because of the festival in Pusan. And Hong Kong films are very well known now. So really, we're out to shine a spotlight on some very good movies and an indigenous film industry that maybe doesn't get the recognition it deserves."
As for celebrities, Bangkok will be in there swinging -- although the competition is increasingly fierce. The festival has been moved back a few weeks in 2004 so as not to compete with Robert Redford's Sundance Festival.
"But then we start to get caught up in the Golden Globes thing," Stark says. "Then you've got the Berlin Festival and the Academy Awards. Sometimes it seems like you can't win for trying. But we will be trying."
