Diverse Thai tales for varied tastes

Last year, the IFFI had witnessed a large package of Thai films and the presence of four top Thai stars. Nonzee is the progenitor of the ‘new wave' movement in Thai cinema and five of his best-known films will be screened at the festival. These include his 1997 film ‘Dang Bireleys and the Young Gangsters,' based on a real-life gangster, which created waves on the international festival circuit and was also a huge box-office hit.

Hit at festivals

His second film ‘Nang Nak', which is based on a famous Thai ghost-legend, also created a stir at top festivals such as Rotterdam and was also a big hit at home. Nonzee is one of the few directors who gained both critical and commercial success. In fact, ‘Nang Nak' also won an award at IFFI in 1999.

Then came ‘Jan Dara,' the first pan-Asian production of Nonzee, where he teamed up with famed director Peter Chan, to produce a film with a multi-Asian cast. The controversial film had Hong Kong actress Kristy Cheung playing an older woman who initiates a youngster into sex, in a famed ‘ice cubes' scene, that created waves in Thailand. It also had scenes of incest and a messy abortion, that shook the audiences at home and abroad.

Attending the festival, is young, dynamic actress May Pataravarin, who took part in the controversial abortion scene in the film. May is the daughter of the legendary Thai theatre icon, Patravadi Menuhin, and is a multi-talented artiste in her own right.

The other two films in the Retrospective are ‘Queens of Lankasuka' and ‘Ok Baytong.' The latter is a unique tale of a Thai monk who comes to a violence-ridden town of the Muslim-dominated South Thailand, and is stirred by many things, including the religious unrest, and a young girl.

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