Film about duelling khon troupes submitted for Oscars
It died at the boxoffice but "Kon Khon", Saranyoo Wongkrachang's melodrama about duelling maskeddance troupes in the 1960s, is Thailand's selection for the Academy Awards.
The Culture Ministry has announced the selection by the committee from the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand (FNFAT), which decided the movie is unique to Thailand and promotes the Kingdom's arts and culture.
Starring veteran actors Sorapong Chatree and Nirut Sirichanya, the drama is about khon (mask dance) troupes that stage competing performances of the Ramakien, Thailand's version of India’s Ramayana. Love triangles and betrayals are thrown in to add to the story and set up a religious message about karma.
Kon Khon was a flop at the box office, opening in a wide release over the weekend of August 2528 and earning less than Bt8 million as of September 18, according to Box Office Mojo.
Actorturned director Saranyoo, who’s also the leader of the second generation of People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), has even made a plea on his Facebook page asking fans to support the film once it’s released on DVDs. He said he understood that the theatre had to pull the movie out after only two weeks. “The admission was rather low, much lower than our expectation,” he writes.
A member of FNFAT's Oscar committee, film critic Sananjit Bangsapan, wrote in a post on the Siam Dara website that the Oscar selection came down to two choices – Kon Khon or another film with a strong depiction of Thai culture – U Mong Pha Mueang, aka The Outrage by director ML Bhandevanop Devakula, which has fared better at the box office and with critics.
However, because U Mong is adapted from the tale of Rashomon, previously filmed by Akira Kurosawa, the committee worried about submitting a remake, so Kon Khon was the choice by default, Sanajit said in his article, according to the Soopsip column in tomorrow's Nation newspaper.
Furthermore, Sananjit says, it doesn’t matter what Thai film is submitted to the Oscars because no Thai studios are willing to mount the kind of promotion needed for the film to be nominated and win.
So far, none of Thailand's selections for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film have made the shortlist of nominees, not even last year's selection of the Canneswinning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.
