Films added to national archive
Blockbusters like Fan Chan (My Girl), Transistor Love Story and Nang Nak have been added to the prestigious list of national films, alongside historical films that feature King Rama V's 1897 trip to Stockholm and King Rama VII's 1930 trip to Indochina.
Culture Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat announced the list at the Film Archive yesterday.
Fifteen films are new to the list, each of them outstanding in their own way. “The film about King Rama V’s trip is over 117 years old already,” Vira said.
Dome Sukwong, who heads the Film Archive, said Ernest Florman – Sweden’s pioneering cinematographer – filmed the trip, which included the moment when King Rama V and the then-Swedish king greeted each other with kisses.
“We discovered this film in 2013. It’s one of the two oldest films about Thais,” he said.
Vira said several blockbusters were awarded national film status because they reflected Thai society.
“Thais in the younger generations will learn something when they watch these films,” he said.
Fan Chan is the newest of the 25 honoured films. Released in cinemas in 2003, it offers a nostalgic look back at the childhood friendship of a boy and a girl as they grow up in a small town in Thailand in the 1980s.
Dome said the organisation had put 100 films in the national archive and they were considered part of the country’s national heritage.
