Worthy destinations

TWO BOND MOVIES, classic war stories, Hong Kong and Indian productions, gritty action flicks and a host of premieres are on tap for the second edition of the Thailand International Destination Film Festival.
Put on by the Thailand Film Office under the Department of Tourism, the fest is a showcase of the foreign films that have made the Kingdom their backdrops. It’s a big business, with 717 foreign productions registered here last year, generating revenues of Bt2.17 billion.
Among the selection, perhaps the most iconic is 1974’s “The Man with the Golden Gun”, in which Roger Moore’s 007 duelled with Christopher Lee on Phang Nga Bay’s spike-shaped Koh Tapu, a stunning location that’s known today as “James Bond Island”.
More than 20 years later, the place was revisited for the 18th Bond film, “Tomorrow Never Dies”, in which Pierce Brosnan was aided by the toughest of Bond ladies, Michelle Yeoh. The story was actually set in Vietnam, with Bangkok and Phang Nga stood in for Saigon and Ha Long Bay.
Thailand again substituted for its neighbours in two acclaimed classics, “The Killing Fields”, the Oscar-winning account of Cambodian journalist Dith Pran’s harrowing odyssey under the Khmer Rouge, and “Good Morning Vietnam”, in which Robin Williams portrays a motor-mouthed Armed Forces Radio shock jock who energised American troops with rock ’n’ roll. Watch for veteran Thai leading lady Chintara Sukpatana as the woman who brings the clowning deejay to the frontlines of the war.
The festival has several world premieres, among them “Trafficker”, in which a young Vietnamese man, portrayed by Guy Ratchanont Suprakob, is involved with a criminal gang. It’s directed by Larry Smith, best known for his work as lensman for Stanley Kubrick on “Eyes Wide Shut”.
Smith also won praise for his vivid cinemtography on Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bangkok crime drama “Only God Forgives”, starring Ryan Gosling. It’s also part of the festival and is anchored by a solid performance from Thai actor Vithaya Pansringarm, portraying a mystical avenging-angel vigilante.
Another world premiere will be “Glory Days”, a shaggy-dog comedy about a broken-up 1990s American rock band that’s offered a deal to reunite for reality TV. They end up in Pattaya, where they aim to turn back the clock on their mid-life crises. Long in the works, it’s directed by pop-music scion Roy Alfred Jr, and among the producers is Tim Carr, a music-industry veteran who died in Pattaya a year ago.
An ambitious adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Sharer” will also flicker to life for the first time. Directed by Peter Fudakowski, producer of the Oscar-winning “Tsotsi”, “The Secret Sharer” involves a ship’s captain (Jack Laskey) who rescues a young Chinese woman (Zhu Zhu from “Cloud Atlas”) from the sea.
Most of the foreign film productions in Thailand come from India, and among those from the past year was “Bhaag Milkha Bhagg”, an award-winning biopic of “the Flying Sikh”, runner Milka Singh who represented India three Olympics and won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
Hong Kong and Chinese cinema have long had close ties to Thailand, and the festival will host the local premieres of two productions – “The White Storm” and “Out of Inferno”.
Directed by Benny Chan, “The White Storm” involves an undercover Chinese cop infiltrating a drugs gang in Thailand. Sean Lau, Louis Koo and Nick Cheung star. Among the local talents taking part in the film is transgender beauty queen Treechada “Poy” Petcharat, who is popular in Hong Kong.
 Oxide and Danny Pang, the twin-brother Hong Kong directors who made their mark on Thai horror with “The Eye”, are back with the disaster flick “Out of Inferno”. Showing off the technical expertise of Thai special-effects crews, the thriller follows firefighters battling a high-rise blaze in the midst of the hottest day in 50 years. Notably, it’ll be presented in 3D.
The theme of this year’s festival is “Thailand – Take 2 – Action!” And in keeping with that, many films will showcase the talent of Thai stunt performers. They range from older films like “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li” to big-screen premieres of direct-to-video movies like “Ninja: Shadow of a Tear”, starring Scott Adkins, and “The Scorpion King 3”, which features Thai starlet Krystal Vee, who also appears in “Street Fighter’, “The Lazarus Papers” and “Trafficker”.
The schedule is still being finalised, but many of the screenings will have question-and-answer sessions with the film crews, who will lift the veil on how they accomplished so many amazing feats.
As with last year’s first edition of the Thailand International Destination Film Festival, the centrepiece is the Amazing Thailand Film Challenge, in which dozens of young filmmakers from around the region are given flights, four nights’ accomodation, a budget of Bt30,000 and local production support to make short films and compete for prizes totalling Bt1.2 million.

FREE MOVIES
The Thailand International Film Destination Festival has three screenings daily from Tuesday until April 28 at Paragon Cineplex. All are free.
For the schedule, check www.ThailandFilmDestination.com or Facebook.com/ThailandFilmDestination.