When you absolutely have to get everyone to see your favourite movie

But Thapanan “Ken” Wichitratthakarn was so knocked out by a movie that he secured the rights to have it screened in Thailand – and it’s not a Thai film. 

You might have seen the trailer for the award-winning Brazilian picture “The Way He Looks” at the Lido or at House RCA. Most people would assume it’s arriving here courtesy of the usual channels – Thai film distributors. But no, the gay romance has reached Thai screens thanks to the effort of the passionate Ken. 

The 37-year-old translator with Ogilvy Public Relations is a film buff who not only hops in and out movie theatres in Thailand but also spends his money attending film festivals around the world. “I see about 120 a year and I still think I should be seeing more,” he tells Soopsip. 

Ken saw “The Way He Looks” at a gay-film festival in Hong Kong last year and decided it was worth going to a lot of effort to bring it to Thailand. He tracked down the producer and got the address of the person in Germany who holds the distribution rights. “I was rather shocked at first to learn the fee for theatrical screenings, but then I learned about the theatres-only rights,” Ken says. 

He signed a contract in late October and set about lining up the theatres. In his view it really needed to be shown by the Apex group, which owns the Lido and Scala, and at House, which specialises in alternative (non-mainstream) films. Ken says the folks at Apex were surprised. “When I told them I’d bought a movie to screen, they said, ‘How did you manage that?’” 

But he did persuade Apex and House to take in his baby. Perhaps they spotted some commercial potential too. It scooped up two awards at the Berlin International and several more elsewhere. Having secured the green light from Apex and House, Ken felt more confident about approaching the SF Cinema chain, where box-office returns count more. It too said okay. “I wanted to screen it on Valentine’s Day, but the cinema schedules were all booked, and after that it was all Oscar movies,” Ken says.

By now he’d given the picture a Thai title – “Mong Hen Rak” and Thai subtitles – translating is his job, after all. He loved this assignment. “Watching it time after time I can to love the film even more,” he says. He paid out of his own pocket to have the subtitles inscribed. 

How much is all this costing him? He’s not quite sure. “A lot!” is the less-than-specific estimate. But, tallying further, Ken reckons he’s invested better than Bt200,000. “I don’t think I could do this as a business!” 

Ken asked friends for advice about spreading the word. He’s mainly promoted the picture through his Facebook page, Doo Nang Took Wan (Watching Films Every Day), which has drawn more than 4,800 followers. 

“The Way He Looks” will premiere on Thursday at Lido, House and SF cinemas. If Ken is in attendance wherever you are, he’ll be easy to spot – he’ll be the most excited person in the audience, all fingers crossed that it’s a hit and that it stays in the theatres for a long time. 

And, if his “investment” breaks even, he might just do it all over again.