Banned bard has a secret life

It’s supposedly illegal for the political satire to even be shown outside Thailand, but according to Screen Daily, the filmmakers shipped it under a different title – “Teenage Love Story”.
“I thank [the festival organisers] for inviting my film even though they had to ship it under a secret name from Thailand, where people live in fear,” the director said in the opening ceremony.
“I’m suing the government so I shouldn’t even be here. We’re fighting because, in Thailand, directors have less than human rights. But I promise ‘Shakespeare Must Die’ is not boring. I made it like a Mexican soap opera and a Thai horror film. You can see it, even though Thai people can’t see it.”
Surely Seoul won’t be the last place “Teenage Love Story” will screen, considering that Ing K is no stranger to international film festivals.

Taxing times

Following the tax-fraud allegation against actress Chermarn “Ploy” Boonyasak, the Revenue Department is to hold a seminar on paying taxes this month for celebrities, athletes and the winners of big prizes. “They could be the role models for society because they’re public figures,” Deputy Finance Minister Tanusak Lekuthai says.
Whether the stars will attend is another matter. To start with, the top ones earn Bt50,000 to Bt150,000 for every appearance at social events. The department has to convince them real hard to show up to sit down and listen about a topic that will not generate any income – the other way round, in fact.
If the seminar is to be successful, the ministry must first try to get the likes of Ploy, Naded Kugimiya, Patcharapha “Aum” Chaichua, Chompoo “Araya” Hargate and Mario Maurer to attend. That could be as arduous as tax-collecting.
But if the ministry pulls it off, it can arrange another seminar for politicians and their families (and servants).