Flying to the festivals

 “Countdown”, a psychological thriller that bottles up three young Thais with an unhinged drug dealer in a New York apartment, returns to its spiritual home later this month. It’s among the titles announced for the 12th New York Asian Film Festival.
Directed by Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya, “Countdown” had its origins in a 45-minute short that he made as a student in the Big Apple. It screened at the 2010 Thai Short Film and Video Festival starring David Asavanond as the goateed dealer named Jesus.
The big mainstream studio GTH then picked it up and got Nattawut to expand it into a feature, still with David as “Hay-zoos”, but sneakily billing his showy performance as a supporting role, with young GTH regulars Pachara Chirathivat, Patarasaya Krueasuwansiri and Jarinporn Junkiet listed as the dope-smoking main characters. After a successful run in Thai cinemas last year, it won many prizes during this year’s awards season.
The New York fest will also host the North American premiere of last year’s “Antapal”, aka “The Gangster”, a gritty crime tale of the 1950s and ’60s in Bangkok. Directed by Kongkiat Khomsiri, it’s a fact-based yarn pulled from the annals of Dang Bireley and his young hoodlums. But Kongiat’s movie focuses instead on Dang’s right-hand man, a pensive guy named Jod who rose to the top after Dang was sidelined. He’s played with quiet intensity by Krissada “Noi” Terrence Sukosol.
“Countdown” has been a hot ticket on the festival circuit. It narrowly missed the top-prize Audience Award at the recent Udine Far East Film Festival.
In addition to New York, it’s also in London, at that other Far East Film Festival, the Terracotta fest, which started yesterday.
“Countdown” is in London alongside “Karaoke Girl”, the debut feature by indie director Visra Vichit Vadakan. “Karaoke Girl” is drawn from the actual experiences of the film’s star, who worked as a bar hostess in Bangkok to support her family back home in Isaan. It premiered earlier this year in competition in Rotterdam and was also featured in Helsinki.

ONE BILLION SERVED

If the studio GTH is to be believed, their smash-hit ghost comedy “Pee Mak Phra Khanong” has shattered the box-office record, with earnings of Bt1 billion.
That’s what the studio is saying in the social media. Now, there’s no way to independently verify it, but who’d want to count all that money anyway?
And the cash is still rolling in as “Pee Mak” generates waves of laughter across the region. It opens this week in Malaysia and next week in Singapore.
It opened in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago, and even got decent reviews from the city’s ordinarily picky film critics.
TwitchFilm.com’s Hong Kong-based Asian editor, James Marsh, who’s never gone easy on Thai films, surprisingly liked “Pee Mak”, saying it’s “nevertheless an enjoyable and frequently laugh-out-loud crowd pleaser”.