Jarun Petchjaroen stays on the screen

So other singers and actors rally around and organise a charity event to help out.
But not veteran actor like Jarun “Seetao” Petchjaroen. The 82-year-old star of movies and TV was admitted to the “semi” intensive care unit at Chonpratharn hospital for a wee bit of heart trouble last Thursday, but he kept it secret because he didn’t want to cause a fuss.
Word of his hospitalisation made the news eventually, but Seetao kept insisting he didn’t want to bother anyone because his family is able to take care of him. He just wants to return home.
Eventually, he’d like to get back to work. And with his humpback and pot belly, Seetao – who reminds most folks of Lung Teng, the iconic comic-relief character in the southern folk opera – is much in demand.
One of the oldest actors working in Thai showbiz, he was most recently in “The Last Executioner”.
Director Tom Waller, who also cast Seetao in a prominent role in his previous film, “Mindfulness and Murder”, tells The Nation that he loves working with Seetao even though he sometimes can’t remember his lines. But being a tried-and-true professional, Seetao compensates for his forgetfulness with his sharp wit and intuition, so he’s able to improvise and make it work.
 

Gecko boy in Loei
Animal nicknames, such as Goong (shrimp), Nok (bird) or Maew (cat) are popular among Thai foks, but there’s others, like Tukkae (gecko) or that word for monitor lizard that most shy away from.
Except director Yuthlert Sippapak. The often provocative and filmmaker has a cheeky title for his next film, “Tukkae Rak Pang Mak”, a romantic comedy about a guy named after a gecko.
Talented young heartthrob Jirayu La-ongmanee stars as Tukkae with Chonthida Assavahem – the daughter of the grand dame singer Nantida Kaewbuasai – as his love interest Pang.
Why give handsome Jirayu such an awful name? Yuthlert has his reasons, but he won’t spoil the story.
“Tukkae is an ugly creature and many people hate the name, but I believe that they will fall in love with my Tukkae when seeing the film,” he says.
The project is a homecoming for the director, a Loei native, who has set the story in his hometown of Chiang Khan, where he’s built a small cinema, the Phet Chiang Khan. It’s a key location for the tale, which takes place 25 years ago and recalls Yuthlert’s own childhood. With gecko boy hanging around the movie theatre, he falls for Pang, the district chief’s daughter. As it usually goes with these tales, Pang moves away for awhile, and then returns, much changed. Tukkae, meanwhile, never left and thinks he’s still the same.
The nostalgic tale owes a lot to Chiang Khan, which retains its small-town charm despite the tourist hoards that have flocked to the Mekong River outpost in the past few years.