FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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'Samui Song' or swan song?

'Samui Song' or swan song?

Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang, whose latest feature was screened in Toronto last week.

The most important film festival in North America, and one of the largest film festivals in the world, the 41st edition of Toronto International Film Festival wrapped on Sunday night with the presenting of the Toronto Platform Prize to Warwick Thornton’s “Sweet Country”. 
The Platform award is a new addition to the festival, which was non-competitive until 2015. Like their counterparts at the Venice Film Festival where it snapped up the Special Jury Prize, jury members Chen Kaige, Malgorzata Szumowska and Wim Wenders, were impressed by the Australian period western, which dwells on the country’s dark past and the mistreatment of its natives by white settlers. 
The Grolsch People’s Choice Award, meanwhile, went to Martin McDonagh’s crime drama, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, a win that surely ups its chances of being nominated for an Oscar. 
Among 255 feature films screened at the festival this year was Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s latest feature “Samui Song”. Premiered in Venice, it was shown in Toronto as part of the Contemporary World Cinema section. 
Pen-Ek is a familiar face in Toronto, where he made his debut in 1999 with “6ixtynin9” as part of Midnight Madness. Indeed, all his films with the exception of “Nymph” have shown here, with 2011’s “Headshot” having its world premiere at Toronto in Vanguard section.
“The first time I came to Toronto was when I showed ‘Last Life in the Universe in 2003’,” says Pen-Ek. “The film had its premiere in Venice, and after Venice, I came straight to Toronto. I think I’ve shown my films here four or five times.”
“Back then there were many more delegations. It was a great era for art house cinema. ‘Last Life in the Universe’ sold very well. Fortissimo Films was our agent and also one of the film’s producers. I had such a luxurious time back then. There were big dinners every day and I had to attend many meetings and parties. I didn’t have to take care of anything. For ‘Headshot’, I was in Toronto with my producers, but it was different from the past.” 

\'Samui Song\' or swan song?
“Samui Song” is Pen-Ek’s latest feature and was almost two years in the making, the result, Pen-Ek says, of his adopting a different approach both to funding and making the film.
“This is the first time that my film has been totally funded by private investors. For ‘Headshot’, I got money from the Ministry of Culture of Thailand and Wild Side Films in France, but for ‘Samui Song’, all the investors were businessmen,” he explains. 
“In the past I didn’t really meet investors. This time I became friends with them, We fought together from the beginning. And when the film was finished, it was more meaningful to us. I saw their happiness at the premiere and that affected me.” 
“The idea for the film came to me when I spotted a well-known Thai actress and her foreign husband or boyfriend in a supermarket. They looked nice together so I followed them around. I was curious because she spoke to him in Thai and he spoke to her in English but they could understand each other. That stayed in my mind and gave birth to ‘Samui Song’.
“The film talks about Thai women. In Thai society, it is very difficult for a woman to show her real self. She has to play the role that the society wants her to.”
The woman in “Samui Song” is Viyada (Chermarn “Ploy” Boonyasak), a well-known actress who is married to Jerome (Stephane Sednaoui). Her husband is a follower of the strange cult led by “The Holy One” (Vithaya Pansringarm). When Viyada can no longer stand to be near her husband, she hires Guy (David Asavanond), a mysterious man with a sick mother to kill him. The plot twists and turns from that point forward, dealing mainly with the identity of woman in Thai society.
“Thai women have to be like actresses. For example, you can’t be too smart if you are looking for a boyfriend. You can’t have dark skin, as boys don’t like that. You can’t be yourself when you are with your husband, or even with your parents. The film is a portrait of Thai women, but we are talking about other things as well, such as a religious cult that asks people to donate money to them.”
Pen-Ek and Ploy first worked together on “Last Life in the Universe” back in 2003. “She was only on the set for two days while we were shooting ‘Last Life’. She was already well known but very young. In ‘Samui”, Viyada is a soap star. Ploy hasn’t always had it smooth in real life and has been boycotted by the Thai press, so I think she really understands her role.”
“Samui Song” will travel to Busan International Film Festival in October, and should be shown in Thai cinemas in February. Pen-Ek though is not optimistic about his next film. 
“I think it’s going to be difficult. Art house films are dying; even mainstream films seem to be on the way out. Everything in cinemas now is from Marvel Studios. Okay, Christopher Nolan had the freedom to film ‘Dunkirk’ with 70mm film, but there’s only one Christopher Nolan. Even Quentin Tarantino has said he’s going to stop making films. Audiences have fallen in number. 
“I think we need to look for something new. One day we may have to stop making films, but that doesn’t mean that other medium can’t tell the stories I want to tell. It could be books, paintings, comic books, or if I really want to make a film, I may have to make it with my phone,” says Pen-Ek with a shrug. 
 

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