THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Shining through in Busan

Shining through in Busan

Seven Thai films stir up interest at the Busan International Film Festival

 The 19th Busan International Film Festival drew to a close on Saturday with the top prizes shared between Korean director Kim Daehwan’s “End of Winter” and the Iranian film “13” by actor-turned-director Hooman Seyedi. 
In “End of Winter”, Kim, a graduate student at Dankook University, examines the problems of a family over three days and two nights at the height of the winter chill.
While no Thai film was selected for the main New Currents competition this year, Thailand was well represented in Busan with seven titles screened in various sections.
Veteran filmmaker Nonzee Nimibutr, a festival regular, was back with “The Singers”, one of the titles in the short film series dedicated to His Majesty the King and his songs. Not yet shown in Thailand, the film starring Neeranuch Pattamasoot and Vasana Chalakorn had its world premiere in the Wide Angle Short Film Showcase. 
Thailand's submission to next year’s Academy Awards, “The Teacher's Diary” by Nitiwat Tharathorn, who was in Busan for the occasion, was screened in the Window on Asian Cinema section. A romantic drama focusing on two rural teachers who get to know each other through a journal, it’s set for a Chinese-language remake by Korean director Kim Tai-sik. 
Parm Rangsee’s “Fah-Gaem-To”, which quickly disappeared from cinemas after its release in Bangkok on September 4, was also presented in this section. Actor Ping Lumpraperng, who plays a washed-up actor forced to take care of his young daughter after his wife dies, was in Busan to meet the audience.
Waraluck Hiransrettawat and David’ Reeve’s documentary “Y/our Music” attracted a lot of interest. The film, which won financial support from the festival in 2012, is a compilation of music in Thailand, from the songs of labourers to the sounds of the city and includes some terrific landscape shots.
Kongdej Jaturanrasmee is another festival regular and was in Busan to present his first feature documentary, “So Be It”. Based on cable provider TrueVisions’ reality series “Plook Panya Dharma Novice”, which live-broadcasts the daily lives of novice monks, “So Be It” focuses on William, a Thai-American youngster from the reality show who wanted to be ordained as a monk again after the programme was over. His life is contrasted with that of Bundit, a Karen boy sent to study at a temple but who hates his new surroundings and tries to escape. The film is slated for release in Thailand at the end of this month.
Thai cinema was also showcased through some up-and-coming directors. Chonlasit Upanigkit's “W”, which screened in the Window on Asian Cinema, underlined the talent of these new voices in Thai film. Made as a graduation film, “W” was picked up by Aditya Assarat’s Pop Pictures and started its journey on the film festival circuit. 
Chonlasit, who graduated in 2012 from Silpakorn University, has some experience in the world of filmmaking as the editor of by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s award-winning films “36” and “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy”, for which he won National Film Award. 
“I wanted to make a feature film since I started university,” says the soft-spoken Chonlasit, who became the first student of his faculty to do just that. 
“W” paints a picture of being a young person in Thai society. Neung, the main protagonist, has moved out of her home to study at the Faculty of Sport Science in Bangkok. There she meets Ploy, a new friend with dyed hair who hides an earlier trauma. The film adopts the documentary approach in the English class scene where the characters are interviewed by their English teacher and asked to speak of their university lives in English. 
“The film is about the sadness at getting stuck somewhere. Of course, moving around and saying goodbye to friends and family is also sad, but being stuck is sadder,” he points out.
“I didn’t expect it to be selected for a film festival,” says Chonlasit of his Bt80,000 graduation feature. “Looking back, I didn’t plan it all that well and there were many problems. It was very exhausting, but when we knew that the film was coming to Busan, we were all so happy! The feedback from outside Thailand has been great for broadening my view,” he says, adding that the film was edited down from the original 170 minutes to 130 minutes.
Another student film screened in Busan was Jirassaya Wongsutin’s “That Day of the Month”, which won an award at this year’s Thai Short Film and Video Festival. A new graduate of Chulalongkorn’s Communication Arts faculty, Jirassaya is widely acknowledged as a rising star in the world of Thai shorts and has picked up the short-film fest’s best student film award three years in a row. She is working as a screenwriter for GTH and wrote the studio’s recent release “The Swimmers”. 
“That Day of the Month” focuses on a relationship between two high school girls who believe that they have a deep connection through their menstrual synchrony and examines the fine line between friendship and same-sex love. 
“It began from a belief that when two women stick together, their periods will arrive at the same time. I included my opinions about love, relationships and sexuality, which are influenced by the way Thai society views the female sex,” says Jirassaya.
The Busan audience appeared to enjoy “That Day”, with many of the women spotted wiping their tears at the end.
“After the screening, some of the audience came to tell me that they liked my film, which made me very happy," Jirassaya says. “I do hope I’ll have the opportunity to come back to Busan with another of my films.” 
 
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