Thai film round-up1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteAt last month’s Cannes Film Market, Thai studios unveiled their new output ready for local release later in the year (hopefully). Among them is the much-expected adaptation of Daenaran Saengthong’s novella Asorapis, or Venom, a 47-page story that was once serialised in the Bangkok Post and revolves around an unusual hostility between a viper and a 10-year-old boy. It’s not the best-known book by master Daenaran, though it has been translated into English, French, Spanish and other languages.
Daenaran’s elegantly soaring prose and his magic-realism dash are a challenge for any filmmaker, and Jarunee Thamyu seems to have taken up the task with a good mix of caution and confidence. The release date is roughly set to be around August.
Thailand’s biggest studio, Sahamongkol Film International, has stacked up new projects in the pipeline. Building up the clout for next year’s release, at Cannes the company had begun to plug TYG 2 _ yes, Tom Yum Goong 2, starring the wayward butt-kicking sensation Tony Jaa and directed by Prachya Pinkaew. It looks set to be the loudest release of 2012. Besides that, the studio will soon release an animation called Yaak (or “giant”) by Workpoint, a glossy Thai cartoon that blends local flavours with 2D Pixar-like aesthetics.
Before that, the biopic of Thailand’s most best-known folk singer Pumpuang Duangjan will open in July. Paowalee Pornpimol plays Pumpuang; this is certainly one of the films to be looked forward to.
