Wise Kwai's Bangkok Cinema Scene

The Blue Hour (Onthakan)

It's been a strong year for Thai queer films, and one of the major pillars has been The Blue Hour (Onthakan, อนธการ), a coming-of-age romance and suspense thriller.

The story involves a teenager named Tam (Atthaphan Poonsawas) who is bullied at school and unloved at home. He arranges to meet a stranger named Phum (Oabnithi Wiwattanawarang) at a spooky, abandoned swimming pool. There, amid the moldering surroundings, the two young men have rough sex and then talk about ghosts. A friendship forms, and it leads to extremely dark places.

Directed by Anucha Boonyawatana, The Blue Hour had its world premiere at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, alongside another queer-themed Thai entry, director Josh Kim's How to Win at Checkers (Every Time), a.k.a. P'Chai My Hero, which was released in cinemas here last month. Then there's a third gay romance, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit's Red Wine in the Dark Night, which was released a couple weeks ago.

In addition to Berlinale, The Blue Hour has been featured at other festivals, including Hong Kong, Seattle, Taipei, Toronto's Inside Out and Montreal's Fantasia fest. Critical reception has been very positive, and I've got my own review coming soon. In the meantime, here's a few words from the Fantasia Fest:

A stunning ghost story from Thai filmmaker Anucha Boonyawatana, The Blue Hour recalls the work of masters such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, while spinning its own fresh take on repressed queer sexuality, abuse and intolerance. Using the concept of haunting to tackle these issues, as well as the complex interplay between national identities and buried sexual desires, Boonywatana’s feature-length debut is nothing short of a masterpiece of tension, a revelation from this year’s Berlinale. Acutely observant, The Blue Hour’s ethereal and painterly cinematography is matched only by its terrifying set design and the stunning Thai countryside, which comes alive as the perfect mirror to the protagonists’ fragile psyches — and the traumatic and supernatural forces bubbling underneath their doomed romance.

It's only at some SF cinemas: SF World, SFX Central Rama 9, SFC The Mall Bang Kapi, SFC The Mall Ngamwongwan and SFX Maya Chiang Mai (sorry Pattaya).

For more details, check the film's Facebook page. Rated 18+

Also opening

Fantastic Four– Marvel Comics have struggled for decades to bring Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's "first family" to the big screen. Attempts have included a low-budget unreleased 1994 effort, produced by Roger Corman solely to hold onto expiring rights to the property, and a pair of critically assailed, quickly forgettable big-budget efforts made about 10 years ago. There were hopes that maybe Hollywood would get it right this time, but the approach seems to have faltered right out of the gate, with a new origin tale that departs radically from the comics, which upsets people. There are controversies over this, but I don't want to address them here, because it's just so tiresome. Just give the movie a chance, I say, and let it stand on its own merits. Directed by Josh Trank, who got his big break with the pretty neat found-footage superhero tale Chronicle, this new new Fantastic Four stars Miles Teller (Whiplash) as brilliant scientist and group leader Dr. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Kate Mara (House of Cards) as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station, The Wire) as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Jamie Bell (Jumper, Turn: Washington's Spies) as Ben Grimm/The Thing. Unfortunately, early critical reception is underwhelming, so this film faces a uphill battle. Could be back to the drawing board. Rated G

Dark Places– Twenty-five years after her family was massacred in a Kansas farmhouse, and her court testimony sent her brother to prison, the lone survivor reluctantly agrees to revisit the case with a group of true-crime enthusiasts who say they have uncovered new evidence. It's adapted from a book by Gillian Flynn, the novelist who became hot property last year with the success of Gone Girl. Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Corey Stoll, Chloe Grace Moretz, Drea de Matteo and Christina Hendricks star. Frenchman Gilles Paquet-Brenner directs. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

Joe Hua Tangmo (โจ หัวแตงโม นักสืบออนไลน์) – Jirayu La-ongmanee is Joe, a computer hacker who creates an avatar that enables him to enter the online world to find out the real names of the people behind display names on social networks. Arikanta “Gypso” Mahaprukphong and Tanan Boonyatanapiwat also star. Industry veteran Kittikorn Liasirikun directs, blending live action with computer animation. Rated G

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– August at the FGC has gotten underway with French actress-director Catherine Breillat's films on Wednesdays, Swedish titan Ingmar Bergman on Thursdays and Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci on Fridays. Saturdays are devoted to cult director and Monty Python member Terry Gilliam while Sundays have Frank Sinatra films. Tonight, it's Bergman's Autumn Sonata, his last effort for the cinema before he turned to television. It stars Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann. The club lists a private event for tomorrow, but the heavy wooden door swings back open on Saturday for a special screening, not of anything by Gilliam, but for The World Made Straight. An indie crime drama set in 1970s North Carolina, it's directed by David Burris, who will be present. Burris is a producer on the TV series Survivor. Seating for this special event is first-come, first-served, so don't be late. Check Facebook for details. Sunday features Sinatra in his Oscar-winning role in the classic World War II drama From Here to Eternity. And next Wednesday's offering combines two of this month's themes, with Bertolucci directing Marlon Brando and Breillat in the controversial erotic drama Last Tango in Paris. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Take note

Movies will be released a day earlier next week because of the public holiday for Her Majesty the Queen's birthday and Mother's Day.

And, owing to that, there will be no screenings at the Alliance Française. However, the following Wednesday, August 19, the Alliance will host a special screening of Polish auteur Krzysztof Kieslowski's Rouge (Red), with the film's star, actress Irene Jacob, coming to Bangkok for a "meet the artist" session.

Also next week is the start of the 19th Thai Short Film and Video Festival, an annual highlight of my movie-going calendar. Details are still being hammered together, but I'll aim to have more information soon.

It seems the shine has worn off 3D in Thailand, as Fantastic Four is released here in 2D only, despite having a 3D version available. The 3D conversions are mainly being done for China, where 3D is still being pushed heavily and seems to be preferred.

Inside Out

For their latest feature Inside Out, the wizards at Pixar Animation go inside the mind of a depressed 11-year-old girl at a crucial time in her life.

Such a story may not seem like the type of uplifting family friendly movie Pixar is best known for, but it could well be the most-imaginative and complex story yet attempted by the pioneering computer-animation studio.

The main characters are the emotions Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust, who operate from Headquarters, a spaceship-like command center inside the mind. Under the controlling efforts of the domineering Joy, things run pretty smoothly until a mishap causes Joy and Sadness to be swept away to the far recesses of the girl Riley's mind. They have a big adventure, trying to figure out how to get back to Headquarters. Meanwhile, Fear, Anger and Disgust are ill-equipped to handle operations as Riley is struggling to cope with moving with her parents to a new city.

It's directed by Pete Docter, who previously touched on childhood fears with Monsters Inc. and growing old with the emotional Up. He also came up with Toy Story and Wall-E. Helping to crack the code of Inside Out was co-director Ronnie del Carmen, who has had a hand in Pixar's Brave, Ratatouille and other pictures. They approached it from their viewpoint as doting fathers, who came up with Inside Out as a way of coping with their children growing up.

The voice cast is perfect, with Amy Poehler bringing her relentlessly perky persona from TV's Parks and Recreation to the proceedings as Joy. She is so darned happy you want to strangle her. She's joined by Phyllis Smith from the U.S. version of The Office as the melancholy but deceptively powerful Sadness. The emotions are further rounded out by Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader as Fear, Mindy Kahling from The Mindy Project as, eww, Disgust, and always-outraged comedian Lewis Black as Anger.

Critical reception is overwhelmingly positive. I've actually already seen this myself, and can attest that it is another fine effort by the folks at Pixar. If you don't leak anything from your eyes at some point, then something is probably wrong with you.

As with all Pixar and Walt Disney animation films, there will be an accompanying short before the main feature, with Inside Out paired with the Polynesian-tinged musical romance Lava.

It's in actual 3D, though I saw it in 2D, and didn't feel I missed out. In the U.S., the grown-up-friendly Inside Out is rated PG, meaning youngsters might need parental guidance to understand it fully. But here in Thailand, where the censors take a cursory glance, see it's a cartoon and automatically think it's only for kids, it's rated G.

Also opening

Our Little Sister – Following the death of their estranged father, three twentysomething siblings invite their shy 13-year-old sister from another mother to come live with them at their grandmother's house, which is in a lovely rural setting. Hirokazu Kore-eda directs, and Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho and Suzu Hirose star. Adapted from the manga Umimachi Diary, the drama premiered in the main competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Critical reception is generally praiseworthy. It's at Apex, House, Paragon, SF World and SFX Maya Chiang Mai. Rated 15+

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, debonair CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill from Man of Steel) is forced to team up with a tough Soviet spy (Armie Hammer from The Lone Ranger) to stop a mysterious criminal organization that has acquired its own atomic bomb. Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, Hugh Grant and Jared Harris also star. Guy Ritchie directs this long-in-the-works adaptation of the 1960s TV series that starred Robert Vaughn and David McCallum. It looks stylish enough, I suppose. However, I wish Ritchie would go back to directing more small-budget British gangster movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch, rather than overblown retreads like his Sherlock Holmes movies or this thing. No chance of that. He's doing Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur next. Surprisingly, critical reception is actually mostly positive. It's in 2D only, including IMAX. Rated G

Monster Hunt – In ancient China, a young man (Jing Boran) becomes pregnant after an encounter with a demon. He and his strong-willed monster-hunter girlfriend (Bai Baihe) plan to sell the baby demon lord, but develop feelings for it as they evade bounty hunters. Eric Tsang and Sandra Ng also star. A blend of live-action actors with computer-animated blobs from the Uncanny Valley, it's directed by Raman Hui, who previously worked in Hollywood on such efforts as Shrek and Antz. It's been a big hit in China, and you can read all about it in a Los Angeles Times article. Rated G

The Diabolical– When a single mother (Ali Larter) and her two young children are tormented by an evil presence in their quiet suburban home, she turns to her scientist boyfriend (Arjun Gupta) to take on the violent forces that paranormal experts are too frightened to face. An indie horror directed and co-written by Alistair Legrand, The Diabolical premiered at this year's South by Southwest Festival, and has had some positive reviews from horror-speciality websites. Rated 18+

Parasyte: Part 2– Young hero Shinichi (Shota Sometani) and the friendly alien parasite in his right hand come up against various forces of the pro-parasite cabal, including a mean ex-schoolteacher, the mayor and his mysterious bodyguard (Tadanobu Asano). This follows the first part, which was released here in May. Critical reception has been mixed, with the consensus being that Part 1 was pretty strong, but Part 2 isn't. Rated 15+

Brothers – Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra are fighting siblings who take out their anger with each other in the mixed-martial-arts fighting ring in Brothers, which is an official remake of the 2011 Hollywood fight drama Warrior. Jacqueline Fernandez also stars. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Central Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– Tonight, two of the club's themes this month combine, with French director-actress Catherine Breillat starring with Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial erotic drama The Last Tango in Paris. Tomorrow, there's some new guy, a Star Wars: The Force Awakens actor named Max Von Sydow, playing a game of chess against Death in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. Friday has more Bertolucci, his 1970 Italian political thriller Il Conformista. Saturday's Terry Gilliam movie is his unsung 2013 effort The Zero Theorem, which fans view to be a final entry in a trilogy of Orwellian films by Gilliam, Brazil and 12 Monkeys being the other two. And Sunday has the original conspiracy theory thriller, John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate, starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and a very terrifying Angela Lansbury. Next Wednesday is a directorial effort from Breillat, 2001's Fat Girl, in which two teenage sisters explore their sexuality. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

19th Thai Short Film and Video Festival– The Thai Film Archive and Thai Film Foundation's annual short-film extravaganza opens at 5.30pm tomorrow at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. Selected from more than 500 entries from around the world, the program is a daunting thing to get your head around. Don't think too hard. Just do what I do – show up, sit down, shut up and take it all in as best you can. The highlights are many, with the broadest appeal coming from the selections from the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, which is the biggest and best short-film showcase in the world. Many Oscar-winning entries have come out of that festival. Other widely appealing shorts can be found in the International Competition slots and the S-Express, which has films from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The Queer Program is something the festival organizers are quite fond of, and rightly so. They additionally have a special program this year called "Out of Place", which is a selection of expat-friendly stories about foreigners and their misadventures in foreign countries. That's all in addition to the usual selections of Thai shorts, youth and student films, documentaries, animation and experimental entries. The fest runs until August 23, with weekday screenings starting at 5.30pm and then a full slate on Saturdays and Sundays, starting from 11am. Please note that the BACC is closed on Mondays, so no fest that day. Shows are in the BACC's fifth-floor auditorium as well as a smaller improvised space on the fourth floor. Admission is free. For the schedule and further details, please check the festival's Facebook page.

Alliance Française– There is no free French film tonight because of Her Majesty the Queen's Birthday and the Mother's Day public holiday (which is why movies in the malls are opening a day earlier this week), but the Alliance is back open for movies next Wednesday with a special event, which brings actress Irene Jacob to Bangkok for a "meet the artist" session with Polish auteur Krzysztof Kieslowski's arthouse drama Rouge (Red), which is part of his influential Three Colors trilogy. The show and talk are at 7.30pm on Wednesday, August 19 at the Alliance.

Amy

The short life of Grammy-winning pop musician Amy Winehouse is detailed in the much-acclaimed hit documentary Amy, which comes to Thai cinemas as part of the ongoing Doc Holiday series put on by SF cinemas and the Documentary Club.

Winehouse was 27 years old when she died on July 23, 2011, following a rapid rise to stardom. Known for her bluesy voice, which was compared to the likes of Billie Holiday or perhaps Nina Simone, her hits included the song "Rehab" and her second album "Back to Black". However, she had problems, in her personal life and with the trappings of fame, and she turned to drugs and alcohol to cope.

Asif Kapadia directs. He previously did Senna, which profiled car-racer Ayrton Senna. Kapadia follows the same formula for Amy, which involves audio recordings of around a hundred interviews that serve as the backdrop for archive videos from family and friends, news clips and concert footage, avoiding the trap of "talking heads" that so many documentaries fall into.

Critical reception is highly positive.

The scheduling of these Documentary Club offerings is a little confusing, but it's all calculated to virally boost interest in the film through social media. There is just one screening scheduled for this week, at 8 tonight at SFW CentralWorld. Amy then moves to a wider release from next Thursday at CentralWorld, SF Cinema City Terminal 21, SFX Central Rama 9 and SFX Maya Chiang Mai. More shows may be added. For details, check the Documentary Club Facebook page or SF Cinema's bookings page.

Also opening

Pixels– Aliens mistake classic video games as a declaration of war, and invade the planet in the form of Pac-Man and other arcade characters. In response, the U.S. president (Kevin James) recruits a childhood friend (Adam Sandler) and other champion gamers to fight back. Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage and Josh Gad also star. Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire) directs. As with all of Sandler's other movies, critical reception has been brutal, but that won't stop this from turning up repeatedly on HBO about a year from now. Rated G

Hitman: Agent 47– A genetically engineered assassin is assigned to take on a mega-corporation that plans to unlock his secrets in order to create a highly advanced army of killers. Rupert Friend shaves his head for this role, starring alongside Hannah War, Zachary Quinto and Ciaran Hinds, among others. This is a second movie adaptation of a video game and is a reboot/sequel to 2007's Hitman, which starred Timothy Olyphant. Critical reception is just now starting to register. Rated 13+

Exeter– Teenagers become possessed by an evil spirit, which was released when they played a vintage record backward. Serves them right. Stephen Lang, Brittany Curran and Gage Golightly are among the stars. It's directed by Marcus Nispel, who has previously done the remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th, and is produced by the same folks behind the torturous horrors Paranormal Activity and Insidious. Also known as Backmask, critical reception has some positivity, but mainly from horror fans. Rated 18+

Love Love You อยากบอกให้รู้...ว่ารัก (Love Love You Yak Bok Hai Roo Wa Rak) – Here's the type of indie gay Thai film that inspired the release of other Thai gay films this year, such as P'Chai My Hero, Red Wine and the Dark Night and The Blue Hour. Here, Blue Hour leading man Atthaphan Poonsawawas stars as a young man named Gump who feels the Earth shake when meets Sun (Thanasarn Miangbua). Gump’s boyfriend Night (Narrapat Sakulsong) has meanwhile fallen for for a dude named Ball. Their friends step in to sort things out. Napat Jaitientum directs. Rated 13+

Next Station I Love You – After two years of marriage, a young woman (Yang Fanghan) is diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, prompting her husband (Steven Ma) to quit his job to take care of her. Together, they turn to their faith for solace. A Chinese drama, it is directed by Dewei Li. It's at Major Cineplex.

All Is Well– Abhishek Bachchan, Asin, Rishi Kapoor and Supriya Pathak star in this road-trip comedy-drama about a dysfunctional family being chased by goons. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit and Rama III. Opens Friday.

Also showing

Maryam, an entry in the S-Express Indonesia package, screening on Saturday.

19th Thai Short Film and Video Festival – S-Express packages of shorts from the Philippines and Singapore plus broadly appealing International Competition entries are on tap tonight and tomorrow at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. On Saturday, you have the choice between the International Competition, finalist Thai shorts in the top-tier R.D. Pestonji Award competition (named for Thailand's first auteur) or all the S-Express entries in one go. The festival wraps up on Sunday, which starts with a morning block of Thai animation, all competing for the Payut Ngaokrachang Award, named after Thailand's pioneering animator. Screenings start at 5.30pm on weekdays and 11am on Saturday and Sunday. For more details, please check the festival's Facebook page.

The Friese-Greene Club– Tonight's Bergman offering is 1962's Winter Light, which is described as the Swedish great's "favorite" and is "intimate and autobiographical". Tomorrow's Bertolucci film is the Italian director's controversial 2003 effort The Dreamers, in which a young American man meets a pair of French siblings against the backdrop of riots in Paris in 1968. Saturday has another Terry Gilliam film, with 1977's Jabberwocky, which was his first solo effort following Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And Sunday has Frank Sinatra in the very dark drug-addiction drama The Man with the Golden Arm, which is directed by Otto Preminger and has an iconic poster designed by Saul Bass. The month starts winding down next Wednesday, with one more film from French actress-director Catherine Breillat, 1999's Romance. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française– Secrets among a close-knit group of friends and family come spilling out in the 2012 comedy-drama Amitiés sincères, directed by Stephan Archinard and François Prévôt-Leygonie and starring Gérard Lanvin, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Ana Girardot, Wladimir Yordanoff and Zabou Breitman. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, August 26, at the Alliance.

Take note

Undeterred by Monday night's bombing at the Erawan Shrine, which killed 20 people and hurt around 100, the government is pressing on with events, including yet another film festival at CentralWorld, right by the blast site. Announced on Tuesday by the Culture Ministry (the very day there was another, non-fatal bomb blast near Sathorn Bridge Pier), the Bangkok Asean Film Festival will run from August 27 to 30 at SF World Cinema. It will have entries from all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with Cambodia's The Last Reel and Vietnam's Big Father, Small Father and the Other Stories being among the notable titles. I hope to have more details to pass along by this time next week.

Also near the Erawan Shrine, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand has two upcoming screenings, with the Brazilian drama Behind the Sun (Abril Despedaçado) by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) next Thursday, and the Belgian drama Two Days, One Night (Deux Jours, Une Nuit) by the Dardenne brothers on September 7.

Further down the street, the Friese-Greene Club also has a special event next Thursday, with a best-of selection from last year's Shnit International Short Film Festival. It's part of the run-up to this year's Shnit, which is set for October 7 to 18, and is held simultaneously in major cities worldwide, Bangkok among them.

Yet another free film festival is upon us with the Bangkok Asean Film Festival, organized by the Culture Ministry and the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand. Running from August 27 to 30 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, it will present films from each of the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Noteworthy entries include The Last Reel from Cambodia, Bwaya from the Philippines and Men Who Save the World from Malaysia. There are even films from two countries that don't really make that many movies, Laos and Brunei.

Here is the line-up:

What's So Special About Rina? (Brunei) – One of the first feature films to come out of the oil-rich Muslim sultanate on the island of Borneo, Rina is an enjoyable romantic comedy by Harlif Haji Mohamad and Farid Azlan Ghani. It centers on a sad-sack advertising man named Hakim (Syukri Mahari) and his ladies-man roommate Faisal (Tauffek Ilyas). Hakim nervously attempts to catch the eye of his new co-worker Rina while Faisal competes for the affections of a waitress, who is also being wooed by an Elvis impersonator. Read more about it in an article in The Nation from a couple years ago.
The Last Reel (Cambodia) – This much-buzzed-about title mixes contemporary Cambodian culture with the country's cinematic Golden Age of the past, all tinged by the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge era. The drama involves a young woman (Ma Rynet) who learns that her aged, mentally ailing mother was an actress in the 1960s and 70s. Seeking to make a connection with her mom, Sophoun sets about recreating the lost final reel from one of her mother's most famous films. Mom is portrayed by Dy Saveth – one of Cambodia's best-known actresses and a starlet of the Golden Age. The debut film by Kulikar Sotho, The Last Reel has won several prizes, including the Spirit of Asia Award from the Tokyo film fest and the Black Diamond Audience Award from the Udine Far East Asian Film Festival.
Siti (Indonesia) – Directed by Eddie Cahyohno, Siti is a 24-hour slice of life about a young mother who goes to work in a karaoke bar, against her fisherman husband's wishes, in order to support the family. It is filmed in black-and-white, in the old-style 4:3 ratio. Critical reception has been fair, and Siti has won awards, including best actress at the Singapore International Film Fest for star Sekar Sari and best script at the Shanghai fest.
Real Love 2 (Laos) – Stifled for decades by the communist military rulers, commercial filmmaking is finally starting up in Laos, and one of the early adopters of this fledgling medium has been singer, comedian and TV host Jear Pacific, who last year made his film debut with the romantic comedy Huk Ey Ly, which offered various vignettes of young couples and their comical antics, all in a slapstick style designed to appeal to an audience whose main source of entertainment has been Thai television. The quickly made sequel Huk Ey Ly 2 offers more of the same, and it's been a big hit in Laos, which just opened its first modern multiplex, the Major Platinum Cineplex in Vientiane.
Men Who Save the World (Malaysia) – Liew Seng Tat, who made his award-winning feature debut in 2007 with the sweet boyhood tale Flower in Pocket, returns with a satire on contemporary Malaysian society with Men Who Save the World. The story is centered in a remote village that is panicked by a haunted house, inhabited not by ghosts, but by a fugitive African immigrant. From appearances in festivals that include Hong Kong, Locarno and Singapore, critical reception has been mixed, but perhaps viewers with more than a passing knowledge of Malaysian culture will appreciate this film more.
Golden Kingdom (Myanmar) – This is a drama, written and directed by American filmmaker Brian Perkins. It premiered at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, where it was a nominee for Best First Feature and the Crystal Bear Award in the youth-oriented Generation Kplus category. With many painterly, finely composed shots, it follows four young novice monks at a remote monastery, who are left to fend for themselves when their abbot is called away on temple business. Critical reception has been fair.
Bwaya (Philippines) – A 2009 incident in which a girl was killed by a crocodile serves as the basis for this award-winning drama by Francis Xavier Pasion. Set in the Agusan del Sur water basin, the story involves a young mother (Angeli Bayani from Ilo Ilo) who is searching for her daughter's missing body. She has to navigate treacherous social terrain as she discovers that the worst predators are not in the water. Bwaya (Crocodile) has won many awards, including the Best Film-New Breed prize and Netpac Award at Cinemalaya and the Grand Prize at Tokyo FilmEx.
1021 (Singapore) – Despite a huge Tamil-speaking population, locally made Tamil films have been rare in Singapore, but there is a movement afoot to correct that. Following 2009's My Magic by Eric Khoo, now there's 1021, a family drama about a teenage girl who after the death of her mother goes to live with her father, a lonely, depressed man who has turned to drugs to cope. Local buzz has been positive.
Latitude 6– Thailand looks the Deep South for its contribution to the festival, with this drama that was released in cinemas in July. Directed by Thanadol Nualsuth, it weaves together stories in a tight-knit ethnically diverse community in Pattani. The characters include a Bangkok musician and computer technician (Peter Corp Dyrendal) who comes to Pattani to update the Islamic Bank's software. Along they way, he falls for a Muslim woman, who is the daughter of a stern, tradition-minded religious leader who frowns when he sees the guy's tattoos. There's also a young guy who wants to excel at Pencak Silat, against the wishes of his tradition-minded father, and a young woman who deejays for a community radio station, caught in a love triangle between two boys. And the Army's Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), who produced this bit of propaganda, is there to lend an amiable, helping hand.
Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories – Another selection from this year's Berlinale, Big Father is the sophomore effort from director Phan Dang Di, who was much acclaimed for his debut Bi, Don't Be Afraid. Set in 1990s' Ho Chi Minh City, the story involves a youngster named Vu who arrives in Saigon to go to photography school. He falls in love with his roommate, a shady guy who wants to involve Vu in various schemes. Meanwhile, the boy's father pushes a village girl toward Vu for an arranged marriage, and she becomes a third leg in an awkward triangular romance. In addition to taking part in the top-tier Golden Bear competition in Berlin, Big Father was also a nominee for prizes at the Hong Kong fest.

In addition to those 10 films, there is a hidden 11th title in the mix, Mart Payak, a made-for-TV biographical documentary on famed boxer Samart Payakarun, "The Jade Faced Tiger". Part of The Great Muay Thai Fighter TV series produced by Krungthep Thurakij and the Now 26 television channel, with support from the Culture Ministry, it follows Samart from his start in the ring as a boy and his rise to the heights of the Muay Thai world. It screens just once, on Wednesday night in a gala invite-only opening ceremony.

Following its run in Bangkok, the Asean Film Festival will travel to SF branches in Chiang Mai from September 3 to 6, Khon Kaen from September 10 to 13 and Surat Thani from September 17 to 20.

Admission is free, with tickets handed out 30 minutes before the shows. You'll want to queue up for an additional 30 minutes or so to ensure you get a decent seat. For the schedule, please see the SF Cinemas website.

Absolutely Anything

Robin Williams and the cast of Monty Python's Flying Circus all figure into the absurdist comedy Absolutely Anything, which stars Simon Pegg (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible) as a hapless Earthling who is granted powers by a bunch of jerkface aliens. He can make anything happen, but doesn't do much of consequence with his abilities, other than make his pet dog talk.

The Pythons' Terry Jones directs, and is also one of the voices of those trouble-making aliens, along with John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam, making Absolutely Anything the first time the Pythons have worked in a movie together since 1983's The Meaning of Life. Williams, in one of his last roles, is the voice of the dog. Kate Becksinsale, Eddie Izzard and Rob Riggle are also featured.

Despite the presence of Brit-comedy favorite Pegg, the Pythons and Williams, critical reception has been underwhelming. Rated 15+

Also opening

Paper Towns – Following up quickly behind the popular success of the teen romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars, here's another movie based on a young-adult novel by author-of-the-moment John Green. Paper Towns deals with a teen named Quentin who has long had a crush on mysterious neighbor girl Margo. After an all-night adventure with her, Margo disappears, leaving behind clues that Quentin and his friends have to follow on a cross-country journey that will change their lives forever. Outspoken model-actress Cara Delevingne stars along with Nat Wolff and Austin Abrams. Jake Schreier (Robot and Frank) directs. Critical reception is mixed, leaning to positive. in limited release at Paragon and SF World at CentralWorld. Rated 13+

Khon Oak Hak (คน.อก.หัก, a.k.a. Love H2O) – In this Thai comedy, Naam (Natpapas Thanathanamaharat) is the editor of a romance magazine but her own love life turns rocky after her long-time boyfriend ditches her for someone else. She wants to find the perfect guy to take to her ex’s wedding and has a choice between old friend Doc (Tony Rakkaen), diplomat Joe (Navin Yavapollkul) or property tycoon Ohm (Ananda Everingham). Sutthasit Detinthonnarak (Club Friday: The Series) directs. Rated 15+

367 Won: Him and Her (367 วัน Him and Her) – And in this Thai romance, Tine (Chonluedee Amornlak) and Hade (Khanut Rojanai) have been a couple since high school. Now graduated from college, Tine is set to head overseas, and she breaks up with Hade rather than have him wait for her to return. Thirawat Phadungkan directs. Rated G

Attack on Titan– After 100 years of living behind huge walls to protect themselves from man-eating giants, humanity is starting to fight back. Among them is teenager Eren Jaeger (Haruma Miura), who must use his special gift to defeat the titan race. This is the first of a two-part live-action adaptation of a popular manga and anime franchise in Japan. Part two, Attack on Titan: End of the World, is set for release there next month. Critical reception has been mixed. It's Thai-dubbed most places (including IMAX) but in Japanese with English and Thai subtitles at a few locations, including CentralWorld, Paragon and the Quartier CineArt. Rated 13+

To the Fore – Dante Lam, a Hong Kong director known for gritty, gripping crime thrillers, turns to romance with To the Fore, which is set in the world of competitive cycling, where four riders put their relationships to the test as they enter a big race. Eddie Peng, Choi Siwon, Shawn Dou and Wang Luodan star. Critical reception has been mixed. It's Thai-dubbed most places but is in Chinese with English and Thai subtitles at some locations, including Paragon and Quartier CineArt. Rated G

Also showing

Bangkok Asean Film Festival– Lots of worthwhile stuff to choose from in the selection of Southeast Asian films put together by the Culture Ministry and the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand, running from tonight until Sunday at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. For broad comedies, there's the hilarious What's So Special About Rina? from Brunei and, if you like Thai TV comedies, then you'll probably like Huk Ey Ly 2 (Really Love 2) from Laos. There's drama with The Last Reel from Cambodia, Bwaya from the Philippines, Siti from Indonesia, 1021 from Singapore and Golden Kingdom from Myanmar. Vietnam has a gay angle with Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories, while Malaysia offers a darkly comic satire with Men Who Save the World. And Thailand looks to the South with the drama Latitude 6, with various stories of religious and cultural conflict against the backdrop of restiveness in the three southernmost provinces. Each film was further detailed in an earlier post. Tickets are handed out 30 minutes before the shows, so queue up well in advance to ensure you get a decent seat. The schedule is at the SF Cinemas website.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – A longstanding feud between Brazilian farming families boils over in Behind the Sun (Abril Despedaçado), a 2001 drama by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries), screening at 7 tonight. Part of the FCCT’s Contemporary World Film Series, the movie is courtesy of the embassy of Brazil. Admission is 150 baht for nonmembers, plus 100 baht for anyone wanting the snacks and drinks. Also upcoming at the club is the Belgian film Two Days, One Night (Deux Jours, Une Nuit) by the Dardenne brothers on September 7.

The Friese-Greene Club– Tonight is a special event, with a best-of selection from last year's Shnit International Short Film Festival. It's part of the run-up to this year's Shnit fest, which is set for October 7 to 18, and is held simultaneously in major cities worldwide, Bangkok among them. If you want to go, check the Facebook events page. Tomorrow is one more Bertolucci for the month, 1996's Stealing Beauty, with Liv Tyler as an American teenager visiting her late mother's hometown in Tuscany. She hopes to lose her virginity before the summer ends. Saturday's Terry Gilliam film is one his most celebrated, 1995's 12 Monkeys, starring Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe and an absolutely unhinged Brad Pitt. And the month wraps on Sunday with one more Sinatra film, 1958's Some Came Running, a small-town drama that features the first onscreen pairing of Sinatra with fellow Rat Packer Dean Martin. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française– A depressed rock musician quits his band and stumbles on a new occupation as the caretaker of an old Paris apartment building in Dans la cour (In the Courtyard). He soon builds a rapport with residents, among them a mentally deteriorating retired woman. Gustave Kervern and Catherine Deneuve star. Pierre Salvadori directs. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, September 2, at the Alliance.

Take note

The latest offering from the Documentary Club, Amy has moved to a wider release. It's at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, SF Cinema City Terminal 21, SFX Central Rama 9, SFX Maya Chiang Mai and maybe more places. For showtimes and bookings, please check SF Cinema's bookings page.

Upcoming events include another entry in the Bangkok Art and Culture Center's Cinema Diverse: Director's Choice series, which on September 5 has Pee Mak director Banjong Pisanthanakun screening one of his favorite films, The Chaser from South Korea. He'll be talking about the thriller afterward with director Na Hong-jin. Registration opens at 4.30pm with the show at 5.30pm in the BACC's fifth-floor auditorium.

Also in September will be a video-art exhibition, Behind the Painting, with work by inventive filmmaker Chulayarnon Siriphol. Organized by the Japan Foundation, the exhibition will be at Silpakorn University's Art Center, opening on September 11 and running until October 10. Don't miss it!

Freelance

Having honed his craft making award-winning short films and independent features and writing commercial screenplays, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit makes his much-hyped mainstream studio debut with Freelance Ham Puay Ham Phak Ham Rak More (ฟรีแลนซ์.. ห้ามป่วย ห้ามพัก ห้ามรักหมอ, a.k.a. Heart Attack).

A romantic comedy, it's about a stressed-out graphic designer who comes down with a skin rash and falls in love with the attractive female doctor who's treating him. The story, written by Nawapol, is loosely based on his own experiences as a struggling, stressed-out "freelance" filmmaker.

Freelance follows his much-acclaimed indie features, the low-budget experimental romance 36, the more-ambitious and more-overtly quirky Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy and the pirate-video documentary The Master.

Released by GTH, Thailand's most-successful movie studio, everything about Freelance is calculated to fill the multiplexes.

By his lonesome, Nawapol proved to be a one-man publicity juggernaut, putting buns in seats for his indie efforts solely through posts on Twitter and Facebook. Now he has the might of GTH's marketing machine behind him – the same machine that cranked out the box-office record breaker Pee Mak in 2013 and last year's No. 1 movie I Fine Thank You Love You.

Further interest in Freelance is guaranteed by the film's bankable stars, leading man Sunny Suwanmethanon from I Fine and Davika Hoorne from Pee Mak
.
Of course it also helps that Nawapol has actually been part of the GTH family for several years, having had a hand in the screenplay to the 2009 box-office smash Bangkok Traffic Love Story and writing 2011's entertaining young entrepreneur biopic Top Secret.

You can read more about Freelance in an article in The Nation. Owing to Nawapol's indie roots, Freelance is being screened at the indie theaters, Scala/Lido and House, which is unusual because those theaters rarely host first-run mainstream Thai commercial films. Rated 13+

Also opening

The Transporter Refueled– French producer Luc Besson reboots his automotive action franchise, with newcomer actor-musician Ed Skrein (Game of Thrones) suiting up for the role made famous by Jason Statham. It's the same set-up as always – he's an excellent driver with a mysterious past who takes delivery jobs for criminals while adhering to a strict set of rules. This time around, he tangles with a trio of female assassins (Loan Chabanol, Gabriella Wright, Tatiana Pajkovic) who kidnap his father (Ray Stevenson). It's directed by Camille Delamarre, who previously was film editor on Transporter 3 and Taken 2 and made his feature directorial debut with Brick Mansions, the Paul Walker vehicle that was a remake of the Besson-produced action flick Banlieue 13. Critical reception is just getting revved up. Rated 15+

So Very Very (จริงๆ มากๆ, Jing Jing Mak Mak) – In this indie South Korean romantic comedy, aspiring filmmaker Sung-hoon (Oh Chang-kyung) falls for a Thai lady named Pan (Cho Ha-young), and the two get married and set out to have a happy life in South Korea. Instead, their relationship is like a Korean soap opera, as Pan soon wearies of struggling with a husband who can only land minor jobs in TV and films, so she decides to return to Thailand. Directed by Park Jae-wook, it's in Korean with Thai (and English!) subtitles at House on RCA. Rated 15+

Welcome Back– This sequel to the 2007 Bollywood action-comedy Welcome has the characters played by Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor and Paresh Rawal putting their criminal pasts behind them as they have become big businessmen. Conflict and hijinks ensue as everyone is under pressure to get married and start families. John Abraham and Shruti Haasan join the cast for this new song-and-dance romp. Anees Bazmee (Singh is Kinng) directs. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit and Rama III. Opens Friday.

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– Horror-meister Wes Craven, who died on August 30 at the age of 76, is paid tribute this month, with a slate of some of his best-known films on Tuesdays. Next week is his 1984 classic, A Nightmare on Elm Street, which introduced the very scary steel-clawed dream invader Freddy Krueger to the world, and features an early appearance by Johnny Depp. Other features this month are "not the usual sci-fi" on Wednesdays, first features on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and the films of Douglas Sirk on Sundays. Tonight, it's indie American director Noah Baumbach's 1995 debut Kicking and Screaming (not to be confused with the Will Ferrell soccer comedy). Steven Spielberg's white-knuckle 1971 debut Duel, starring Dennis Weaver and a Peterbilt truck, screens tomorrow. And Alejandro González Iñárritu's eye-popping first feature, Amores Perros, is on Saturday. Even after last year's astonishing Birdman, it's still his best film. Jane Wyman and a raw young Rock Hudson star in Sirk's 1954 romantic drama Magnificent Obsession on Sunday. And next Wednesday's offbeat sci-fi offering is Shane Carruth's low-budget Sundance smash Primer. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Cinema Diverse: Director's Choice– Thai director Banjong Pisanthanakun (Pee Mak, Hello Stranger, Shutter) will screen one of his favorite films at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center on Saturday. It's The Chaser, a terrific crime thriller from 2008 that was the feature debut by South Korean director Na Hong-jin. He'll be in attendance for a talk about his film with Banjong afterward. Registration opens at 4.30pm, with the screening at 5.30 in the BACC's fifth-floor auditorium.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand– The FCCT's Contemporary World Film Series spins on, with the Embassy of Belgium bringing the beer and cheese on Monday night for a 7pm screening of Two Days, One Night (Deux Jours, Une Nuit), the latest drama by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Marion Cotillard, an Oscar nominee for her role, portrays a woman in a fight for her job. Admission is 150 baht for non-members, plus 100 baht for anyone wanting the suds and snacks. Also next week at the FCCT is a documentary and panel talk, Thirty Years On: The Killing of Neil Davis and Bill Latch, which recalls the 1985 attempted coup by the "Young Turks", which was bloodily put down by government forces, resulting in 59 injuries and five deaths, including the two journalists. Reservations are required for this event, which is on the failed coup's anniversary, 7pm next Wednesday, September 9. Admission is 350 baht for non-members plus 350 baht for anyone wanting the buffet (hence the need to RSVP). Also this month is a screening of the gripping high-seas adventure, Norway's Kon-Tiki on September 28.

Alliance Française– A novice actor and a veteran director form an unlikely friendship during a film shoot in Maestro, a 2014 comedy-drama directed and co-written by Léa Fazer. Pio Marmaï and Michael Lonsdale star. Inspired by a real-life encounter by the late young actor Jocelyn Quivrin and French New Wave director Eric Rohmer, it screens at 7pm on Wednesday, September 2, at the Alliance.

Take note

Thai film studios and distributors have largely cleared the decks this week to make way for the big tentpole release of Freelance, because nobody wants to go up against a GTH film. Go see it at House or Lido and support your local independent cinemas.

Next week, there will be more than a half-dozen new films, among them the made-in-Thailand action drama No Escape, which has been torn to bits by critics.

There's also Thai martial-arts star Tony Jaa's well-received Hong Kong action debut SPL 2: A Time for Consequences, and a big title from this year's Cannes Film Festival, Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin. I'm holding out slim hopes that both the Chinese-language films will have at least one place playing the original soundtrack with English subs.

And an interesting release next week will be Gerontophilia, a weird new film by the taboo-challenging cult director Bruce LaBruce. Set for the Lido, it's being brought in by the new indie distribution shingle Doo Nang Took Wan, run by Ken Thapanan Wichitrattakarn, who single-handedly brought the Brazilian coming-of-age gay drama The Way He Looks to Bangkok a few months back.

Gerontophilia

Attendees of the now-defunct Bangkok International Film Festival in 2008 might remember a weird movie called Otto: Or Up with Dead People, an offbeat musical comedy about a gay zombie that featured explicit sex scenes.

And as far as I recall, that's the last time a Bruce LaBruce movie played publicly in Bangkok, until now. This week brings a light-hearted 2013 effort from Canada's taboo-challenging cult director, the romantic comedy Gerontophilia, which covers the sexual awakening of a young man (Pier-Gabriel Lajoie) as he discovers he has a fetish for elderly men. To nurture his new obsession, he takes a job in a nursing home and develops a special bond with one of the patients.

The film has been brought in by the new indie distribution shingle Doo Nang Took Wan, run by Ken Thapanan Wichitrattakarn, a public-relations professional who got into the movie business a few months ago when he single-handedly brought the Brazilian coming-of-age gay drama The Way He Looks to Bangkok.

Critical reception has been mixed. It's at the Lido. Rated 18+

Also opening

No Escape– Owen Wilson, not content to wait by the phone for his buddy Wes Anderson to call, stars as a water engineer who has moved with his family to an anonymous, strife-torn Southeast Asian country. There, wherever that is, a rebellion breaks out and the family become targets as anti-foreigner sentiments boil over. Lake Bell and Pierce Brosnan also star. There have been at least a couple controversies over this production, which had the working title of The Coup when it was being made in northern Thailand a year or so ago. One was when Wilson posed for a photo with whistle-blowing anti-government protesters. There was also a fuss over the signage in the film, which in a desperate move by the country's film minders to strip any Thai identity out of the picture, so as to not harm tourism, was written in Khmer and turned upside down. That has led to No Escape being banned in the newly emerging cinema market of Cambodia, amid rumors that it would be banned in Thailand as well. No such luck. Critical reception has been mixed. It's by the writer-director pair of John Erick and Drew Dowdle, who previously did the found-footage thrillers Quarantine and As Above, So Below. Rated 15+

SPL 2: A Time for Consequences– Thai martial-arts star Tony Jaa makes his much-anticipated debut in a Hong Kong action film. He's a tough Thai cop who has taken a job as a prison guard while he tries to raise money to pay for his sick daughter's treatment. On the job, he's assigned to watch over a prisoner (Wu Jing) who is actually a Hong Kong police officer who has gone way undercover in a relentless bid to bring down the head of a human-trafficking ring. Louis Koo and Simon Yam also star. Cheang Pou-soi (Dog Bite Dog, Motorway) directs. This is a sequel-in-name-only to the terrific 2005 Hong Kong crime thriller SPL: Sha Po Leng, which had Donnie Yen throwing down with the formidable Sammo Hung. Wu Jing was in that one too, but played a different character. A box-office success in China, critical reception for SPL 2 has been fairly positive – much better than for Jaa's English-language debut Skin Trade, which I actually kinda liked. SPL 2 is Thai-dubbed only with English subtitles. Rated 18+

The Assassin– Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien returns with his first movie in eight years, and his very first wuxia martial-arts drama. It's set during the olden days of the Tang Dynasty. Shu Qi stars as a young woman who returns to the village where she was born, and sent away from as child. Training since then as an assassin, she is out to redeem herself after botching a previous job. But this one isn't going to be easy, as her new target is the man she had been arranged to marry. Chang Chen also stars. After making a buzzworthy premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the best director prize, critical reception has been generally positive. It's in Mandarin with English and Thai subtitles at Apex, House, Major Ratchayothin, Major Rama III, Paragon, Quartier CineArt and SFW CentralWorld. Rated 15+

Assassination– Not to be confused with China's The Assassin, this South Korean period drama deals with a ragtag team of resistance fighters under Japanese occupation in the 1930s. Lifting a page from The Dirty Dozen, they are condemned criminals who have been let out of prison with top-secret orders to kill the Japanese army’s commander. Critical reception has been favorable. It's in Korean with English and Thai subtitles at Esplanade Ratchada, Major Ratchayothin, Paragon and Quartier CineArt. Rated 18+

Self/less– A terminally ill elderly billionaire buys a chance for eternal life through an underground experimental medical procedure that transfers his consciousness into the cadaver of a younger man. He's played by Ryan Reynolds. Tarsem Singh, slumming it since the hyperstylishness of The Cell, directs. Critical reception has been mostly negative. Rated 15+

The Shamer’s Daughter – There's swords and sorcery in this adaptation of a best-selling Danish young-adult fantasy novel by Lene Kaaberbol. It's about a supernaturally gifted young woman who has to uncover the truth when her realm's heir to the throne is wrongfully accused of killing his family. Seems it is Thai-dubbed only. Rated 15+

Cub – Kids are in peril in this Belgian import about Cub Scouts camping in the woods becoming prey for a local poacher and his feral son. It's at SF cinemas only, and according to the soundtrack information I've been given, it's in Flemish and French with English and Thai subtitles.

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– Tonight, a mathematician becomes increasingly paranoid and obsessed as he tries to find meaning in a mysterious numerical sequence in Pi, the debut feature of Darren Aronofsky. And tomorrow it's the directorial debut of Robert Redford, 1980's Academy Award-winning Ordinary People. And another classic shows on Saturday, Terrence Malick's debut Badlands. It's still his best film. Sunday has a special screening of the 1997 comedy As Good As It Gets, with a member of the assistant director team, Robert Neft, sharing behind-the-scenes stories of working with director James L. Brooks, star Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear. And next Wednesday is Android, a low-budget 1982 robot drama that B-movie producer Roger Corman passed on. It went on to be a critically acclaimed sleeper hit. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Behind the Painting– Time to get out of the cinema and into the art gallery, as the interesting and talented video artist and filmmaker Chulayarnnon Siriphol offers his interpretation of the classic Thai story Behind the Painting. Set in Japan, the tragic romance involves a young Thai student who has been employed by an elderly Japanese man to look after his young blue-blooded Thai wife. Written in 1937 by popular author Sri Burapha, the novel has been adapted for film, television and stage many times, including a 2001 film version that was the last feature by the revered Thai auteur Cherd Songsri. In an homage to Cherd, his film is woven into the fabric of Chulayarnnon's entertaining experimental work, which has him hilariously portraying both the young man and, in the grand tradition of theatrical cross-dressing, the young woman. I've actually seen this, in a Film Virus retrospective last year, and I told Chulayarnnon afterward that I don't feel I need to see any other version. Definitely worth a look. It was created last year during Chulayarnnon's participation in the artist-in-residence program at the Aomori Contemporary Art Center in Japan. Organized by the Japan Foundation and curated by the Aomori center's Hiroyuki Hattori, Behind the Painting is at the Silpakorn University Art Center, opening tomorrow night (invitation only) and running until October 10. Directions to the gallery are available online.

Alliance Française– There are two French film to list this week. First up is a family friendly animated feature at 2pm on Saturday, 2012's Moon Man, in which the Man in the Moon grows bored and goes sightseeing across the universe. Meanwhile, none of the children on Earth can fall asleep because the Moon Man is missing. And next Wednesday's usual screening is 2013's Un château en Italie (A Castle in Italy), written, directed by and starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. The semi-autobiographical yarn has a woman re-energized by love in her life. Meanwhile, her wealthy industrialist family is crumbling around her. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, September 16, at the Alliance.

Mae Bia (The Snake)

Giant snake aside, it's the same old story with veteran director and drama coach ML Bandevanop "Mom Noi" Devakula, who adapts yet another well-known Thai tale with his latest film Mae Bia (แม่เบี้ย, a.k.a. The Snake).

Based on a short story by the late writer Vanich Charoenkit-anant, it's the erotic tale of a married businessman returning to Thailand after many years overseas. Feeling the need for a refresher course in Thai ways, he signs up for a cultural tour and becomes smitten with the enchanting guide Mekhala. Sparks fly, but Mekhala has a symbiotic relationship with a supernatural cobra, which makes her deadly to would-be suitors.

Journeyman actor Shahkrit Yamnarm stars alongside newcomer "Oam" Karnpithchar Katemanee, a third-place winner of Thailand Miss World 2009.

As with the other movies the veteran drama coach Mom Noi has made since his return to filmmaking a few years ago, Mae Bia is an old and often-adapted tale. It has already been made into a film at least twice, including a 2004 version that featured Napakprapha "Mamee" Nakprasert in one of her big break-out roles.

Mom Noi's other late-period efforts are Chua Fah Din Salai (Eternity), U Mong Pha Mueang, Jan Dara and last year's Plae Kao (The Scar). Aside from the Rashomon remake U Mong Pha Meuang, all are slavish adaptations of well-worn and well-known stories from the canon of Thai popular literature. And to a certain segment of Thai society these stories never get old. Appearing to have been made in the bygone eras in which they are set, Mom Noi's movies feature unabashedly stagebound acting, sumptuous period costumes, lush backdrops and lots and lots of sex scenes. It's rated 18+

Also opening

Burying the Ex– Director Joe Dante looks to be capturing a little bit of the old fun B-movie flair he had with such movies as Matinee, Gremlins and The Howling. A low-budget effort, Burying the Ex stars Anton Yelchin as a fellow who is afraid of his manipulative and controlling girlfriend Evelyn (Ashley Greene). After she is killed in a freak accident, young Max moves on to a new girl (Alexandra Daddario), but Evelyn returns from the grave as a zombie and is more menacing than ever. It's at SF cinemas. Critical reception has been mixed. Rated 15+

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trails– In part two of the latest franchise to be ripped from the pages of a young-adult novel, Thomas (Dylan OBrien) and his fellow Gladers, including Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), Minho (Lee Ki-hong) and Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), find their way out of the Maze only to stumble on a confusing world run by the mysterious organization WCKD. Searching for answers, the youngsters decide to brave the Scorch, a vast expanse of post-apocalyptic desert. Among the stars in this new installment is Aiden Gillan from Game of Thrones and The Wire. Critical reception has been mixed. Rated 13+

The Case of Hana and Alice– In this animated prequel to Shunji Iwai’s 2004 live-action youth drama, Alice is a newly arrived student who becomes friends with the neighbor girl Hana. The two seek to solve the mystery surrounding the death of a classmate. The rotoscope method is used to animate this story, allowing actresses Anne Suzuki and Yu Aoi, who played Hana and Alice 10 years ago, to play younger versions of their characters. It's in Japanese with English and Thai subtitles at Apex, House and Quartier CineArt. Rated G

Jurassic World: The 3D IMAX Experience– Genetically enhanced dinosaurs are bigger and badder than ever as the record-setting blockbuster from earlier this summer returns for a one-week engagement at IMAX theaters. Worth noting, as I often have on this blog, the only honest-to-goodness IMAX screen in Thailand is at Paragon. There are several other IMAX theaters in Thailand now, and though the IMAX company refuses to distinguish any differences between them, these newer "IMAX Digital" outlets have smaller screens and in my book they are not real IMAX theaters. Accept no substitutes. Rated G

Katti Batti– Touted as an "anti-romance", this Bollywood comedy-drama has an architect (Imran Khan) falling head-over-heels in love with a quirky, free-spirited young woman (Kangana Ranaut). She's different, and that's what attracts the guy. But just as suddenly as she enters his life, she leaves. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– The month of directorial debuts continues with Christopher Nolan's Memento tonight, Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies and Videotape tomorrow and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs on Saturday. Douglas Sirk Sunday has Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall in Written on the Wind. Next Tuesday is the film that kicked off the revitalized career of Wes Craven, 1994's Scream. And next Wednesday is another showcase from last year's Shnit International Short Film Festival, in a run-up to this year's fest, which is set for October 7 to 18, and is held simultaneously in major cities worldwide, including Bangkok. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française– The month of female-focused movies continues with L'homme qu'on aimait trop (In the Name of My Daughter). Catherine Deneuve stars in the fact-based drama as the owner of a casino in Nice, who has a strained relationship with her fiercely independent daughter (Adèle Haenel). Further stress comes when the daughter enters into a relationship with a womanizing lawyer (Guillaume Canet), and eventually disappears, prompting the mother to launch an epic search. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, September 23, at the Alliance.

Sneak preview

Everest – And the autumn-winter blockbuster season has officially begun, with the fall's first big Hollywood tentpole Everest hitting the screen in sneak previews before a bigger release next week, following its world premiere last week at the Venice Film Festival. Based partly on the book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, Everest recounts the 1996 disaster on the world's highest mountain, when a sudden blizzard blanketed the peak, killing eight climbers. Touted as a "3D epic" it is nevertheless in converted 3D. It's screening in sneak previews from around 8 nightly at most multiplexes and opens wider next Thursday. Rated G

Everest

The 1996 blizzard that killed eight climbers on the world's highest mountain is recounted in Everest, which in the grand tradition of Hollywood disaster epics boasts an expansive all-star cast.

Josh Brolin portrays adventuresome Texas medical doctor Beck Weathers. Jason Clarke is Rob Hall, the New Zealander leader of one expedition, with Jake Gyllenhaal as Scott Fischer, head of another expedition group.

They are in a fight for survival when a freak blizzard blankets the mountain and leaves the climbers with no way to get down from the deadly heights they've reached. Chances of survival become slimmer and slimmer as oxygen-bottle supplies are depleted.

Others in the cast include John Hawkes, Sam Worthington, Robin Wright and Emily Watson. Keira Knightley is Hall's pregnant wife stuck back home in New Zealand, whom he calls while stranded on the peak. Transcripts of those calls provided the basis for some of the film, as does the work of Outdoors magazine writer Jon Krakauer, whose article about the disaster was adapted into the best-selling book Into Thin Air. He's played in the film by Michael Kelly.

Decades in development by Hollywood, Everest finally comes to the screen under up-and-coming Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur (Two Guns).

Following high-profile premieres at fests in Venice and elsewhere, Everest kicks off the autumn-winter blockbuster season leading up to the Oscars. Critical reception is generally favorable.

In addition to conventional screens, it's also in converted 3D, including IMAX. Rated G

Also opening

Pawn Sacrifice– Tobey Maguire is positively unhinged as he portrays the eccentric American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer in this biographical drama, which portrays Fischer as a pawn of Cold War superpowers, coming under pressure as he prepared for the 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, facing the formidable Russian master Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond, Defiance) directs. Critical reception is generally positive. Rated 15+

Cooties – Tainted school-cafeteria chicken transforms children into zombie-like monsters, forcing a motley band of teachers to work together to survive. Elijah Wood, Alison Pill, Rainn Wilson and Jack McBrayer star in this indie horror comedy, which premiered at Sundance last year. The writers behind it are an odd couple, Leigh Whannell, who came up with the gory Saw and Insidious movies, and Ian Brennan, one of the creators of the TV series Glee. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

The Green Inferno – Tarantino cohort and torture-porn purveyor Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever) pays tribute to the cult Italian horror Cannibal Holocaust with this thriller about idealistic American college students hoping to stop deforestation in the Amazon. Their plane crashes in the territory of natives they hoped to protect – a primitive tribe that still practices cannibalism and ritual dismemberment. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 18+

Mard Payak: The Great Muay Thai Fighter (มาดพยัคฆ์) – Nation Multimedia Group’s Now 26 TV channel breaks into film with this documentary on boxer Samart Payakaroon. Winner of four national weight-class titles and the 1982 World Boxing Council featherweight champ, he was a fearsome fighter who was known as the "Jade Tiger". Made with Samart’s cooperation, the documentary includes dramatized scenes from his upbringing and career, with actors portraying him at various ages. Norachai Kajchapanont directs. You can read more about the film in an article in The Nation. It's at SF Cinemas.

Siam Yuth: The Dawn of the Kingdom (สยามยุทธ) – Two-fisted swordfighting shirtless youngsters fight for honor and country in this historical-action epic. It's been on the books for many months, but has been repeatedly postponed for reasons I'm not privy to. I guess now the time is right for a jingoistic war flick. The story, as far as I can make out, deals with a tight-knit group of friends who take up the fight against a local warlord in ancient Siam. Rated 15+

Boruto: Naruto the Movie– The 11th entry in the manga-based franchise has young Boruto, son of ninja leader Naruto Uzumaki, hoping to surpass his father’s heroic deeds. He engages his father’s friend, Sasuke Uchiha as his trainer. Most of these manga/anime movies are usually only Thai dubbed, but according to information I've been given, it's in Japanese with Thai subtitles at Apex, Paragon, Quartier Cineart, SFC Terminal 21 and SFW CentralWorld. Rated G

Kis Kisko Pyaar Karu– Popular Indian stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma makes his film debut, playing four roles in this romantic farce about a guy who has married three times and is on the lookout for wife number four. It's in Hindi With English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit and Rama III. Opens Friday.

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– The club has a private event tonight but the month of directorial debuts wraps up tomorrow with Wes Anderson's quirky comedy Bottle Rocket, which features Anderson's Texas pals the Wilson brothers, Owen (who co-wrote the movie), Luke and Andrew. Saturday, it's Guy Ritchie's turn, with his crime farce Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Wish he still made movies like that. Sunday has one more Douglas Sirk film for the month, with 1955's All That Heaven Allows, starring Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman. Tuesday has Wes Craven's Scream 2 and the month closes out with one more unusual sci-fi entry, the proto-science-fiction film, 1927's Metropolis. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Movies on Design – Part of the Bangkok Design Festival, Movies on Design has five documentaries screening at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center this Friday and Saturday and next Friday and Sunday. The selection consists of Microtopia, about tiny houses; The Startup Kids, about the founders of such Web-based initiatives as Vimeo, Dropbox and Soundcloud; Where Architects Live, featuring the living spaces of Zaha Hadid and other famous building designers; Koolhaas Houselife, which looks at the unexpected hassles of living in an architectural masterpiece; and Gamer Age, a study on the evolution of video games. These are ticketed shows. For the schedule and other details, please see the BACC's website.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand– In 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdal wanted to prove his theory that Polynesia was settled from the West by indigenous South Americans. To do so, he built a balsa-wood raft, just like the sailors in pre-Columbian times used. The 4,300-mile, 101-day voyage became the subject of an Oscar-winning 1950 documentary by Heyerdal, and it serves as the basis for 2012's Kon-Tiki, an adventure epic that is Norway's most expensive film production yet. A gripping drama, it was a nominee for the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. Gutsy directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, who ignored the advice of other filmmakers and actually made their film in the open ocean rather than a studio, have since been tapped to helm the upcoming next Pirates of the Caribbean movie with Johnny Depp. Kon-Tiki screens at 7pm on Monday at the FCCT as part of the club's Contemporary World Film Series. The screening is courtesy of the Royal Norwegian Embassy. Admission is 150 baht for non-members and 100 baht for anyone want the embassy's beer, salmon and other delicacies.

Alliance Française– An paroled thief is coaxed back into the life of crime by old cohorts who want to steal a priceless gem in Le dernier diamant (The Last Diamond). To do so, the thief must get close to a woman who is a gem expert. Eric Barbier directs and Yvan Attal, Bérénice Béjo, Jean-François Stévenin and Antoine Basler star. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, September 30, at the Alliance.

Sneak preview

Sicario– Here's another movie that's already attracting a fair bit of awards-season buzz. Emily Blunt stars has a hard-driving FBI agent who is recruited to join a top-secret anti-drugs task force on the U.S.-Mexico border. Josh Brolin, Benicio del Toro and Victor Garber also star. It's directed by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy). Following its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, critical reception is extremely positive. Sicario is in a two-week sneak preview run, with shows from around 8 nightly in most multiplexes. It opens in a wider release on October 8. Rated 15+

May Who?

Teenage angst takes the form of electricity in the Thai teen romance May Nhai .. Fai Raeng Fer (เมย์ไหน..ไฟแรงเฟร่อ , a.k.a. May Who?), which is about a schoolgirl who is afflicted with a powerful electrical charge, which she releases when her heartbeat reaches 120 beats per second. This makes it difficult for her to get close to anyone.

Sutatta Udomsilp stars as May. She keeps a low profile at school in order to keep her shocking condition a secret, but her heart gets racing whenever she sees the star athlete Fame (Thanapob Leeratanakajorn). Her superpower is discovered by classmate Pong (Thiti Mahayotharak), a shy guy who also keeps to himself but has a crush on the school's most popular girl (Nareekul Katepraphakorn). So May agrees to help Pong score with his crush if he keeps her secret and helps her hook up with Fame.

May Who? has movie studio GTH doubling down on the last few months of the year, as the film is being released less than a month after the studio's current hit Freelance. Usually the studio makes just two or maybe three films a year, and spreads them out more. Sure to also do well at the box office, May Who? is directed by Chayanop Boonpakob, a former indie filmmaker who got his big commercial break with the 2011 hit SuckSeed, about a teenage rock band. Along with the special effects related to the girl's superpower, May Who? also includes animated segments, inspired by notebooks Chayanop drew in when he was in high school.

The new film has been accompanied by the usual promotional blitz by GTH, but it's been a bit awkward because talented young actress "PunPun" Sutatta has been suspended from working by the company after she and members of the cast of Hormones the Seriesmisbehaved on a train while visiting Japan. They posted a clip of their rowdy behavior on social networks, not realizing that being disruptive on public transport is seriously frowned upon in orderly Japan. To prevent the breach in etiquette from becoming a major international incident, GTH made all involved issue apologies, and they punished PunPun and the others by banning them from social media and suspending them from work. And PunPun's suspension doesn't end until sometime next week, too late to support her new film before its release.

You can read more about the movie in an article in The Nation. Rated G

Also opening

The Tribe– From Ukraine, this crime drama is set in a boarding school for deaf children, where a new kid is drawn into the school's institutional system of organized crime. He becomes a pimp for a classmate and crosses the line when he falls in love with her. Directed by Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, The Tribe was one of the most-buzzed-about, controversial titles at the Cannes Film Festival last year. It won loads of prizes on the festival circuit and made the top-10 lists of many critics. An unusual film, it's brought to Thai cinemas by a new distribution outfit, HAL Film, which will also release another buzzworthy oddball from film festivals, the Hungarian canine crime drama White God. Free of conventional dialogue, the characters in The Tribe communicate only in Ukrainian sign language and there are no subtitles, which is how it's meant to be seen. It's at Paragon and Esplanade Ratchada. Rated 20-

The Martian– Matt Damon is an astronaut left for dead on Mars after the mission is hit by a dust storm and the crew are forced to flee. Looking at a four-year wait for help to arrive, he turns to science to survive, using his skills as a botanist to grow a food crop. Meanwhile on Earth, there are conflicts in Nasa, where officials determine a rescue mission is too risky. Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Michael Peña, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Donald Glover also star. Ridley Scott (Prometheus, Alien) directs, marking his return to space after last year's Biblical epic Exodus. Critical reception is very positive, especially from excited Nasa scientists, who worked closely with the production to keep things real. It's in 2D and converted 3D. Rated G

Hotel Transylvania 2– The Sony Pictures Animation franchise continues, with Dracula opening his monsters-only resort hotel to the general public as he gets to know his half-human half-vampire grandson. Adam Sandler voices Dracula, with the voice cast featuring his pals Kevin James and David Spade. Other returnees from the first film include Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez and Steve Buscemi. Mel Brooks is among the new additions. He plays Dracula's dad Vlad. Written by former Saturday Night Live staffer Robert Smigel (the hand and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog), this harmless family-friendly feature is directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, who previously did the cartoon series Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack. Critical reception is mixed. It's in 3D as well as 2D. Rated G

Attack on Titan: End of the World– Here's the sequel to Attack on Titan: Part 1, which was released here last month. A live-action adaptation of a manga series, the story is set in a post-apocalyptic future and deals with humans fighting against giant man-eating beings that have taken over the world. In Part 2, young hero Eren (Haruma Miura) leaves his walled city to join a revenge-seeking scouting party. Critical reception is mixed. As with Part 1, it's Thai-dubbed in most places, but has the original soundtrack at a few select downtown locations, including SF Terminal 21, SF Rama 9, Paragon and the Quartier CineArt. Rated 13+

Singh Is Bliing– Akshay Kumar stars in this colorful Punjabi comedy, which is a sequel of sorts to 2008's Singh Is Kiing, in which he played a happy-go-lucky simpleton who becomes a crime kingpin in Australia. Here, his comic misadventures take him to Romania in pursuit of a mysterious woman. Amy Jackson, Kay Kay Menon and Lara Dutta also star. It's directed by Prabhu Deva, who previously worked with Akshay on the action comedy-drama Rowdy Rathore. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Paragon and at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– October at the FGC spotlights the work of English writer-director Andrew Birkin on Thursdays, starting tonight with the 1993 coming-of-age family drama The Cement Garden, based on novelist Ian McEwan's book. It won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin film fest. Fridays are devoted to adaptations of works by French writer Marcel Pagnol, starting tomorrow with 1986's rural drama Jean de Florette, which starred Gérard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil and Yves Montand and was at the time the most-expensive French film ever made. It won dozens of awards. Head to Ireland on Saturdays, with a line-up that starts with Alan Parker's The Commitments, about working-class Dubliners who form a soul band. The classic films of Hollywood tough-guy director Robert Aldrich screen on Sundays, starting with the 1955 film-noir Kiss Me Deadly. Ralph Meeker stars as Mickey Spillane's Los Angeles private eye Mike Hammer. Wednesdays have a line-up of documentaries, beginning next week with The Aristocrats, which is the story of a filthy joke that has kept comedians in stitches for generations. Special events in October include screenings of the made-in-Thailand South Korean romance So Very Very, courtesy of director Jack Park. And there's no Irish film on the last Saturday of the month. Instead, it's John Carpenter's Halloween, because, well, just look at the calendar. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française– There are two free French films to list. At 2pm on Saturday, there's a "kids' movie", Peau d'âne. Also known as Donkey Skin, Jacques Demy's 1970 live-action musical is adapted from an old French fairy tale about a king who has grown wealthy thanks to his pet donkey's excrement of gold. When his wife dies, he seeks to marry his own daughter. With the help of her fairy godmother, the princess escapes the incestuous marriage by donning the skin of the magical donkey and going into hiding. Catherine Deneuve is the princess. Next week's usual free French film is La belle vie (The Good Life), a 2012 drama about brothers who have lived a life on the run with their father, dodging a custody battle with their mother. Coming of age, the youngest brother experiences his first crush. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, October 7, at the Alliance.

Shnit International Short Film Festival– The third Bangkok edition of Shnit runs from next Wednesday until October 11 at the Lido multiplex in Siam Square. Now in its 13th year, the Switzerland-based Shnit fest is held simultaneously in several cities, with Bangkok joining Bern, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Cape Town, Moscow, San José and Hong Kong. The selection includes new short-film entries from around the world plus a special bloc of "Made in Thailand" shorts. Find out more at the festival's Facebook events page.

Sneak preview

Sinister 2– A young mother (Shannyn Sossamon) moves into an old farmhouse with her twin boys, who become haunted by an evil entity and are forced to watch gruesome home movies kept in the basement. This is a sequel to a 2012 horror, with James Ransone (Ziggy from The Wire) reprising his role from the first film as Deputy So-and-So. Here, he's an ex-deputy, but is still on the case, trying to prove the evil ghost is real. Critical reception is not as positive as it was for the first Sinister. It's in sneak previews from around 8 nightly in most cinemas and opens wider next Thursday. Meanwhile, the excellent U.S.-Mexico crime thriller Sicario continues in sneak previews before also opening wider next week.

Take note

The World Film Festival of Bangkok is set for November 13 to 22 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Keep an eye on the festival's Facebook page for a glimpse of the selection.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand has a special event on October 12 to mark the 25th anniversary of Netpac, the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema, with a screening of the indie Filipino film Foster Child. Director Brilliante Mendoza is scheduled to be in attendance with Netpac president Aruna Vasudev.

And outside Bangkok, Filmvirus has organized a touring show for Filipino director Lav Diaz's Venice prize-winning opus From What Is Before. Running just over 5.5 hours, it is an epic drama set in a small town during the Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s. It screens on October 10 at Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani, 5pm on October 12 at Walailak University in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, 2pm on October 21 at Silpakorn University Pathum Thani and 2pm on November 7 at Chiang Mai University. Screenings in Bangkok are in the planning stages.

Sicario

Emily Blunt is your guide into the dark underbelly of America's continuing war on drugs. In Sicario, she is the hard-driving, by-the-book chief of an FBI hostage-response unit, who makes a grisly discovery in a cartel safehouse along the U.S.-Mexico border. The high-profile case brings her to the attention of a sketchy, flip-flop-clad Defense Department operative (Josh Brolin), who is running a top-secret task force. She's in way over her head, trying to keep up with a quietly intense Latino operative of ambiguous origins (a terrific Benicio del Toro).

Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy) directs. Sicario premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Critical reception has been very positive, with Oscar buzz already generating for the performances by Blunt and del Toro, and the stunning cinematography of the bleak landscape by master lensman Roger Deakins.

Sicario moves this week to a wide release, following two weeks of nightly sneak previews. Rated 15+

Also opening

The New Rijksmuseum – Filmed over the course of many years, this documentary covers the controversial renovation of the historic main building of Amsterdam’s landmark art museum, which is home to many masterpieces and finally reopened in 2013 after 10 years of costly delays. Among the issues causing the hold-up was the powerful lobby of Dutch bicyclists, which objected to plans that would altered the museum's main-thoroughfare two-wheeler path through the museum's archway entry. This is the latest entry in SF Cinemas' Doc Holiday series, put on in conjunction with the Documentary Club. Critical reception has been generally positive. It's at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld and at SFX Maya Chiang Mai. For showtimes and other details, please check the the Documentary Club Facebook page or SF Cinemas' booking site. Rated G

Pan – The origins of Peter Pan are imagined in epic detail in this fantasy by director Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna). Living a bleak existence at a London orphanage, 12-year-old Peter (Levi Miller) is whisked away to the magical world of Neverland, where he's befriended by James Hook (Garrett Hedlund) and the warrior princess Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara). They must band together to save Neverland from the ruthless pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman. No, really. That's Hugh Jackman). This film has been controversial because of the casting of Mara as Tiger Lily, a character typically portrayed as Native American. Critical reception is mixed. It's in 2D and converted 3D. Rated G

We Are Your Friends– Former teen idol Zac Efron is trying hard to be edgy. Following his comic turn as a rowdy frat boy in Bad Neighbors, the former Disney star takes another gritty turn in We Are Your Friends, playing a young DJ struggling to break into the club scene in Hollywood. He’s taken under the wing of an older DJ (Wes Bentley), but things get complicated when the young man makes an unexpected connection with his new mentor’s girlfriend. A flop on release in the U.S. in August, critical reception has been mixed. Rated 18+

Sinister 2– A young mother (Shannyn Sossamon) moves into an old farmhouse with her twin boys, who become haunted by an evil entity and are forced to watch gruesome home movies in the basement. This is a sequel to a 2012 horror, with James Ransone (Ziggy from The Wire) reprising his role from the first film as Deputy So-and-So. Here, he's Ex-deputy So-and-So, but is still on the case, trying to prove the evil ghost is real. This is cut from the same horror cloth as other Blumhouse Productions, such as Paranormal Activity and Insidious. Critical reception is not as positive as it was for the first Sinister. This was in sneak previews last week and now moves to a wider release. Rated 18+

Super Hero Taisen GP: Kamen Rider 3– Rubber-suited masked superhero motorcycle riders have another outing in Japan's long-running tokusatsu franchise. Thai-dubbed. Rated G

Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages– And here's another entry in a long-running Japanese franchise. These anime movies (Pokémon, Doreamon, etc.) are brought in for the kiddies when school is on break. Thai-dubbed. Rated G

Jazbaa– Aishwarya Rai Bachchan stars in this drama, which is a Bollywood remake of the South Korean drama Seven Days. Aish portrays a high-powered lawyer whose daughter is abducted. Instead of money, the kidnapper wants the lawyer to defend a career criminal who is appealing his conviction for rape and murder. Irrfan Khan, Shabana Azmi, Chandan Roy Sanyal and Jackie Shroff also star. In Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

Also showing

Shnit International Short Film Festival– The third Bangkok edition of the Swiss-based fest is running until Sunday at the Lido cinemas in Siam Square. Begun 13 years ago, the gimmick of this festival is that it is held on the same weekend in many cities worldwide. In addition to the line-up of submitted finalist foreign shorts, there is the "Made in Thailand" program on Friday and Saturday night, with the finalist Thai entries Gen A by Napat Tangsanga, Enlightenment by Sampattavanich Disspong, Ma Nyein Chan by Natpakhan Khemkhao, Once Upon a Time in Tungyahlaum by Natthapat Kraitrujpol, Echoes from the Hill by Pasit Tandaechanurat and Jirudtikal Prasonchum, We Used to Love Each Other by Aroonakorn Pick, Deleted by Nitaz Sinwattanakul and 1428 by Autthavisit Hatsadinthon Na Ayutthaya. Find out more at the festival's Facebook events page.

The Friese-Greene Club– Tonight, the club offers another film by English writer-director Andrew Birkin, 1988's Burning Secret, starring Faye Dunaway, Klaus Maria Brandauer and child actor David Eberts in a coming-of-age drama. "Vastly underrated" and "recommended" is what the FGC has to say about it. Tomorrow, it's another French film based on the writing of Marcel Pagnol, 1986's Manon des Sources, which is a sequel to the countryside epic Jean de Florette, shown at the club last Friday. Saturday's Irish entry is Once, an ultra-low-budget 2007 hit musical drama about romance between buskers in Dublin. Glen Hansard from The Frames and Markéta Irglová star. On Sunday, screen sirens Bette Davis and Joan Crawford square off in the campy psychological thriller What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? It's part of a monthlong tribute to journeyman director Robert Aldrich. Next Wednesday, it's the documentary Crumb, which has Ghost World director Terry Zwigoff profiling his friend, influential counterculture comic artist R. Crumb. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – Monday is a special evening for the FCCT's Contemporary World Film Series, which welcomes award-winning Filipino director Brillante Mendoza and his acclaimed 2007 drama Foster Child. The screening is in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema, with Netpac founder and president Dr Aruna Vasudev also present. Winner of the Netpac jury prize at the Brisbane film fest and dozens of other awards, Foster Child centers on a poor woman (Cherry Pie Picache) who works as a foster mother for an adoption agency. Here, the foster parent Thelma achingly forms a bond with the toddler John-John, and follows her on her last day with him before she hands him off to a wealthy American family. Netpac, which is a grouping of Asian filmmakers, academics and critics, organizes special juries that present awards at top film festivals. The evening, set for Monday, October 12, starts at 6pm with a cocktail reception. Vice Minister for Tourism and Sports, Associate Professor Chavanee Tongroach is scheduled to be on hand to introduce Mendoza and Vasudev before the screening at 7.30. There will then be a talk session with the director and the Netpac head. Admission is 150 baht for non-members and 100 baht for the Bombay Gin cocktails and snacks. Another film is set at the FCCT on October 19, the Swiss father-son drama Sam.

Alliance Française– A tax inspector (Benoît Poelvoorde), his new bride and her sister become entwined in a love triangle in 2014's 3 coeurs (3 Hearts). Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chiara Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve also star. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, October 14, at the Alliance.

Sneak preview

The Walk– Filmed in actual 3D, everything about The Walk is calculated to make you queasy, and there are reports of viewers actually getting sick while watching it. "We worked really hard to induce vertigo," director Robert Zemeckis has said about his latest film, which is a dramatization of the life of high-wire artist Philippe Petit, who in 1974 walked on a cable he illegally strung up between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center. It's a story previously covered in the Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire. Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrays the thrill-seeking French daredevil Petit. Oscar buzz is really heating up for this one and critical reception is very positive. Now, I don't generally recommend you plunk down the several hundred baht to see movies in 3D, but every once in awhile, a film comes along that is a true 3D event worth a gander. To get the full effect, you'll want to see The Walk in IMAX. And while there are now several of the newer smaller IMAX screens in Thailand, the only authentic full-size IMAX screen is the Krungsri IMAX Paragon Cineplex. Accept no substitutes. The Walk is in sneak previews from around 8 nightly before a wider general release next week.

White God

Stray dogs unite and revolt against their human overlords in White God, an unusual thriller from Hungary that won prizes at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

The story centers on a girl (Zsófia Psotta), who is forced to give up her pet dog after she moves in with her mean father, who lives in an apartment building that doesn't allow pets. He also doesn't want to pay the city's "mongrel" tax. So, the lovable mutt Hagen is abandoned, only to become the leader of a pack of 250 half-breed canines that take over Budapest.

Directed by Kornél Mundruczó, White God won the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. The film also took the Cannes fest's sidebar Palm Dog prize, and was Hungary's submission to the Academy Awards. No dogs were harmed in the making of the film, which involved no computer-graphic trickery. All those dogs are real.

White God is the second film brought in by the new indie distribution outfit HAL Film, which recently released another buzzworthy title at Cannes in 2014, The Tribe. The man behind HAL is Dhan Plewtianyingtawee, the owner of a film school who wanted more Thais to see the kinds of weird and wacky films he likes. You can read a story about him in BK magazine.

Critical reception is mostly positive. It's in Hungarian with English and Thai subtitles at House on RCA as well as Esplanade Ratchada, Major Cineplex Ratchayothin and Paragon. Rated 18+

Also opening

The Walk– From I Wanna Hold Your Hand to Back to the Future, Roger Rabbit to Forrest Gump, and Polar Express to Flight, everything director Robert Zemeckis has learned how to do in the past has been put into The Walk, which viscerally recreates the death-defying stunt by Frenchman Philippe Petit, who walked a high wire strung up between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York in 1974. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars. Critical reception is wildly positive. This moves to general release after a one-week sneak preview run. I saw it last weekend, and it's an amazing feat of filmmaking that will have you gripping your armrests throughout. Go on, see it in IMAX 3D. Rated G.

Crimson Peak– In 19th century England, a young author (Mia Wasikowska) is charmed by a nobleman (Tom Hiddleston) and moves into his isolated country manor, high up on a hillside of red clay. There, she starts to learn the ghostly secrets of the crumbling mansion. Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam and Jim Beaver also star. Much anticipated by fans, this Gothic horror fantasy is the latest effort from Mexican master Guillermo del Toro (Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth). He actually built a three-story house on a movie lot to give his actors and viewers a palpable sense of the film's grand scale. Critical reception is building up. Rated 18+

Good Kill– Ethan Hawke is your surrogate as you sit in the pilot's seat in America's controversial drone war. In Good Kill, he's a former U.S. Air Force fighter jockey who transitions to unmanned aerial operations, guiding drones in bombing missions over Afghanistan from a base in Las Vegas. January Jones and Zoe Kravitz also star. Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord of War) directs. Critical reception is leaning to positive. Rated 15+

The Intern– Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro are a mismatched couple in this romantic comedy. She's the young founder of a lucrative online fashion business that joins a new internship programme for senior citizens, bringing a bright 70-year-old widower (De Niro) into her life. Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, It's Complicated) directs. Critical reception is mixed. Rated G

The Down (เดอะดาวน์) – Five twentysomething Thais who just happen to have Down syndrome are spotlighted in this documentary, which aims to show people with Down syndrome in a positive light, living ordinary lives and contributing to society. The five are Sutthiphot "Bank" Kanoknak, who works at a Uniqlo store, Kamonporn "Pan" Vachiramon, an AIS customer service staffer, twin Special Olympics bocce-ball champs Onnipa "Orm" and Atiya "Un" Kanjanasiri, and Starbucks employee Sirinluck "Beer" Chalat. The film is a passion project of producer-director Wongthanong Chainarongsingha, founder of A Day magazine. You can find out more about the movie in an article in The Nation. It is showing at Major Cineplex and SF cinemas. Rated G

Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno– The latest adventure of Japanese manga and anime's boy detective has him on the trail of a fake Van Gogh "Sunflower" painting. Thai-dubbed. Rated 13+

Pyaar ka Punchnama 2– Kartik Aaryan, Nushrat Bharucha, Sunny Singh, Sonalli Sehgall, Omkar Kapoor and Ishita Sharma star in this sequel to a 2009 Bollywood romantic comedy. Having all met their true loves at the beach in the first film, here the guys are still learning to cope with their demanding girlfriends. Luv Ranjan directs. It's in Hindi with English subtitles (sorry, no Thai) at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– Fresh from its run at House on RCA, the South Korean-Thai romantic comedy So Very Very (จริงๆ มากๆ, Jing Jing Mak Mak) comes to the club tonight for the first of two special screenings. Tonight, director Jack Park will be on hand to talk about his film, which follows a struggling young South Korean filmmaker as he falls in love with a Thai woman and marries her. To attend, check out the Facebook events page. So Very Very also screens at the club next Thursday. Tomorrow, it's La Gloire de mon père (My Father's Glory), a 1990 drama set in the pre-war French countryside that is adapted from the autobiographical novel of Marcel Pagnol. Saturday's Irish film is The Field, a 1990 drama by Jim Sheridan with Oscar nominee Richard Harris as an elderly sharecropper in a dispute over his rented farmland. And Sunday has another fitful collaboration between the great Bette Davis and director Robert Aldrich in Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Next Wednesday is another documentary, the food flick Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Bangkok – The club's Contemporary World Film Series heads to Switzerland next Monday with Sam, a 2015 drama about a boy whose parents are divorced, who goes to live temporarily with his alcoholic father. The show is at 7pm on Monday, October 19. Admission is 150 baht for non-members. Swiss wine and cheese is being laid on by the Swiss embassy, and it's 100 baht to have some of that.

Alliance Française– Couples fall in and out of love over the course of visits to the countryside in Week-ends (Weekends in Normandy), a 2014 comedy-drama by Anne Villacèque that stars Karin Viard, Noémie Lvovsky, Jacques Gamblin and Ulrich Tukur. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, October 21, at the Alliance.

Take note

You have another chance to see the charming Thai indie film P'Chai My Hero (พี่ชาย My Hero) this week as it is released back into cinemas for a limited run. Also known as How to Win at Checkers (Every Time), the coming-of-age drama is experiencing an "Oscar bump" as the result of being picked as Thailand's submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Feature. With plenty of warmth and humor, it deals with many issues, including gay themes and Thailand's unique military draft lottery. It's at Major Cineplex Ratchayothin and Esplanade Ratchada.

There's also a Thai film you won't be seeing this week, the Buddhist-themed thriller Arbat, which was to be released but has been banned at the behest of Buddhist groups.

Vanishing Point

Winner of the Hivos Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Vanishing Point (วานิชชิ่ง พอยท์) is artist-filmmaker Jakrawal Nilthamrong's feature-length debut. It deals with the themes he explores in his short films and video-art installations, which reflect on strict Buddhist teachings and the dangers of materialism and greed.

Part of the inspiration for Vanishing Point stems from a horrific car crash Jakrawal's parents were involved in long ago, and newspaper clippings of the wreck, featuring a car bent in half, opens the film. With that as a jumping-off point, the highly abstract art-house film becomes a psychological drama, about a family man and a reporter whose lives are two parallel lines, and eventually intersect at that "vanishing point" on their existential plains.

This new Vanishing Point is not directly related to the cult-classic 1971 car-chase movie, but both films deal with philosophical themes and arrive at more or less the same destinations.

Vanishing Point, which has been shown at many film festivals, had its local premiere last Friday, with the film's crew taking over a derelict former porn cinema in Bangkok and having attendees be part of a giant art installation.

It has received much praise from Jakrawal's fellow indie filmmakers, as well as from more-learned critics and academics. I'm still not sure what to make of it, but I liked it. It's at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, and comes to SFX Maya Chiang Mai on November 5. Rated 15+

Also opening

Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg directs this fact-based account of a humble New York family attorney who, at the height of the Cold War, is tasked by the U.S. government with brokering a prisoner exchange, trading his client, a convicted Soviet spy, for U.S. Air Force spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 was shot down over Russia. Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda and Amy Ryan star. Screenwriters included the Coen brothers, who in addition to making their own films, are frequent hired-gun scribes. I mean, they helped write Angelina Jolie's war movie Unbreakable, for Pete's sake. With Oscar-buzz prestige attached to Bridge of Spies, critical reception is generally positive. Rated G

The Little Prince– An colorful elderly aviator befriends a neighbor girl and distracts her from her studies with his epic story of a mysterious boy prince who lived on a tiny planet. Directed by Mark Osborne, who previously did Kung Fu Panda, this animated adaptation of the story by Antoine de Saint-Exupery features the voices of Jeff Bridges, James Franco, Rachel McAdams and many others. Along with Pixar's Inside Out, The Little Prince seems destined to be in the Oscar race for best animated feature. Critics are full of praise. Rated G

Straight Outta Compton– From the violence of the streets in the 1980s, five young men in Compton, California, formed the rap group NWA – Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella – translating their experiences into brutally honest music that controversially rebelled against the police and other authorities. Stars include O'Shea Jackson Jr., portraying his father Ice Cube. F. Gary Gray, who made his debut in 1995 with Ice Cube's stoner comedy Friday, directs. He gained a lot of street-cred from Hollywood execs for Straight Outta Compton and has been tapped to direct the next Fast and Furious movie. Critical reception is generally positive. This was a breakout hit this summer in the States, and it's sure to please musicians and fans in Thailand's own hip-hop scene. It's at Apex, Paragon and SFW CentralWorld. Rated 18+

The Last Witch Hunter– Vin Diesel wants another franchise to add to his work in Fast and Furious and Riddick. The musclebound man with the voice of a gravel truck stars in this supernatural fantasy as an ancient warrior, whose path of vengeance converges with that of the resurrected Witch Queen, whom he first killed long ago, but not before she cursed him with immortality, depriving him of an after-life with his wife and daughter. Elijah Wood and Michael Caine also star. Hollywood scion Breck Eisner (The Crazies) directs. Critical reception has been dismal so far. Rated 15+

The Visit– M. Night Shyamalan wants his career back. The director of cult favorites like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable has helmed a string of duds of late, among them After Earth and The Happening. With The Visit, he teams up with Blumhouse Productions, the purveyors of found-footage horror thrillers like Paranormal Activity, for a story of camera-toting youngsters visiting their grandparents' rural Pennsylvania farm. There, they find grandma and grandpa are up to no good. Critical reception is mixed, but good enough for some critics to call this Shyamalan's "return to form". Rated 15+

Hor Taew Taek ... Hak na Ka (หอแต๋วแตก แหกนะคะ) – In exaggerated Gothic style, the fifth entry in Poj Anon’s crossdressing horror-comedy franchise has former students returning to their boarding-school alma mater as teachers. They deal with a problem ghost while fending off a takeover attempt by a rival. Jaturong Phonboon, Ekachai Srivichai, Charoenporn Ornlamai, Weeradit Srimalai and Sudarat Butprom are among the stars. Rated 15+

Water Boyy the Movie– Teenage lads discover they have feelings for one other in this gay romance about gifted swimmer Num (Anuphat Laungsodsai), whose father (Nopphon Komarachun), the coach for the national swim team, brings Muek (Papangkorn Rerkchalermpon) to train with him. Rated 15+

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– Tonight is an encore screening of So Very Very (จริงๆ มากๆ, Jing Jing Mak Mak), a South Korean romantic comedy about a struggling young South Korean filmmaker who marries Thai woman. Directed by Jack Park, the indie film recently played at House on RCA. Tomorrow, it's Le château de ma mère (My Mother's Castle), a sequel to last Friday's Mon Pere, adapted from the autobiographical novel of Marcel Pagnol. Saturday's Irish film is the black comedy Waking Ned Devine, while Sunday has one more Robert Aldrich film for the month, The Dirty Dozen, still one of the best "team assembly" movies ever made. Next Wednesday is one more documentary for the month, Touching the Void, following mountaineers on a hazardous quest on a Peruvian peak. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française– It's romance across the social-class divide in Pas son genre (Not My Type), a 2014 drama by Lucas Belvaux that stars Émilie Dequenne and Loïc Corbery. It's about a philosophy student falling in love with a hair-dresser. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, October 28, at the Alliance.

Take note

The next Documentary Club offering at SF cinemas will be Man on Wire, the 2008 Oscar-winning documentary about high-wire artist Philippe Petit's 1974 stunt at the World Trade Center in New York. It has seen a resurgence in interest thanks to director Robert Zemeckis' dramatization of the event in The Walk. The doc will screen in a sneak preview at some SF cinemas from 8pm on Monday and then open for real next Thursday at select SF branches.

Coming up next month is Spanish Film Week from November 5 to 8 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Supported by the Embassy of Spain, it'll screen five fairly recent critically acclaimed Spanish films, El Niño, Magical Girl, 10,000 KM, Loreak and the animated musical romance Chico and Rita.

The World Film Festival of Bangkok runs from November 13 to 22 at SF World, opening with the Thai film Snap, a brand-new feature from Kongdej Jaturanrasamee.

And from November 26 to 29, also at SF World, is the Bangkok edition of the International Film Festival on Ending Violence against Women and Girls. Find out more at the EVAGWG film festival website or the Facebook event page.

Man on Wire

While The Walk earned plenty of accolades for its immersive acrophobia-inspiring 3D camera work, it bombed at the box office and faced a backlash from critics who were mostly bored by director Robert Zemeckis' corny dramatization of the events leading up to Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire stunt at New York's World Trade Center.

Universally, the critics who panned the non-high-wire scenes of The Walk urged their readers to seek out Man on Wire, the Oscar-winning 2008 documentary on Petit's "artistic crime of the century".

So with The Walk finishing up what turned out to be a lackluster stint in cinemas, here comes a brilliant bit of counter-programming that is also complementary from the Documentary Club, which brings in Man on Wire for a limited run.

Critical reception is overwhelmingly positive, even better than for The Walk. It's at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld and SFX Maya Chiang Mai. For more details, check the Documentary Club's Facebook page and SF Cinemas' booking site. Rated G

Also opening

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse– It's Halloween weekend, so distributors and theater chains feel duty-bound to shove horror films down our throats. In this teen-oriented zom-com, three young troopers on their last camping trip together discover the true meaning of friendship when zombies overwhelm their town. They join forces with a cocktail waitress from a strip club to fight the undead. Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller, Joey Morgan, Halston Sage and David Koechner star. Critical reception is just starting to quiver. Rated 15+

Regression– This supposed "true story" set in 1990 in Minnesota, has Ethan Hawke as a detective investigating a Satanic cult and the case of a teenager (Emma Watson) who has accused her father of unspeakable acts. But the facts don’t add up. A psychologist (David Thewlis) is brought in to dig deeper. Critics aren't buying it. Rated 15+

Mon Son Phee (มอญซ่อนผี, a.k.a. Ghost Ship) – Venerable Thai studio Five Star Production gets back in the water with this horror set aboard a cargo ship. The story plays on that ancient nautical notion that women are bad luck aboard ships, and the superstitious crew have much to fear when they find the corpse of the captain's wife boxed up in the hold. Spooky stuff starts happening as the boat heads into a storm. Achira Nokthet, who previously served as an art director on Tanwarin Sukkhapisit's It Gets Better and the films of Poj Arnon, and helmed a segment of Tai Hong Tai Hian, makes his feature directorial debut. Sean Jindachote stars, along with Phuwadon Wetchawongsa, Akkarin Akaranithimetrath and gay-film cult actor "Fluke" Pongsatorn Sripinta. Rated 13+

Ju-on 4: The Final Curse– The Japanese horror franchise that's also known as The Grudge continues with the older sister of a schoolteacher who disappeared going to look for her sibling. The trail leads to a student’s home and more dark secrets. Masayuki Ochiai, who helmed the Japanese-Hollywood remake of the Thai horror Shutter, directs. Don't count on this actually being the "final" one. It's Thai-dubbed most places, but has the Japanese soundtrack with English and Thai subs at SFW CentralWorld, SFC Terminal 21, Paragon and Esplanade Ratchada. Rated 15+

Foodies: The Culinary Jet Set– Now, for Halloween, here are the most horrifying and insufferable of ghouls – gourmet food bloggers. This documentary follows well-to-do restaurant reviewers in their obsessive quest to dine at the world’s most luxurious eateries. Among them are Thai food blogger Perm Paitawyat, along with Lithuanian model Aiste Miseviciute, London writer Andy Hayler, Hong Kong blogger Katie Keiko Tan and opinionated New Yorker Steven Plotnicki. Critical reception is mixed, with Screen Daily quipping"what it does do – sadly – is foster the increasingly popular habit of taking pictures of food in restaurants." It's at Apex, Esplanade Ratchada, House, Major Cineplex Ratchayothin, Paragon, Quartier CineArt and SFW CentralWorld. Rated G

Love Arumirai (เลิฟอะรูมิไลค์ รักอะไรไม่รู้) – Ah, hey, a body swap. It worked for the recent Amazon series Red Oaks, so maybe it'll work here. The story of this Thai film has to do with the seven-year marriage between Geng (Phisanu Nimsakul) and fashion model Bella (Cheeranat Yusanon) turning stormy. The bickering husband and wife face their toughest test yet when they wake up one morning and get a shock when they go to the mirror. Seree Phongnithi is the screenwriter on this debut feature from Munwork Production.

Lady of the Dynasty– Fan Bingbing portrays Concubine Yang, one of the most famous women in Chinese history, in her epic affair with Emperor Xuanzong (Leon Lai) during a time of rebellion against the ruling family. Chinese censors have taken an increasingly dim view of these lavish historical epics and their cleavage-baring costumes. They also don't like "sex on horseback", a scene of which was cut from Lady of the Dynasty, according to reports. Shi Qing directs, with help from a production team that included Zhang Yimou. It's Thai-dubbed most places, but has the Japanese soundtrack with English and Thai subs at SFW CentralWorld, SFC Terminal 21 and Paragon. Rated 18+

Talvar– A real-life unsolved whodunnit, the 2008 Noida double murder, serves as the basis for this thriller. The story follows the case, which involved the death of a teenage daughter and the family's 45-year-old handyman. It was covered sensationally by the media, fuelling much public speculation about who the culprit or culprits were. Irrfan Kahn stars, portraying an investigator who, in Rashomon-like fashion, presents various conflicting versions of how the crime went down. Konkona Sen Sharma also stars. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit and Rama III. Opens Friday.

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– It's Halloween weekend, so of course, the FGC is showing, duh, Halloween. The classic slasher-horror from the master, John Carpenter, screens on Saturday in an event sponsored by a beer brand and featuring spooky cocktails. Punters who show up in costume will get prizes. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française– Movies about climate change are scheduled for next month, starting with Les Temps Changent (Changing Climates, Changing Times). The 2008 made-for-TV movie imagines what life will be like in the year 2075, and it seems to mirror the current immigration crisis that has beset Europe. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, November 4, at the Alliance.

Take note

As mentioned here last week, Spanish Film Week is next week at SF World. It now appears they will only show four films, rather than five,

And the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand has booked its last film for the year, screening the sweet Thai comedy-romance The Teacher's Diary on November 9.

Spectre

Despite expressing his weariness of the role, "blond Bond" Daniel Craig is back for a fourth outing as Agent 007 in Spectre, the 24th entry in the action-packed James Bond film franchise.

He's on the trail of the shadowy organization Spectre. Meanwhile, Bond's boss M (Ralph Fiennes) is in a power struggle for control of his spy agency and the future of the lethal "00" program.

Directed by Sam Mendes, Spectre marks the return of the Spectre name to the Bond franchise. Originally an acronym standing for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, the use of Spectre as a plot point in Bond films had been caught in a rights dispute stretching back to the "unofficial" Bond movie Thunderball. With those legal issues sorted, Bond can now officially battle Spectre as well as his perennial nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

The criminal mastermind Blofeld is portrayed in the new film by Christoph Waltz, the Austrian character actor who owes his career to Quentin Tarantino and Inglourious Basterds.

Joining the proceedings are actresses Léa Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color) and Monica Bellucci (Shoot 'Em Up) as the newest "Bond girls", and wrestler Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) as an assassin. Returnees from previous Bond outings include Naomi Harris as Ms. Moneypenny and Ben Whishaw as gadget guru Q.

Already released in the U.K., where it broke box-office records, critical reception is mostly praiseworthy. Rated 13+

Also opening

Hand in the Glove– Thai and Japanese talents combine both in front of and behind the lens for this quirky indie romantic comedy. Thai actor-musician Chanon Rikulsurakan stars as a glove-clad prince from a fictional country, who is visiting Kumamoto, Japan. Desperate to escape the pressures and protocols of being the heir to the throne, he sneaks out of his hotel and meets a local woman, who accompanies him on sightseeing trips. Directed by Japanese actor-director Yusuke Inaba, it was shot in Kumamoto by Thai cinematographer Pairach Khumwan, who is noted for his work on Thai director Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s 36 and Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy. Hand in Glove first screened in Bangkok in January during the Japanese Film Festival, so here's a chance for more folks to see it. It's in Japanese with English and Thai subtitles at House on RCA.

Tag – The bloodsoaked spirit of director Kinji Fukasaku and his Battle Royale appear alive and well in Tag, which is directed by prolific Japanese helmer Sion Sono. An adaptation of a novel by Yusuke Yamada, the story, such as it is, has skirt-clad Japanese schoolgirls being mowed down in various gory ways by mysterious malevolent forces. Reina Triendl, Mariko Shinoda and Erina Mano star. It's in Japanese with English and Thai subtitles at Apex and House. It's also showing at select Major Cineplex branches. Rated 18+

The Taking of Tiger Mountain – Hong Kong martial-arts veteran Tsui Hark returns to the scene with this Chinese historical epic, set after World War II, with Liberation Army forces trying to unseat an outlaw warlord and his gang, who have taken over a former Japanese stronghold. Tony Leung Ka-fai, Lin Gengxin and Zhang Hanyu star. Critical reception is leaning to positive. Seems it is Thai-dubbed only. Rated 15+

The Vatican Tapes – A Roman Catholic priest and exorcists from the Vatican encounter a young woman who has been possessed by an ancient satanic force. Michael Peña, Djimon Hounsou, Peter Andersson, Dougray Scott, Kathleen Richardson and Olivia Taylor Dudley star. It's directed by Mark Neveldine in his first solo outing from the Neveldine/Taylor duo, who are best known for their innovative Crank action comedies. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

Baahubali– A prince who was raised as an orphan fights his estranged evil sibling for control of an ancient kingdom in this epic of all epics. It's rumored to be the most expensive movie ever made in India, and features state-of-the-art visual effects, sumptuous costumes and stunning locations. Immensely popular Telugu actor Prabhas stars. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III and Pattaya. Opens Friday.

Also showing

Alliance Française– There are two other movies this week in addition to the Alliance's usual Wednesday screening. Tonight and tomorrow, there are Southeast Asian films as part of the Produire au Sud Bangkok film-funding workshop, which is organized by the World Film Festival of Bangkok and the Three Continents Film Festival in Nantes, France. The workshops give up-and-coming independent filmmakers experience in pitching their projects and finding backers to fund their films. Tonight's screening, at 7pm, is the Filipino coming-of-age drama Anita's Last Cha Cha, which was supported by the Produire au Sud Nantes in 2010. And tomorrow at 6.30pm is the Malaysian social satire Men Who Save the World by Liew Seng Tat. It was pitched at Produire au Sud Bangkok in 2008 and screened in the recent Bangkok Asean Film Festival. Both films will also screen in the World Film Festival of Bangkok, which opens on November 13. Next Wednesday, the Alliance has another climate change movie, Tara, voyage au coeur de la machine climatique, a made-for-TV documentary on an Arctic adventure aboard the schooner Tara. It screens at 7pm on Wednesday, November 11, at the Alliance.

Spanish Film Week– Presented by the Embassy of Spain in collaboration with SF Cinemas, the mini-fest has four films screening from tonight until Sunday at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld:

El Niño– In Gibraltar, a hard-nosed Spanish detective and his female partner track a dangerous criminal known as "the Englishman" (Ian McShane). Meanwhile, a trio of youngsters enter the marijuana trade in hopes of raising the cash they need to open a bar. Directed by Daniel Monzon, El Niño was nominated for more than a dozen Goya Awards (the "Spanish Oscars"), including best director, original screenplay and supporting actor and actress for Eduard Fernandez and Barbara Lennie. It won prizes for production supervision, sound, special effects and song. Screens at 7 tonight.
Magical Girl– The father of a terminally ill girl wants to make true his daughter's last wish - to have a dress inspired by the main character from "Magical Girl Yukiko", a Japanese animated TV series. As the dad is pushed to the brink in his quest for the expensive dress, he meets various quirky characters, among them a vomit-spewing femme fatale (portrayed by Goya-winning Barbara Lennie) and an unstable ex-con. Screens at 7pm tomorrow.
10,000 Km– Alex and Sergi are a young Barcelona couple who are planning to have a baby. Their plans hit a snag when Alex is offered a once-in-a-lifetime job offer to work as a photographer in Los Angeles. It'll take more than modern technology to keep them together. The romantic comedy had many festival appearances, including South by Southwest and Palm Springs, and won several awards, including the Goya for Best New Director for Carlos Marques-Marcet. Screens at 7pm on Saturday.
Loreak (Flowers) – This Basque-language romantic drama centers on an unfulfilled married woman who begins receiving weekly deliveries of flowers. Her story slowly intertwines with that of a toll-booth attendant and that woman's crane-operator husband. The sophomore feature from the In 80 Days duo of Jose Mari Goenaga and Jon Garano, Loreak won prizes at festivals in San Sebastian and Palm Springs, and was a nominee for best film at the Goyas. Screens at 5pm on Sunday.

Tickets are 120 baht. For more details, check the SF cinemas website.

The Friese-Greene Club– Al Pacino, Takashi Miike, Christopher Guest, contemporary Chinese cinema and the utter pointlessness of it all are the focus of this month's schedule at the Club. Just a handful of the many many films by prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike screen on Thursdays, starting tonight with the gore-filled introduction to his bizarre oeuvre, Ichi the Killer. Fridays are devoted to Christopher Guest and his highly entertaining string of documentary-style comedies, starting tomorrow with the classic rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, in which Guest co-starred and co-directed with Rob Reiner. Surely, the sound system will be cranked to "11". The club has private events listed this Saturday and Sunday, which pre-empts the regular program of Chinese films (Blind Shift opens the series on November 14) and existential crises movies (opening last Sunday with Magnolia). Next Wednesday is Serpico, with Pacino portraying the corruption-fighting New York cop who became an icon for Thai truckers. More on Serpico in Thailand is at the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

German Film Series – The Goethe-Insitut in Bangkok holds monthly film screenings at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center and the Thai Film Archive. This month's offering is the adventure yarn Measuring the World, about German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and geographer Alexander von Humboldt and their surveys of the world in the 1800s. Detlev Buck (Same Same But Different) directs. It screens at 1pm on Sunday at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, and at 6pm on Tuesday in the little FA Cinematheque on the second floor of the BACC. For more details, visit www.Goethe.de/bangkok.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand – The Club's Contemporary World Film Series closes out another year with a Thai film, the award-winning 2014 romantic drama The Teacher's Diary (คิดถึงวิทยา, Kid Tueng Wittaya). It's the sweetly sentimental tale of two teachers who are posted to an isolated floating schoolhouse a year apart. Despite never having met, they fall in love with one another through a diary they share at the school. Directed by Nithiwat Tharatorn and starring "Ploy" Chermarn Boonyasak and "Bie" Sukrit Wisetkaew, it won many awards for its screenplay, art direction and music. It was also Thailand's submisssion to this year's Oscars. Nithiwat will attend the screening, which is at 7pm on Monday, is supported by the GTH film studio and a wine brand. Admission is 150 baht for non-members and 100 baht for the wine.

Take note

The 13th World Film Festival of Bangkok is nearly upon us, running from November 13 to 22 at SF World. Highlights include the six-hour-long, three-part arthouse drama Arabian Nights, and two classics by Taiwanese New Cinema stalwart Hou Hsiao-hsien, Dust in the Wind and A Time to Live, A Time to Die. An article in The Nation has more details. Hopefully the festival organizers will update their website soon with a schedule of the screenings.

13th World Film Festival of Bangkok

The 13th World Film Festival of Bangkok is upon us, opening to the public on Saturday and running until November 22 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld.

The schedule is available for downloading. Here's the advice I generally give to festival newbies: Show up when you have time and see whatever is playing. Whatever you see at the festival will likely be better and/or more interesting than anything else that's ordinarily screening.

The highlights are many. The festival programmers have been especially enthusiastic about the three-part, six-hour Arabian Nights by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, who will be visiting Bangkok during the fest. Set in contemporary Portugal, it's a fanciful adaptation of the One Thousand and One Nights tales. It premiered during Director's Fortnight at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and was greeted by much critical acclaim.

Other programmer-suggested highlights include the classic French film Contempt, directed by Jean-Luc Godard and starring Brigitte Bardot; this year's Cannes Palme d'Or winner, the Sri Lankan immigrant tale Dheepan; the quirky Mexican comedy The Hamsters; the Chinese-German schoolteacher documentary On the Rim of the Sky; the Peruvian mining documentary Daughter of the Lake; and the animated French fantasy The Day of the Crows.

I want to see the Filipino film Ruined Heart, but have scheduling conflicts. Seems all the good films are showing at the same times.

Tickets are 120 baht. And hey! Two WFFBKK ticket stubs entitle you to a free 44-ounce Coke. So enjoy the festival.

Opening

The Gift– A married couple are having a swell life until a dimly remembered acquaintance of the husband comes bearing mysterious gifts and secrets from the past. Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall and Joel Edgerton star. Edgerton, the Australian actor from such films as Zero Dark Thirty, The Great Gatsby and Exodus: Gods and Kings, also wrote and directed this thriller, which has been met with much positive critical acclaim. Rated 15+

American Ultra– A small-town stoner (Jesse Eisenberg) is actually a sleeper secret agent and assassin. He's forced to get back in touch with his particular set of skills when he and his girlfriend (Kristen Stewart) come under attack. Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman and Tony Hale also star. Nima Nourizadeh (Project X) directs this action-comedy written by Max Landis (Chronicle, Victor Frankenstein). Critical reception is mixed. Rated 18+

Life– Friendship develops between a rookie photographer for Life magazine and an up-and-coming actor named James Dean. Robert Pattinson is the lensman Dennis Stock while Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) portrays Dean. Anton Corbijn, the director who's done a mix of music videos and features such as The American and A Most Wanted Man, directs. Critical reception is mixed, leaning to positive. Rated 15+

The 33– The 2010 Chilean mining disaster is recalled in this drama about 33 trapped miners and their efforts to stay alive for more than two months as a globally televised effort to save them becomes a reality. Antonio Banderas stars as "Super Mario" Sepúlveda, the spiritual leader of the trapped men. Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche, Lou Diamond Phillips, James Brolin, Gabriel Byrne and Bob Gunton also star. Critical reception is mixed. Rated G

Love Next Door 2– In this sequel to a hit 2013 gay romantic comedy, a virginal young man (Angkoon Jeenukul) is the object of lust for customers at the restaurant where he works. Ratthapol Pholthabtim, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit and Jenny Panan star. Rated 18+

Father and Son (Phor Lae Lukchai, พ่อและลูกชาย) – Gay dad Ek (Thanapon Prasongsab) raised his surrogate son alone after his partner died. Teased by his friends, the youngster tries to escape from his home situation and starts dating Nut. However, Nut falls for the kid's dad. At SFW CentralWorld and Esplanade Ratchada. Rated 20-

Tiger Women (Phromajan Suay Phan Sayong, พรหมจรรย์ สวยพันธุ์สยอง) – A trip into the jungle leaves a young woman much changed. She's under suspicion when she returns to the city and dead men turn up, appearing to have been killed by a tiger. An erotic thriller, it's released by Thana Entertainment. Atsajun Sattakovit (Soul's Code) directs. Rated 18+

Sang Sudthai Khong E-Hien (แสงสุดท้ายของอีเหี่ยน) – A country comedy in the same vein as Yam Yasothon, Mon Love Sib Muen and Poo Bao Tai Baan E-San Indy, this one involves a country girl who comes to the city to search for her mother but ends up losing all her money and cannot return home. Rated G

Prem Ratan Dhan Payo– It's Diwali, the big Hindu holiday and a key weekend for Bollywood movie releases. This year's tentpole is a Salman Khan film, which has the superstar pairing up with leading lady Sonam Kapoor. He's a happy-go-lucky hero who performs traditional "Ram-Leelas" plays and donates all the money he earns to a charity run by a princess, whom he sets out to meet. And oh, he looks just like the realm's evil ruler. In Hindi with English and Thai subtitles, it opens today Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III, Pattaya and Paragon and adds more venues tomorrow, Major Cineplex Chiang Mai Airport Plaza, Hat Yai and EGV Mae Sot.

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– Apart from the club's November schedule of Al Pacino on Wednesdays, Takashi Miike on Thursdays, Christopher Guest on Fridays, contemporary China on Saturdays and existential crises on Sundays, there's a special screening next Tuesday – On Your Mark, Get Set, Mow! Making its official Thai premiere, the documentary by Mike Ratel is a look at an annual lawn-tractor race put on by a Michigan family to benefit research into Huntington's disease, the debilitating illness suffered by Woody Guthrie, among others. Tonight, a wrapped-up corpse will suddenly sit up and scare the daylights out of you in Audition. Tomorrow, colorful inhabitants of a small town await the arrival of a Broadway producer in Waiting for Guffman. On Saturday, it's Blind Shaft, a 2003 film that is such an accurate depiction of corruption that it is still banned in China. On Sunday, Kevin Spacey and Chris Cooper are in the midst of mid-life crises in American Beauty. And next Wednesday has Pacino and his Godfather brother John Cazale in Dog Day Afternoon. Attica! Attica! Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française– November's movies at the Alliance are all about climate change, including this month's "kids' movie", La prophétie des grenouilles (Raining Cats and Frogs), a 2002 animated feature about a modern-day Noah. It screens at 2pm on Saturday. There's a special Tuesday screening next week, Human, the latest documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the photographer who uses dramatic aerial-photography images to show our devastating impact on the planet. It shows at 7pm next Tuesday. And the usual Wednesday screening has back-to-back episodes of a TV documentary series, Planete Glace: Himalaya and Planete Glace: Alpes. They screen at 7pm on Wednesday, November 18, at the Alliance.

The Lobster

Weird movies are part and parcel of film festivals, but, thanks to the ever-so-gradually maturing tastes of Thai distributors and film-goers, more and more of these oddball pictures are finding their way off the reservation and into general release in local cinemas.

Case in point this week is The Lobster, a satirically absurdist romantic drama starring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Lea Seydoux, Olivia Colman and Ben Whishaw. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, a Greek helmer making his English-language debut, it's set in a near-future dystopian society where singles are ordered to live in the restrictive "Hotel" and are required by law to find a love match. Failure to do so results in being killed or transformed into animals.

The Lobster made its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was in main Palme d'Or competition. It's likely to also be something of a fixture during the awards season, having already scored nominations for the British Independent Film Awards. Critical reception is crazily good, but the consensus warns that it's "definitely an acquired taste". If you've seen Lanthimos'Dogtooth (screened at a festival in Bangkok a few years back) or Alps, you know what kind wackiness to expect. Rated 15+

Also opening

Z for Zachariah– Two men and one woman – Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Pine and Margot Robbie – are in a love triangle after they are left as the apparent only survivors of a global disaster. Craig Zobel (Compliance and HBO's The Leftovers) directs. Critical reception is mixed, leaning to positive. Rated 13+

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2– Watch the drama unfold as Jennifer Lawrence frees herself from the clutches of a young-adult science-fiction novel franchise. Donald Sutherland, Liam Hemsworth, Sam Claflin and Josh Hutcherson also star. Critical reception is generally positive. Rated 15+

Also showing

World Film Festival of Bangkok– Still lots to see as the 13th edition of the WFFBKK rolls into its closing weekend at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Among today's highlights is The Hamsters, a Mexican comedy about a highly dysfunctional family. There's also an encore screening of Arabian Nights Volume 1: The Restless One, an oddball movie by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, who uses the One Thousand and One Nights tales as a template for absurdist stories from the frontlines in austerity-measures-wracked Portugal. Volume 2: The Desolate One screens on Friday and Volume 3: The Enchanted One shows on Saturday. These have been a hot ticket at the festival, with serious film-loving Thais packing the screenings. I liked Volume 1 the best, but the other two are rewarding in their own ways. Tomorrow is another chance to see Cronopios and Famas, a tuneful Argentine stop-motion-animated adaptation of various stories by Julio Cortázar, which focused on the struggles of the proletariat. The fest wraps up on Sunday with the invite-only Thai premiere of Suffragette, an acclaimed British historical drama that is going to get a general release in Thai cinemas.

The Friese-Greene Club– Tonight, Takashi Miike seeks to shock you with Visitor Q, while tomorrow fussy dog owners and trainers are profiled in the documentary-style comedy Best in Show by Christopher Guest. The sale of women for marriage in China is examined in Li Yang's Blind Mountain on Saturday while on Sunday artist-filmmaker Miranda July gets up to her usual tricks in the quirky romantic comedy Me and You and Everyone We Know. And next Wednesday has Al Pacino as a "60 Minutes" producer whose segment exposes secrets of the tobacco industry in Michael Mann's The Insider. Russell Crowe also stars, playing the cigarette-company whistleblower. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Alliance Française– Next in the continuing series of climate-change films this month is Il était une forêt (Once Upon a Time in the Forest), a documentary by Luc Jacquet, who previously did the Oscar-winning March of the Penguins. For his 2012 film, Jacquet went deep into a rainforest with help from botanist and ecologist Francis Hallé. The show is at 7pm on Wednesday, November 25, at the Alliance.

Take note

There's a free film festival next week – the Bangkok edition of the International Film Festival on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, which will screen nine dramas and documentaries from November 26 to 29 at SF World. Find out more at the EVAGWG film festival website or the Facebook event page.

German Open Air Cinema

Along with the resprouting of beer gardens in Bangkok, the end of the monsoon rains and the return of cool evening air also signifies the start of the annual German Open Air Cinema season at the Goethe-Institut Thailand.

Running on Tuesday nights from December 1 to 15 and January 5 to February 16, the series will screen 10 recent critically acclaimed German films, including many award winners.

Opening night, which starts at 6.30pm, has Patong Girl, a family drama and romance that was filmed in Thailand. It follows a German family on vacation in Phuket, where the teenage son falls for a young Thai woman and runs off. The mother goes off on in search and ends up finding herself. It was directed by Susanna Salonen, and she and members of the cast will be present for a talk after the screening.

Tuesday night's opener will be accompanied by a 2013 German short film, Elite, directed by Piet Baumgartner. It's about a management consultant who closes a complicated deal and as a surprise has an escort hired for him by the client.

Other entries include the period romance The Beloved Sisters on December 8 and the sci-fi comedy Art Girls on December 15.

After a break for Christmas and New Year's, the series resumes on January 5 with Jack, a childhood drama about a 10-year-old boy and his younger brother searching for their mother.

Others are the ex-convict drama I Am the Keeper on January 12; the computer-hacker thriller WhoAmI on January 26; the historical drama We Are Young. We Are Strong., about neo-Nazi riots in 1992; and the 1950s-set transgender romance The Circle on February 9.

The series wraps up on February 16 with Suck Me Shakespeer, a comedy in which an ex-convict takes a job as a schoolteacher so he can search for stolen loot he hid on the school grounds. A hit in Germany, it spawned a sequel that was released this year.

Shows are at 7.30pm on the grounds of the Goethe-Institut, off Sathorn Soi 1. For more details, check the Goethe website. And for opening night, check the Facebook events page.

Opening

The Good Dinosaur – Talking reptilians and humanoids co-exist this new Disney-Pixar animated comedy-drama about the adventure of a lost young apatosaurus named Arlo and his new pal, a feral caveboy named Spot. The voice cast includes Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin, Steve Zahn, Frances McDormand and Jeffrey Wright. With The Good Dinosaur following Inside Out a few months back, this is the first time Disney-Pixar has released two films in one year, but then there was nothing from Pixar in 2014, so they are making up for lost time. Long in the works, The Good Dinosaur has been in development for many, many years, going through a rigorous process of fine tuning until the Pixar-powers-that-be deemed the story was just right. Critical reception is mixed, with the consensus seeming to place The Good Dinosaur in the pantheon of "minor" Pixar works, somewhere around the likes of Monsters Inc. but above Cars. As with all Disney-Pixar movies, The Good Dinosaur has a preceding cartoon short, in this case Sanjay’s Super-Team, in which a meditating Indian boy dreams his Hindu gods are superheroes. Rated G

Gayby Baby– Four children who are being raised by gay and lesbian parents are profiled in this Australian picture, which is the latest release by the Documentary Club. It won the second-place audience award at the Sydney Film Festival and is a nominee for the Australian Film Institute awards. Critical reception is generally positive. It's at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld as well as at SFX Maya Chiang Mai. For further details, check the Documentary Club's Facebook page or SF cinemas' booking site. Rated G

Stung– Party-goers and catering staff at a fancy outdoor gathering come under attack by giant, mutated wasps. An indie horror-comedy, it's directed by Benni Diez, a visual-effects artist making his directorial debut. Clifton Collins Jr., Jessica Cook, Matt O’Leary and Lance Henrikson are among the stars. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

Kill Your Friends – At the height of the 1990s Britpop boom, a young record-company executive (Nicholas Hoult) will stop at nothing as he looks for his next hit. An indie British comedy, it's adapted from a best-selling novel by John Niven. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 18+

Knock Knock – Whoa. Poor Keanu Reeves. He's a family man who is left at home alone one weekend and comes under attack from two strange young women (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) who show up at his door asking for help. Directed by Quentin Tarantino's pal Eli Roth (Hostel, The Green Inferno), the erotic thriller is a remake of the 1970s exploitation film Death Game, which starred Seymour Cassel, Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp. Critical reception is mixed. Rated 15+

Momentum – A thief (Olga Kurylenko) with a secret past accidentally reveals her identity during what should have been a routine jewel heist. She is then pursued by a master assassin (James Purefoy) and his team of killers. It's helmed by Stephen S. Campanelli, a veteran camera operator on many movies who makes his feature debut as a director. Critical reception is generally negative. Rated 18+

By the Sea– Angelina Jolie Pitt writes, directs and co-stars in this romantic drama with her husband Brad Pitt. It's her third feature as a director, following the Bosnian war drama Land of Blood and Honey and the World War II epic Unbroken. Set in 1970s France, By the Sea is a portrait of a couple who growing apart as they linger at a tranquil, picturesque seaside resort. The celebrity couple actually made this while they were on their honeymoon. Perhaps feeling grossed out, as if they caught their parents in the bedroom, critics have just rolled their eyes. Rated 18+

Tamasha– A young man and a young woman meet during a vacation on the island of Corsica. Sharing a love for storytelling, they explore the island together and form a troupe to stage dramatic plays, all while not disclosing their real names. Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone star in this epic globetrotting musical comedy-drama, which features music by A.R. Rahman. It's in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit, Rama III, Pattaya, Paragon and EGV Mae Sot.

Also showing

EVAWG Film Festival– Serious issues are the focus of the first Bangkok edition of an international film festival for Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG), which has screenings until Sunday at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Tonight's invite-only opener is Dukhtar (Daughter), the feature debut of writer-director Afia Nathaniel, which is Pakistan’s official submission to this year’s Academy Awards. Here is the rest of the line-up:

Ilo Ilo– Singaporean director Anthony Chen's semi-autobiographical drama follows a young Filipina as she goes to work for a middle-class Singaporean family in the midst of the 1997 financial crisis. While dealing with the demanding pregnant mother, she bonds with the family's five-year-old son and keeps a secret of the dad. Ilo Ilo was the first Singaporean feature to win an award at the Cannes Film Festival, taking the Camera d'Or honors. Screens at 5.30pm tomorrow.
Te doy mis ojos (Take My Eyes) – This award-winning 2003 Spanish drama is about the roller-coaster relationship of a young mother and her abusive husband. Screens at 8.30 tomorrow.
When We Leave– This 2010 Turkish-German drama has a young German-Turkish woman fleeing an abusive marriage in Istanbul and seeking safety with her family in Berlin. Screens at 2.30pm on Saturday.
Girl Rising– Uplifting stories about girls from nine countries are told in this star-studded documentary. Each girl’s story written by well-known writers from each country and voiced by big-name actors. For example, a Cambodian girl’s story is written by noted Cambodian author Loung Ung. Celebrities lending their voices include Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett and Selena Gomez. Screens at 5pm on Saturday.
Girlhood– A shy, abused African-French teenage girl moves into a new neighborhood and comes out of her shell when she's accepted into a gang of girls. A 2014 drama, it's directed by Céline Sciamma, who previously did the coming-of-age romance Tomboy. Screens at 8pm on Saturday.
Refugiado (Refugee) – A pregnant woman and her eight-year-old son are forced to flee the boy’s abusive father in this award-winning 2014 Argentine drama. Screens at 3pm on Sunday.
Private Violence– “Why didn’t she just leave?” It's a difficult-to-answer question that vexes victim advocates. This 2014 documentary examines the tough answers to that question and aims to have folks asking different questions. Screens at 5pm on Sunday.
Brave Miss World– Israeli model and actress Linor Abargil – crowned Miss World in 1998 – turns her shocking story of tragedy into a forum for global activism against rape. Screens at 7.30pm on Sunday.

The screenings will be accompanied by discussions from UN Women and other advocacy groups. Tickets are free and will be handed out 30 minutes before the shows. For more details, check the festival website or Facebook events page.

The Friese-Greene Club– November has one more documentary-style comedy from Christopher Guest, who dislikes the "mockumentary" term that's been applied his films. Tonight's entry is For Your Consideration, in which Guest and company skewer the annual idiocy that is Hollywood's "awards season". Tomorrow's "thoroughly modern China" movie is Jia Zhangke's A Touch of Sin, which reflects on four recent episodes in contemporary Chinese history. And Sunday has Todd Solondz'Happiness, which is just the thing you need to watch in the midst of this festive season. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand– Although the FCCT's Contemporary World Film Series has closed its books on 2015, they are still showing films at the club. Next week, it's the documentary Frame by Frame, which tracks four photojournalists as they navigate an emerging and dangerous media landscape in Afghanistan. Admission for non-members is 150 baht. The show is at 7pm on Wednesday, December 2, at the FCCT.

Alliance Française– A schoolteacher tries to inspire curiosity among a multi-cultural roster of teen students in Les héritiers (Once in a Lifetime), a fact-based drama from last year. The show is at 7pm on Wednesday, December 2, at the Alliance.

Take note

Following a limited run at SF cinemas and an appearance at the World Film Festival of Bangkok, the existential-crisis art-house drama Vanishing Point by artist-filmmaker Jakrawal Nilthamrong is back. It's now screening at House on RCA. So check it out.

Wolf Totem

Banned from China after 1997's Seven Years in Tibet, French director Jean-Jacques Annaud was welcomed back into the country to make Wolf Totem, an epic historical drama about a young man from Beijing who bonds with a wolf cub when he is assigned to teach nomads in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution in 1967.

It's a fact-based adventure epic, based on an autobiography by Lu Jiamin, about a young man caught between the advancing forces of modernising China, the traditional ways of Mongolian nomads and the wolves of the wilderness.

The project took many years to plan and complete, and involved the raising and training of a wolf pack, specifically for the movie. Working with animals is something of a trademark for Annaud, who previously made The Bear as well as Two Brothers, which was filmed in Thailand and involved tiger cubs.

Initially tipped as China's entry to next year's Academy Awards (China ended up submitting the Chinese production Go Away Mr. Tumor), the French-Chinese produced Wolf Totem screened in China during the Lunar New Year holiday. Critical reception is mostly praiseworthy. It's at Apex in Siam Square.

Also opening

Runpee (รุ่นพี่, a.k.a. Senior) – Writer-director Wisit Sasanatieng returns to the scene with a boarding-school horror romance for the M-Thirtynine studio, It's about a schoolgirl (Ploychompoo Jannine Weigel) who has a special gift for smelling out ghosts. This leads her to meet a mysterious senior ghost boy and to investigate a murder that happened at the school 50 years before. It's the first feature in five years from Wisit, one of the important writer-directors of the New Thai Cinema movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and whose films include two of that era's classics, Tears of the Black Tiger and Citizen Dog. Rated 15+

Khun Thong Daeng: The Inspirations (คุณทองแดง The Inspirations) – In celebration of His Majesty the King's 88th birthday this Saturday, here is an animated feature with stories that are inspired by His Majesty's favorite pet dog Khun Thong Daeng. Produced by music-festival promoter Vinij Lertratanachai, with concepts overseen by movie-marketing strategist Dr Head, The Inspirations has three stories about pooches from three animation studios. Imagimax Studios has Mah Wad (Mid-Road), about a tough injured stray who is adopted by an elderly monk, and unites the temple's dog pack to protect the place from thieves. The Monk Studio contributes Tong Lor, which deals with the relationship between a blind girl, her grandmother and their pet dog. And Workpoint Studios is still in the world of robots, similar to the company's animated feature Yak a few years ago, with Little Copper, about a boy robot who gives new life to his robot pet. The three tales are tied together by live-action segments involving a girl who wanted her uncle (comedian "Nong" Choosak Iamsook) to buy her a foreign pure-breed dog, and he instead came up with a Thai mutt, played by the talented four-legged actor Richard, who has been the canine star of many Thai movies, TV shows and commercials. There is more about the movie in an article in The Nation. Rated G

Suffragette – Women are beaten and thrown into jail for demanding the right to vote in this historical drama, which covers the fight for suffrage in England in the early 20th century. Carey Mulligan stars as a young laundry worker who is swept up in a suffragettes' protest and is eventually inspired to take up the cause. Helena Bonham-Carter plays an activist who befriends Mulligan's character. Meryl Streep also stars, portraying the historical figure Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the women's suffrage movement. Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane, Village at the End of the World) directs. Critical reception is generally positive. Expect to be hearing more about Suffragette as awards season gets underway. Rated 13+

In the Heart of the Sea– Director Ron Howard is hunting Oscars in this fact-based high-seas adventure drama about the wreck of the whaling ship Essex, which was smashed to bits by a huge sperm whale, leaving the crew marooned. Chris Hemsworth stars as First Mate Owen Chase, whose book about the ordeal is said to have inspired Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick. Others in the male-focused cast are Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Brendan Gleeson (he's also in Suffragette) and Ben Whishaw. Critical reception is just starting to spout. Rated G

Krampus– Frustrated with his family's bickering during the festive season, a boy somehow summons the demonic spirit of Krampus, the Satan-like being from European Christmas lore who accompanies St. Nicholas and punishes children who are bad. This is a horror-comedy, with Adam Scott, Allison Tolman, David Koechner and Toni Collette among the stars. It's directed by Michael Dougherty, who previously wrote and directed the Halloween comedy Trick 'r Treat. Critical reception was unknown as this was being written, but it could be another holiday classic. Rated 13+

Baby Steps – Two dads are in focus in this Taiwanese-U.S. family comedy-drama about an Asian-American man and his Caucasian boyfriend seeking to have a child together. While Danny and his partner Tate deal with finding a surrogate mom, Danny's overbearing mother (veteran Taiwanese actress Kuei Ya-Lei) takes control of the proceedings. Barney Cheng writes, directs and stars as Danny. Among the producers is Hsu Li-kong, whose past credits include many Ang Lee movies, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Eat Drink Man Woman and The Wedding Banquet, which Baby Steps pays tribute to. Rated 15+

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– "Cool Britannia" on Wednesdays, "Woody Allen's favorite films" on Thursdays, "Not Such a Wonderful Life" on Fridays, restored classics on Saturdays and "Christmas cheer" on Sundays are the themes for December. Tonight, it's The Bicycle Thieves, which Allen said was "the supreme Italian film and one of the greatest films in the world". Tomorrow's anti-wonderful entry is the pardon-my-French film Baise-moi while Saturday has James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Sunday's bit of Christmas cheer is 1951's Scrooge, the classic adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, starring Alistair Sim as the greatest humbug of them all. And next Wednesday's British film is Underground, covering a night in the life of a teenage drug dealer. From 1998, it's the first feature from FGC proprietor Paul Spurrier. And yes, it's cool. Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

Two films by Lav Diaz – Filmvirus, the group of Thai cinephiles and academics, have a special event this holiday weekend, bringing in more films by Filipino auteur Lav Diaz, thanks to generous support from the Japan Foundation. They are his Locarno prize winner From What Is Before, showing on Sunday at House, and the Typhoon Yolanda documentary Storm Children, screening on Monday at the Chinatown art space Cloud. The screenings were announced late last week by the Filmvirus crew and spaces went fast. Monday's event, which includes a talk by Diaz himself, is full, but the Sunday film screening still has a few spaces left. Check the Facebook post for details.

German Open Air Cinema– The aristocratic von Lengefeld sisters are both in love with the firebrand writer-philosopher Friedrich Schiller in Beloved Sisters, a sweeping historical drama that won German Film Awards for costumes and makeup. The show is at 7.30pm on Tuesday, December 8, outdoors at the Goethe-Institut on Sathorn Soi 1.

Alliance Française– With his previous missing-persons case ending in tragedy, a nearly retired police inspector takes one last case, to track down details about a mysterious mute man who was discovered unconscious on a French beach with no identification. It's La Dune, a 2013 comedy-drama. The show is at 7pm on Wednesday, December 9, at the Alliance.

Take note

Along with Khun Thong Daeng: The Inspirations, there is another film in honor of His Majesty the King's birthday, Keeta Maha Raja Niphon (คีตราชนิพนธ์), which was first released this past May. It has four well-made segments that are in part inspired by musical compositions of His Majesty. Among the stories is the dramatic biographical account of the late conservationist Seub Nakhasathien. It's directed by Parkpoom Wongpoom and stars Nopachai “Peter” Jayanama. Well-known directors of other segments include Nonzee Nimibutr and Yongyoot Thongkongtoon. Keeta Maha Raja Niphon is screening until Monday (a substitution public holiday) at Major Cineplexes, where free tickets are first-come, first-serve and are handed out at special table an hour before the shows.

Sway

Three dysfunctional relationships rock back and forth between Asians in three cities in Sway, the debut feature by Thai-American writer-director Rooth Tang.

The drama was put together over the course of several years by Rooth, who graduated in film studies from the University of California, Irvine, and has taken part in industry initiatives, such as HBO's Project Greenlight.

For what would become his first feature, Rooth began with Bangkok scenes that were shot in 2010 with Thai stars Ananda Everingham and Sajee Apiwong. He's a well-travelled dreamer who seduces a Bangkok office worker, who then gets pregnant, but she is afraid to say anything.

In Los Angeles, the Caucasian-American second wife (Kris Wood-Bell) of a widowed Japanese-American businessman (Kazuhiko Nishimura) is having insecurity issues, along with problems with her husband's teenage daughter.

And in Paris, a drifter Chinese-American translator (Matt Wu) ponders his next move while renewing a relationship with his girlfriend (Lu Huang), a former Hong Kong TV star who is struggling to make it as a serious journalist. Meanwhile, the young man's parents are on the verge of divorce, giving him doubts about the future of his own relationship.

Sway made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and has also screened in Taipei's Golden Horse fest, last year's Singapore International and this year's Shanghai fest.

Critical reception has been fair so far, and I've got my own review.

It's in limited release at Esplanade Ratchada, House, Major Cineplex Ratchayothin and SF World Cinema at CentralWorld. Rated 18+

Also opening

Point Break– Kathryn Bigelow's cult-classic 1991 action drama is remade for the new extreme-sport generation, with Luke Bracy in Keanu Reeves' role as FBI agent Johnny Utah, who goes undercover in a gang of thrill-seeking surfers who are committing a series of high-stakes heists. Edgar Ramirez steps into Patrick Swayze's role as the philosophical Bodhi. Kurt Wimmer (Ultraviolet, Equilibrium) provides the script, which delves more into the spirituality, mythology and motivations of Bodhi and his gang. And Ericson Core, helming his second feature after the fight flick Invincible, pulls double duty in the director's chair and behind the lens. Critical reception is just starting to form. Rated 15+

Veteran– Here's a slickly made police drama from South Korea, in which a lone maverick detective goes after a corrupt young business executive. It's the same cop story that's been told many cop times, but is still "crackerjack entertainment", according to Film Business Asia. It has Thai and English subtitles at select Major Cineplex branches.

The Nightmare– Billed as a "documentary-horror", The Nightmare deals with the supposed phenomenon of "sleep paralysis", a condition in which sufferers are fully conscious and aware of their surroundings but are unable to move. The additionally suffer from disturbing visions of ghosts or demons. Or so the stories say. Critical reception has been generally positive. Rated 15+

The New Adventures of Aladdin– Two friends take jobs as Santas in a bid to rob a department store but then become storytellers for children. They take a page from "One Thousand and One Nights" and then become characters from those stories as they head off on an adventure. Starring comedian Kev Adams, it's a mainstream French comedy and looks quite a bit like mainstream Thai TV comedies. The Hollywood Reporter sums up"make a wish you don't see it".Seems it is Thai-dubbed only.

Also showing

The Friese-Greene Club– Another favorite movie of Woody Allen's, François Truffaut's childhood drama The 400 Blows, screens tonight. Tomorrow, there's more youthful drama in Larry Clark's edgy Ken Park. Saturday's restored classic is 1969's The Color of Pomegrantes, which was dusted off in observance of the 100th anniversary of Armenian genocide in Turkey. And on Sunday, Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan spread Christmas cheer in The Shop Around the Corner. Next Wednesday, it's one of my favorite movies, Michael Winterbottom's entertaining and endlessly quotable 24 Hour Party People, covering the rise and fall of music impresario Tony Wilson, Factory Records and the Manchester music scene. Steve Coogan's character explains: "I don't want to say too much, don't want to spoil it. I'll just say one word: 'Icarus'. If you get it, great. If you don't, that's fine too. But you should probably read more." Shows are at 8pm. The FGC is down an alley next to the under-renovation Queen's Park Imperial Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. For more details, check the club's Facebook page.

German Open Air Cinema– Three struggling Berlin artists decide to collaborate on a project sponsored by a biotech company and they become the next step in human evolution in the science-fiction comedy-drama Art Girls. The show is at 7.30pm on Tuesday, December 15, outdoors at the Goethe-Institut on Sathorn Soi 1.

Alliance Française– There are two free French movies to list this week. On Saturday, there's a holiday-themed 2pm matinee for families and children, Santa's Apprentice. And then the usual weekday screening is My Sweet Pepper Land, a 2013 drama about a Kurdish war hero police officer who takes a job in a remote, lawless town near the Turkish border. There, he forms a bond with another newcomer to the territory, a female schoolteacher. The show is at 7pm on Wednesday, December 16, at the Alliance.

Take note

There is a new-ish film-focused nightlife establishment in Bangkok – Cinema Winehouse on Samsen Road in the Khao San backpacker neighborhood. They screen double features from 7.30 nightly. This month's schedule is devoted to Christmas films. I don't get to that part of the city too frequently, so I haven't been there myself and can't vouch for the place, but others have mentioned it so I thought I would too.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening August 6-11, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening August 12-19, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening August 20-26, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene special: Bangkok Asean Film Festival

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening August 27-September 2, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening September 3-9, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening September 10-16, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening September 17-23, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening September 24-30, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening October 1-7, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening October 8-14, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening October 15-21, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening October 22-28, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening October 29-November 4, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening November 5-11, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening November 12-18, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening November 19-25, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening November 26-December 2, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening December 3-9, 2015

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening December 10-16, 2015