prachya pinkaew Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Are you sick and tired of Asian ghost stories? Me, too! Actually, not so much the true originals -- the Japanese Ringu scared the daylights out of me -- as the boring, sanitized American remakes, which have made the iconic "girl with long black hair" something to be yawned at rather than feared. But people still love ghost stories, so why not have fun with them? Something like a "CGI kiddie-horror movie from the guys who made Ong Bak"?

Nak just screened at the Rotterdam film fest, and Ard Vijn of Twitch says it's "more inspired by Miyazaki than by Dragonball Z." Produced by Prachya Pinkaew, who directed the high-flying, high-kicking Tony Jaa in Ong Bak, the animated flick features the title character, "inarguably Thailand's most famous ghost," as well as our friend Sadako from The Ring and the closet-dwelling little boy from The Grudge.

The trailer features everything you'd want: kids, ghosts, martial arts, and a crooning animal singer (?!). (Hattip to Wise Kwai, who found it.) Nak was released in its native Thailand last April, where Wise Kwai reviewed it in his Thai Film Journal: "Western fast food is derided as 'Rotten Burger.' Fat-cat ghosts wheel about in their luxury cars, with zombie schoolgirls decked out in too-tight white blouses and too-short black skirts ... Another cute female ghost is the banana tree ghost, who wears a yellow tube top and wields bananas as weapons." Hmm, I could use a banana tree ghost to deal with those unruly kids in my apartment complex.

Of course, there's no word on US distribution, but may I suggest a title change? In the same spirit that made Ringu into The Ring, how about changing Nak into The Nak? Might make all the difference in the world. The official web site has more info.

Get ready for JiJa-mania! First, though, we have to decide how to spell her name. JiJa Yanin (as her name appears on a Hong Kong DVD, JeeJa Yanin as it's spelled at IMDb, Yanin 'Jeeja' Wismitanant according to film writer Wise Kwai) is a whirling dervish of a woman warrior in Prachya Pinkaew's Thai action flick Chocolate. And you can order it on DVD today, as long as you can play foreign-region DVDs, can understand Thai, and/or don't mind the lack of English-language sub-titles.

I'd rather understand everything that's going on in the movie, but there's been no word on a US distributor and I've grown impatient since first hearing about Chocolate back in February, when it was released in its native Thailand. Even without sub-titles, though, it's easy to follow the narrative.

A gun-toting female debt collector has an affair with a Japanese man, which enrages the gang leader who considers the woman his personal property. She is forced to raise her autistic daughter alone. Her daughter becomes an enfant terrible as far as kick boxing and martial arts are concerned, and soon is demonstrating her uncanny ability to catch flies and whatever is thrown at her -- baseballs, tennis balls, knives -- on the streets of Bangkok.

Mom gets sick, though, and the young girl who loves chocolate discovers Mom's book of old debts and decides to start collecting from a nefarious collection of criminal businessmen. Of course, they don't want to pay, and they all employ dozens of henchmen all too eager to viciously attack a young, pretty teenager, and so our young heroine must fight back the only way she knows how.

I know you shouldn't be jealous of friends, but dang! A couple of my friends from Twitch are in Berlin right about now, preparing to watch Prachya Pinkaew's Chocolate at the European Film Market, and I'm jealous. (Cue: raised fist and railing at the heavens.) I'm also jealous of all the good people in Thailand, where the movie opens today. Why so jealous? First, Pinkaew directed Ong Bak and The Protector, both of which were rocket-fueled flicks filled with jaw-dropping action. And second, have you seen the trailer?

The trailer hit last month and features "Jeeja" as an autistic girl who kicks butt like there's no tomorrow. She was discovered four years ago by Pinkaew while he was helping to cast another movie (Born to Fight), according to Bangkok newspaper The Nation. She didn't get a part in that film, but Pinkaew was so impressed he invited her to begin working with his friend and fellow filmmaker Panna Rittikrai. She's been training in martial arts ever since.

Thai film expert Wise Kwai says the first 30 minutes develops the heroine's character, followed by "90 minutes of non-stop, innovative and dangerous action, as new female martial arts star Yanin 'Jeeja' Wismitanant single-handedly lays waste to dozens of men with just her feet, knees, shins and fists." Given the current inhospitable climate for nearly all foreign-language genre films in the US, I don't expect Chocolate to get a wide theatrical release, but it would be sweet if some kind distributor gave it exposure on the specialty festival circuit and selected theatrical playdates -- like Magnolia Pictures did with Rittikrai's Dynamite Warrior -- before releasing it on DVD.

[ Via Grady Hendrix at Kaiju Shakedown. ]