Thailand - Film Recommendations

For more Thai culture recommendations see my music and book posts!

I’ll give some recommendations further down but I want to start with some resources on Thai cinema and some notes on seeing Thai movies in Thailand, which is definitely a thing that should be on everyone’s Thailand travel itinerary! I also briefly discuss the Thai Film Museum in a suburb of Bangkok.

First off, I don’t know any critics who regularly cover Thai films, but there’s a great blog (sadly retired since 2016) on Thai film called Wise Kwai’s Thai Film Journal, with a few thousand posts since it began in 2003. The writer’s top 10 is listed on the right side of the page. The site has a mix of reviews and news, if you just want reviews you can browse them here. From scanning reviews, he seems to have good taste, and I look forward to spending a lot of time on this site when I one day do a deep dive into Thai cinema. I don’t know what Wise Kwai is up to these days, but I want him to know that he is missed.

I found another blog called Thai World View which is a Thai movie database, quite useful especially considering Wikipedia and IMDb are lackluster for Thailand (though the Cinema of Thailand Wikipedia page is good and worth reading). You can search for films that received a 5/5 rating (though other than the rating there’s little opinion given, the text accompanying each title mostly consists of plot summaries), or for specific genres (I gotta dig into these Buddhism movies), or through directors’ filmographies, and more, and there are some best-of lists by decade on the FAQ page. There are also pages on film history, old theaters, co-productions with other countries, and other fun random Thai cinema things. The website contains much more on Thailand (that page is good for browsing the cinema pages, too), I haven’t had a chance to go through much of it but I’m impressed with the level of detail.

I also look forward to reading Thai Cinema: The Complete Guide, edited by Mary J. Ainslie and Katarzyna Ancuta. From the preview it looks like a great overview of major Thai films and filmmakers. I’ll have to search for some more books. A Century of Thai Cinema looks more like a coffee table picture book with posters and other promotional material, likely fun and valuable if not super informative. I also know of Thai Cinema Uncensored Paperback by Matthew Hunt which looks very good. Though it focuses on censorship, it seems to have a lot of interesting information on the history and inner workings of the industry.

For people who love visiting or just reading about and seeing pictures of old cinemas, there’s an excellent blog called The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project where Phil Jablon photographs and writes about old cinemas, mostly single screens, all around Thailand and its neighbors. I check the blog for every place I go in Thailand to see if he’s written about any theaters there. Though very few old cinemas are still operating in Thailand, many buildings are still standing and I’ve gotten to visit a number of them. In some cases, I never would have found them if it weren’t for the blog. The blog also has great photos of the theaters and interesting stories about them that I love reading, sometimes giving really unusual historical details about the places they’re in. Jablon has published the coffee table book Thailand's Movie Theatres: Relics, Ruins and The Romance of Escape which I’ve flipped through and would love to buy if/when I settle down somewhere.

The great Thai history blog Siam Rat has a post on Thai film history, highly recommended.

Also, if you’re a film fan, I recommend going to the Thai Film Museum at the Thai Film Archives, on the outskirts of Bangkok. It’s probably not something to prioritize on a short trip, especially since it’s at least half an hour from anywhere else you’d be in the city, and it would take up a good chunk of the day to visit. But for a hardcore film fan it’s a real treat and something to consider, and people who live in or visit Bangkok for longer stays should consider it even if they aren’t film geeks. It’s the nicest film museum I’ve ever been to (not saying much, maybe I’ve been to three), and it can be clubbed with some other activities. Don Wai floating market is nearby, as are some other things, and I alway really enjoy visiting random suburbs of Bangkok (there’s a nice university to walk through, nice cafes, etc). I went by Grab, it took around 45 minutes from where I was staying. Depending on where you are staying, you can catch the 515 AC bus.

If I recall correctly it’s free but you have to bring your passport for some reason. The website frustrates me but contains more info about visiting. Current hours are 9:30am to 5:30pm, Tuesday through Sunday, and there are specific tour timings for some of the best parts of the museum, so plan around that when you get there (see here for more info). There are a number of very fun and well done exhibits, some permanent and some temporary, with a mix of general filmmaking and film history as well as Thai film history. I loved seeing sets and props from famous Thai movies, and there are actual still-working old film viewing devices such as penny arcades and peep shows. I got to see Lumiere Brothers shorts projected on film, in a recreation of the venue where they held their first screening. Very cool! I was surprised at how elaborate and well crafted it all was. The staff was also very nice, and there’s even a nice gift shop. I’d love to go back!

They also have a great library and several screening venues, with screenings almost every day (schedule here, mostly Thai movies, most don’t have subtitles but some do, you can find out by clicking on the film). I’ve wanted to go back to see some movies but it hasn’t worked out. When I was there I walked into one of the auditoriums (I forgot which one) and it was great, a large theater with perfect projection, showing an old documentary with amazing footage of Bangkok’s Chinatown. 

The Thai Film Archive restores and preserves Thai films and they seem to be doing a great job. Their YouTube page has a lot of great old documentary footage (The Archaeologist's Journey to Siam 1929 is the first thing that popped up, and there is much more!), and though they have classic movies as well, the films are mostly unsubtitled, are not in HD, and are watermarked. The picture quality is generally pretty good looking though. I would pay good money for a streaming service of their offerings, with good subtitles, in HD, with no watermark. 

Seeing Thai Movies In Thailand

I don’t think a lot of people realize that Thai movies play in most Thai theaters with English subtitles. This is pretty unique, I think. I haven’t traveled to any other non-English speaking country where I could go into the average theater and watch a local movie with English subtitles. Most people might not consider seeing local movies as a thing to do when traveling, but I think it’s one of the best things to do and I hope I can convince people to go see some Thai movies. My wife and I are usually the only visibly non-Thai looking people seeing Thai movies, so I guess people aren’t taking advantage of this very special opportunity as much as they could.

The two big theater chains in Thailand are Major and SFX. Most nice malls will have one of them, and you can look for them wherever you visit. Outside of the chains, the one independent theater I’ve gone to is The House cinema at Samyan mall in Bangkok, probably my favorite theater in the country. There are some other indie theaters in Bangkok such as Doc Club & Pub but Thai movies are uncommon at them. The websites will tell you if there are subtitles. 

If you are in a very small town, the theaters probably don’t have subtitles, but the big towns/small cities tend to have them. I saw Thai movies with subtitles in Lampang and Khon Kaen, for example. Chances are if the theater is in a Central Mall, then there will be subtitles. Just check the websites, or if you are there in person you can look at the booking kiosks or ask at the counter.

But… how are the movies? Well, the Thai film industry isn’t great, and the chances of something great playing while you are there are low. Some months only have one or two Thai movies that come out at all. In the six months I’ve spent in Thailand over the past three years, I saw 13 Thai movies in theaters and wouldn’t say any were great (I consider a great movie to be 8/10 or above). However, more than half of the Thai movies I saw were pretty decent to pretty good (6/10 or 7/10). The pretty good movies tend to do well and play in theaters for a long time (1-2 months), so at any given moment, there’s a solid chance that a pretty good Thai movie will be playing. I consider this to be worthwhile. And you might get lucky and see a great movie. I swear that every time I’m in Thailand I catch a great looking trailer for a movie coming out the week after I leave.

There’s also a fair amount of trash, but seeing a bad movie in Thailand isn’t such a bad thing to do either. I find even the really bad Thai movies to be pretty watchable, unlike in India where the really bad movies are just brutal, punishingly long experiences that make me question how my life has taken such a wrong turn. Also, it’s pretty apparent from the trailers which ones are going to be terrible. 

(Note that the trailers in Thailand tend to give away the whole movie. I always close my eyes after a certain point in the trailer.)

If you’re not in Thailand a long time, I’m not sure you want to waste your precious time seeing a non-Thai movie, but the selection of world cinema is actually really good in Bangkok. Much better than India, and as good as a big city in the U.S. You get pretty much everything, including significant international arthouse releases and new mainstream releases from all over Asia, with subtitles. Bangkok is a good cinephile city. Chiang Mai isn’t as good but is decent. Outside of Bangkok and Chiang Mai, though, it’s mostly Thai movies and major Hollywood movies, and the Hollywood movies are often dubbed. I’ve never noticed any censorship of foreign films in Thailand, unlike in India (though Thai movies have many rules to follow). There are many good looking film festivals, too.

The experience of seeing movies is generally good. I’ll write about individual theaters in the city posts, but usually the theaters are quite nice, and some in particular are very fancy. I’m not always satisfied with the picture and sound, but on average the situation is pretty good. The smaller town theaters particularly impressed me.

Audiences are always well behaved. I count that I’ve seen 28 movies in Thailand and I don’t recall a single time someone was on their phone or disturbed me in any way, though probably around half of the movies I’ve gone to have been in largely empty theaters, which makes me sad. Specifically for Thai movies, Wednesday discount days seemed pretty busy in Bangkok, where tickets are otherwise pretty expensive. Maybe they should consider lowering the prices to foster a greater culture of moviegoing as a regular activity? On the discount days I noticed a lot of people were seeing movies alone, and notably young women, which doesn’t happen much in India. I recommend going to Thai movies in particular on discount days so you can get the experience of a fuller audience.

I did have one very odd experience, and it seemed like something that would only happen in Thailand. I booked my ticket, let’s say it was F13, in a mostly empty theater and fully empty row. I sat, without realizing, in F12. Right before the movie started, two young guys came in and said their seats were F11 and F12. I apologized and got up to scoot over, but it was very dark so I pulled out my phone to see the seat numbers, but they said “no no, it’s okay, you stay there,” which seemed obvious to me until they brought up that I was in their seat. But then they, not wanting to take anyone else’s seat, split up and sat to the left and right of me. I tried swapping with them and they said, “no no, it’s okay,” and at that point the movie was starting and I accepted it and watched the whole movie sandwiched between two Thai people who planned to sit together. The weird mix of rule following, accommodating, and non-confrontational struck me as uniquely Thai. 

Thai theaters also play the (very overdramatic) national anthem, and maybe 5-10% of Thai people stand. When I went to see an Indian movie, though, all of the Indian people stood for the Thai national anthem, while a young Thai couple remained seated.

Wise Kwai wrote about seeing movies in Thailand back in 2009. It’s interesting to see the changes. You had to stand for the anthem back then, and there was more censorship. He also mentioned something that I forgot to bring up: the theaters can be really cold. Bring a jacket!

Thai Film Recommendations

As I mentioned above, the Thai film scene since I started visiting Thailand in 2022 hasn’t been great, and though I recommend going for Thai movies in theaters, I wouldn’t classify any of what I saw as a must see. Of the 13 that I’ve seen in that time, I’d maybe only really recommend one or two (though I liked several others and enjoyed the experience of watching them in Thailand, they’re just not very memorable or noteworthy in the grand scheme of cinema). I have seen a good amount of Thai action movies 10-20 years back, along with a few major arthouse films, but beyond that I don’t have much knowledge of Thai cinema.

I watched probably 100+ trailers over the course of my Thailand visits and spent a lot of time browsing through writer and director filmographies and I get the sense earlier decades were a lot stronger than the current one. I don’t know why this is. Most of the good looking directors from the 00s are barely active, and the ones still around rarely make theatrical movies. Some have migrated to Netflix, and when I watch Netflix trailers I find myself wishing those were in theaters. Thailand had a strong showing at film festivals from the early 00s to mid-2010s, and that’s largely dried up too. The thriving action film scene that thrilled me as a teenager has vanished. Thai movies are outnumbered by foreign movies in most movie theaters I go to (usually a mix of Hollywood, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean films). 

This is all too bad, but I have a lot to look forward to when I get around to watching older Thai movies. I won’t watch a movie on anything less than a very large and high quality TV, so I only see movies in theaters when I’m outside of the U.S. However, I have the fantasy of settling down for a while and watching hundreds of Thai movies and writing the ultimate guide to Thai cinema, some years down the line. At the Thai Film Museum they showed a 10ish minute reel of beautifully restored footage from Thai films throughout history and I was blown away by what I saw.

Putting the action movies aside as a separate category (I’ll get to them at the end), you’re better off watching the movies I haven’t seen than anything particular I have to recommend. To help you and me find some great films, I’ve put together a list of every Thai film that has ever played at the Cannes, Venice, and Berlin film festivals (the “Big Three”). If you spot any that I missed, please let me know. Since this is a much smaller list than my India one, I’ve included some smaller categories rather than restricting it to competition categories.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vSPlW8r77OCbwqsu8yBcuZpQkKPv2al4Hg0vId7Lkj8/edit?usp=sharing

This looks like a great list of movies to watch and, more importantly, a great list of filmmakers to look out for as I only knew a handful of the names. I think I’ve only seen two of the films on the list (Boonmee and How to Win at Checkers). I’m not sure it’s very easy to find good quality versions of most of these, though. Last time I was in the U.S., the Criterion Channel had hardly any Thai films and from a quick search it doesn’t look like that’s changed, and Mubi currently has nothing other than a few Weerasethakul films. 

Thailand’s Oscar submission list looks pretty good too, if more middlebrow. I also found two separate lists from the Thai film critic/screenwriter/director/translator/subtitler Kong Rithdee (I hope to check out his own film work too). From his lists I’ve seen Love of Siam which I watched in 2011 and thought was a cute and reasonably entertaining melodrama but not good enough to recommend, so I’m surprised to see it on there, but maybe I’d like it more now that I’m more interested in Thailand, and in any case I like how these lists span a range of Thai films.

The era of Thai cinema I’m most eager to explore is what is sometimes called the Thai New Wave, led by filmmakers such as Nonzee Nimibutr, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Wisit Sasanatieng and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Their works range from mainstream (Nimibutr and Sasanatieng) to artsy high-brow (Weerasethakul) to somewhere in between (Ratanaruang, whose work I’m most excited to watch). I vow to see all of their films, as well as others in the movement. Here is one list, which includes some other directors and films I’m mostly not familiar with, and here’s a Letterboxd list of many more. If you look at the list of Thai films at major film festivals, you’ll see that Weerasethakul and Ratanaruang are the two biggest successes.

Weerasethakul is of course the best known Thai filmmaker internationally, having won at Cannes with Uncle Boonmee, and is considered by many to be among the world’s greatest filmmakers. I regrettably was pretty bored and confused by Boonmee, which I watched in 2012, but I am eager to rewatch it with a greater interest in Thai culture and a greater tolerance of very slow movies. I watched the first 20 minutes of his debut as well but ended up turning it off (admittedly probably not a good entry point to his work). Anyway, I will correct this soon enough.

Other than Weerasethakul, I think the only thing I’ve seen from the above-mentioned filmmakers is a short film titled The Wheel by Nonzee Nimibutr, from the Asian horror anthology film Three (aka Three... Extremes II). I recall watching it but have no memory of it, and I wrote in my short review from 2012 that it was really terrible. I just spent a minute skimming through it on Youtube and think it looks kinda awesome. I also found my 2013 review of Last Life in the Universe by Pen-ek Ratanaruang, but I’m pretty surprised by this because I really have no memory of having seen it, but I do remember wanting to see it for many years. Apparently I really liked it and found it funny, unpredictable, and unique. Prabda Yoon is the co-writer, I want to watch his other work. I believe Last Life and Ratanaruang’s next film Invisible Waves, also written with Yoon, are the only two Thai films shot by the legendary Christopher Doyle.

I know of a few Thai 50s and 60s classics that have been beautifully restored. I’m very excited to watch Santi-Vina, which was Thailand’s first color 35mm film, shot and produced by Rattana Pestonji, an important figure in Thai film history (and for those who did a double take at his name, yes, he’s Parsi!). Pestonji’s short-lived producing partner Robert G. North co-wrote the film and was apparently working in Thailand as an undercover CIA agent to make anti-communist propaganda. Does the CIA still do these things? Are they hiring?

I’m also excited for the various films where Pestonji was writer/director/producer/editor/DP, including the gorgeous looking noir Black Silk and the stylish pop-art rom-com Sugar is Not Sweet. Pestonji is the only Thai filmmaker from this era that I’m familiar with.

There are a lot of Thai movies that I, with my deep love of and interest in Thailand, am excited to one day watch, but I am not sure they would look so good otherwise. One example is Queens of Langkasuka by Nonzee Nimibutr. I actually remember watching the trailer for this as a teenager and thinking it looked bad, like a Thai bargain bin Pirates of the Caribbean knockoff. But watching the trailer now, I think it looks pretty awesome, a rip-roaring Thai fantasy historical adventure! The chances that I love this movie are high, even if everything I once thought about it is still probably true. The same is true of the 2002 Khun Phaen film (see my book section for more info). I’m really excited to watch it. But most of you might not like these.

So, I give a heavily caveated recommendation for Man Suang, which I saw in theaters in 2023. It’s a historical thriller about khon dancers working in Sampheng in the Rama III era. If that’s all gibberish to you, you may want to skip this movie, because it’s not a good movie, with a difficult to follow plot that is way too rushed. But it may still appeal to many of you as it is a lavish production with beautiful sets and costumes, and it depicts an era of Thai history (not necessarily accurately, but who cares) and elements of Thai culture that I’ve never seen before on screen. I really enjoyed the movie despite its glaring flaws, and I think people with similar interests will too, and even those without an interest in Thai history may admire the flamboyance of it. It’s one of those movies where I can easily imagine a better version of it and can see myself really loving that. 

This was a highly anticipated movie for many because the same creative team and the two leads had previously done the very popular KinnPorsche miniseries (a “BL” show, this was educational) which was a breakout hit in and outside of Thailand, apparently even in India. I don’t have much interest in watching the show, but it does look fun, and I liked Man Suang enough that I’d watch another movie from the team, even though I don’t have a crush on the leads like most of its fanbase.

I’ve seen a number of other movies that were objectively better than Man Suang, but also less noteworthy. I liked the romantic dramedies OMG! Oh My Girl, Long Live Love, and Mondo. All were cute, enjoyable, mostly well crafted, had appealing actors, and had many nice cultural details. None are exceptional but all were solid and fun. I think most people will like them. My wife and I still reference them from time to time. There were a few others along these lines that were decent but I don’t feel they are really worth mentioning.

The best Thai movie I saw in recent years was probably Lahn-Ma, also known as How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies. The film was a surprise smash hit all over Southeast Asia, and it apparently spawned a TikTok trend of people posting videos of themselves crying after seeing it. That might make it sound like a manipulative weepy melodrama, but it's actually fairly understated and has more of an independent feel than most of what I’ve seen in Thailand. I quite liked the movie, though I struggled to connect with any of the characters (other than the grandma, oddly), though I seem to be a minority there.

More than for the story or characters, I got a lot out of the film as it’s a beautifully observed portrait of life in Bangkok, showing the side of the city that I adore and that most films don’t show and perhaps most visitors to Bangkok don’t see. Quiet, leafy old neighborhoods, canals, houses stuffed with Thai-Chinese paraphernalia, century old street food vendors, and old people. I thought it captured the feel of Bangkok perfectly, and if I had seen it outside of Thailand, it would have been emotional for me to revisit memories of wandering around and falling in love with the city. Much of the film takes place in Talat Phlu, a lovely old fashioned neighborhood that I only visited once for a few hours and have been eager to explore further. I don’t know whether to credit the production designer or location scout more, but the house the grandma lives in looks just like one I’d glimpse through an open window. This is the first film from the director and co-writer Pat Boonnitipat, who has previously worked in television, and I definitely look forward to more from him.

The film was also beautifully shot by Boonyanuch Kraithong, who did great work on an ambitious, artsy horror film called Faces of Anne. The film didn’t work for me narratively, but there was a lot of great work in the filmmaking (the production design is also noteworthy), and the writing was clever even if it didn’t engage me after a certain point. I recommend it to people who like artsy horror movies (those usually disappoint me, and I thought this was as good as It Follows and films of similar ilk). I was impressed to see something like this come out of the Thai film industry, and I look forward to watching more from the filmmakers. Co-director Rasiguet Sookkarn is primarily a production designer whose work looks strong while writer and co-director Kongdej Jaturanrasamee seems to be one of the top names in Thai cinema today, maybe the only contemporary filmmaker whose work looks consistently interesting and who remains prolific. Most of the other good looking filmmakers work more sporadically.

I think I’ve seen three other horror movies in Thailand (and some older ones that I can't be bothered to look up). Two were pretty bad and not worth mentioning, but the anthology film Haunted Universities 3 had promise and is something I’d recommend to big horror fans, if not necessarily to most people (I haven’t seen any of the others in the anthology series, but none of the stories are connected). The first short in it had a fairly generic story and lackluster filmmaking. I didn’t connect with the second film and I felt like something was getting lost in translation, but it had strong, atmospheric filmmaking. The third film needed a better narrative framing for me, but it was a lot of fun once the horror part of it amped up, and it was great to see with an audience. There are some very tense and funny suspense sequences. I would watch more from the directors of the latter two films, and all three were very Thai, which I liked.

I also caught the first ever release of a film from the 90s called Dog God that was banned for decades and had only ever played in film fests. It’s very very scrappy and low budget, but the script is quite clever and fun. Something different in the Thai film scene. I wish there were more like this. 

I must also mention Thailand’s great cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. He’s largely worked outside of Thailand since 2010 when Uncle Boonmee presumably opened up more global opportunities. I’m always excited when I see his name on a movie (and recent ones I’ve seen have been 35mm!), and I vow to be a Mukdeeprom completist.  

Prior to my Thailand visits, I had primarily seen numerous martial arts films from the country. I’ve probably seen 10-15, though I don’t think I’ve seen any in over a decade. Also, they’ve stopped making these? The Thai action boom burned bright and then flamed out pretty quickly. 

Do I have to tell you about these movies? Everyone reading this far probably knows Tony Jaa? Or are people reading this because they don’t know Tony Jaa? Anyway, his films blew my mind as a teenager. They came at a time when CG, heavy wire work, fast cutting, and shaky cam were the norm, and when the greats of Hong Kong action were getting more conservative and no longer doing totally insane things.

Ong Bak was the breakthrough that put Thai action films on the map, with hard hitting, bone breaking, life threatening fights and chase sequences (everything RZA says in the trailer is true). Plus, there was a unique identity courtesy of Muay Thai, the streets of Bangkok, and elephants. I recall thinking it was surprisingly well constructed narratively and not just a strung together collection of great action scenes (which is how a lot of the Thai action movies are, not necessarily a bad thing, but this makes Ong Bak stand out better than most).

I recommend Ong Bak to everyone, it’s a must on any list of Thai films to watch. Beyond that, it’s up to you, with films that range from solid action movies for those that want more to films that are really only for the hardcore.

I loved Ong Bak’s bigger budget follow-up Tom Yum Goong back in the day too, though it lacks the freshness and narrative economy of Ong Bak, and the polish means the action isn’t as raw and “OMG WTF how did he survive that?!” Still awesome, though. The shortened American version was titled The Protector (with music from the RZA!), and though I’m a purist and always prefer watching original versions I suspect that the more streamlined cut would be stronger. 

Outside of a few action scenes, I didn’t really like Ong Bak 2, which eschewed the urban Bangkok environment for a Thai historical environment that bored me, but now I’m quite curious to rewatch it along with the third film, which I’ve never seen. “In 1431 Siam, during the reign of Borommarachathirat II of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, Tien is the young son of a noble family, whose father Lord Sihadecho sends him to learn dance in a remote village under Master Bua instead of making him a warrior.” 10/10 setup for a historical epic, sounds like the best movie ever. All I remember is the running on top of elephants. The sequels, initially planned as one film, had a famously troubled production and the rumor at the time was that Jaa went crazy and left the shoot to become a monk. Now that I know more about Thailand the monk part is less crazy than it sounded then, but it does sound like Jaa couldn’t handle what was to be his directorial debut, the budget went out of control, his relationship with the studio was strained, and Jaa’s collaborators on the earlier films had to step in to finish the film.

The later Tom Yum Goong 2 bored me (here RZA steps up to play the villain, better in theory than in practice), and the action scenes were no longer as thrilling or physically threatening as they once were, looking more like the sorts of action scenes that the Thai films were once an antidote to. I guess it was inevitable. That was Jaa’s last film in Thailand and I believe his last starring role, he’s since just done smaller parts in international films (I saw him once in LA at a Q&A for Skin Trade… that was exciting!). His western inspired A Man Will Rise was never finished. I do hope he returns to Thailand one day and revitalizes both his career as a leading man and Thai action cinema, but I’m not really counting on it.

Two of Jaa’s key collaborators were Prachya Pinkaew (who wrote and directed most of the aforementioned Jaa films) and Panna Rittikrai (who was writer, choreographer, and co-director on some of the above). Pinkaew is not exclusively an action director, and I think he does a good job at making movies that aren’t just mindless action. His films tend to have a light touch to them and have functional narrative and character work that keeps things moving between the action even if it’s not high level stuff. Rittikrai, on the other hand, is an action savant. I recommend some of their work without Jaa, but these are only for the serious fans of action movies. 

I really liked all of the films I’m mentioning. 10+ years on and with a waning enthusiasm for action cinema, I initially thought I wouldn’t get much out of them today, but as I looked at the trailers while linking them I was really delighted by how wild the action scenes are! I want to get back into these.

A lot of these films have some (often politically incorrect) gimmick that makes them stand out. Chocolate (directed by Pinkaew, choreography by Rittikrai) is about a young autistic girl who kicks ass. The Kick (directed by Pinkaew) is about a Korean family in Bangkok and features both Taekwondo and Muay Thai, and it has a lighthearted family comedy feel to much of it. Power Kids (produced by Pinkaew and Rittikrai, who did the choreography) has a “Die Hard in a Hospital” plot with kids saving the day using their unique and amazing kid fight choreography, never mind that kids should neither be doing these moves nor watching this movie. They’re all awesome.

Rittikrai’s directorial BKO: Bangkok Knockout isn’t as good a movie as any of those, it’s pretty terrible outside of the action, but it’s the most action-packed of all of them and it’s pretty crazy stuff. I haven’t seen his Born to Fight which looks bananas, but I have seen his film from the 80s of the same name. It’s terrible, low budget amateur filmmaking, but it has its old school charms, some crazy stunts, and is an interesting slice of Thai action cinema history. Worth watching the clips I linked.

Rittikrai, who died in 2014, is really the pioneer of Thai action, making what were basically home movies with local stuntmen. “I had no proper training. I learned martial arts from watching Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies. It began with a Bruce Lee film, which I liked very much so I tried to imitate his punches and kicks. After school I would rush home to practice. This was before videotapes so I would go to the cinema - almost 200 times for some movies. When I had mastered one move, I would go back to see another move.” His early films didn’t find much of an audience in Bangkok but became big in the countryside: “You've probably never heard of my movies. They are popular among taxi drivers and som tam vendors and security guards and Isan coolies. My loyalest fans are folk people in the far-out tambons , where they lay out mattresses on the ground and drink moonshine whiskey while watching my outdoor movies.”

Rittikrai discovered Tony Jaa and they did a lot of low budget films together before getting the attention of the more established, mainstream Prachya Pinkaew with whom they made Ong Bak, and the rest is history. I would totally read biographies of Rittikrai and Jaa, who are both from Isaan, and I’d love to see a documentary that tells their stories intercut with clips of their early films, which I’m confident are not worth watching in full but are likely full of great work.

Wikipedia tells me that Rittikrai did choreography on the historical epic The Legend of Suriyothai, directed by Chatrichalerm Yukol (who is a minor royal). I forgot about that. I haven’t seen it, but it looks great, and it got a release in the U.S., recut by Francis Ford Coppola with about 40 minutes chopped off. From a production standpoint I think it looks like Thailand’s best historical film, in a big part thanks to being spearheaded and financed by Queen Sirikit (who also worked with Yukol on the later series King Naresuan), so I’m looking forward to it. I skimmed through director Chatrichalerm Yukol’s earlier work on Youtube and loved some of the footage I saw, though I’m not sure when these movies will ever show up in decent quality prints with subtitles. And Suriyothai reminds me of another historical epic, Bang Rajan, directed by Tanit Jitnukul, this one brought to the U.S. by Oliver Stone, which I find funny. I miss when they used to do those things. Or do they still? 

I also have to mention Sompote Sands, who is the special effects wizard of Thai cinema. On one of my first Bangkok trips I saw one of his films projected onto the wall at a restaurant, and I was transfixed. It may have been Hanuman Meets 7 Supermen but I’m not positive. They all look awesome. There was once a museum where he lived but it got badly damaged by flooding and has never reopened. Someone should open a new Sompote Sands museum, and make a documentary about him.

Thai advertisements are great too. The True commercial Giving made me cry when I watched it over a decade ago. I love this Hatari fan commercial (“How do we solve this? Brahmin!” is my favorite line of dialogue of all time). This racist toothpaste commercial is hilarious and strangely beautiful. (I didn’t save any of these links and was afraid I would spend around half an hour on this section because it would take a lot of time tracking the ads down based on my memory of them, but it really took me around two minutes as google searching “emotional Thai commercial,” “Thai fan commercial,” and “racist Thai toothpaste commercial” brought up exactly what I was looking for!) I never go out of my way to watch ads but maybe I’ll start watching a few on each Thailand trip to expand my list of favorites. More here.

There’s plenty of great old footage of Thailand if you search for it. Here’s some footage of Bangkok in the 80s. I never get around to watching documentaries that I note down as worthwhile, but I’ve saved Walt Disney’s Siam and I Am From Siam, and a bunch on Thai Film Archives. Rattana Pestonji shot some for the Fine Arts Department to promote Thai culture: Thailand 1958, Diamond Fingers, and Dharma Chakra (the first two have narration by Kukrit Pramoj). I vow to devote time to these on my next trip.

I don’t have the patience for Youtube videos but I watched one (on 2x speed) and skimmed through a few others on this Thai food channel called OTR and thought it was very good and will try to watch more on my next trip. Good historical information mixed with interviews with local food people. I only wish these were articles…