Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening August 27-September 2, 2009

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

With Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Hayao Miyazaki offers another of his fanciful animated environmental parables with this story of a strange-looking goldfish who wishes she were a human girl.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" the tiny fish-girl Ponyo rides a jellyfish and meets a five-year-old boy, Sosuke, who vows to protect her, but Ponyo is taken back to the sea. Desperate to be a human and live with Sosuke, Ponyo heads to land again with help from her sisters.

It's a rare hand-drawn animated film in an era dominated by the hi-tech 3-D graphics of Pixar, DreamWorks Animation and others.

"I believe that making animation with pencils is the only way for us to survive," Miyazaki was quoted as saying at a news conference in July by Agence France-Presse. He had used a mix of computer animation on 1997's Princess Mononoke but has since shunned computers.  "Everybody is discarding pencils. Because of that, at least we should not lose track of ourselves. I want to continue to work in such circumstances."

The film used 170,000 hand-drawn pictures to animate characters and objects, a record number for a Miyazaki production. It took one and a half years for 70 staff to draw the pictures, according to Studio Ghibli, which has released his works. The film also uses numerous other manually drawn pictures as the background -- with the succession of screens creating a slightly jittery atmosphere to the film, AFP says.

Speculation was after his previous film, 2004's Howl's Moving Castle, that Miyazaki would retire. Still, the people are asking him what's next, to which he says: "I will soon turn 70. I'm now telling myself that I should not talk about things in the future."

Ponyo was recently released in the U.S. by Disney with such names as Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson and Matt Damon providing the voices. A Jonas brother and a Cyrus sister voice the main child characters for the Disney release. But in Thailand, it's from Studio Ghibli and local distributor M Pictures, and is playing with the Japanese soundtrack and English and Thai subtitles at the Siam and at Paragon.

Also opening

Fan Kao (My Ex) -- The gossip press were abuzz earlier this week when actor Shahkrit Yamnarm boycotted the press premiere of his new romance-horror-thriller from RS Film's Avant studio. Seems Shahkrit was angry about the rumors that implied the character he plays in the film -- a womanizing actor -- is based on him, and that during filming he'd groped one of his female co-stars and become excited at the sight of another in a bikini. RS Film rubbished the rumors, but as the old Hollywood saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity.  “Gybzy”  Wanida Termthanaporn, “Bowie” Attama Chiwanitchapan and “Aom” Navadee Mokkhavesa also star in this story of an actor who finds himself stalked and has people dying all around him after he's dumped one girl too many.

Bandslam -- An awkward teenage boy (Gaelan Connell) -- the stereotypical new kid in town -- assembles a rock band that includes two young women (Alyson Michalka and Vanessa Hudgens) who are way too cute for him. Their goal is to compete against the best in the biggest event of the year, a battle of the bands.

Also showing

I've Loved You for So Long -- Kristen Scott Thomas gives an acclaimed performance in this French drama about a woman trying to reconnect with her family and society after being "away" for 15 years. It's the closing film in the DVD series at the Chulalongkorn University International Film Festival at 5 on Friday in room 503 of CU's Boromrajakumari Building. It'll be shown with English subtitles. A discussion by Thai movie critics follows.

Water Drops of Life -- A compilation of 11 short films in celebration of the Royal Development Center is showing for free in a limited run this week at Paragon Cineplex, Esplanade Cineplex, Major Ratchayothin and EGV Pinklao from August 27 to September 2, at 7 on weekdays and at 5 on Saturday and Sunday. Call (02) 934 6730 or (083) 228 6739.

Kaminey -- Back for another run this weekend is this story of identical twins (Shahid Kapur) who take divergent paths from squalor to prosperity only to find that they only have each other. Priyanka Chopra and Amol Gupte also star. In Hindi with English subtitles at Grand EGV Siam Discovery at 8 on Saturday and 4 on Sunday. Call (089) 488 2620 or (02) 225 7500 or visit www.BollywoodThai.com.

A bit of breather this week with just three new releases and no film festivals going on.

For the coming weeks, I expect that the new-release calendar will be light as films trickle through the bottleneck of the new motion-picture ratings system, which needs time to establish a routine for itself and find a proper footing.

Next big thing happening will be the Bangkok International Film Festival from September 24 to 30. The fest has already listed a number of films on its website, including the Grand Prize winner from Cannes this year, A Prophet by Jacques Audiard. There's also Broken Embrace, the latest from Pedro Almodovar.

Another highly acclaimed film this year is Burma VJ, a Dutch production that uses smuggled-out video footage of the 2007 democratic uprising. It's in the documentary showcase, signalling a year in which important Southeast Asian films are highlighted.

Sticking close to home in the Southeast Asian competition is Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Nymph, Imburnal by Sherad Anthony Sanchez from the Philippines and Call If You Need Me, the latest from Malaysia's James Lee -- a past winner at the fest. Fans of Filipino independent cinema will want to check out Manila by Raya Martin and Adolfo Alix Jr. in the Southeast Asian Panorama.

Another Thai film, the much-lauded Agrarian Utopia by independent filmmaker Uruphong Raksasad, will screen in the Documentary Showcase -- the Bangkok premiere for this documentary-style drama that has been the toast of the festival circuit this year.

Looking further ahead, the World Film Festival of Bangkok runs from November 6 to 15 at Siam Paragon. Festival director Victor Silakong has been working hard to line up interesting independent films as well as classic works for the festival's annual tributes and retrospectives. Keep your eye here for more about that.