Banlieue 13 - Ultimatum

Back in 2004, French action stars Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle burst onto the scene with Banlieue 13 (District 13), making the concrete and asphalt of their rough-and-tumble Paris neighborhood their trapeze for a brand of urban acrobatics that's known as parkour.

It looked like they'd been influenced by Tony Jaa's alley-running, barbwire-hoop-jumping antics in 2003's Ong-Bak -- and the appetite for such stunts whetted by Ong-Bak certainly helped helped Banlieue 13 gain some fans. Also, Banlieue 13 writer-producer Luc Besson imported Ong-Bak to France.

But David Belle has been doing stunts and parkour since at least the 1990s.  And parkour has been around since at least World War I. So it's a chicken and egg thing. Likely Tony Jaa had seen some footage of David Belle and decided to incoporate the moves into his movie.

Anyway, Banlieue 13 has been a cult sensation, and action fans have been awaiting a sequel ever since. It's the story of a crusading cop (Raffaelli) and a local rogue (Belle) who use parkour to quell a gang war in their ghetto war zone.

Banlieue 13 - Ultimatum continues the onslaught of commercial French films into Thai cinemas. It's also called B13-U, or if you're not into the whole brevity thing B13-U Ultimatum, even though U stands for Ultimatum. It's playing with French soundtrack and English and Thai subtitles at Paragon; elsewhere it's Thai dubbed.

Also opening

Cheri -- British director Stephen Frears presents a breezy romantic comedy, set in 1920s Paris, with Michelle Pfeiffer sinking her teeth into a meaty role as an ageing courtesan who takes the wayward son of another courtesan under her wing, and shows him the ways of love. Kathy Bates and Rupert Friend also star. At the Lido.

The Secret of Moonacre -- Bridge to Terabithia director Gabor Csupo is back with a another family-friendly children's fantasy, this one based on a book called The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Gouge. Dakota Blue Richards follows her Golden Compass turn, again playing a child who discovers she's the key to saving the world or some such. A lion on the poster is there to confuse Chronicles of Narnia fans. A unicorn draws in all the other fantasy fans. Ioan Gruffud and Tim Curry also star.

Also showing

Kambakkht Ishq -- Bollywood invades Hollywood in this romantic comedy, in which a misogynistic swashbuckling stuntman (Akshay Kumar) meets his match in a fiery, man-hating Los Angeles supermodel and surgeon (Kareena Kapoor). Aside from cameos by Sylvester Stallone, Brandon Routh and Denise Richards, the buzz about this film is that it breaks the Bollywood “no kissing” taboo and had a record opening last weekend, earning 460 million rupees (Bt320.8 million). It’s in Hindi with English subtitles at 8 on Friday, 5 and 8 Saturday and 4 and 7.30 on Sunday at SFWorld CentralWorld and 8 on Monday at SFX Emporium. Call (089) 488 2620, (02) 225 7500 or visit www.BollywoodThai.com.

Tropfest -- Billed as the world’s biggest short-film festival, Australia's Tropfest returns to Bangkok on Sunday, with its 16 finalist shorts at the Scala Theatre in Siam Square. Events start at 6.30pm, with Australian goodies on sale. Admission is free, but show up early to get a seat.

Short Film Marathon -- In the run-up to next month's 13th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (August 13-24), the Short Film Marathon has started and it's running until August 2, with daily screenings. Around 700 shorts have been submitted. Not all can be shown in the festival itself, but they have to be shown sometime, so that's what this is for. The venue this year is conference room 4 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. The schedule is all in Thai, but I think screenings generally start around 5 daily.

Take note

Sorry for not getting this up until Friday. I was prepared to post this on Thursday night, but the Nation Weblogs were down for some reason. Lost my window of opportunity. Now I'm running behind.

This week is a bit odd with its hodgepodge of new releases. It's as if the cinemas are catching a breath after insanely stupid blur of explosions and digital metal in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and before next week's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince casts its spell.

Amid these blockbusters, there are still many other movies to watch. Pen-ek Ratanaruang's quiet, cerebral Nang Mai (Nymph) hasn't held up well against the Hollywood releases, or even the competing Thai release, Mum Jokmok's broad high-society satire, Wongkamlao, which I surprisingly enjoyed.

But Nymph is worth seeing in the cinema, just for the immersive experience of being dragged into the woods by a couple in a troubled marriage. I've seen both the Cannes Version and Pen-ek's new Director's Cut, and I like them both. The Cannes Version is longer and doesn't have a score -- the creaking of the woods and the wind through the branches is the soundtrack. There are scenes that are easy to see why they were edited out for the Director's Cut, but they also add to the characters. The Cannes Version is playing at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld and at Paragon Cineplex. The Director's Cut is playing everywhere else, including House on RCA.

I'm glad I got to see both versions, but if pressed, I'd have to say I prefer the tighter-edited Director's Cut, but as much as I liked the score -- which you don't notice until you watch the movie without it -- I'd like to see the Director's Cut without a score.

Nymph has taken a slagging critically, and I'm frankly surprised by the negativity coming from experienced cinema hands. There's the persistent nagging of "I don't understand it" coming from people I assumed had brains. Well, what's not to understand? A guy goes into the woods and falls in love with a tree, a tree that gives him all the emotional and physical nurturing that he isn't getting from his cold-hearted, cheating bitch of a wife. End of story.

Other criticisms are that it's dull, that there's nothing happening, or that it's too similar to another Thai filmmaker's work. And I just don't get it. I find Nymph entrancing, a great escape from the ordinary. There's plenty to see. And as far as Nymph being too similar to Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady, what with the nakedness in the woods, and I don't see that at all. They are different films, with different structures, about different spirits, different problems and different relationships. Both equally worthy of consideration independently of each other.

Whew. Didn't mean to go off on a rant there. Aside from Nymph, other "don't miss" movies still hanging around are Departures at the Siam and House, the real vampire movie Let the Right One In, and the real greaseball Mafia movie, Gomorra, also at House.