Archive - 12th Five Flavours Film Festival

Samui Song

Thailand, Germany, Norway 2017, 108’
subtitles: Polish and English
director: Pen-ek Ratanaruang
screenplay: Pen-ek Ratanaruang
cinematography: Chankit Chamnivikaipong
editing: Patamanadda Yukol
music: Koichi Shimizu
cast: Cherman Boonyasak, David Asavanond, Vithaya Pansringarm, Stéphane Sednaoui
producer: Raymond Phathanavirangoon, Rasarin Tanalerttararom
production: Bluering Company Ltd, Augenschein Filmproduktion, Tenk.tv
sales: Urban Distribution Intl
Polish distributor: Pięć Smaków Kino Azji
language: Thai, English
colouration: colour

Awards and festivals

Venice FF, Toronto IFF, Busan IFF, Chicago IFF, CPH PIX, Haifa IFF, Festival du Nouveau Cinema - Montreal, Tokyo Filmex, Hawaii IFF, Sao Paulo IFF, San Diego Asian FF, Singapore IFF, Films from the South - Oslo, Kolkota IFF, Macao IFF, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Kerala IFF, Luxembourg City FF, Hong Kong IFF, Innovative IFF Bangalore, Minneapolis Saint Paul IFF, Giornate degli Autori - Venice, Sydney FF, Taipei FF, New Horizons IFF

Film description

The 30-year-old Viyada, a popular TV actress, specializes in playing villains. Her private life also seems to be turning into a plot of a film – she is stuck in an ice-cold marriage with a wealthy foreigner, a wanna-be sculptor increasingly drawn to a religious movement led by a strict guru. The woman is forced to take drastic measures to free herself from her oppressive condition.

The brilliant, thrilling narration leads the audiences into a psychological drama with a Freudian twist. The cold, atmospheric cinematography is contrasted with the latent entanglement of flaring emotions, which eventually have to burst out. The director admits to being inspired by Hitchcock, but his tale of dark sexuality, the masks w put on even in very close relationships, and the institutions feeding off of spiritual explorations, is universal and contemporary. The ironic film noir turns into a social critique, applicable not only to Thailand.

Jagoda Murczyńska

Pen-ek Ratanaruang

Born in 1962 in Bangkok, graduated from the department of Art History at the New York Pratt Institute, where he studied between 1977 and 1985. He started off as a freelance illustrator and designer. In 1993, he began working for Film Factory in Bangkok, where he met Wisit Sasanatieng. Both directors are currently considered as the most prominent filmmakers of the Thai New Wave. In Film Factory, Pen-ek shot a few successful, award-winning commercials. A few years later he made his feature debut, "Fun Bar Karaoke," which premiered at Berlinale IFF. In the 2000s, the director was involved in a series of pan-Asian productions, working with filmmakers from Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Recently, he has been dividing his time between collaborations and his auteur projects.

Selected filmography:

1997 Fun Bar Karaoke
1999 69 / 6ixtynin9 / Ruang Talok 69
2001 Monrak Transistor
2003 Ostatnie życie we wszechświecie / Last Life in the Universe / Ruang Rak Noi Nid Mahasan
2006 Niewidzialne fale / Invisible Waves
2007 Ploy
2009 Nymph / Nang mai
2011 Headshot: Mroczna karma / Headshot
2014 The Life of Gravity / Raeng dueng dood
2017 Samui Song

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