In 1923, Henry MacRae of Universal Pictures in the United States filmed "The Lady Suwan" in Thailand, which became the first feature film in Thailand. So far, Thai films have gone through a century of history. Although not a traditional film power, the cultural atmosphere and appeal of Thai films come from its profound cultural traditions, unique subject matter selection, distinctive style characteristics and portrayal of social reality, which are loved by movie fans and have also produced internationally renowned film masters such as Apichatpong and Nawapol.
This month, under the guidance of the Shanghai Municipal Film Bureau, Shanghai Film Group and Charoen Pokphand Group jointly organized the "2024 Shanghai Thailand Urban Film Week", focusing on seven popular and entertaining masterpieces full of youthful romance from a young perspective, bringing fashionable and diverse Thai culture to movie fans.
The films screened at this film festival were carefully created by outstanding Thai filmmakers and can be regarded as a wonderful epitome of Thai urban culture.
Poster of "2024 Shanghai Thailand Urban Film Week"
The city-set movies "Love in Treatment" and "One Day in Love" depict the living conditions and emotional world of young people, work, love, dreams and confusion, allowing the audience to find resonance and comfort in the movies.
The campus-based films "Electric Girl" and "Bad Genius" combine novel fantasy comedy elements to make the audience feel the power of growth in laughter, while the latter shows the audience the collision of youth and dreams through carefully designed cheating methods and exciting plot rhythm. The innovative attempts of these films not only inject vitality into Thai films, but also bring new experiences to the audience.
The classic film "Teacher's Diary" uses a dual narrative technique to interweave the stories of the hero and heroine. The director makes the natural scenery and the plot of the film echo each other, allowing the audience to follow the camera into the inner world of the protagonist. "I'm Fine, Thank You, I Love You" shows the multicultural society of Thailand in a light-hearted and humorous way. "The Perfect Match", a film of the same name adapted from a popular Thai drama, is not only a romantic love comedy, but also a masterpiece showing Thai traditional culture.
As a fresh practice of using movies to promote a leisure lifestyle, in addition to movie-watching activities, the 2024 Shanghai Thai Urban Film Week will also link up with Thai merchants in the Puxi and Pudong business districts, from Lujiazui to Xinhua Road, to provide audiences with exclusive Trendy Thai benefits covering the entire month of May. Before and after watching Thai movies, audiences can also taste Thai flavors, experience Muay Thai training, enjoy Thai SPA, and check in at the Thai market. The urban weekend leisure activities are unified and linked, allowing audiences to immerse themselves in the exploration and discovery of a lifestyle. While enjoying the visual feast brought by the movie, they can also feel the charm of the many aspects of exotic culture.
Tickets for the film festival are currently on sale on ticketing websites such as Maoyan and Tao Piaopiao.
【Introduction to the screening films】
Love Clinic (2015)
Heart Attack
Director: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
Starring: Sunny Suvamethanon, Devika Hoone, etc.
Duration: 130min
Screening/Awards:
2016 Thailand Golden Swan Film Awards Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress
2016 Shanghai International Film Festival Screening Films
2016 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival Screening Films
Plot introduction: 30-year-old Yoon is a photo retoucher. He is very dedicated and puts almost all his energy into his work. Due to excessive fatigue, his resistance is reduced and Yoon suffers from skin disease. In desperation, Yoon has to go to the dermatology department for treatment, where Yoon meets a female doctor named Imm.
Highlights of the film: This is a black comedy written and directed by Nawapol Thamrongkuattanari. With handheld camera and lots of monologues, the film takes small and real daily life as the starting point to analyze urban syndrome, work attitude, lifestyle and love feelings.
Born in 1984, Nawapol is one of the most popular directors in Thailand. Nawapol pays attention to the growth of the younger generation. In his films, freshness is an important visual element, which always brings us freshness and fits the theme of "2024 Shanghai Thailand Urban Film Week" Trendy Thai.
Electric Girl (2015)
May Who?
Director: Chayanop Boonprakob
Starring: Sukada Gulongxi, Tiding Mahayotana, etc.
Duration: 117 minutes
Screening/Awards: 2016 Shanghai International Film Festival Screening Films
Plot summary: Bon is a timid boy who is not easy to attract attention. He has a crush on Min, the cheerleader captain in the school. He likes to draw Min and turn her into a comic. May is an introverted girl with ordinary appearance and ordinary grades, but she has superpowers. She always carries a heart rate meter on her hand. When her heart rate reaches 120, anyone who touches her will be bounced away by electricity, and all the electrical appliances she touches will be burned. May likes Fame, the school hunk, but dares not get close to him. This makes May and Bon sympathize with each other, so they become good friends.
Highlights of the film: "Electric Girl" wonderfully combines youth, love, special abilities, comics and other seemingly unrelated elements. The most exciting part of Thai youth films is that they can make the most clichéd stories into the most delicate and new ones, making urban workers want to go back to school.
Bad Genius (2017)
Bad Genius
Director: Nattawut Poonpiriya
Starring: Chutimon Chuengcharongsuin, Chanon Santintengku, etc.
Duration: 130min
Screening/Awards:
2018 Thailand Golden Swan Film Awards Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor
2018 Asian Film Awards Best New Actor
Plot summary: Lynn, a genius girl born in an ordinary family, met her second-generation rich classmates Grace and Pat after entering an aristocratic school, and began her career of cheating in exams. At the same time, another genius student Bank with an excellent memory discovered Lynn's unknown "deal". After many dangerous "cheating wars", Lynn took the last commission of cheating for rich kids in international exams. A perfect cheating plan across two continents was born, but everything was not as simple as they thought.
Highlights of the film: In 2017, Bad Genius, which cost only 60 million Thai baht (about 12 million RMB) to produce, unexpectedly became popular. In just two weeks after its release in Thailand, Bad Genius earned over 100 million Thai baht at the box office, setting a record for the highest box office of Thai films in mainland China.
The film is adapted from the sensational Asian exam cheating case in 2014. The director mixed many elements such as youth campus and suspense spy war, with ups and downs in the plot and exciting rhythm. The film revolves around three cheating cases, and the methods and risks are gradually upgraded, making the cheating process seem like performing an "impossible task".
Nattawut Pompiriya, a new generation Thai director, won the Puchon Choice Award at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival for his film "Deadly Gunman". Bad Genius is his second feature film. His latest work, "One Cup on the Road", was produced by Wong Kar-wai and won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award: Best Creative Narrative Award.
Teacher's Diary (2014)
The Teacher's Diary
Director: Nithiwat Tharathorn
Starring: Laila Bangyasu, Sugli Wieseko, etc.
Duration: 105min
Screening/Awards:
2015 Thailand Golden Swan Film Awards Best Screenplay, Best Photography, Best Editing, Best Song, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction
2015 Shanghai International Film Festival Screening Films
Plot summary: Song used to be a boxer, but now he has become a teacher in a remote dam area primary school. The conditions in the school are extremely difficult, with no water, no electricity, and no signal. Song feels like he is living on an isolated island, very lonely. By chance, Song got a diary. The owner of the diary is Ann, who used to teach here. Ann recorded her teaching career here in detail in the diary. As time went by, Song's desire to see Ann gradually became stronger. By chance, Ann returned to the dam area primary school, but Song had already left. Ann found her diary, but found Song's continuation in the diary.
Highlights of the film: "Teacher's Diary" is a work by the famous Thai director Nitiva Tharatun, which is fresh, beautiful, warm and touching. A school at sea, a dusty diary, two people who have never met each other, and a most unforgettable longing. "Teacher's Diary" creates this memorable movie with its intertwined and interactive forms of expression.
"Teacher's Diary" is adapted from the true story of Samat Sutha, a Thai teacher who volunteered to teach at a "floating school" in a remote area. The scenes of the "floating school" in the film are basically restored to reality. When Nitiva adapted the film, he considered the model of commercial films and added romantic love elements. After the film was released, the Bhumibol Dam in Lamphun Province, where it was filmed, became a destination for many movie fans to check in.
Love for a Day (2016)
One Day
Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun
Starring: Chentavi Tanasevi, Nitasha Girajujan, etc.
Duration: 134 minutes
Screening/Awards:
2017 Thailand Golden Swan Film Awards Best Actor, Best Actress
2017 Shanghai International Film Festival Screening Films
Plot summary: Denchai is a very shy guy who is invisible in the workplace. Only when his colleagues' computers break down do they think of Denchai, who can fix computers. Because of a car accident, Denchai's crush Nui suffers from temporary amnesia and loses one day's memory. Denchai takes the opportunity to play the role of a temporary boyfriend, hoping that this day will become the best memory in Nui's life.
Highlights of the film: "One Day" is the box office champion of domestic films in the Thai market in 2016. The director breaks the routine of the bloody amnesia plot and shows us the cruelty and imperfection of reality. I didn't expect that Banzhuang Pisindanakorn, who is good at making ghost movies, can make such a delicate pure love movie. The setting of "stolen day" makes the plot full of drama and suspense. "One Day" perfectly inherits the essence of Thai small freshness, with beautiful camera lenses and complete details, which makes people unable to take their eyes away. Through a series of detailed descriptions and inner monologues, the audience can deeply feel the emotional entanglement and inner changes between the characters.
I'm Fine, Thank You, I Love You (2014)
I Fine…Thank You…Love You
Director: Mez Tharatorn
Starring: Sunny Suvamethanon, Polychea Penannicole, etc.
Duration: 117 minutes
Screening/Awards: 2016 Shanghai International Film Festival Screening Films
Plot summary: Jim, an engineer with no basic knowledge of English, hires Mr. Pleng from a training institution to teach him English so that he can pass the interview and go to the United States to win back his ex-girlfriend. As Jim and Pleng get along, they fall in love with each other unknowingly.
Highlights of the film: Fine. Thank you. Love you. These are the three simplest and most common sentences in English. This film, which is confusing from the title, is a mudslide in the Thai style. The film starts with a breakup declaration and unfolds a love story full of misunderstandings and comedy elements. The plot is not complicated, and it follows the routine of romantic comedy movies, but the interaction between Pleng and Jim and the soundtrack make "I'm Fine, Thank You, I Love You" extremely humorous and harmonious, making the audience laugh from time to time during the viewing process.
The Perfect Match (2022)
Love Destiny The movie
Director: Adisorn Tresirikasem
Starring: Tanawat Vatanapudi, Ranni Ka, etc.
Duration: 166min
Screening/Awards: Films screened at the 2023 Beijing International Film Festival
Highlights of the film: "Love Is Born" is adapted from the popular Thai drama of the same name. It is a historical film that combines time travel and adventure. It is also the only costume work in the "2024 Shanghai Thailand Urban Film Week" and the first time the film has been screened in East China.
The movie "The Perfect Match" continues the romantic storyline of the TV series, while adding new elements and plots to make the whole story more full and interesting. The story takes place in the Rama era of the Bangkok Dynasty a hundred years after the TV series "The Perfect Match". The romantic story of Dej and Karaket after reincarnation has become a new highlight. This continuation and innovation of the classic plot allows the audience to feel new surprises and touches while reviewing the classics.
Many traditional Thai cultural elements are incorporated into the film, such as traditional Thai costumes, food, dance, etc. These elements not only allow the audience to feel the charm of Thailand, but also increase the viewing and fun of the film.
【Filming schedule】
