Aditya Assarat
A collection of short films by five Thai directors imagining their country ten years into the future.
Military advisors investigate a complaint regarding an exhibition. The photographs in question merely show the spontaneous reactions of ordinary people. Originally appearing as part of the 10 Years Thailand omnibus, this short imagines a future where the state presumes the gullibility of the general public and distrusts the intentions of foreign-educated individuals.
Beat goes to the public swimming pool on Sukhumvit to spy on Pat and Paula. He has had a crush on Pat since freshman year of university. But she has a boyfriend who is on the national football team and has never given Beat much thought. But the day is long and the sun is hot. Maybe today will be different from all the rest. A short film about the kids down the street.
The film features six themes of love in Bangkok's famous districts: Mo Chit, Yaowarat, Khaosan, Phahurat, Silom, and Sukhumvit on the hand of six different directors: Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Soraya Nakasuwan, Vorakorn Ruetaivanichkul, Aditya Assarat and Wichanon Somunjarn.
The Scala opened its doors in 1970. It had one thousand seats and every night, they were filled. In those days, going to the movies was something special. The cinema was a place where people got dressed up, went on dates, and fell in love. But today, everything has changed. There is a multiplex in every mall and the young generation watch movies on their phone. But at The Scala, time has stood still. The cinema is still run by many of the same staff who have been there from the beginning. It is now the last remaining standalone cinema left in Bangkok. And soon, its time will come to an end too.
Auntie Nid's legs hurt. Kane stops by visiting. He is bringing her something. Something amazing.
Mary is a senior in high school. With graduation a few months away, she is faced with sudden changes in life, love, and friendship. Meanwhile, strange events begin to happen to her that seem completely random and without reason. She struggles to make sense of her life as it threatens to spin out of control. The narrative of an uncontrollable life derives from the artistic concept of the project, which is to adapt a Twitter stream into a fictional film. The director uses 410 real Tweets from an anonymous girl as a springboard to create a fantasy world of a contemporary Asian teenager.
Paula and her friends, who have Chinese roots, entertain her cousin Mumu, who is visiting Thailand. This short originally appeared as part of Letters from the South, an omnibus centered around Chinese diaspora.
In this omnibus film, six directors from the region each reflect on the Chinese diaspora. Thai filmmaker Aditya Assarat describes a meeting in Thailand between Paula and her friends, who have Chinese roots, with her cousin Mumu, who was born in China; Royston Tan from Singapore tells of the special meaning that making the traditional Popiah dish has for a Chinese family; Midi Zhao from Myanmar follows the death of a grandfather surrounded by Chinese customs in a village in Myanmar; Sun Koh from Singapore makes a small-scale comedy about the commercialisation of the local radio station, influenced by mainland China; Tan Chui Mui from Malaysia composes a poetic, visual reflection on being an outsider and wandering; and Tsai Ming-liang, also born in Malaysia, observes the seventh-storey apartment in which he grew up as a child.
A short film inspired by the Twitter posts of a randomly chosen user, @pointtion, from 1–8 June, 2012.
A man cleaning an upscale house is joined by his mother and girlfriend for lunch. The women later help him clean, watching him with unease when he takes a phone call. Aditya Assarat's short film unravels restless and insecure emotions of love where the dusty, empty space of a house and its fluttering white sheets block our view.
Ananda has returned home from abroad. Unsure of his career plans, he accepts an invitation to act in a new movie for a famous director. During the filming in a small seaside town, Zoe, his American girlfriend from University, arrives for a week-long visit. But the change of country takes its toll and she soon becomes frustrated with the situation. Meanwhile, Ananda meets another girl on the beach...
Thai directors give their take on Thailand's capital city of Bangkok. 1. Bangkok Blues 2. Bangkok Stories 3. I Love Bangkok 4. Lost but not Forgotten 5. Maha Nakorn 6. Pi Makham 7. Sightseeing 8. Silence 9. Sisters
Louis and his girlfriend Fern are on the rocks. He finds some secret messages she left hidden in the pages of his books. Louis drags his best friend Ananda over to Fern's apartment to confront her. He doesn't want to keep finding these messages years after they have broken up. But that is precisely why she left them there. A short film about preserving old memories.
Takua Pa is a small town in the South of Thailand. Ever since the tsunami, people have lost their jobs and remember better times in the past. One day a stranger comes to town. His name is Ton, he is an architect. He rents a room in a small hotel owned by Na. They begin to have a secret love affair. The town finds out about it, people are bored and angry. And now they have found an enemy, a person they can blame. Wit is Na's younger brother, the town gang leader. He loves his sister but cannot bear to see another person's happiness. He is the one that will lead the town to destroy this stranger.
Mr. Koon undertakes a 700-mile journey from North to South Thailand to find the woman who lived next door when he was young. During the journey, he crosses the path and lives of other travelers, who are also waiting for something and moved by the same laws of nature, yet indefinite desire that drove Mr. Koon to look for a childhood dream forty years old.
In a remote Thai village, a man gets a call informing him that his son died in a crash. He needs to bring the body back and give a decent funeral, but he can't afford to do both.
