This is the music video of a Thai song called “Yang Noi” (literally translated as “At Least”) by Big Ass, a popular Thai rock band. The song is officially featured in the upcoming Thai teen-romantic-comedy flick “Pid Term Yai Hua Jai Wawoon.” An unconfirmed official international title of the movie is “Hormones,” which implies the unusually high chemical substances in teenagers that cause so many restless activities, especially the feeling of “love.” The film will be released in Thailand on March 20th, 2008. I wish I were in Thailand for the press preview of the film earlier next month. Unfortunately, it is not possible for me. I guess I will have to wait for the film to be released in DVD in the near future.
Even though there was a change in the front page of the official website of the film, there is no new content. I guess you have to keep checking back for more updates next month.
The official website of the upcoming Thai film “Pid Term Yai Hua Jai Wawoon” is online. Now, only the first page is available with the official movie trailer. Check the website at <http://www.pidtermyai.com>
P.S. I still wonder what the official English title of the film would be. It would be difficult to convey the literal meaning of “Pid Term Yai” (summer school break) and “Hua Jai Wawoon” (restless hearts) in Thai cultural context to international audiences.
This is a trailer for the latest movie from Songyos “Yong” Sugmakanan, one of the most promising young Thai directors whose previous movie “Dek hor” a.k.a. “Dorm” won him several international and national recognitions including the Crystal Bear from Berlin International Film Festival 2007. His new film “Pid Term Yai Hua Jai Wawoon” (translated litrally in English as “Restless Hearts of Summer Break”) seems to be a fine mixture of teenage romantic comedy and road movie as it tells 4 different love stories of different young and restless hearts which are unrelated except the fact that all “love stories” happen in the same time frame during summer school-break – the time when students have chance to explore the world outside of school. Now you could imagine the meaning of the title of the film.
The movie seems to be a reunion of stars from GMM Tai Hub (GTH) company including some new faces. Some cast members have previously worked with the director and starred together in previous successful films namely Charlie “Nak” Trairat and Focus Jirakul from “Fan chan” a.k.a. “My Girl,” and Nak and Sirachuch “Michael” Chienthaworn from “Dorm.”
The movie is scheduled for Thai cinema nation-wide on March 20, 2008.
As I have to travel to the U.S. for my study this coming Friday, it’s a good idea to have a dental check-up. Today I went to the dentist’s, basically to have a general dental check-up and teeth scaling and polishing. Upon checkup, the dentist suggested me having two teeth filled to prevent caries. In fact, there is also an impacted molar at my lower left jaw. The dentist recommended me to have it extracted but I couldn’t do so because of time-constrain. It’s fine as of now but life always has an ironic way to show us, thus it might hurt at the worst time possible. If that ever happened, I have no other choices but to get it extracted. Thus, I have to keep my fingers crossed and hope that the impaction wouldn’t hurt me while I am in the States. Please wish me luck.
“Watashi no Tomodachi” or “My Friend” is a non-commercial song released to commemorate the 120th Anniversary of Japan-Thailand Diplomatic Relations, 2007. The song, produced in both Japanese and Thai version, is written and performed by Art Thomya – a talented and aspiring Thai singer/songwriter, with a special Japanese Koto collaboration by Noriko Tsuboi – a talented Japanese Koto musician. With a meaningful lyric and beautiful music, the song perfectly reflects a profound and everlasting friendship between two countries. Here are the songs in both version with complete lyrics. Enjoy the music!
Click below to play “Watashi no Tomodachi” by Art Thomya.
Hooray! Finally, users in Thailand are able to watch a video from YouTube.com again after the web site has been banned in the country by the order of Ministry of Information and Communication Technology since April 2007. The access to YouTube from Thailand has been blocked because YouTube hosted video clips offensive to the monarchy and the request to have those videos deleted was unsuccessful. I agreed with the authorities that the offensive videos should be put down, however, it’s insensible to block the whole web site when the agreement hadn’t been reached. That doesn’t solve the problem as the offensive videos still could be seen outside Thailand. Well, I guess they could come up with a better idea to fight against lese majeste, at least with the latest Computer Crime Act BE 2550 (2007) which somehow limit the rights of internet users in Thailand. That’s another long story, though.
That being said, we are now able to enjoy the video from YouTube. Below, I put a compilation clip from Gmail as a test. If you access an Internet in Thailand and could watch the video, it’s a confirmation that the ban of YouTube in Thailand is finally lifted.
I have first written about the Free Thai Cinema Movement since April 2007 (4 months ago) in my previous blog entry at MSN Live Space (read it here.) At that time, the board of censorship in Thailand demanded 4 scenes to be removed from the international award-winning critically acclaimed film Sang sattawat a.k.a. Syndromes and a Century of Apichatpong Weerasethakul before having it released in limited theaters in Thailand. The director refused to do so and the film has never been officially screened in its home country. That event stirred the entire movie industry in Thailand and the online petition to free Thai Cinema from absurd censorship and double-standard judgment has been created. Now that the 2007 draft constitution of Thailand has been officially approved by referendum, it seems that nothing has changed and the mere 7,193 signatures of the petition (the total number as of today) wouldn’t be enough to make any change. However, the movement still goes on. Hopefully, we would finally get full support from those who understand the phrase “Democracy for Thai Cinema: Freedom to Watch, the Right to Make.”
On 19 August 2007, if you are Thai citizens, you will have the rights to vote for approval or rejection of the newly draft constitution of Thailand, prepared by the military junta appointed Constitution Drafting Assembly, in the first ever public referendum of Thailand. After the coup in September 2006 which abrogated the 1997 constitution of Thailand, the interim constitution has been established and lead to the draft of new constitution, promising a general election to be held within 2007. Upon approval, the draft constitution will become in effect. However, upon rejection of the draft, the previous constitution will be modified and put into effect without further referendum. Either ways, it seems to be a process which general public doesn’t have a chance to be involved, except for the pointless referendum.
Still, approval or not, we have to exercise our rights and cast our vote in the referendum.
As you may know, Thailand is the host of the 24th World University Games a.k.a. Universiade Bangkok 2007 from the 8th to 18th August 2007. It’s the second biggest international multi-sport event, while the biggest event is the Olympics. Thus, as a good host, we should heartily welcome all the athletes and officials from other countries. However, just one bad action could destroy all efforts. I am talking about the fight, literally involving punching and kicking, at the semifinal football match between Thailand and Mexico in the afternoon today (13 August 2007.) Well, it doesn’t matter who started the fight. In the end, it turned out to be very bad images for both teams as the fighting would definitely be seen in TV on live broadcast or sport news all over the world. Moreover, it’s worse for Thailand because we are the host country. The members of Thai national football team should realize that they have to stay clam no matter how badly the opponent provoked them. It’s the basic sportsmanship. Even though the football match resumed after a huge punishment of 6 red cards for both teams and Thailand won, the good image of Thailand as a host country had been destroyed. Shame on this Thai national football team. I hope they learned their lesson and will behave better in the next match.
Posted by Sunny 
Posted by Sunny 
Posted by Sunny 
