A Quick Trip to Bangkok

Scenes from a Bangkok premier of METROSEXUAL

I make a quick trip to Bangkok to watch some movies. I don't know Thai cinema. I know some of the early films by Restan Pestonji - one of the greats. And I recently learned of the work of Euthana Mukdasanit - generally unrecognized. He made two musicals in the 1970s, ambitious constructions inspired by a re-reading of Hollywood. Today he is back in theater, running an acting workshop in the tradition of Stella Adler et al. A great force in Thai theater (he staged "Kiss of the Spider Woman" in Thai) and cinema, he is yet to be confirmed as one of the masters of cinema. I go to his theater and interview him for CINEPOD. More on him later.

With filmmaker Jim Shum, I go to the premier of a new film METROSEXUAL, a comedy about a gay guy that is a sharp commentary on contemporary Thai society. The premier takes place in a shopping mall somewhere in Bangkok. Neither Jim nor I speak Thai so we struggle with the taxi driver as we cruise up and down long roads. We make it in time for the opening ceremony and catch director Yongyoot. He's a bouncy filmmaker, probably best known in the US for IRON LADIES, a movie about transvestite ball players. The permier is buzzing and crowded with a mixture of fans, onlookers, shoppers and just plain curious - and Jim and I who wander among the Thai crowd - the only non-Thai media in this completely local event. The film is good, and the experience is unbeatable.