Movies - Cinema of Thailand

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	Movies - Cinema of Thailand

The cinema of Thailand has a history that stretches back to early days of filmmaking, when King Chulalongkorn's 1897 visit to Berne, Switzerland was recorded by Francois-Henri Lavancy-Clarke. The film was then brought to Bangkok, where it was exhibited. This sparked more interest in film by the Thai Royal Family and local businessmen, who brought in filmmaking equipment and started to exhibit foreign films. By the 1920s, a local film industry was started and in the 1930s, the Thai film industry had its first "golden age", with a number of studios producing films. The years after the Second World War saw a resurgence of the industry, which used 16 mm film to produce hundreds of films, many of them hard-driving action films. Competition from Hollywood brought the Thai industry to a low point in the 1980s and '90s, but by the end of the '90s, Thailand had its "new wave", with such directors as Nonzee Nimibutr, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang and Apichatpong Weerasethakul as well as action hero Tony Jaa being celebrated at film festivals around the world. For every genre that Hollywood or other film industries offer, there is an example from Thailand that favorably compares.

The first Thai films

The first feature film produced in Thailand was made in 1922. It was called Nang Sao Suwan, or Miss Suwanna of Siam
, a Hollywood co-production with the State Railway of Thailand that was directed and scripted by Henry MacRae. It premiered on June 22, 1923 in Bangkok at the Phathanakorn Cinematograph. Unfortunately, Miss Suwanna has been lost over the years.

The first all-Thai feature was Chok Sorng Chan (Double Luck), produced by the Wasuwat brothers' Bangkok Film Company in 1927 and directed by Manit Wasuwat (Thai: มานิต วสุวัต). That same year, another film company, Tai Phapphayon Thai Company, produced Mai Khit Loei (Unexpected).

Seventeen films were made between 1927 and 1932, but only fragments have survived, such as a one-minute car chase from Chok Sorng Chan or a two- to three-minute boxing match from Khrai Di Khrai Dai (None But the Brave).

Hollywood would also make other movies in Siam during this time, including the documentary, Chang
, by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, about a poor farmer struggling to carve out a living in the jungle.

Robert Kerr, who served as assistant director to Henry MacRae on Miss Suwanna returned to Siam in 1928 to direct his own film, The White Rose. It was shown in Bangkok in September 1928.

The Golden Age

By 1928, the first "talkies" were being imported, providing some heavy competition for the silent Thai films. In the tradition of the benshi in Japan, local cinemas had entertaining narrators to introduce the films as well as traditional Thai orchestras that were often as big an audience pleaser as the films themselves, and but within two or three years, silent movies had given way to the talkies.

The first Thai sound film was Long Thang (Gone Astray), produced by the Wasuwat brothers, and premiered on April 1, 1932. It was a big success and led to the building of the Sri Krung Talkie Film Company in Bang Kapi. It produced three to four films a year.

In 1933, Sri Krung made the first color Thai film, Grandpa Som's Treasure {Pu Som Fao Sap).

This period up until 1942 is regarded by scholars as the "Golden Age" for Thai film.

As the Second World War loomed, and the country being led by a dictatorship under Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggram film companies were pressed into service to make propaganda films to whip up nationalism.

Opposition politics found their way into film, too, with statesman Pridi Phanomyong producing King of the White Elephant, in 1940. With all the dialogue in English, Pridi hoped to send a message to the outside world that he was unhappy with the militaristic direction his country was taking. The film depicts the story of an ancient Siamese king who only goes to war after he's been attacked.

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