Prachya Pinkaew

Director:

Sawasdee Bangkok (2009)
4 Romances: Waan/Sweet (2008)
Chocolate (2008)
Tom Yum Goong (2005)
Ong Bak (2003)
Goet Iik Thii Tawng Mii Theu (1995)
Rawng Tah Laep Plaep (1992)

Not many Thai movies get wide international release. Thanks to the success of Ong-Bak and Tom-Yum-Goong your name has become one of the very few instantly recognisable Thai directors’ names for the international cinema audience. How do you feel about this?

Prachya Pinkaew: I’m not the only Thai film director whose films have been shown abroad. There were others who did very well at various film festivals all over the world. But although other Thai films were shown at festivals in different countries, I’m very glad because my films were successful in commercial terms. And they did well at the box office in the US. Before that, even if Thai movies were successful at festivals they never were released in cinemas worldwide. Like others, I also thought that foreigners would not have any interest to see a Thai film. But then my films started showing all over the US and then in other countries. So I think this created an opportunity for Thai film directors. Since the international audience have already seen and liked Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong they might want to see more films from Thailand in the future.

Your credits include directing, script writing and producing. Which of these jobs would you describe as your personal favourite? Which one do you find the most challenging?

P.P.: Definitely directing. It’s more me. And I think every director will say the same – it’s our nature. But the producing part would be my second choice, because somehow I’ve had the personality of a producer ever since I was a student. I like working with a large group of people, I like joint effort and helping juniors on their projects. Besides, producing means helping new film directors, as they can get a job and do what they want to do. Now, as for the writing part... speaking from my heart, I really don’t like that. I like to think more than to write. And besides, one page A4 of an ordinary letter takes me a whole night, so you can see I’m a slow writer.

You have been working in the Thai film industry for almost 20 years. What has changed in the Thai film business since the 1980s?

P.P.: I made my first movie in 1992 but I really started working in the business three years before that. In the 1980s Thai film industry was already going downhill. Before that time Thailand produced over a hundred features per year. In the 1980s the numbers dropped to 80, then 70, then 60... until the last decade of the 20th century when Thailand produced only about 10 movies per year. During the Asian Crisis less than 10 movies per year were produced.

Why did the numbers drop so dramatically?

P.P.: It was due to the fact that the Thai film market had shrunk and Thai features had never been able to sell anywhere else apart from Thailand. Anyhow, right before the crisis, a Thai horror movie Nang Nak made over 100 million Baht in Thailand. And remember that “Thailand” means Bangkok only as we don’t have the same box office system as other countries and the ticket count for the film box office is only done in Bangkok. Anyway, the success of Nang Nak was a turning point for Thai cinema, as investors started getting interested in investing their money in the movie production. The movie was directed by Nonzee Nimibutr and two years later it became the first Thai movie to sell abroad. It was the first time I heard that Thai movies can sell. Nang Nak was bought by a foreign distributor. I don’t know how much they paid for it but I know it was very little. But all the Thai directors were really happy – we had hope that Thai movies could sell After Nang Nak, we sold Bangkok Dangerous and the box office figures were getting higher and higher. Also, after the year 2000 karaoke machines started coming to Thailand and they became so popular that almost every household had one. And when people had karaoke machines they started buying more movies in VCD format, which really helped the sales of VCD films and helped expand a network of Thai video rental shops. In the 1980s, the VHS tapes were quite expensive but VCDs were cheap so people started buying more films. And thanks to that change in people’s behaviour Thai movies became more popular.

So does that mean there was an improvement? Did Thai movies get better?

P.P.: Yes, they improved – in quantity, quality and marketing-wise.

What were in your opinion the most important moments in the history of Thai cinema?

P.P.: Well, as I said before, Nang Nak was one, about 1997. It was the turning point because at that time Thai movies were going to Fukuoka, Berlin, almost every film festival in the world, but I never heard that any of them sold. Nang Nak was the first one.

Would you say that making films in Thailand has become easier or more difficult over the years?

P.P.: Today it’s easier to get your budget approved because film producing has become more of a system, just like the one which is used in the US. That change also took place right after Nang Nak. It started off with the three of us – P’Uncle (Adirek Wattaleela), P’Purd (Thanit Jintanukul) and myself – we started the producing system. And also P’Oui (Nonzee Nimibutr). Before that every dirctor had to talk directly to the investor to start the project, there were no producers. Or you could say the directors were also producers but they didn’t really feel like producing. So our group closed down the gap between the director and the investor and as we got more organised we could also manage that better. After the year 2000 we can see a lot of new Thai directors, maybe 30 or 40 people. Today we’ve got about 100 film directors in Thailand but half of that are “the old generation.” But now it’s become easier for the young directors to make their movies because we all have a better understanding of film marketing and our management has improved. The producer can talk directly to the investors and give them all the details about the movie and the directors can keep their vision and not lose it to the investors.

In 2000 you opened a production studio called Baa-Ram-Ewe. How difficult is running a film studio?

P.P.: Ba-Ram-Ewe started in 2000. We used to work together before under Grammy. We were working on music videos and movies. But after two years when we didn’t produce any movies we left Grammy. I took the name “Ba-Ram-Ewe” with me. And then I met Somsak Techaratanaprasert, we talked to him and we became a production house for Sahamongkol. He was the first person we talked to but he understood us so we never talked to anyone else and since then we’ve been working with Sahamongkol. So you could say it looks like we’re an in-house of Sahamongkol.

How difficult in running a studio and directing at the same time?

P.P.: It’s not that difficult. I used to be one of the managers for the RS studio before. I took care of the music video production and got my experience in management. So it’s not that difficult. You just have to know how to schedule things but then the PDAs started coming in and they proved very useful.

And the scheduling? Is that difficult?

P.P.: Not difficult, it’s fun actually. Only, it takes time from my directing so I cannot fully focus on that when I’m directing.

The name of the studio sounds unusual. Where does it come from?

P.P.: The name came from the movie Babe. I really couldn’t come up with a name for our company. But then I like to watch movies and I pick up catchy phrases and that’s how I remember that one. At first I thought about Hakuna Matata but I found out that someone was already using that as a name for a pub.

How does the studio system operate in Thailand? Are there any independent film directors, or do the studios monopolise the market? How do the directors benefit from the studio system?

P.P.: First of all, Ba-Ram-Ewe is a production house and not a studio. We sell the product to the studio and sometimes we send them a project, or they request a project from us. As for the independent film directors, we’ve got quite a few but only perhaps 4 or 5 of them are really working independently. Some films might look like they are independent productions but in reality they have been done for some studio. Most truly independent work is short films. Today studios do not monopolise the market any more. They used to when there were not too many theatres. Then the studios were producing films and showing them in their own theatres. But everything changed when multiplex cinemas came in. When working for a studio the directors get a profit share, which is a percentage on top of the money they’ve got for directing. That’s the only system we’ve got. It’s not like in HK where the directors have a choice to take a lump sum of money or to take a percentage of the profit.

Many film directors complain about film censorship in Thailand. What are your thoughts about it? What kind of footage is usually removed from films by Thai censors?

P.P.: Yes, censorship is the biggest problem for film directors and anyone involved in the movie business in Thailand. You have to realise that Thai censorship law was written 70 years ago and it hasn’t been changed even once since that! So we’re on our mission to change things. Censorship used to be done by the police and they would cut out pretty much the same things as in other countries – nudity, violence, religious motifs and drug use. But we have never had any system for censorship, no scale to measure. The decision was simply made by watching the film. And now it all got even worse, since the censorship is done by the Ministry of Culture rather than the police. At present we’re not giving any rating to movies, so perhaps a rating system might be the best compromise. Then the artist would have the freedom of expression and the audience the freedom of choice. So that’s my goal in the next three years – to do something to clarify censorship rules and to introduce a clear rating system.

Ong Bak does a great job introducing Muay Thai to action cinema. Do you think Muay Thai has a chance to become a new cinematic martial arts form?

P.P.: Before we made Ong Bak we thought of martial arts movies in terms of Chinese Kung-Fu movies. Thai boxing has been accepted as a unique form of martial arts but not in the movies. You could find a lot of Muay Thai boxing schools all over the world but not so many Muay Thai martial arts films. So perhaps that’s yet another chance for Thai films to find their niche in the film world. We could create a new category – a Muay Thai movie. I had this idea before I started making Ong Bak and I felt it was going to be a hit.

What do you think about the attempts to popularise Thai boxing in Hollywood films, such as Kickboxer (1989) with Jean Claude Van Damme. How authentic do you find those kind of American portrayals of Muay Thai?

P.P.: We were all very proud when Van Damme was using Muay Thai and so many people could see it. But at that time foreigners didn’t really have a clear understanding of what Muay Thai was, in fact they didn’t even call it Muay Thai. They called it kickboxing. That got some Muay Thai boxers to protest. But they had a point. If you want to use that form of fighting don’t call it something else, keep the real name. That’s why we hope that when people get used to the name, “Muay Thai” is going to replace “Kickboxing” in the future.

Your new film, Chocolate, is an action movie introducing a female fighter. What made you decide to replace Tony Jaa with a woman?

P.P.: I was looking for something different. After working on Ong Bak Tony Jaa became successful – people started to recognise him everywhere. I was looking for a different option, like making a movie with a woman or a kid fighter. Or fantasy Muay Thai, CG Muay Thai. I just wanted to build up the Muay Thai movie category. So I made Chocolate with Nitcharee Visamitananda. In fact, right now I’m shooting a kid Muay Thai movie Power Kid. And I’ve just finished producing two other movies – Mercury Man and Kon Fai Bin with Dan Chupong. They all use Muay Thai.

How do you film the fight scenes?

P.P.: I don’t really have any style. I just like to make it look more like a real fight. Not like before when they were using a special camera angle to pretend that people were fighting. I want the shot to show they really got hit.

The main character of Chocolate is autistic. One of Jet Li’s more recent pictures, Unleashed, introduced him as Danny the Dog, a mentally-challenged young man with a talent for fighting. Is this similarity of the plots accidental?

P.P.: Funny, I’ve been asked that before. No, the plot is different. And anyway, Jet Li looks more like he’s having Alzheimer’s disease to me and the girl in my film is autistic. When I was making this film I was thinking more of Rainman than of Jet Li’s movie.

Thai film audiences have their chance to comment on and evaluate Thai films. How would you describe the Thai audience then?

P.P.: Out of roughly 60 million people in Thailand perhaps only 1 million people ever go to theatres. So, as you can see, the audience is not that large. And besides, Thai audience doesn’t really understand movies. I mean, there are so many types of movies, every genre is different and the audience should know what to expect of a comedy and what of a slasher. But Thai audience is only interested in drama and comedy-drama, which is why I think they don’t really understand there are other movies too. And they do not appreciate the artistic value of any movie. Which is why I think the media should help educate the audience. In fact I have a plan. I want to get involved with the education system and make television shows about movies. Movie TV. We can see that the more people listen to Thai music, for instance, they more they want to listen to Thai music rather than foreign one. So if I have a show running every day and telling people about movies then maybe they will start watching more Thai movies too.

Where is Thai cinema now? What do you see as the greatest successes of the Thai film industry in the last few years? What do you see as failures?

P.P.: Thai film is like a kid that has just become a teenager. But it’s a sickly teenager that had to be taken to the emergency ward and is now recovering in hospital. It’s getting better every day but still cannot stand on its own legs. No, maybe it can stand up but it’s not that strong. Let’s give it three to five more years. As for the successes of Thai cinema, well, we’ve won the award in Cannes for Tropical Malady and we’ve made our first big screen animation, Khan Kluay. We also had a documentary released in Thai cinemas – Final Score, and we started building up a thriller genre with The Passion. And we produced high budget films such as Suriyothai and King Naresuan. As for the failures, I would say we failed with the superhero fantasy movie, the audience was not ready for it. And we really need to overcome the script problems. The plots of most movies need to be improved. We’ve managed to improve the production but the stories still don’t work.

How well are Thai films doing on international film markets?

P.P.: I can’t complain. I’m very glad we can do so well. Sometimes we don’t even dream of selling some movies but we do, even if we only sell them for little money. Still, I have never seen that before. Today we can not only sell more movies on international markets but we also sell different types of movies. And we can do it ourselves, without foreign middle men.

We can hear opinions that the weakness of the Thai film industry is lack of professionally trained actors and filmmakers. There are many complaints that the actors have no acting experience, or training. Is there any truth in these accusations?

P.P.: Well, in order to improve this situation the industry has to grow bigger and stronger. Today actors, the crew, even the director still cannot fully concentrate on film making as their full-time job. And maybe it’s getting better for the directors and the crew but actors still have to look for other types of work apart from acting. So I think first we need to make our actors feel more secure and stable at work before we can improve anything. And we also have to make it clear that there are different types of requirements from actors in television dramas, theatre or feature films. At the moment they started actor training programme for television but it’s still not enough.

How do you see the future of Thai film industry?

P.P.: It’s getting better every day. We keep seeing new faces, new directors and all of it is happening very fast. And once we’ve solves the script problem everything will flow. And more and more Thai films are being bought for foreign remakes, such as Shutter, 13 Beloved, or Colic. And Bangkok Dangerous of course. So I think Thai film industry will continue to get stronger.

Are there any promising Thai filmmakers whose careers we should be watching?

P.P.: I can recommend Songyos Sugmakanan, the director of Dorm and the director of 13 Beloved, Chukiat Sakveerakul. And also the group who did Long Khong and Rachane Limtrakul. You should also watch Panna Rittikrai, the fight choreographer for Ong Bak.

And what about female Thai directors? Are there any women in the industry whose career we should be following?

P.P.: I think if you compare the ratio of male to female directors Thailand is pretty much the same as other countries. One female director I find particularly interesting is Thanyatorn Siwanukrow. She directed a film called Rainbow Boy and is now working on a serial killer movie.

Many Thai filmmakers complain about low budgets for film production. What is the average film budget in Thailand? How difficult is it to make a film on a budget like that in reality?

P.P.: The average budget for a Thai film is about 10-20 million Baht. We’d consider 10 million a low budget and 20 million is pretty much a medium range. And it’s not really difficult to work under this kind of budget, although some directors think it is. I don’t have any problems and an experienced director will not have any problems either. But the new director often ends up spending more. In the end, I think it really boils down to the director’s and producer’s experience.

And if you were given unlimited budget, what kind of film would you make?

P.P.: I guess the whole world would be expecting me to do a Muay Thai action movie and that’s pretty much what I would make. But I might start doing Fantasy based on Thai myths and legends.

In the light of the recent fashion on Hollywood remakes of Asian movies, would you accept an offer to re-make any of your own movies for Hollywood?

P.P.: Remaking movies for a foreign market is like cooking food. If you are expected to eat something you’re not familiar with you might want to re-cook it. But if they want to re-cook my film for Hollywood it’s fine by me. But then you have to understand that remake is just another option in American business marketing plan, it’s a strategy. Sometimes movies are bought only to stop other companies from buying and remaking them.

Do you have any advice for the next generation of Thai filmmakers?

P.P.: I would like them to keep up to date with the movies from all over the world. Because it all goes back to the same problem – thinking of the story. So the filmmakers should really watch a lot of different movies and learn from them. Also, they should learn more about the specific conditions of filmmaking in Thailand because somehow Thai filmmakers operate in a Thai system. If we compare it to HK you will see that HK filmmakers work really fast. But that’s because everything is very expensive other there and they have to be very fast. In Thailand filmmaking is still cheap so we don’t have to rush that much. But then sometimes we work too slow and in effect we miss the boat. It would help if Thai filmmakers concentrated more on pre-production.

What are your future plans?

P.P.: A few years ago I wanted to go to American and be like John Woo, or some other Asian film director who moved to Hollywood. But today I feel that I can stay in Thailand. I want to work here. But I also want to make my films more international and easy to understand for foreigners who can learn from them about Thailand and Asia.

Any last words?

P.P.: I would like to turn Thailand into an Asian filmmaking centre. Thai film crews are cheap and very effective. They can offer good quality in terms of production. Besides we have a lot of land and great sunshine for good shooting. Many people are already aware of that but we could do much better.

The interview was conducted in 2007 in cooperation with Sronrasilp Ngoenwichit and appeared in Asian Journal of Literature, Culture and Society 1.1.