Content area
Full Text
this article explores thai cinema since 1997 to illustrate that New Thai Cinema, whose main directors are Nonzee Nimibutr, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Wisit Sasanatieng, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, constitutes a cinematic movement. The analysis examines the technical, artistic, and ideological aspects of these directors’ work in relation to Thai cultural, economic, social, and political developments as well as Thai filmmaking in the 1990s and early 2000s, which was marked by a considerable decline in the number of local productions. From 1990 to 2000, the number of feature films produced in Thailand decreased year after year, until reaching a minimum of nine titles per year. The decline became more pronounced after 1997, partly due to the economic crisis that devastated the country and spread to most of Asia (Sungsri 131). Yet the sudden economic slowdown in Asia in 1997, prompted by the devaluation of the baht, did not eliminate the hopes of regeneration in film production; instead, “it was precisely at this point that Thai cinema experienced the start of its new upswing” (Chaiworaporn and Knee 60). The writings of Vincent Pinel, Joaquim Romaguera i Ramió and Homero Alsina Thevenet, and Scott MacKenzie help to clarify the sense in which New Thai Cinema is a film movement. Contextualized research on the four most prominent directors of the movement reveals their integral role in the Free Thai Cinema Movement (2007) that challenged Thai film censorship and changed the history of Thai cinema.
Historical Context of New Thai Cinema
The year 1997 was very significant for Thai cinema. As Chalida Uabumrungjit points out,
[i]n the late 80s until the 90s, people kept saying that the Thai film industry was dying. It may have been just the right time or merely coincidence that many things did change in 1997. It was the year to celebrate the centenary of cinema history in Thailand. In fact, only 17 films were produced that year, but there were a few new filmmakers entering the film industry. Among them, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Nonzee Nimibutr and Oxide Pang launched their first film in the same year.
This phenomenon gave hope to the local film industry that there would be a renaissance. However, several factors contributed to the decline in the number of local productions, including the decrease in...