[Tlc] TLC-films

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Dear All,

Please see below a list of films and short descriptions below. I am requesting that members to the list send me names and short descriptions of Thai, Lao, and Cambodian films not on this list. We can use our collective experience viewing films to help compile a good list for students and members.

We are running a conference on SEA ghost films at UCR in the fall (Halloween), so any suggestions are welcome to add to our list for those films as well.

Thank you for your help,
justin
P.S. please send a list of any new publications too if you have time!

Film Resources
a.k.a. Don Bonus
After escaping the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Ny family became one of thousands of refugees faced with resettlement in the U.S. Their lives unfold through the lens of this stirring video diary. As 18-year-old Sokly Ny (Don Bonus) struggles to graduate from high school, his family is harassed in the housing projects, his eldest brother cannot fill a dead father's shoes and his youngest brother ends up in a youth prison. Sokly shares these experiences, his personal feelings and his hopes as the year progresses. Ultimately, "a.k.a. Don Bonus" becomes a story of triumph and survival from the perspective of one of America's newest arrivals.

After the War: A Family Album
Short film consits of photographs and film clips from the time of the Vietnam War to the present and interviews with Hmong community members now living in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The film also includes interviews with several Hmong teenagers.

The Angry Skies
As this traumatized country finally prepares for the setting up of an international tribunal to try those responsible for genocide committed under Pol Pot's regime, Kerr traces and interviews survivors of the S21 torture center, many of whom still fear for their lives. Traveling deep into the country's dark hinterland, Kerr attempts to meet the last remaining architects of the Khmer Rouge regime, many of whom continue to exercise enormous power and influence. The film uncovers revelations ranging from US influence in the Khmer Rouge's rise to power as a result of the Nixon Administration's carpet-bombing strategies to the chain of command that resulted in the killing of Scottish academic Malcolm Caldwell and the true identity of the man who killed three western backpackers in 1994.

Animal Appetites
Animal appetites is a wry look at the 1989 Long Beach trial of two Cambodian immigrants charged with killing a dog for food. With over 99 million cattle and 5.7 billion chickens consumed per year in the US, this humorous video poses the question, "Why all the fuss over one dog?" The story follows their trial on animal cruelty charges and examines the law prohibiting consumption of pets, passed as a result of the case.

Becoming American: A Film
Follows a Hmong refugee family from northern Laos awaiting resettlement in a remote refugee camp in northern Thailand, from the time its members learn of their acceptance as immigrants, to the time they are settled in Seattle, Washington.

Behind the Smile
Illustrates the living conditions of young female factory workers in Bangkok, who come to work in the city at a very young age to help support their families in the poorer rural areas of the country.

Beyond the Killing Fields
Beyond the killing fields is an eyewitness account of cultural genocide of Cambodian refugees living in the limbo of a squalid prison camp.

Blissfully Yours (2002)
Roong longs for the day when she can be in the arms of her Burmese lover, Min, an illegal immigrant. She pays Orn, an older woman to take care of Min while she looks for a place for them to share their happiness.

The story begins on a Saturday afternoon when they take Min to see the doctor for his mysterious skin problem. The doctor prescribes some more medication. But Orn is not satisfied and decides to make her own medication. She stops to buy some ingredients at the market on the way to her husband’s office. With her ingredients, Orn invents a miracle cream for Min.

Later that afternoon, Min takes Roong to have a picnic in the jungle where they feel free to express their love. Meanwhile, Orn has also gone to the jungle with Tommy, her husband’s co-worker. With him, she has found all the pleasure she has dreamed of. They are suddenly interrupted by a Burmese immigrant who steals their motorcycle. Tommy chases after the thief and disappears. Orn wanders around lost until she reaches the stream where she meets Roong and Min. Above the forest, the sky is about to rain.

Blue Collar and Buddah: A Documentary
Documents public opinion and reactions in Rockford, Illinois after immigration of Laotian refugees. Documents Laotian refugees' special problems in adjustment to life in U.S., with emphasis on religious belief and practice.

Body Jumper/Porb Wheed Sayong (2001)
2000 A.D. A Thai entrails-hungry ghost, haunts Sam Kotr, a small village in Roi Et Province. One by one, the men in the village fall victim to her insatiable appetite. An eerie silence grips the fear stricken village as no one dares venture from their homes late at night. Banding together, the villagers bring in an excorcist to rid them of Pob’s wrath.

As a new school year begins, a student club volunteers to aid rural development project in Roi Et province. Its members include Kom, Fah, Wu, Ger, Isabella, Pim, Krating, and Nidnoi. Upon arrival in Sam Kotr, they’re struck by a sense of unease stemming from the eerie silence. They spend their days working in the village and relax at a waterfall when evening arrives. Unbeknownst to them, Pop’s hunger has been stirred.

She possesses Ger and travels back to Bangkok with the other students. For a short while, she’s enthralled and engrossed by the bright lights of Bangkok. But soon enough she searches for new victims. Ger turns on her sex appeal to seduce one man after another. As the man returns pale and jaundiced, his friends become concerned and pursue their nagging doubts to discover his liver missing.

So the hunt for Pop begins.

Borne in a War: A Real Personal Story
This semi-autobiography traces the maker's birth on a secret CIA military base in the hills of Laos to his anti-war college years during the Persian Gulf War. Mixing archival footage, family photographs and dramatization -- Thoj looks at how his life life has been controlled and his identity shaped by the war born -- and finally links his personal history to Hmong history under French colonialism and during the American wars in Laos.

Butterfliews and Flowers (1985)
Euthana Mukdasnit's renowned film about young teenagers in Southern Thailand leaving the security of their school to encounter the challenges posed by finding employment in a largely undeveloped rural community, where many other young people face the same challenges, with limited guidance.

For more information: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/mai/films/butterflies.html

Cambodia: The Betrayal
The investigative team of David Munro and John Pilger uncover the tragedy of the holocaust which has taken place in Cambodia at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

Coat of Many Countries
The clothes we wear today are the remarkable coming together of goods and services from all over the world. By following the evolution of a suit, we glimpse the practical application of the new global economy.

Dancing Through Death: The Monkey, Magic & Madness of Cambodia
This is the story of Thavro Phim, who came of age under the Pol Pot regime and lost his father, brother, and grandfather to the Khmer Rouge. What kept him whole after the ordeal was his Buddhist faith and dedication to Cambodian classical dance where he performs the role of Hanuman, the magical white monkey. We follow Thavro from California to the Kingdom of Cambodia, a country still in turmoil, for a bittersweet reunion with his family and teachers.

Death of a Shaman
Examines how Fahm's Mien immigrant family suffered through a 20-year ordeal of poverty, racism, religions, drugs, jail and the murder of a family member. It is a chronicle of a darker side of the pursuit of the American dream that affected many of the 40,000 Mien who came from the mountains of Southeast Asia to America.

Les Derniers Jours Du Colonel Savath
In this drama about the fall of Phnom Penh in 1973, the Cambodian military abdicates its authority in a dangerous alliance with the Khmer Rouge against King Samdech Sihanouk.

Down With Us
Drama about a high school student from a Hmong immigrant community in America and his growing participation with a gang, the gang's methods of initiation and indoctrination, his involvement in crimes, and his eventual arrest.

The Eye (2002)
A young woman who has been blind since the age of two. She undergoes a corneal transplant and is pleased to discover that she can see once again. However, because she has essentially lived her entire life in the dark, her eyes need time to properly focus on distant objects, while her brain must essentially re-learn how to interpret the new flood of visual signals that it receives.

But within a few hours of having the bandages removed, it is clear that something is wrong. Mun begins to see odd shadows in her blurry field of vision that turn out to be the spirits of the recently departed. Of course, nobody believes what she is experiencing is real, including her eye doctor and psychotherapist. Too traumatized by the horrors she has seen and in fear for her life, Mun gradually retreats back into the comfort of darkness.

The Good Woman of Bangkok

The Hmong, Hilltribe People of Laos

Ekleipsis
An experimental video about a group of Cambodian women who are histerically blind because of the 'eye-searing' horrors of war.

Fake (2003)
Be, Po, and Sung are young friends who have different living styles. Be is upset with both his work and love life – but the latter seems to have most influence on him. After his lover left all he does is sit and wait for her return. So Po and Sung send him ten ways of how to cure a broken heart. Po, a playboy surrounded by girls, began to question the difference between sex and love. One day, he meets a girl who he thinks is right for him; will he be right for her? Sung is always hungry for love and for a job – he’s just unsure of what kind, although he’s prepared to try anything. One day, a job leads him to Paveena, his part-time employer. Sung is confident that she is his ideal girl. However he fail like every time before?

Fivestar Production (1973)
Established in 1973, Five Star Production Company Limited is one of Thailand’s oldest and most famous production and distribution houses. Along the years, Five Star Production has developed, founding the first Motion Picture Studio in Thailand in 1979, expanding its activities to TV programs production and producing drama series between 1992 and 1998, even creating a Variety Show aiming at discovering new talents and that has launched the careers of dozen of Thailand’s famous actors and actresses. Five Star has recently created a new division, Stadio, a full-service provider for film marketing already reputed for the quality and qualification of its staff.

For more information: http://www.fivestarent.com/index.asp

The Flute Player
Nearly thirty years ago, Pol Pot overtook Cambodia and over one million perished in the Khmer Rouge's brutal "killing fields." Many others were forced into unspeakable acts in order to survive. Arn Chorn Pond is one of these survivors. Now, after living in the United States for 20 years, Arn is a musician and activist, travelling the country and giving lectures on human rights. He is also on a mission to reconcile the demons of his past.
“The Flute Player” chronicles his return to Cambodia, where he has begun a master musician project to revive the traditional music that was lost under the Khmer Rouge. A complex and moving film, it reveals the history and tradition lost to Arn's generation and the search for healing and forgiveness in a country wounded by war.
Website: http://www.thefluteplayer.net/

>From Angkor to America
Narrates the history of a community-based arts project, presents historical antecedents and religious basis for Cambodian classical dance and music, and shows the new functions within American culture.

Jan Dara (2001)
Some say that Jan Dara’s life was blighted from birth – from the moment his mother Dara died while giving birth to him. Certainly Dara’s husband Khun Luang (Great Master) hated the boy from that moment. That was why he named him Jan, short for Janrai (accursed). And that was why Khun Luang viewed the boy with such hatred and treated him so cruelly, beating him and locking him in a “ghost room” for daring to grieve for his mother.

But Khun Luang’s hatred for the boy had nothing to do with his licentious behavior around the Visanan compound in which they both lived. Jan Dara’s earliest memory was of seeing Khun Luang have sex with a maid, right in front of a portrait of his sexual desires, and didn’t care who in the household knew about it. When Dara’s old friend Waad arrived from Pijit to be a surrogate mother to the boy, Khun Luang lost no time in adding her to his lists of conquests. And when Aunt Waad bore Khun Luang a daughter, Kaew, the doting patriarch taught the child to hate Jan Dara as much as he did himself. In other words, Jan Dara grew up surrounded by immoral and licentious acts and perhaps blurred them in his mind with both the image of his beloved mother and the cruelty of his hated father.

And when he was summoned back three years later, Jan Dara found himself in a position to take revenge on Khun Luang. Kaew was pregnant (no-one ever said by whom) and need a husband. Khun Luang had chosen Jan Dara, the only other male of Visanan lineage, for the role. Jan Dara agreed to marry the girl, but demanded a high price for his compliance: ownership of the Visanan compound. Astonishingly, Khun Luang agreed to sign over the title deed. Now master of his own house, Jan Dara began taking pleasure in toying with the affections – and the bodies – of the various women around him, just as Khun Luang used to. Was the young man exacting a revenge on Khun Luang at last? Or was he rather living out the curse placed on his head when he was born?

Kelly Loves Tony
Seventeen year-old Kelly Saeteurn has a dream -- she calls it her "American dream." As a fresh high school graduate on her way to college, she envisions a rosy future for herself. Kelly is the first in her family of Iu Mien refugees from Laos to have accomplished as much as she already has, but her dreams exist in sharp contrast to her reality. She is also pregnant. Her boyfriend Tony is a junior high drop out and ex-con. The brutal honesty of this film's footage and dialogue offers viewers a rare glimpse into the lives of two young people struggling to make their relationship work in the face of overwhelming obstacles like parenthood, gender issues and cultural and educational differences.

Killer Tattoo/Muer Puen: Lok/Pra/Jun (2001)
Bangkok, 2011 A.D. Pae Buffgun, a seasoned hit man, is released from prison and quickly hired to assassinate the Iron Cop, a ruthless law enforcer. Because the job is too big for one man, he assembles his old team for the hit. Dog Bad Bomb, Err M-16, and Ghost Rifle, old hands in the assassin game, have seen their jobs dwindle of late. Meanwhile, Kit Silencer, an up and coming hit man, is also contracted to kill Iron Cop. Both groups pick the same day for the hit and the end result is complete chaos. Based on his memory of a tattoo on the killer’s wrist, Kit suspects Pae is the man who murdered his parents when he was a child. As a result, Kit Silencer comes after Pae Buffgun and his gang.

The Killing Fields (1984)
Sydney Schanberg is a New York Times journalist covering the civil war in Cambodia. Together with local representative Dith Pran, they cover some of the tragedy and madness of the war. When the American forces leave, Dith Pran sends his family with them, but stays behind himself to help Schanberg cover the event. As an American, Schanberg won't have any trouble leaving the country, but the situation is different for Pran.

In A Strange Land: Police and the Southeast Asian Refugee

Journey into Thailand: Tales of Gods and Demons
Describes the history of the masked ballet performed by Thai dancers. Explains the dance drama Ramakien.

Last Life in the Universe (2003)
A mysterious, obsessive-compulsive, suicidal Japanese man living in Bangkok, Thailand is thrown together with a Thai woman through a tragic chain of events. The woman is everything he is not. He is a neat freak who keeps his dishes washed and his books neatly stacked and categorized. She dresses like a slob, smokes pot and never picks anything up. It’s a match that somehow works though. Slowly and entertainingly, more is revealed about the Japanese man and why he’s suicidal and living in Bangkok.

Letter Back Home
A rare and uncompromising look at life in the United States for some Laotian and Cambodian youth. Shot in San Francisco's "inner city" Tenderloin District.

Laos: The Forgotten War
This Cuban documentary focuses on the history of foreign intervention in Laos, first by France and then by the United States. It show how the liberation forces of Laos, under continuous U.S. bombing, where able to run an entire society in hidden caves and tunnels. Throught the leadership of the Pathet Lao, they organized schools, cultural activities, clinics, as well as political and military activities literally underground.

The Last God King: The Lives and Times of Cambodia's Sihanouk

Letter Back Home
An honest and compelling look at life in San Francisco's Tenderloin district for Laotian and Cambodian youth. Tough and with attitude, they long for home while also carving out a life in their neighborhood. Through this bittersweet "letter back home," you can feel the history, resilience and strength in these youth.

Mekhong Full Moon Party (2002)
More than 100,000 people gather by the Mekong River in Northeast Thailand on November Full Moon each year. After sunset, mysterious fireballs rise up from the river and disappear into the sky. While the locals still adhere to the traditional myth of the dragon, Great Naga, making a sacred offering to Buddha, the Western visitors take a more skeptical stance: Dr. Norati sets out prove that the fireballs are natural; Dr. Surapol wants to prove the phenomenon a hoax. Meanwhile, temple-custodian Abbot Loh believes his monks have been responsible for the “miracle” for the past 30 years.

Monkey Dance
Children of Cambodian refugees, three teens in Lowell, Massachusetts inhabit a gritty blue-collar world shadowed by their parents' nightmares of the Khmer Rouge. Traditional Cambodian dance links them to their parents' culture, but fast cars, hip consumerism, and new romance pull harder.

Moving Mountains: The Story of the Yiu Mien
The Yiu Mien lived a rural lifestyle in the mountains of Laos until the Vietnam War forced them from their homeland. This is an exploration of the lives of some of these refugees and their perceptions of and adaptation to a very different life in the United States.

Muen and Rid (1994)
Directed by Cherd Songsri, one of the finest craftsmen in Thai cinema, Muen and Rid tells the story of Muen, a peasant woman in mid 19th century Thailand, who rejects an arranged marriage and seeks help from a Buddhist monk, the two eventually bringing her case before the Thai king.

For more information: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/mai/films/catalogue.html

New Hmong Life in Amreica
The Hmong-language version provides refugees, both as newcomers and in camps abroad, with information and support in the transition to life in the United States. Through interviews and coverage of various aspects of life in America, the videotape deals with such topics as education, jobs and training, legal matters, shamanism, and the difficult issue of cultural survival in America. The English version of the program is being distributed and screened publicly to promote a better understanding of the Hmong and to provide a fresh perspective on American culture.

One Night Husband (2003)
Sipang (Nicole Theriault) is a woman who tastes sweet nuptial bliss briefly with her man Napat before the phone rings on the night of their wedding. Napat picks up, mumbles something, and leaves the house. When he doesn’t return, Sipang asks for help from Chatchai, Napat’s brother, who’s married to the demure introvert Busaba (Siriyakorn Pukkavej). The wife’s search for her husband reveals his hidden past, revealing a painstaking portrayal of contemporary Thai women’s values, as Sipang and Busaba become two halves of the same feminine whole.

Ong Bak (2003)
A sacred Buddha statuette called Ong Bak is stolen from a rural village and it soon becomes the task of a young man, Boonting (Phanom Yeeram), to track the thief down to Bangkok and reclaim the religious treasure. Along the way, Boonting must use his astounding athleticism and traditional Muay Thai skills to combat his adversaries.

Online Thai Entertainment Store: http://ethaicd.com/

The Overture (2004)
Siam, 1886, and Som’s brother, a famous xylophonist, is killed by a competitor, leaving Sorn to take over. After asking his dad to take him to Bangkok to prove his skill, Khun in proved the most adept competitor and Sorn returned home to practice. Presently, he pioneered a unique style and became a musician of the royal palace, marrying Shote, his dream girl and a fellow palace staffer, and finally besting Khun In a xylophone contest. Som eventually became an important teacher, who promoted traditional Thai music at a time when the traditional culture of developing Thailand was under threat of being subsumed by the influx of European influences.

Pak Bueng on Fire
This narrative film looks at the struggle of first generation Thai immigrants in Los Angeles. Two friends, one a college student and the other a worker in a small grocery store, play cat-and-mouse with the INS. How do they establish themselves in the US if they are constantly looking over their shoulders? In English and Thai, with English subtitles.

Rebuilding the temple: Cambodians in America
Details the Cambodian Americans quest to build their temples, hold their religious ceremonies and survive as a culture in the United States.

Refugee
For Mike Siv, the trip begins innocently enough. "Me and my homies, David and Paul, we're going to Cambodia. We'll see the sights, visit family, have some fun." But after their journey, they will never be the same. These three young refugees, raised on the streets of San Francisco's tough Tenderloin district (a.k.a. the "T.L."), head back to Cambodia for the first time in “Refugee,” a new documentary by the Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, Spencer Nakasako.

Website: http://www.refugeethemovie.com/

Samsara: A Film
Program based on the memories and stories of Cambodians in the U.S. and Cambodia. It documents the suffering, loss, and rebirth of the Cambodian people in the aftermath of the take over of Cambodia by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge revolutionary forces and the subsequent invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam.

Saving Private Tootsie (2002)
Inspired by a real-life event in December 1998, this action-packed comedy follows a group of Katoeys (ladyboys) caught in a border dispute after their plane crashes. A group of six straight soldiers reluctantly takes on a mission to save them – but first they must attempt to cast aside their personal prejudices in order to tackle the task. The movie digs deep into gay characterization, presenting the multi-layered conflicts presented to gender-benders from different backgrounds. Model Ornapa Krisadee portrays a selfish high-society transsexual, who has a sex change yet still envies the other players: one is younger, one is smarter, one is lower in social class and so on.

Sayew (2003)
A unique coming-of-age story from writer-directors Kongdej Jaturanrasamee and Kiat Songsanant. Teenage tomboy Tao (Pimaporn Leenutapong) writes freelance articles, based on fake sexual experiences, for a porn magazine called Sayew. But Tao’s imagination alone isn’t enough to keep her editor satisfied, and he’s soon asking for raunchier fantasies for the column. He cites his new writer “the Stallion” as inspiration, and Tao is compelled to broaden her erotic horizons – first by visiting a porno theater; then by spying on her neighbor’s nighttime activities. Eventually it seems only a full-blown plunge into a real boudoir escapade, aided by the well-endowed Stallion, will suffice.

See Angkor and Die
This film tells the tragic story of a young author who is diagnosed with an incurable illness and wishes to return to Angkor to spend his final days. His rich but selfish wife refuses to accompany him and instead asks her young female cousin, a recent graduate of a medical school to care for him during his stay in Angkor.

The Shadow of Angkor

Siam Renaissance (2004)
Maneejan (Florence Vanida) is a Paris-based archive specialist. A mysterious French work is brought to her for interpretation at the Thai consulate in Paris. She realizes the document is Voyageur, written by French naturalist Francois Xavier about Siam in the mid 19th century. Maneejan is moved by the record’s allusions to Siam’s shadowy past. When she returns to Thailand, she finds herself in a half-dream state, witnessing and experiencing her home country as it was more than a century ago, Siam as it struggled to defy outside influences to become a new civilization. Maneejan learns much about her country’s history, becomes a fighter alongside her cultural ancestors, and finds valuable lessons in life and love along the way. Based on the classic Thai novel Tawipop by Tamayanti.

Suriyothai (2001)

Voices of Challenge: Hmong women in transition
Hmong women provide insight into the Southeast Asian refugee experience and the dramatic changes challenging them as they break from a traditional patriarchial family structure and assimilate into American society.

A Wedding
Details Hmong customs and weddings

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu