In a few days, many people will probably celebrate their Halloween, especially those Westerners. In Thailand, I guess, we are kind of accepting all traditions, holidays, and customs from many countries and cultures around the world, even Halloween. For me, it does not mean much to me even though when I was in the States. However, in the past couple years, there have been many horror movies being released around this time of year. And I am always waiting for them, of course, the same for this year.
And this Halloween comes two new movies; one is Thai and the other is from the States. The former’s title is “โปรแกรมหน้าวิญญาณอาฆาต” or “Coming Soon” and the latter’s is “Saw V”, which is a sequel of the most wacky and psychosis movie I have ever seen.
I think if I am not too busy this weekend, I may go to see both of them. Horror film is one of my favorite type of movies. When I come to think about it, there are many Thai horror films that I really enjoy watching such as Shutter (ชัตเตอร์ กดติดวิญญาณ), Dorm (เด็กหอ), Body (บอดี้ ศพ #19), Alone (แฝด), and 4BIA (สี่แพร่ง). Well, if you were Thai, you might notice that all those films were produced by the same company, GTH. I am not bias but, in my opinion, there are really no other horror films from other companies as good as ones from GTH.
Shutter was bought by one of the studios in Hollywood to do the remake version and was released earlier this year by the same title. Furthermore,Dorm (เด็กหอ) was awarded 2 prizes from Berlin International Film Festival in 2007; and also received many film awards in Thailand including Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Actress in 2006.Then I found Body (บอดี้ ศพ #19) very entertaining. I really liked the plot and script, even though the performance was not that good.
Alone (แฝด) and 4BIA (สี่แพร่ง) are enjoyable to watch, especially 4BIA, which comprises of a 4-short horror stories, in which I like the first one–Happiness (เหงา), and the third one–In the Middle (คนกลาง). If you haven’t seen it, please take some time off and watch it, and you will know what I mean.
So, if you still don’t know what to do tomorrow, the Halloween day, and want to get scared, you may want to go to the theater to watch those two new released movies or go to your near by VDO shop and rent one of these above horror movies. Well, may you have a spooky night! Happy Halloween! 31 Oct 2008.
I guess this is the Book Month or what. Well, if you are looking for some sweet in your life, I recommend you to read any book of Nicholas Spark. I am a big fan of his book since “The Notebook” was out in 1996. After that the rest was history. This year he has released his latest novel “The Lucky One”, which touches the subjects like fate and destiny, of those we are currently lacking in our society.
Last night I just finished reading it. Even though it is not my most favorite book of his, I still find it very sweet and delighted. I think it’s very rare that you can find anyone who is similar to Logan Thibault, the main character, these days; especially with a strong determination and faith. Who would have travelled across country just to find the woman in the photograph that he found in the desert of Iraq, where he was on duty? But then again, who am I to judge? I guess this kind of story makes us feel like there is still some hope left in this crazy world.
I guess the reason that I like his book so much is the timing and writing style. When “The Notebook” was out on the first time, I picked it up merely because it’s #1 Best Seller on New York’s Times Chart. I just really wanted to know whether this book was really worth all the appraisals and raving reviews. And it did. I recalled that I finished the last page while I was on my way to Chicago and felt numb and stunned by the powerful and meaningful love story portrayed in this book.
Love, a true love, can stand through time. It’s been a long time since I felt so overwhelmed. After that I have been waiting for his new book each year. The second book was out in 1998, “Message in a Bottle”.
Well, what can I say? I just loved it and it was my second favorite. What I like the most about this book is the letters and all those beautiful words written in them. During that period of time, email was not as popular and common as today. The main communication between me, who lived in the States, and my families and friends, who lived in the other side of the globe, was letter. And every time I did found letters in the mailbox, I felt very happy. So no wonder why I like this book so much.
And here are the covers of all of his books so far.
Even though many of his books had been bought for movies, I still find them not as good as the books. It has been about 12 years since I read his first book and now I still do. I think that if you never read one, you may want to consider it when you go to a book store next time. You might find your life is a bit sweeter than before. I just can’t wait for his new book.
Well, finally my long waiting had ended. ปืนใหญ่จอมสลัด (Queen of Langkasuka) was finally released on Thu 23rd and I just got a chance to see it. In general, I am pleased with the movie; and of course there are always rooms for improvement. I think this quote that I heard last night is the best fit with this movie: It does not matter if you would get 100% result; what matters is you give 100% into the process and effort to reach that result.
As I wrote previously that I reserved the book บุหงาปารี (Bu-nga-bari) from the Book Fair and still haven’t received it yet. So I went to see the movie without any bias that I normally have especially for the movie that based upon books or novels. The theater was packed with people and I felt happy with the movie casts and crews.
The opening was grand with a powerful score and beautiful graphics. I felt like I was watching one of the Hollywood movies. In brief, the story was backed 400 years when many lands in the Southern part of Thailand were still independent and ruled by themselves. As always, power was the main subject during the times where the more you expanded your territory, the more power you would be; and Langkasuka, the most flourishing land, was the target of all pirates and other nations. Then a giant powerful cannon, which was meant to be presented to the Queen of Langkasuka as a gift and being used as a weapon to fight against those invaders, was intercepted by pirates called themselved as “E-Ga Dam” (Black Crows) and sunk into the deep sea.
Then the movie laid out all other characters and smoothly took the audience into the fantasy world of Langkasuka. And one of the major character was a man named “Pari”, who was belong to a sea tribe and had a special sense that he could talk and understand sea animals. Learning an ancient art of Du-Lum was one way of retrieving that cannon. However, everything has two sides–good and bad, dark and light even Du-Lum. Pari had to fought with the dark inside his heart due to the wound from murder of his tribal by those E-Ga Dam pirates.
I, especially, liked to see the mix of cultures in the movie–Thai, Langka, Chinese, Japanese, and even European. I never thought that it would so much of cultural diversity. Sometimes it’s funny but sometimes it did make sense. The computer graphic was also comparatively good. Even though the fight continued, there were still love, sacrifice, excitement, and funny along 2 hours that I sat in the theater. Beside the good production, I really enjoy the score. Oh, at the end of the movie, it was justified to end it that way. It did not leave me with some doubtful matters like many movies did.
By the way, if one thing I could learn from Du Lam is that I have to stop everything and explore my heart before I feel emptiness. Emptiness is everything from the beginning to the end.
I just hope that Thai people will go to see this movie and enjoy as much as I am.
First of all, I did not think that I would have time to go to the Book Fair this year, but finally I did it without any planning. Every year, the environment and atmosphere were exactly the same and most of the big publishers had their booths at the same location. Therefore, it was not difficult to go to my regular publishing companies. This time the MRT was not as crowded as last time, which made me surprised. (By the way, I went there on Saturday afternoon.)
My first destination was Bliss Publishing, where I ended up buying about 11 books; all were horror and mystery books but four of them were romance and literature. Most of them were Japanese novels and of course included in my list were Kindaichi Book #13 and #14. I just loved this series.
Another series that I started to follow was the funny investigative story of Haryakawa’s family. This was was the third book in the series. I just hope that each book would be getting better and better. Some other books I bought were The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. I bought it to study the translation approach for my own improvement.
There were many books I bought from Bliss so I guessed I could not talk about all of them. So I just put some covers here in case you might be interested.
In general, I am a big fan of Win Lyovarin’s books so I will not miss out on visiting his booth. At this event, he released two new books and I bought them both. One was a kind of inspirational book and the other was a outgrowth novel from his research for writing a movie script–ปืนใหญ่จอมสลัด (Queens of Langkasuka). The title of the book was “บุหงาปารี“, which was not yet available so I had to order it and would receive it by end of this month. I am kind of looking forward to reading the book and going to see the movie, which will be released in the theaters this coming Thu Oct 23.
My other favorite publishing company is Typhoon, where this time I bought two of their books. One was by Prabda Yoon called “ดนตรีที่มีน้ำตา”; and another one was about traveling experience in Kyushu. I was really enjoy reading this book of Prabda in which he talked about many musicians and singers. One who had music in his heart would enjoy it like me.
Well, adding this pile of books into my old one, I still don’t know when I will be able to finish them all.
I think that one of the best way to really be able to say that you are in one country is to try the taste of local regardless the purpose of your journey either for vacation or work. The answer is through food!
Nowadays, there is a so called “Asian Fever” around Asian countries. In Thailand, a huge number of people are crazy about Korean media i.e. songs, movies, books, etc.; and I am with no exception. One of the most outstanding nations in this area is Korean. For the past couple years, I had a chance to go to Korea for three times at different seasons. Each time, I also tried different food, especially what I called “street food” which sold at tents and kiosks along the footpath. It’s pretty much similar to Bangkok.
Beside Kimchi, one of the most common quick food that we, foreigners, often see in almost every Korean series is Teok Bok Gi (떡볶이), which is made from rice flour and boiled with hot and spicy, thick red sauce. I had it every time when I went to Korea. I just simply love it.
In addition to Teok Bok Gi, you will see another food call Eomuk (어묵) or sometimes called Odeng, which is made from fish cake, skewered and boiled. I had it in front of the theatre, where I went to see the show called Nanta. It’s good for a quick meal, especially when having it with soup.
The first time that I had this sweet red bean cake in fish shape was when I was in Chiang Mai visiting my uncle, and my cousin bought it from Nimmanhemin. Later when I went to Korea and saw this similar dessert, I tasted it and wondered that it had to be the original because it’s much better.
When you are walking in Myeong Dong area, you probably forget that you are in Seoul because it’s very close to Siam Square. However, when I was there the first time in Summer, there was an ice cream called “One-Foot long ice cream”. It’s a creamy and rich, served on cone. I think it’s only out during Summer because when I went back to Seoul again in February, I didn’t see it.
At night around Myeong Dong, you will see many kiosk with frying pan selling a fried squid. I, personally, loved squid so I would have to try it. But I didn’t like it that much because it’s kind of oily for too much butter.
Moreover, along the same road you would see the grilled corn!!! I just couldn’t resist it. The corn was so sweet and the grilling process made its aroma even richer.
Last but not least, small but larger in taste, the one and only, “Melon Ice Cream”. It’s my most favorite thing. Ever since I tried it, I got addicted to it. And I did not even change the favor, I just stuck with melon! It’s very refreshing and cheap. You have to try it and you will know what I mean.
I just can’t wait for his new book.
