Blissfully Free
covering burma and southeast asia
Friday, March 29, 2024
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CULTURE

Blissfully Free


By Anthony Faraday JAN, 2003 - VOLUME 11 NO.1


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"As long as individuals can express their personal outlook through films, that is the freedom worth cherishing," he says. Critics have been gushing praise for Apichatpong and "Blissfully Yours" since its screening at Cannes last year and showings at festivals in Athens and Toronto. Robert Koehler, a film critic from the Hollywood-based Variety magazine rates Apichatpong as unbelievably gifted. "He is sizing up to be one of the world’s most personal, unclassifiable and extraordinary artists in film and multi-media," Koheler wrote. Born in Bangkok, Apichatpong grew up in the northeastern Thai city of Khon Kaen. Coming from Thailand’s northeast, the most impoverished region of the country, far from guarantees an internationally celebrated career in film making. But Apichatpong’s determination sent him to Chicago where completed a Masters in Fine Arts in filmmaking. He returned to Thailand to set up his own film company, called Kick the Machine, in 1999 and made a documentary, "Mysterious Object". It too has never been released in Thailand. "Blissfully Yours" was his second film and now he’s flat-out with new projects including a third feature, "Tropical Malady", now being shot in Bangkok. For critics like Koehler and the Thai censors alike, Apichatpong is a daring filmmaker worth keeping an eye on.


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