Wisit Sasanatieng

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Wisit Sasanatieng
วิศิษฏ์ ศาสนเที่ยง
Wisit at the Thai Film Foundation's Digital Forum in September 2007
Born (1963-06-28) June 28, 1963 (age 60)
Bangkok, Thailand
Other namesSid
Occupations
Years active1997–present
Notable workTears of the Black Tiger
SpouseSiripan Techajindawong

Wisit Sasanatieng (

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
.

Biography

Early career

Wisit studied at the Faculty of Decorative Arts at Silpakorn University, where he was a classmate of Nonzee Nimibutr and set designer Ek Lemchuen.

He started out as an art director at the Film Factory, where he worked with

Wrangler Jeans that featured Black Tiger star Chartchai Ngamsuan. Wisit continues to work at Film Factory, making commercials (particularly for the MK Restaurants hot pot
chain in Thailand) in order to supplement his income in between making feature films. He also is a cartoonist and illustrator.

Wisit entered the film industry as a screenwriter for two of Nonzee's films, 1997's

Thai film
industry.

Tears of the Black Tiger

Wisit's feature-film debut was in 2000 with the colourfully audacious Tears of the Black Tiger, a genre-blending western. With a romantic melodrama at its core, the story involves outlaws, gunfights, horseback riding, comedic bits and big explosions. The film was a homage to an earlier era of Thai film - the contemplative 1950s dramas of pioneering director Rattana Pestonji as well as the "bomb-the-mountains, burn-the-huts" action films of the 1960s that starred Mitr Chaibancha. One of the leading men from the 1960s and 1970s Thai action-film era, Sombat Metanee, lent his talents to Tears of the Black Tiger, portraying the outlaw leader, Fai.

Tears of the Black Tiger was the first Thai film to be screened at the

Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. It was also screened at the 2006 Bangkok International Film Festival
as part of a tribute to Sombat Metanee.

Miramax Films, which changed the ending and then shelved it indefinitely. In 2006, Magnolia Pictures
acquired the US rights to the original version of the film, and gave it a limited theatrical run in US theaters in 2007 before releasing it on DVD.

Citizen Dog

Wisit's next project,

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Citizen Dog tells the tale of two rural Thai people who come to Bangkok to find work and fall in love. Critics have compared it to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie
.

Distribution rights outside Asia were purchased by

San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
. The film screened commercially in France in 2006.

The Unseeable

In 2006, while he was working to develop some future projects, Wisit directed a low-budget Thai horror film for Five Star Production called The Unseeable (Thai: เปนชู้กับผี).

The Unseeable marked a change for Wisit, who was restrained by budgetary concerns from the stylizations of his first two films. Additionally, The Unseeable was the first film that he directed but did not write, with the screenplay by

Kongkiat Khomsiri, one of the "Ronin Team" credited with directing the hit Thai horror thriller, Art of the Devil 2
.

While the color palette was considerably muted, compared to

Citizen Dog, Wisit was still able to leave his nostalgic imprint on The Unseeable by making it an homage to films of the 1930s and the stars of that era, including Bette Davis and Joan Crawford
.

Thai pop culture influences came from illustrator

satang graphic novel ghost stories in the 1930s and '40s. The reference was so striking that the Barom Khru Foundation, which claims to supervise Hem's works, issued a statement warning Five Star Production to not violate the copyright of Hem's work. However, Wisit said the film was not an adaptation of any of Hem's works but was generally inspired by Hem's style.,[3][4]
which completed shooting in August 2006 and was released on November 2, 2006.

In addition to a release in Thailand, The Unseeable also had wide theatrical releases in Malaysia and Singapore, and screened at several film festivals, including the

Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film, 2007 Bangkok International Film Festival (ASEAN competition) and the Cinemanila International Film Festival
.

Also in 2006, Pen-Ek became the third recipient of the Silpathorn Award for Filmmaking, an honor given to contemporary Thai artists by the Ministry of Culture's Office of Contemporary Art and Culture.

Norasinghavatar, Red Eagle

In 2007, Wisit participated in the Short Films Project in Commemoration of the Celebration on the Auspicious Occasion of His Majesty the King's 80th Birthday Anniversary, in which nine short films were made in honor of King

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang and Apichatpong Weerasethakul and veteran filmmaker Bhandit Rittakol.[5]

Wisit contributed Norasinghavatar, which featured his trademark colorful and highly stylized imagery, with a blend of

khon masked dance and Thai two-handed swordplay. Though the film appears to be 3D animation, it is actually live action, but completely stylized with super-saturated colors in post-production.[6]

Wisit was given a budget of 400,000 baht (about US$10,000), but his project's cost ballooned to 3 million, due to the special effects and post-production costs. "It's a bad habit – I can't control the money," he said in an interview.[5]

Also in 2007, at the

Golden Eagle. The new film was reportedly to begin production in March 2008 and would star Ananda Everingham in the title role.[7]

Projects in development

In 2005, when

pirates
, the project began in 1998 as a one-page brief, but was shelved due to financial difficulties.

While Citizen Dog was told in the contemporary style of filmmaking, and Tears of the Black Tiger portrayed an old Thai film style, Wisit has said he will endeavor to go back even further with Nam Prix, capturing the tradition of Thai temple painting and bring it to life.

"It will be an antique Thai legend, with very traditional Thai pictures like the old wall painting. But we will animate them," he was quoted as saying on ThaiCinema.org. "We will make them move. It is not an epic, but a folklore in order to tell our roots, our culture."[8]

As of 2007, pre-production work had been completed on Nam Prix, with Five Star Production awaiting Besson's EuropaCorp to provide its 50% of the budget needed to get filming under way.[7]

In March 2006 another project was announced for Wisit: a Chinese-language

One-Armed Swordsman films and Master of the Flying Guillotine featuring Jimmy Wang Yu as a one-armed fighter.[9] Armful was initially announced by Singapore-based One Ton Cinema, which received a further pledge of backing from Hong Kong actor Andy Lau's Focus Films.[10]

Regarding Armful, Wisit issued the following statement:

This will be the first time ever I’ll be directing a film from abroad. The film is in a language that I don’t speak so I am nervous but curious at the same time. However, there are a couple of things that engaged me about Armful. Firstly, the script presents, potentially, a new genre of martial arts and action – one that I think I’ve never seen before. It will allow me to create something new, very new! Armful also has elements and themes that will let me pay homage to classic wuxia films from the seventies era – which are amongst my all time favorites. Lastly and most importantly, it’s because of what the producer said to me: 'This is not a Thai, Chinese or Singaporean film. It is a Southeast Asian film. One that will show, collectively, who we are to the world.'[11]

However, as of 2007, the project was on indefinite hold, awaiting more funding.[7]

Awards

Filmography

References

Notes

  1. ^ หมานคร หนังรักรื่นรมย์ อารมณ์ดี ประหลาดโลก; หมานคร หนังสวยงาม ประหลาดโลก ใครจะไปดูกับผมบ้าง - Palungjit.com
  2. ^ วิศิษฏ์ เจ๋ง จีน แจ๋ว แต่งเพลงลง หมานคร
  3. ^ Rithdee, Kong. November 3, 2006. "Vintage affair", Bangkok Post.
  4. ^ Rithdee, Kong. November 3, 2006. "The carnival of souls", Bangkok Post.
  5. ^ a b Reigning light, The Nation (Thailand); retrieved 2007-11-19
  6. ^ Five stills from Wisit Sasanatieng's Norasinghavatar, Twitchfilm.net; retrieved 2007-11-14.
  7. ^ a b c AFM: Fresh works from Wisit's Red Eagle, Twitchfilm.net; retrieved 2007-11-14
  8. ^ Chaiworaporn, Anchalee (June 23, 2005) "EuropaCorp to distribute Citizen Dog, co-produce Wisit’s next project", ThaiCinema.org. Retrieved December 28, 2005.
  9. ^ Frater, Patrick (March 2006). "Thai helmer tries on Singapore tale". Variety.
  10. ^ Thai Film News, September 2, 2006. Focus Films joins One Ton Cinema to produce Wisit Sasanatieng’s 'Armful'", ThaiCinema.org (retrieved September 9, 2006).
  11. ^ Wisit Sasanatieng talks Armful, The Spoon Blog; retrieved 2007-11-14
  12. ^ Nation staff, August 31, 2006. "AWARDS SHOW: Recognising five fine artists", The Nation, Page 12A (print edition only).
  13. ^ "About NETPAC". Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. Retrieved 11 September 2019.

External links

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