Communication and Media in Asia Pacific (CMAP) 97 When Art-house Director Enters Commercial Film Industry: A Case Study of the Film "Heart Attack" Kin Ho WONG Kin Ho WONG (
[email protected]) is a Candidate for Bachelor of Arts in Humanities, expected in 2020, Hong Kong Baptist University Abstract Article Info This paper is a study on the film Heart Attack (also known as Freelance Received 1 January 2020 Ham Puay... Ham Phak... Ham Rak Mor) (2015) by Nawapol Revised 13 July 2020 Thamrongrattanarit which has attained success in the box office despite Accepted 30 July 2020 its alternative filmmaking style to the mainstream. Using textual analysis and intertextuality to study how the art-house director placed himself in the commercial industry with a film that demonstrates both the art-house Keywords: Thai Cinema, and commercial elements, results show that the director’s understanding Film Studies, on audience demands and his strategy of embodying the art-house spirit Art-house Cinema, underneath the commercial contents have been effectively performed in Film Industry, the film. Thailand Introduction Entertaining commercial films are not Thailand National Film Association Awards surprised to attain box office success. Yet the 2016 with eight awards in total and it film Heart Attack (also known as Freelance was screened at various film festivals Ham Puay... Ham Phak... Ham Rak Mor) (Thamrongrattanarit, n.d.). Therefore, this (2015) written and directed by an art-house paper will discuss how Heart Attack attained film director, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, has its commercial success despite being been a rare case which topped the domestic produced in an alternative style and how box office for two weeks and recorded as Nawapol retained his artistic style in a the second-highest-grossing Thai film of commercial film.