GrandNew Currents Prix Award Prix du Jury Prize ForumForum GrandTiger Prix Award PusanPusan 07 2007 DeauvilleDeauville Asie Asie08 2008BerlinBerlin 08 2008 RotterdamRotterdam 082008 A film by Aditya Assarat Grand Prix Prix du Jury Forum Grand Prix Pusan 2007 Deauville Asie 2008 Berlin 2008 Rotterdam 2008 A film by Aditya Assarat Duration: 92 mins Thailand - 1,85 - Dolby SR Synopsis Takua Pa is a small town in the South of Thailand. Ever since the tsunami, people have lost their jobs and remember better times in the past. One day a stranger comes to town. His name is Ton, he is an architect. He rents a room in a small hotel owned by Na. They begin to have a secret love affair. The town finds out about it, people are bored and angry. And now they have found an enemy, a person they can blame. The film is about a love that grows where there is no more love, like a flower that grows in the dirt. About a town that tries to destroy the beauty that it cannot have for itself. Can a town be wonderful again? Director s Statement Wonderful Town was inspired by the town of Takua Pa in the south of Thailand. It was here that 8000 people perished in the 2004 tsunami. But when I went to visit two years later, there was a strange feeling. The town was very peaceful and beautiful. All the reminders of the tsunami were gone, as if the people wanted to throw away the memory. The roads were repaved, the houses were rebuilt, the coconut trees swayed in the breeze as always. But though the town looked new, the people were not. I felt that everyone was still walking around in a daze, like they just woke up and couldn’t remember how to get home. The town’s economy was still ruined as the tourists had not returned to the beaches. It was a strange sadness – a town of sadness. So it was this atmosphere that I wanted to document. It’s my own way of making a tsunami movie. Aditya Assarat Interview with the director In Wonderful Town, as in your first two short films When did you come with the idea of Wonderful Town? Motorcycle and Waiting, the action takes place in the Just after the tsunami? countryside: is that where you come from? Wonderful Town came to me as a love story. I am always interested No, I was born and raised in Bangkok, which, of course, is the main in people and in relationships and love, which is the feeling you city of Thailand. When I was 15, I went to the United States to study remember the most vividly. It was never my intention to make a and I stayed there for more than 10 years. When I finally came back movie about the tsunami. But as a filmmaker, I am very inspired to Thailand, it was like going to a foreign country. So I think the by locations. I need to be in the real space in order to think of the first short films that I made here were seen through some kind of story, otherwise I cannot. So I went to visit this town of Takua Pa «foreign eye». I found the countryside life quite beautiful, the way and I just thought «what an interesting place for two strangers to a foreigner might. But of course, for Thai people, the countryside is meet and fall in love». The town has an air of sadness about it. And probably not that special at all - full of heat and dust and hard work I thought the contrast between sadness and the vitality of a love in the fields. So when I look at the short films that I made when I affair would be interesting. That was the main idea. I added the first came back, it tells me much about whom I was at that time. back-story of the tsunami only later. Would say you are like the character of Ton in CWas it an event which hurt you personally? Wonderful Town, a guy from the city longing for a quiet place? No, I had no personal relationship with the tsunami disaster at all. I saw it on the news on TV. Yes sure. The character of Ton is representative of me. He is basically coming down south to take a vacation from his existence in the In what way is this town «wonderful»? city, which is full of the many worries of urban life. I even thought of calling the movie «Holiday» for a while. I think it is a normal I think the town is wonderful. Every space, every location has a phenomenon for people from the city to get to a certain point of certain atmosphere. Takua Pa has a very strong atmosphere – one exhaustion and to need a break. It is when you go somewhere, far of sadness, of aging things, of quietness. And I think much of the away. But for Ton, that leads to something else he did not plan. town’s atmosphere is created by its history. And of course the most recent major event in its history is the tsunami. It’s a tragedy. But You have studied some years and filmed in the Uni- one can always recover in time. ted States, what did you learn from this country? Have you filmed everything in this city? Well it’s more than just learning something. If you go somewhere for a year or two, then you can say you have learned something Well, not everything... but everything that I wanted to. Once you there. But I lived there for 12 years. It is more than learning. I think have made a film in a certain place, it’s like you already had your I am American. So when I am in Thailand, I feel quite out of place. fill of a favorite food. You don’t want to eat any more of it. So now, But then, when I am in America, I also feel out of place, because I have no wish to shoot there anymore. I am also very Thai. It is a modern way of life that is so common, now. People now live all over the place and it has become quite Is there a kind of government support for a film difficult to say that someone is definitely from one place. Identity like this one in Thailand: independent, artistic and is getting quite fuzzy. dealing with a difficult subject? There is, but it is very minimal. For this subject, Thailand is similar to the US. There is hardly any government support for the arts. So this policy leads to the production of artwork which needs to The character of Ton says something like: «Nobody it is the same here. The way I choose to tell a story comes from a to work. Again, like I said before, it just seemed to feel right. But survive in a commercial system. It leads to the production of a wanted to come here, I was the only volunteer». feeling that it is just “right”. it is hard to explain. It is kind of like explaining why something certain kind of art. Is it really the case now in Thailand? Are the cities tastes good or why certain combinations of colors go well together. hurt by the tsunami «doomed»? Do people avoid and You draw a surprising parallel editing between the Maybe I am lazy, but I think it is not important to understand why. Have you met there some city boys like the ones in fear them? embrace of the two lovers and the sea. Is it the heart It does not even benefit you. I think it is not that good to let your the film, who are so bored and hopeless? of your story, to tell that this sea will always be brain get in the way of your instinct. No, no, that was not the meaning of the line. What it meant was between people in this city? Sure. Aimless youth is a universal theme, be it at the city or in the simply that for career-minded young professionals, going down Your film is also about construction and reconstruction, country. I think it is part of the growing-up process. Every young south to a small town to supervise a hotel might not be such a For me, the shot of the sea is just to create a feeling that the a constant dialogue between the buildings and person goes through a time when they have no idea what they smart move. It’s just to show that Ton has other things on his mind. tsunami is always a memory to the woman. The story takes place the people, who both have wounds. Which one is want to do or where they want to go, or how to make their dreams a year after the tragedy but it is forever in her memory. It is always standing the best, which one is collapsing, between come true. In fact there are many filmmakers who have made en- In your first short films, Motorcycle and Waiting, present in some way, even if not there physically. the people and the building, but also between Ton tire careers out of stories about aimless youth. and in Wonderful Town also, you use the same way and Na as well… of bringing slowly, and step by step, the core of the The work made on the sound is impressive.