japanese
New Asian Currents [THAILAND]

Once Upon a Time

Karn Lakrung Neung
- THAILAND / 2000 / Thai / Color / Video / 13 min

Director, Script, Sound: Panu Aree
Photography: Supote Aree
Editing: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Producers: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Panu Aree
Production Company, Source: Kick the Machine
44/17 Ladprao 15, Jatujak, Bangkok 10900 THAILAND
Phone: 662-938-4460 Fax: 662-938-5646
E-mail: kickthemachine@yahoo.com

Once upon a time, or rather in the 1970s, there was a famous amusement park in Bangkok All locals remember having been there as children. Using nostalgic 8mm home-movie footage and recorded voices from various people today talking about the park, the “collective memory” of many is recompiled.



[Director’s Statement] I started the project when I heard that one of the first modern amusement parks in Bangkok would be closed down. I reassembled 8mm footage of my family, from two decades ago. It was an era when western lifestyles flooded into Thailand. I went out to collect interviews from various people aged between 25 and 52 who have the memories I lack. Thus the film is a fulfillment of both me and my subjects in bringing the park, Dan Neramit, to life with sound and image.

I think of this film as a time box which contains memories important to my generation. I hope that in 20 years, the feelings of the people I interviewed will still be the same.

 

- Panu Aree

Studied film and photography at Thammasat University. Worked on several feature films by major Thai studios. In 1996, began volunteering at the Thai Film Foundation. Since then, has performed extensive research on the history of Thai cinema, the results of which are included in the reference index at the Thai National Film Archive. A regular contributor in film and art publications. Currently works as database staff for Sahamongkol Film, the leading film distribution company in Thailand.


• New Asian Currents | Soshin: In Your Dreams | A True Story about Love | My Migrant Soul | Our Boys | Along the Railway | More than One Is Unhappy | This Winter | Jari Mari: Of Cloth and Other Stories | King of Dreams | My Friend Su | The Performance | My Mother’s Home, Lagoon | Water and Atefeh | Blessed | MAYA | Danchizake (Homemade Sake) | Variant Phases | Doomealee, the Very First Step | Farewell | Pansy and Ivy | Sky-blue Hometown | Koryu: Southern Women, South Korea | News Time | Margin | Sowing Seeds | Chlorine Addiction | Chichi, the Monster | Mixed Fruit Banana Split | Sales | The Falling Kite | March of Time | Once Upon a Time | Hummadruz | Vanished with Water • New Asian Currents Invitation Films | The Musicians | The Eclipse | Life beyond the Noise | “Floating Islands” Series | 03:04 | The Paradise Island Tong-Sha, an Isle like a Crab | West Island | Who Is Fishing® | Silent Delta • Jurors | Sato Makoto | Chalida Uabumrungjit • New Asian Currents Special | Filmmakers Information Center / Searching for New Contexts