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About Pen-Ek Ratanaraung
 Thai cinema has come into its own, featuring films with a
fresh vibrancy that often characterizes cinematic new waves. The
films of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang constitute a major part of this
rising body of work, garnering him much critical acclaim and,
hence, establishing him as a significant figure in global
cinema. Born in Bangkok in 1962, Ratanaruang began his career
when he moved to New York City in 1977 to study at Pratt
Institute and later to work as a freelance illustrator and
designer. New York City provided him the exposure to the cinema
of Bergman, Fellini, Ozu, Jim Jarmusch, Woody Allen, and Aki
Kaurismaki. Upon returning to Thailand, he worked as an art
director for five years before directing his first feature Fun
Bar Karaoke in 1997, which debut in Berlin and went on to
screenings in the festival circuit. His marvelous second film,
Ruang Talok 69 (6ixtynin9), won him special recognition in
Berlin and at the Hong Kong Film Festival in 2000. While Monrak
Transistor (2001) is probably his most accessible and charming
film to date, it is Last Life in the Universe (2003) that has
cemented his reputation as one of the freshest directorial
voices in Thai cinema. The film was shot by Christopher Doyle,
the renowned cinematographer of Wong Kar-wai’s films. Invisible
Waves is Pen-Ek’s much anticipated new film, scheduled for
release sometime this year.
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang has a knack for capturing the mundane, the
everyday, and the expected, and then making them fresh and new
for the audience. In Ruang Talok 69, the sad story of the female
protagonist Tum, having been retrenched during the Asian
economic crisis, turns into a tale of murder, intrigue, and
female empowerment. The seemingly predictable melodrama of
Monrak Transistor is made immensely entertaining and engaging
through the quirky acting and fabulous Thai soundtrack. And what
would be a Pulp Fiction-inflected gangster flick in Last Life in
the Universe turns into a philosophical musing on intercultural
connection in the midst of social alienation. All the major
characters in these three films occupy marginalized positions in
Thai society, which ironically is becoming increasingly
“connected” through media, telecommunication, and computer
technology via circuits of globalization. The alienation of
these figures thus presents a discourse of personal
“disconnection” in contradiction to the dominant ideology of
progress through connectivity. The body and its desires provide
sites for material “reconnection,” which Ratanaruang deploys
powerfully with shocking narrative turns, intense imagery, and
poignant representations. This reading of Pen-Ek’s filmic corpus
can only begin to suggest the rich thematic and interpretive
possibilities that his works offer.
Kenneth Chan
Assistant Professor, Nanyang Technological University
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