ABSTRACT
This final chapter will again return exclusively to Thai experience and highlight some of the distances between screen images of Thailand and realities. There was a renaissance in Thai film-making in the late 1990s. The revival began in 1997 with Nonzee’s Daeng Brieley, which became the highestgrossing Thai film to that time. Two years later his film Nang Nak earned seventy million baht in one week. The boom continued with a gay comedy, Satree Lek (Iron Ladies, 2000), and the nationalist drama Bang Rajan, while in 2001 the historical epic Suriyothai, the most expensive Thai movie ever made, was released. Later successes included the Cannes award winner Sud
Pralad (Tropical Malady, 2004) and the Muey Thai kick-boxing comedy Ong-Bak (2003), although by 2004 Thai films were no longer so commercially successful. As Thai movies are still not well known internationally, however, some comments may help to introduce them.
