"The Master" remembers influential pirate video vendor Mr Van

Bangkok’s legendary pirate-movie vendor Mr Van is the subject of “The Master”, a documentary in the works by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit.
It’s been selected for this year’s Asian Project Market at the Busan International Film Festival, along with projects by two other Thais, Pen-ek Ratanaruang with “Samui Song” and Nonzee Nimibutr, who has “The Two Kings”.
“Before Bittorrent, we have him,” reads the tagline to “The Master”, which again has the “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy” director looking back on outmoded media, much as he did with his experimental romance 36, which evoked memories of 36-exposure rolls of camera film.
Nawapol says he was inspired to make “The Master” after seeing the fast spread of pirated copies following the DVD release of his latest film “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy”.
He then remembered Van VDO, which sold bootleg videos of art films that had no distributor in Thailand. For Nawapol and dozens of other Thai filmmakers, it was the only place to get ahold of works by influential Asian filmmakers Wong Kar-wai and Takeshi Kitano, as well as other greats.
“What Mr Van did is illegal, but videos from his shop had influence on Thai filmmakers,” Nawapol recalls. “Young directors grew up with videos from his shop. Some film critics ordered 10 videos from the shop every week. Some film directors worked for the shop, while some were angry when they knew their films were on the shelves of this shop.”
Also at APM will be Pen-ek’s “Samui Song”, starring Chermarn Boonyasak was a young woman with a husband who falls under the influence of a cult leader (Vithaya Pansringarm of “Only God Forgives” and “The Last Executioner”). It’s produced by Pen-ek’s “Headshot” partner Raymond Phathanavirangoon along with Arunee Srisuk, Rasarin Tanalerttararom.
And Nonzee, who made a comeback earlier this year with the weepy teen drama “Timeline”, will pitch “The Two Kings”, which is produced by Henry Ko and Sandra Gaviria.
The Asian Project Market runs from October 6 to 8 as part of the Busan International Film Festival, October 2 to 11.

Out of the clouds
Having spent the past year on the festival circuit, the Thai arthouse drama “Concrete Clouds” has finally set a Thai release. It’ll open on September 18 for an exclusive run at SF Cinemas.
The film is the feature directorial debut of Lee Chatametikool, a well-known editor on films by the likes of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Anocha Suwichakornpong. And, putting his mad editing skills to work, he’s cut a nifty one-minute teaser to get local audiences revved up for the 1997-set Bangkok family drama.
Turn up your speakers for the rocking blast of “Mai Mi Laeo” (“No More”) by the ’90s earworm crafters Pause, a Bakery label band was fronted by the inimitable singer Joe Amarin, who died in 2002 at age 30.
“Concrete Clouds” stars Ananda Everingham as a guy named Mutt, a US trader who turns up back in Thailand for his suicidal dad’s funeral in 1997, just as the economic bubble burst. Apinya Sakuljaroensuk also stars, in all her mirror-smashing glory, along with Janesuda Parnto.