Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Holidays Were Special




What a difference a year makes. 2010 was an amazing year. I think I had more fun and relaxed more about life than I have in years. I also think some very nice things have happened. Thailand did not go to war with itself, and that is very good news. The shuttle to the airport finished creating a fast and inexpensive way to get out to the international airport. A Coffee World opened up on Kaset Campus right across from the track where I jog and along side the fruit market where I buy fruit. New backboards and rims were put in at Satit Kaset offering us an amazing place to play basketball, okay, the rims are 10 inches too high, but glass backboards look so cool. I must say though my neck is killing me from looking up to these 10'10 rims.

My favorite class is in IP 12, so we're having fun putting in our final year together. IP 12 has been a blast to teach and as they head off to USA, Japan, and Chula, they will be missed. This class is going to make some major waves out there in the world.

And on my personal career notes I added a wonderful experience getting to work with legendary action director Panna Rittikrai in saving his Kot So Kot Su or Bangkok Knockout. The project was so challenging because he had already shot many of the action scenes before realizing the story was not working. "Sim, just write a story that can slip my action scenes in, other wise we may have to kill this idea." These words and then a CD with 7 action scenes were handed to me. I must have watched that footage 30 times, trying to figure out why they would be fighting, motivation, etc. What I came up with was not perfect, but it offered us a chance to save the film and that AMAZING ACTION that he is so good at. Action fans will love the film for those scenes, while critics will pan the story, but little do they know how hard we worked to save this project and to give a team of young stunt men a chance to be actors.

I will always be proud of our work and the friendships I developed during Bangkok Knockout. I must say too, driving around during the Christmas break I got a little tingle every time I saw our movie up in lights. We played for 3 weeks here in Thailand, but will be going to the US some time in 2011 so maybe we'll find a nice niche over there with action fans. I hope so.

Next film project is already under way and it will be AMAZING because we are all starting the project together! Just wait!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Chiang Dao Christmas 2010

What can I say, life in the north of Thailand is different. Chiang Dao is a very special place where we have spent Christmas for the past 5 years. We love it there because it is cool, almost cold, giving us a break from Bangkok heat. It's also home to some very large Christian communities so the Christmas celebration every year is truly Christmas like, and when you are living over seas I don't care who you are the holidays will make you feel a twinge of homesickness. But Chiang Dao is really a blast and yet its the kind of blast where you had better find your own fun because there isn't that much to do. Considering the chaos of the past three months I could not have been more ready for a trip up north. The photos bellow are just some glimpses of the trip. The first photo is a typical meal, notice no one has an individual plate, but instead eats what ever they can scoop up with a ball of sticky rice. The second photo is a coffee shop called Haneebahoi where I did the majority of my writing during the trip. The other photos are of a night when we went up in the high mountains to see a very beautiful little village. On the way home we had a little trouble getting around this very territorial herd of cattle. Let's face it, life in the north is just different.