Cambodian classics re-emerge

Puos Keng Kang , known to Thai people as Ngu Keng Kong , is the most famous Cambodia movie that was recently screened in a retrospective of classic Khmer cinema in Berlin.

Peov Chouk Sor , a film about an angel who gets stuck on Earth, was saved from destruction when the director carried its print on the last airlift out of Phnom Penh.

The Thai poster of Ngu Keng Kong when the film was released in Thailand.

Tea Lim Koun

Ly Bun Yim

Rare screenings of vintage Khmer movies recently showed the missing link in Southeast Asian film heritage

7/03/2012
Kong Rithdee
Bangkok Post

The Khmer Rouge, headlong and senseless, arrived in Phnom Penh and spoiled the party. During the so-called Golden Age of Cambodian cinema, from the 1960s to the early '70s, almost 400 films were released in the country. A number of them travelled across the border and were screened in Thai cinemas, some gaining the status of popular entertainment, and at least one, featuring a chattering snake and his love affair with a beautiful woman, becoming a classic remembered today by Thais as a lost, distant dream.

All Cambodian film-makers of those years were self-taught. They threw in their cauldron a recipe of primitivism, witchcraft, melodrama and folk horror that resulted in a cinema that bustled with colour and smelled of fragrant earth. When the Khmer Rouge approached the capital in 1975, however, the light from the projector grew dark. Artists and film-makers fled for their lives, many didn't make it, and out of the 400 movies made during those years, no more than 30 survived. It is one of the biggest losses in the history of Southeast Asian cinema.

Tea Lim Koun fled, too, at one point clutching a 16mm print of one of his films as he boarded the last airlift out of Phnom Penh. There had been bombs in the cinemas, and as the rebel advanced the curfew forced movie theatres to shut down. Intellectuals, writers, actors and artists were among those the Khmer Rouge made a priority to kill.

Cambodian Film Director Ly Bun Yim Shares his Views via Skype with VOA Khmer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9-dbz03-XQ

Legend is Cambodian multiplex first

Mon, 11 July 2011
By Patrick Frater

Exhibition News

The first multiplex cinema in Cambodia opened this week with screenings of Transformers: Dark of the Moon – and a few surprising teething problems.

The Legend Cinema is a three screen multiplex, built in capital city Phnom Penh's City Mall, and owned by the Westec Media Ltd.

The complex, which was reportedly built at a cost of $1.5 million, includes 800 seats and has one theatre equipped with Dolby 3-D systems. Tickets are priced at $4 as standard rising to $6 for VIP seats in the regular halls, and $6 rising to $8 in the 3-D theatre.

Westec Media is a joint venture between Cambodian firm Westec Corporation, which has interests in schools, universities and security services, and Malaysia's Beep Media, which provides security services in the movie industry, event management in the games industry, and training and technology services.

Tipsodachan - Khmer Oldie Movie with Kong Sam Oeun and Vichara Dany

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l8Oz7rWvVQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoJ8XSXCPTI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8XFGVurGsc

Angkora.co​m - Info Express - Film "The Great Khmer Empire"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqTjeP93mok&feature=player_embedded

Bonjour,

Simplement pour vous soumettre les infos du Cambodge,

Un Nouveau film "Le Grand Empire Khmer " va sortir dans 3 ans, ça va coûter 70 millions de dollars US, à ce moment là, les combodgiens seront fier de son histoire, fier de son passé glorieux, et on ne se pose plus de question si le temple de Preah Vihear appartient au Cambodge ou à la Thailande,

http://www.angkora.com/viewupdate.php?id=135

Le film va faire le tour du monde, et le monde connaitera le Cambodge

Pour plus info : www.angkora.com

Cordialement,

Angkora.com

----------

Unofficial translation from Khmer

Hello,

Just to send you here information about Cambodia:

A new film "The Great Khmer Empire " will come out in 3 years, it will cost US$70 million and, then, the Cambodians will be proud of their history, proud of their glorious past, and nobody will ever doubt who Preah Vihear temple belongs to: Cambodia or Thailand. http://www.angkora.com/viewupdate.php?id=135

The film will be distributed throughout the world and the world will know about Cambodia.

For more information: www.angkora.com

Cordially,

Angkora.com

Golden Age of Khmer Cinema in 1960s Era Documented

Angelina Jolie To Feature In A Movie With Cambodian Backdrop

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
By Monimalika
Entertainment and Showbiz.com

We are not sure whether this one is again a rumor like the one where Angelina Jolie was said to be playing the role of legendary actress Marilyn Monroe. But the buzz is that a movie is being planned to be produced in Cambodia. The announcement was made on Wednesday in Phnom Pehn, by proposed the movie’s project manager Thomas Magyar and the project co-coordinator Tony Schiena. The title of the film is ‘Great Khmer Empire”.

The duo announced that it will be a massive and exhausting project as they will have to consult the Cambodian government and historians to gather accurate history. The film will take almost three years for making and it will cost approximately U.S. $ 70 million.

Schiena and Magyar stated that apart from Jolie they are looking into other famous stars those who can be part of the project. They have in mind the Chinese action hero Jet Li, John Cena of the World Wrestling entertainment and Song Hye Kyo a famous South Korean movie actress. It is likely to be a historical film focusing on the history of Cambodia during the reign of King Jayavarman the VII at 11th and 12th century. It is during this time the Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia was built.

Angelina Jolie has previously shot her film ‘Lara Croft: The Tomb Raider’ at the Siem Reap province that also has the famous Angkor Wat Temple. She also adopted her eldest son Maddox from Cambodia and was also given Cambodian citizenship for her conservation work there.

Jet Li, Angelina Jolie targeted for new movie in Cambodia

Jet Li
U.S. actress Angelina Jolie poses as she arrives at the German premiere of her new movie "Salt" in Berlin August 18, 2010. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- A famous Chinese action movie star Jet Li (Chinese name: Li Lianjie), and American movie actress Angelina Jolie are expected to be included in a new movie to be produced in Cambodia.

In a press conference held on Wednesday in Phnom Penh, Thomas Magyar, a project manager for the planned movie, and Tony Schiena, a project coordinator and a Hollywood star said the film they had planned to produce will be named as "Great Khmer Empire."

They said the film might cost approximately 70 million U.S. dollars and it will need about three years to make it, saying the large time span will be caused by the consultations with Cambodian government and historians on accuracy of the history as well as the script writing.

Both Tony Schiena and Thomas Magyar said, to date, they are looking at several famous movies stars such as Jet Li, Chinese action star, Angelina Jolie, an American movie actress, John Cena, world's famous wrester and South Korean movie actress Song Hye Kyo among others.

The movie will focus on history of Cambodia, especially, during the glorious period in 11th and 12th century under the King Jayavarman the VII, who until today, considered as the great King of Cambodia and who finished up the building of Angkor Wat Temple in Cambodia.

Angelina Jolie adopted a Cambodian son and was granted a Cambodian citizenship.

She was also a star in the famous movie titled "Tomb Raider" which some parts of the episodes were also shot in Siem Reap province where many temples including Angkor Wat Temple are located in.

More on pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodian films

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
By Kong Rithdee
Bangkok Post

The girl with a head full of baby-snakes wasn't the only screen celeb of the pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodian cinema.

To follow up on my piece in the Post about Khmer films ("A Bridge Over Troubled Waters" http://bit.ly/2kjOGn), which was naturally hampered by limited space and the inherently two-dimensional quality of the print media, I have posted the links to YouTube clips of Cambodian movies during the country's "Golden Age" of the 1960s and 1970s in this article, for your viewing experience. Like I wrote in the previous column, the most internationally famous Khmer film, still remembered by many Thais (above 40), was Puos Keng Korng, a 1970 folkloric supernatural romance about Soraya, a half-human, half-snake girl whose mother had sex with a giant snake, and thus she was born with a head full of crawling vipers. The film was released in Thai theatres -- and became a phenomenon in many countries around Asia. Its lead actress Dy Saveth was later cast to star in a number of Thai films opposite big-name Siamese actors in those days. (Too bad I couldn't find her picture with the legendary snake-head). For a short video clip of Pous Keng Korng, see below. There are no subtitles, but it's actually a music video with a song sung by the famous Sinn Sisamouth, and you'll get the idea.

Dy Saveth survived the Khmer Rouge reign, but the film's lead actor, Chea Yuthorn, was believed to be killed during the war.The film's director, Tar Lym Kun, fled to Canada and is believed to still be alive.

Pous Keng Korng was remade in 2001, with a Thai actor, Vinai Kraibutr, starring opposite Khmer beauty Pik Chanboramai (see trailer below). Strangely, the Thai title of the film, Ngu Keng Kong, spawned a number of B-grade copycat movies, usually with soft-core nature. Inter-species erotica has a strange pul.




But the serpent-headed beauty wasn't the only screen celeb back then before Pol Pot arrived. It's reported that around 33 out of nearly 400 films made during the pre-Khmer Rouge decade survived -- recently there was a screening event of those titles in Phnom Penh, called The Golden Reawakening. Here, check out the clip of Puthisen Neang Kong Ray (see clip below), or 12 Sisters, a Khmer tale that has an exactly similar Siamese version, called Nang Sib Song (it's often made into TV series). The story is truly bizarre, with a touch of the exotic grotesquerie typical of our supernatural Souteast Asia: A wonderfully virile king impregnates 12 sisters, all of them his wives. But an ogress seduces the king (an ogress!) and convinces him to gouge out the eyes of the 12 sisters and banish them to a cave -- which the king duly does. Later, the sisters give birth to their babies, and all but one of them decide to eat their own children. So one boy survives, and when he becomes a young man he reveals the truth to his father, much to the hysterical thrashing-about of the wicked ogress.


Finally let's hear a song from the film Thansua Soben, which was released in a Thai theatre in 1971 (see clip below). The influence of Chinese opeara is all over, and the music is really sweet. The film tells the story of a girl who disguises herself as boy and later falls in love with a male student.

It's believed that the film's cast perished during the Khmer Rouge war.

(Thanks to Donsaron Kovitvanicha)

Cambodia to host Asia Int'l Youth Movie Festival contest

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia will host the preliminary contest for the Asia International Youth Movie Festival on Oct. 12 at the multi-purpose hall of the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center (CJCC), DAP news of Cambodia reported at its website on Saturday, citing a press release from the Japanese Embassy on Friday.

Winners of the contest will be invited to Japan in December to participate, together with students from other Mekong region countries (Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) and Japan, in the final round of the Asia International Youth Movie Festival which will be held in Ibusuki City, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.

"The festival will be held in commemoration of the Mekong-Japan Exchange Year 2009, and it has been made possible by the initiative of famous Japanese actor and singer Sugi Ryotaro," the press release said. "Sugi himself will visit Cambodia and join the panel of judges at the preliminary contest."

This preliminary contest has been co-organized by the Embassy of Japan, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) and CJCC. Twenty three-minute movies produced by Cambodian high school students have been submitted for the screening at the contest.

The Japanese company Canon donated five advanced video cameras for the contest.

Cambodia's Rithy Panh wins French prize

27/05/2007
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Cambodian film-maker Rithy Panh has been was awarded the France Culture Cinema 2007 prize for his cinematic work.

The survivor of the Khmer Rouge death camps received the prize from the French radio network, awarded by a jury headed by actress Charlotte Rampling.

The award recognises "the power of his work and his commitment to Cambodia's film memory."

The 43-year-old studied film in France after escaping Cambodia and went on to make several films including "Rice People" in 1994, "One Evening After the War" in 1998 and the 2003 movie "S21:The Khmer Rouge Death Machine."