Just five years ago, Thai films were a rare sight at international film festivals, which makes it all the more extraordinary that no less than four Thai movies have been selected for this year's Berlin International Film Festival, which opened on Thursday.
Apart from action drama Beautiful Boxer, which is screening in the festival's Panorama section, three Thai films have been selected for the Forum of New Cinema - Nonzee Nimibutr's comedy drama Okay Baytong; My Girl, about a young man who returns from Bangkok to his rural home, and the bizarrely titled The Adventures Of Iron Pussy, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, about a gay superhero.
My Girl (which is called Fan Chan in Thai) was the biggest locally produced hit at the Thai box office last year, grossing more than 130 million baht (about HK$25.9 million). Its success surprised many, because it was described as a kid's movie - a genre that's not supposed to draw the crowds in a country where the most popular films are usually lavish costume dramas, action pictures and horror movies.
Also, My Girl doesn't feature any stars (most of the cast are children) or even a name director (it was directed by a collective of six unknown graduates from the advertising industry). But the film seemed to strike a chord with the Thai audience because of its subject matter. For one thing, it's steeped in nostalgia. As the main character, Jeab, remembers his rural childhood, the soundtrack features jingles from TV soaps and pop songs from the 1970s that many in the audience would remember. In one of the most memorable flashbacks, Jeab and his friends mimic a Hong Kong TV series that was popular at the time, pretending to fly through the air and fight with swords.
Even if you're not familiar with the TV series, it's a touching reminder of how we played as kids. 'Our Singapore distributor watched the film and said they didn't recognise every tiny detail, but kids' imagination is something we can all relate to,' says Yongyooth Thongkonthun, who produced the film with Jira Maligool, his partner at Bangkok-based Hub Ho Hin Films. My Girl is also attracting interest from distributors in other parts of Asia. It's already been bought by Hong Kong's Lark Films Distribution (owned by UA Cinemas), which plans to release it here in April or May.
Meanwhile, Yongyooth and Jira have started working on their next projects. Yongyooth plans to direct an action comedy, M.A.I.D, about a SWAT team that poses as servants to gain access to gangsters and corrupt politicians' homes. Later this year, Jira will direct a drama based on an autobiographical novel, The Mine, about an engineering student from the city who travels south to 'find himself' and works as a miner.