'Love' and 'Ploy'

Two young actors lead the list of Thai nominees at the second annual Asian Film Awards, which were announced recently. Mario Maurer is a nominee for Best Supporting Actor for "The Love of Siam", while Apinya Sakujaroensuk, who played the Afro-haired title character in "Ploy", is a nominee for Best Supporting Actress.

Pen-ek Ratanaruang's "Ploy", about a married couple confronting their relationship troubles in a Bangkok hotel room, received a second nod for best cinematography, for Chankit Chamnivikaipong.

The romantic ensemble drama "The Love of Siam" is also nominated for best composer, with director Chukiat Sakweerakul, the August Band, Flure, Witwisit "Mew" Hirunwongkul and Passakorn Wiroonsup named as co-nominees.

Another Thai film, the dark karmic action thriller, "Opapatika", was nominated for best production design (Pisut Pariwattanakit and Thanakorn Pornsuwan).

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Hong Kong on March 17.

The Asian Film Awards were launched last year by the Hong Kong International Film Festival in a bid to raise the prestige of the event as it faces competition from other festivals, most notably the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea. The Hong Kong film festival will run from March 17 to April 6.

The Asian Film Awards added best supporting actor categories this year.

Thailand won honours at the inaugural awards last year, when Lee Chatametikool won Best Editor for his work on Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Syndromes and a Century", which was also nominated for Best Director and Best Cinematography (for Sayombhu Mukdeeprom). Screenwriter Prabda Yoon was nominated for his work on Pen-ek's "Invisible Waves".

Top nominees at this year's awards are Ang Lee's spy thriller "Lust, Caution" and Peter Chan's historical battle epic "The Warlords", which have six nominations each. Jiang Wen's "The Sun Also Rises", has five nominations. The Japanese movie "I Just Didn't Do it" and South Korea's "Secret Sunshine" each had four.

"Lust, Caution", about the affair between an undercover student activist and the Japanese-allied spy chief in World War II-era Shanghai, and "The Warlords" are both up for best film and best director. The film's stars, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Tang Wei, were nominated for top acting awards. "The Warlords" star Jet Li is also competing for best actor, along with Song Kang-ho from "Secret Sunshine," who won in the same category last year for the monster thriller "The Host", and Ryo Kase from "I Just Didn't Do It", about a young man fighting sexual harassment charges.

Song's co-star from "Secret Sunshine", Jeon Do-yeon, is up for best actress, along with Korean-American actress Kim Yun-jin from the hit US TV show "Lost" and veteran Chinese actress Joan Chen.

In Bangkok, a revived, director's-cut version of "The Love of Siam" has been played to fully-booked audiences at House cinema on Royal City Avenue. Tickets to the new, three-hour version of Chukiat's film are sold out until February 20.

- Nation Weekend, with additional reporting by the Associated Press

Published on January 25, 2008