Self-study and classroom lessons based on newspaper feature stories

This column is for self-study or classroom use and gives guided help with reading the wide variety of writing styles and topics that appear as feature articles in the Bangkok Post. The lessons include background information, skill-building practice and vocabulary explanations.

July 15, 2003

Making the tough stuff easier

INTRODUCTION

Kong Rithdee is a Thai writer who has worked hard at his English and achieved a very high level in his writing. He has also learned a lot about movies and the film industry, both foreign films and the growing Thai cinema. These are things many people want to read about. The only problem for you, if you are a second language reader, is that Kong’s vocabulary is so advanced. You might want to give up even though you’d like to know what he has to say.

This lesson will give you some help with the vocabulary and also guide you to understand the ideas. Though the vocabulary is difficult, you’ll find that the ideas are really not.
Easy vocabulary

First, let’s look at some common movie industry words and phrases, many of these you will already know or can guess. So, before you read the story, see if you can match the words in the first list with their meanings in the second. If you have trouble, use the way they are used in the story (context) to help you.

_____ debut
_____ independent
_____ executive producer
_____ screenwriter
_____ shot (v)
_____ pic
_____ teaser
_____ remastering
_____ saga
_____ premiered

made with private money not funds from government or large companies

a long and complicated story of heroic people and events

a short piece film with scenes from a movie; also called a trailer

took a picture or filmed a movie scene in a movie

a short form referring to a film

the first public appearance of a performer

shown to an audience for the first time

the person who handles the business and legal issues related to a movie

the person who describes the scenes and writes the dialogue of a movie

making a new copy in order to improve quality
Getting to the important stuff

When you are reading something with difficult vocabulary, like these three articles, the important thing is to read quickly for the ideas. Don’t stop to check unknown words.

Here are three sets of questions to guide you. Read them first, then read the previews quickly to find the answers to all the questions in each set.

Which movie takes advantage of a situation that exists in another country? What is the other country? What is the situation? How is the filmmaker suited to tell the story?

Which movie has a star playing a character in a situation she would not like to be in herself? Underline the sentence in the preview that Kong uses to express that idea? Why would the star not like to be in that situation?

Which movie was too complicated and difficult for some audiences? What has been done to it to make it more suitable for international audiences? Who made the changes?
Working at vocabulary

One of the best reading skills you can develop is guessing at the meanings of unfamiliar words. Now that you know the main ideas about these three movies, it’s worth spending some time to develop your vocabulary skills. Here are six tips for getting meanings of the words below. They are in bold print in the text as well to help you find them.

In the same paragraph as unravel, highlight a word that has a similar meaning. How did the plot of the movie help you guess the meaning?

In the same sentence as confounding, underline a phrase that helps you understand its meaning.

In the same paragraph as dislocated, highlight the phrase that helps you understand what that means. How does the prefix dis help you?

In the same sentence as mayhem what verb tells you it means a very bad situation?

Underline the phrase that tells you whether staggering means ‘a lot’ or ‘falling down’.

Look in the same paragraph as streamlined and highlight two adjectives that help you know what it means.

OUR STORIES FROM THE BANGKOK POST

Coming to a theatre near you

Twenty Thai movies have been released this year,
and eight more will follow in the next six weeks.
These films prove Thai cinema is alive and well

Previews KONG RITHDEE

KUEN RAI NGAO (One Night Husband)

Perhaps Nicole Theriault, who makes her acting debut in this film and is freshly engaged to her rock-star honey in a high-profile tabloid splash, wouldn't find the premise of the film all that rosy and encouraging. In this introverted drama about a romantic mishap, pop-tart Nicole plays a bride whose groom mysteriously disappears on their wedding night while the sheets are still moist with the blissful sweat of their young bodies. Happiness turns sour, then dark and confusing, as she sets out on a search for her runaway beau.

Kuen Rai Ngao (literally “night without shadow”, though the English title is One Night Husband) is a movie in which females refuse to play second fiddle. It's written and directed by former short filmmaker Pimpaka Towira, a well-known talent in the independent/experimental circle who aspires to push her vision into the mainstream with this feature-length debut. Her story — co-written by Prabda Yoon — centres in the psychodrama between two women who quietly realise that their lives have thus far been dictated by men.

Nicole plays the one-night wife Sipang, and carries the movie as the lead character. Her counterpoint is Siriyakorn “Oom” Pukkaves, who plays Busaba, the pathetic wife of Chatchai (Pongpat Wachirabanjong), Sipang's hot-tempered brother-in-law. As the two women unravel the clues to the disappearance, they also discover that love hurts, life has many hidden crooks, and the confounding values of femininity are a force that sometimes even women can't fully understand.
PROVINCE 77

Thailand's 77th province is not a geographical extension of the existing 76th province. Rather, it's a cultural, numerical, and metaphorical play on the fact that there are so many Thai immigrants in Los Angeles, both legal and illegal, that the American city is in effect an appendage of the Kingdom. Now, one famous resident offers to tell the tale of these dislocated citizens on film.

Province 77 is in every sense a bi-cultural movie. Most credit definitely goes to Pete Thongchua, a Thai actor who was born in the USA and has lived most of his years on the sun-baked west coast of America. Pete, who serves as the film's executive producer, came up with the story; hired an American screenwriter; recruited his Thai-American friends for assistance; financed the 60-million-baht pic, and shot the entire film on the streets of LA, mostly with professional American crews. Eighty percent of the dialogue is in English, and the cast are mostly luk-krueng (Thais of mixed parentage). The spirit of the film, with its hip-hop kicks and mean-street style, couldn't be more in line with independent American films.

The action-drama revolves around a Thai family in LA and the cultural dilemma they confront when their father's restaurant business faces collapse. The burden of redemption falls on his three children, played by supermodel Methinee “Luk Ked” Kingpayome, Mike Kingpayome and newcomer Charlene Amatavanich. The children are dragged into the mayhem of a gangster environment and struggle to define their identity as their “Thainess” melts away in the Californian heat.

From the teaser, the film resembles an orgy of neon-gods, with a splash of harsh colours, a pounding rap soundtrack, street violence and illicit racing. Pete is trying to concoct his own version of a gangster's paradise.
SURIYOTHAI (The Legend of Suriyothai)

Two years ago the fever of Suriyothai swept across the nation. Its classical gargantuanism, pomp and pachyderms, elevated its status into a kind of national phenomenon, with audiences pouring into theatres generating a staggering 600-million-baht revenue. And although critics expressed mixed opinions, the importance of the film to local viewers remains irrefutable.

This August it's the return of Suriyotha i— shorter, clearer, and reportedly with better subtitles. It all began last year when American film-maker Francis Ford Coppola, a long-time friend of director MC Chatrichalerm Yukol, agreed to supervise the re-editing of the film and flew to Bangkok for the remastering. His intention was to create an international version of Suriyothai, a more streamlined, concise saga that would appeal to a non-Thai audience unfamiliar with the convoluted layers of Siamese history.

In June, Sony Classics released the re-titled The Legend of Suriyothai at 60 theatres in major American cities. The film bears the credit “Francis Ford Coppola Presents”, and is now re-edited — not just “chopped” — from its original 190 minutes to 142, with all its gold-gilded opulence intact.

Some new scenes have been shot, at Coppola's suggestion, to punctuate dramatic fortissimo that had initially been drowned in the lushness of palace intrigue. MC Chatrichalerm premiered his film at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and is eager to see the audiences' reactions when his most ambitious film makes a comeback in Thai theatres.

SOME VOCABULARY HELP

tabloid
a newspaper with short articles, many pictures and stories about famous people

premise
an idea that forms the basis for something

introverted
interested in your own thoughts and feelings

to play second fiddle
to be treated as less important than someone else

aspire
to strongly want to achieve

dictated
controlled; influenced

counterpoint
a contrast

crooks
bends; twists

metaphorical
showing that two things have the same qualities

a play on
taking advantage of something to make a point

appendage
a small part of something larger

dilemma
a problem situation with a difficult choice between equal things

redemption
being saved from evil

orgy
an extreme amount of a particular activity

illicit
against the law

concoct
to make something new from different parts

gargantuan
huge

pomp
impressive clothes, decorations, music, especially as part of traditional customs

pachyderms
any of the thick-skinned animals (elephants)

irrefutable
cannot be proven wrong

convoluted
complicated

opulence
richness; lushness

intact
complete

punctuate
to interrupt

fortissimo
very loud

intrigue
secret plans, especially to cause harm

Answers: streamlined (shorter, clearer), unravel (discover), confounding (even women can’t understand), dislocated (Thai immigrants in Los Angeles, dis- has a negative meaning), mayhem (dragged), staggering (600-million-baht)

•This lesson was prepared by Maureen Paetkau, a professional teacher of English as a second and foreign language and Assistant Manager and Webmaster for Learning Post at the Bangkok Post.

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