Keeping a great in the frame

Keeping a great in the frame

The nation mourned when Mitr Chaibuncha fell to his death from a ladder hanging under a helicopter, but one man making sure that his legacy lives on.

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE

Phitsanulok province is an unlikely place to pay tribute to legendary Thai actor Mitr Chaibuncha. It is neither his birthplace nor the place where he died while performing his own stunt.

However, on Oct 8 more than 50 fans of Mitr, one of the greatest Thai actors of all time, went to the province to visit the residence of Buncha Vajasuwan, a 52-year-old television reporter, to mark the 45th anniversary of the actor’s death.

It was an event filled with fanfare, as those present recalled the golden years of Thai cinema from the 1960s-1970s. Candy floss and fresh sugarcane juice, popular with moviegoers in those days, were sold from colourful mobile kiosks. Vintage posters of Mitr’s movies were attached to walls of the house.

“I wanted to replicate the atmosphere of the old days for Mitr’s fans,” said Buncha. “The highlight is of course the rare collection of posters that I have collected for years for Mitr’s fans to see.”

BROUGHT TO LIFE

Now known as the Mitr Chaibuncha Museum, visitors to Buncha’s residence are greeted with life-sized cardboard cut-outs of Mitr, which his fans like to pose with to take photos.

The diverse themes and plots of his movies are reflected through the posters that illustrate a glorious period for Thai film, one in which Mitr played a large role. Buncha said Mitr appeared in almost 300 films, but the official record puts Mit’s movie count at 266, based on documented posters.

“I watched several of his movies at temple fairs which showed them outdoors. I watched the films while sitting on a mat. It was the period of 16mm films,” he said.

Buncha spent time describing the plot of each movie that is displayed in every poster, to show the diverse range of Mitr’s acting talent. Mitr’s career spanned the time when Thai films were shot in 16mm in the early days, and then in 35mm.

The publicity poster for Mitr’s action film titled Pet Tad Pet, or Operation Bangkok in English, showcased an action scene with leading actress Petchara Chaowarat holding a pistol in the centre of the poster. Printed from an oil painting, the poster also shows a headshot of Mitr confronting the movie’s villain, Kecha Plianvithee.

On another wall of the house is a poster showing Mitr’s blockbuster, Monrak Luk Thung, or Magical Love of the Country, a romantic comedy which became the actor’s top box office hit. The movie was screened for six months in 1970, collecting more than 13 million baht nationwide.

“If you take into account inflation and other things, the movie might have earned several hundred million baht in today’s money,” Buncha said, adding that the film was a hit long before the advent of the Cineplex corporation, when most movies had a much shorter lifespan and disappeared from cinema screens within a month.

The most poignant item in his museum is, perhaps, a poster of Insee Thong, or Golden Eagle, in which Mitr reprised his role as a masked crime fighter. It was his last movie. At 36, he died after falling from a helicopter at Jomtien Beach near Pattaya while doing his own stunt for the movie.

It was his last scene, but Mitr lost his grip while hanging onto a ladder dangling below the helicopter.

ALWAYS AN UNCLE

On the day Mitr died, Buncha was only a seven-year-old temple boy in the northern province of Phitsanulok. They never crossed paths. “I remember when I first heard the news. It was a sad day. Uncle Mitr died,” he said.

Although Buncha had never met Mitr in person, he always called him uncle.

In addition to Mitr’s commanding cinematic presence, he also gave the impression of being a sensitive and righteous man. “I know that he was a good man with a kind heart. He was also a temple boy like me,” Buncha said.

Those qualities of good looks and a kind heart made Mitr a mega-star from 1956-1970. During that period, more than 100 films were made each year and Mitr starred in about half of them.

Prolific: Despite dying at the age of 36, Mitr appeared in almost 300 films.

He often starred with leading actress of the time, Petchara Chaowarat. “The Mitr-Petchara duo was a household name. Their names were on everyone’s lips at that time,” said Buncha.

Mitr’s shocking and untimely death in front of the camera at the peak of his career made him a legend and a cultural icon in Thailand in a similar fashion to James Dean or Marilyn Monroe in the United States.

Buncha said he was determined to preserve Mitr’s legacy. Copies of newspaper stories on Mitr in his heyday are on display all over the museum. There are also news clippings about Mitr attending many charitable events and other clippings about his high-profile funeral. The black-and-white photos in the old newspapers show Mitr’s body at a temple in Bangkok, surrounded by hundreds of his friends and fans. 

POWERFUL PERSONA

Mitr’s life reads like a fairy tale. Hailing from Phetchaburi, he came from humble beginnings. He boxed at a young age and was later accepted into a Royal Thai Air Force aviation school and became a Flight Sergeant Second Class.

Originally named Pichet Pumchem, he was given the screen name Mitr Chaibuncha in 1956 before starring in his debut film, Chat Sue.

When deciding on his stage name, a producer asked him what was important in his life, and he replied “friends”. The producer then decided to give him the screen name of Mitr, which in English means friend. When looking for a surname to go with his first screen name, the same producer asked him what his proudest moment was, to which Mitr replied it was when he carried a ceremonial flag in a military parade. The producer then gave him the last name of Chaibuncha, meaning victory.

His screen persona later became his life. In 1967, he applied in Dusit district to change his last name to Chaibuncha.

Buncha started collecting vintage posters when he was a temple boy. When there were temple festivals and fairs, Buncha was given the task of advertising the events by riding on the back of a motorcycle and putting up movie posters around the community.

He would have rolls of posters and a box of glue to stick the posters to the walls at various places. If there were a few posters left, he would keep them in his room. “I never thought they would be sought-after collectables,” he said.

After he attended a teacher’s college in the province, Buncha started collecting other items such as vintage soft drink bottles, cassettes, magazines and old photographs, which are now on display at his home in Phitsanulok.

One day Buncha hosted a merit-making ceremony at his house. “It was the first time that I put up the posters all over the place,” he said. The vintage movie posters impressed his visitors.

Friends started spreading the word about his sought-after memorabilia. Some movie fans and academics asked to see his collectables for their research and study.

“Art students came here to study the posters of old movies, to study the history of films. Some studied the brushstrokes of the poster artists,” he said.

WORKS OF ART

Many of Buncha’s posters were made by Somboonsuk Niyomsiri, aka Piak Poster, the movie poster artist turned film director. It is easy to find this out, because it was common for artists to put their signatures on the bottom of a poster. The poster artist usually painted the whole picture and later added stylised text on top, giving the information about the movie.

“Piak Poster made the best portraits of Mitr. He painted Mitr many times,” said Buncha, while pointing to his many different Mitr movie posters. “The artist in those days always drew the celebrity’s face to scale, to get the right symmetry.”

When the popularity of Thai films started to decline in the 1980s, many of the old cinemas closed down. Some movie operators threw away their posters and rolls of films because they thought they no longer had any value.

The resurgence of Thai movies in the 1990s changed that and turned the old posters into rare collectables. Many shops, bars and restaurants now use the old posters to give their places a retro feel. Groups of people formed to exchange the posters and to reprint them.

Once an investor offered to buy a genuine old poster from Buncha for tens of thousands of baht, but he declined. “I realised then that it was also a collectable item,” he said.

Buncha’s home also displays posters from non-Mitr movies such as Krasue. One poster features Pissamai Vilaisak in the leading role of a female spirit without a body. The oil painted image shows her internal organs hanging down from her floating neck.

Posters from recent movies such as Tears of the Black Tiger and Ong Bak, which are made from photographs and digital imaging equipment, are also on display.

“I want the later generation to see and appreciate Thai films. Thai movies should not disappear from Thailand,” said Buncha.

HISTORICAL VALUE

Although Mitr died almost half a century ago, he still has a legion of loyal fans aged from 50 upwards. Some formed a group known as Mitr Chaibuncha’s fan club and are led by Manas Chamnong, of the Thai Old Movie Station website. The group makes merit and organises an event every year to mark the anniversary of Mitr’s premature departure.

Two years ago, the group organised a special screening session to pay tribute to Mitr Chaibuncha at the Sri Salaya Movie Theatre of the Thai Film Archive in Nakhon Pathom province. Buncha was invited to the event. “I met many of Mitr’s fans, including the husband of Petchara and several film-makers,” he said.

This year, Mitr Chaibuncha’s fan club asked him to host the event to mark the 45th anniversary of Mitr’s death. Buncha agreed. Visitors from out of town also took the opportunity to visit the Chinnarat Buddha at Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, which is only a few kilometres from his home in the centre of Phitsanulok province.

Buncha’s residential compound was turned into a mini cinema for the evening. The event was attended by directors and voice actors who narrated Mitr’s films. The whole night had a retro feel thanks to decorations and traditional-style food.

“It was raining but a lot of people turned up. Some came all the way from other provinces. It was fun,” he said.

Buncha said he was planning to organise other activities for Mitr’s fans in the future. “I am sure it will attract many of Mitr’s fans. We can form a tour for senior citizens to pay tribute to Mitr,” he joked.

Those who are interested can ask to visit his museum for free, but visitors are required to arrange their tour in advance.

In addition to movie-related items, Buncha has also collected old books and photos. He has a rare collection of photographs from when Phitsanulok was ablaze in the early 1960s when fire razed the entire city centre. He also keeps a wooden box holding a preserved and hard-to-find photographic collection of His Majesty the King’s visit to the province several decades ago.

“The governor asked for my permission to reprint the photos of His Majesty the King’s visit. I had no idea who took these photos. I got them a long time ago. After the photos were reprinted, no one has claimed the rights to them,” he said.

The buzz over Mitr’s items has also turned Buncha into a well-known curator and collector. People in the province started to donate things they thought would be valuable to Buncha, such as old vending carts used to sell Thai-style coffee.

His most recent collectable is the last public bus in Phitsanulok, which stopped service last year. It used to circle the city picking up passengers and ran for 52 years.

“The public bus operator could no longer suffer the losses from running the service,” he said. “But they donated the bus to me for future public display because this bus is part of our history.”

The legend lives: A poster exhibition last month marked 45 years since the death of Thai actor Mitr Chaibuncha.

Super fan: Left, journalist Buncha Vajasuwan owns a haul of Mitr memorabilia that he is sharing with the public.

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