Of elephants and Grade A students
Veteran singer/songwriter and actor Thaneth Warakulnukroh had been on hiatus for years but now appears to have made something of a comeback, taking part in concerts and releasing a new single.
His acting career is also back on track and fans can see now him in two movies, the Singaporean flick movie “Pop Aye” and the soon-to-be-released outing from GDH, “Chalard Games Gong” (“Bad Genius”).
Directed by Singaporean Kirsten Tan with an all-Thai crew, “Pop Aye” is set in Thailand and centres on Thana (Thaneth), an architect undergoing a mid-life crisis who unexpectedly encounters Pop Aye (Pong), an elephant he owned as a child. Thana decides to travel to his home province of Loei, taking Pop Aye back to where he was raised.
In “Chalard Games Gong” (“Bad Genius”), Thaneth plays the father of Lynn (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying), a straight-A student who is offered the opportunity to make millions of Baht by taking the STIC test, an international standardised test for students wanting to enroll in the world’s leading universities. The test is scheduled to take place on the same date and same time at locations all over the world. Their plan is for Lynn to fly to a country in a time zone that’s ahead of Thailand and then send the answers back to her customers.
Thanet says that his return to the big screen is destiny. “I was thinking about making a film when I received the calls from the studios,” he says.
Thanet is working on his own film, which he is writing, producing and directing. Asked what the project is about, he replies: “It’s about life, that’s all I can say”.
“Bad Genius” will be released on May 3. "Pop Aye" will open the Bangkok Asean Film Festival this Wednesday (April 26) and is slated to come to cinemas in June.
