Birthday:
07-16-1970
(54 years)
Birthplace:
Bangkok, Thailand
Biography
Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. His feature films include Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the prestigious 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or prize; Tropical Malady, which won a jury prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival; Blissfully Yours, which won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard program at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival; and Syndromes and a Century, which premiered at the 63rd Venice Film Festival and was the first Thai film to be entered in competition there. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Weerasethakul has directed several features and dozens of short films. Themes reflected in his films (frequently discussed in interviews) include dreams, nature, sexuality (including his own homosexuality), and Western perceptions of Thailand and Asia, and his films display a preference for unconventional narrative structures (like placing titles/credits at the middle of a film) and for working with non-actors.
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Their works
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Past Present
Act like Self
event2013 star_border 6.3
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A contemplative trip down memory lane with one of the leading voices of the Second New Wave of Taiwanese Cinema. Saw Tiong Guan clearly established a very personal bond with his subject, and also found many of Tsai Ming-liang’s colleagues prepared to complete this portrait of a quiet yet outspoken artist.
Circulation
Act like Runner
event1998
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This film is a Movies strip that consists of 365 frames. The actor is actually moving in one direction but appears to swing like a pendulum on the screen. Sporadic booms of the soundtrack reveal the relationship between the human pendulum movement, the rhythm of the soundtrack and its perforations, and the object split into individual frames.
Mekong Hotel
Act like Self
event2012 star_border 5.4
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Shifting between fact and fiction in a hotel situated along the Mekong River, a filmmaker rehearses a movie expressing the bonds between a vampire-like mother and daughter.
The Legend of the Palme d'Or
Act like Self
event2015 star_border 6
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From Martin Scorsese to Jane Campion, from Emir Kusturica to Quentin Tarantino, some of the greatest recipients of this trophy recall special moments relating to the award ceremony which closes the Cannes Film Festival. This film brings to light moving and personal stories, as surprising as they are varied, which all contribute to further enhancing the legend of the Palme d’Or.
Behind the Blur
event2009 star_border 4
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An insightful documentary about Thai cinema, which features a colourful and long running film history, yet struggles as the industry attempts to move forward. This film examines the past and focuses on the Thai New Wave since 1997 by combining film clips, and interviews from Thai directors and others artists, like Asian hip-hop sensation Thaitanium, who are trying to create a more personal style of art.
Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema
Act like Self
event2014 star_border 7.1
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With Taiwan remaining in the grip of martial law in 1982, a group of filmmakers from that country set out to establish a cultural identity through cinema and to share it with the world. This engaging documentary looks at the movement's legacy.
Thirdworld
event1999 star_border 6.6
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A depiction of the landscape, both metaphorically and realistically, of Panyi island. Some footage in the film was taken from the material shot for Mysterious Object at Noon
The Importance of Telepathy
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Apichatpong Weerasethakul: "Thanks to the sculpture, we recall the victims of political violence in Thailand."
Cinema Futures
Act like Self
event2016 star_border 6.2
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Analog celluloid strips are disappearing. Is film dying, or just changing? Are the world's film archives on the brink of a dark age? Renowned filmmakers, museum curators, historians, and engineers help dramatize the future of film and the cinema in the age of digital moving pictures.
A.W. A Portrait of Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Act like Self
event2018 star_border 7.5
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Canadian actor and filmmaker Connor Jessup (Closet Monster, Falling Skies) profiles Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a maverick of Thai cinema who explores the slippery nature of time and consciousness with a sublimely idiosyncratic, often surreal approach to film form.
Tony Rayns, the Not-So-Distant Observer
Act like Himself
event2012
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Prominent film critic Tony Rayns has long been a supporter of Korean cinema. This film illustrates Rayns’ affection for Korean cinema through interviews of Korean cineastes that have a special affinity for him, including JANG Sun-woo, LEE Chang-dong and HONG Sang-soo among others.
Wiara
Act like Himself
event2018
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Six authorities of cinema describe their approach to transcendence, mysticism, spirituality and life after dead.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul Solo Exhibition - PHOTOPHOBIA
Act like Self
event2014
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Apichatpong Weerasethakul's solo exhibition "PHOTOPHOBIA" is held commemorating the 5th anniversary of the opening of Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery @KCUA.
Uncertain Path
event2021
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Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pedro Costa, Manoel de Oliveira y and the film's director, with their own personal views, share that thin line that links life with cinema.
Empire
Director (1 ep.)
event2010
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Initially a deep-sea diver is shown exploring a cave. Then a hand as shown handling a gastropod shell.
Tropical Malady
Screenplay (1 ep.)
event2004 star_border 6.8
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The passionate relationship between two men with unusual consequences. The film is divided in two parts. The first half charts the modest attraction between two men in the sunny, relaxing countryside and the second half charts the confusion and terror of an unknown menace lurking deep within the jungle shadows.
Syndromes and a Century
Director (1 ep.)
event2006 star_border 6.8
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A story about director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s parents who were both doctors, and his memories of growing up in a hospital environment.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Director (1 ep.)
event2010 star_border 6.7
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Suffering from acute kidney failure, Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave—the birthplace of his first life.
Blissfully Yours
Director (1 ep.)
event2002 star_border 6.6
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Min is an illegal Burmese immigrant living in Thailand who has contracted a mysterious painful rash covering his upper body. His girlfriend, Roong, and a middle-aged woman, Orn, take him to see a doctor. Min pretends that he cannot speak because he is not fluent in Thai and speaking would reveal him to be an illegal immigrant.
The Year of the Everlasting Storm
Director (1 ep.)
event2021 star_border 6.5
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Featuring seven stories from seven auteurs from around the world, the film chronicles this unprecedented moment in time, and is a true love letter to the power of cinema and its storytellers.
Phantoms of Nabua
Director (1 ep.)
event2009 star_border 5.9
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The story based on the mysterious portrait of the town of Nabua in northeastern Thailand. Soon after nightfall when the crepuscular violets concede to blackness, the wind's rustling intensifies and the boys come out to play.
The Adventure of Iron Pussy
Director (1 ep.)
event2004 star_border 5.1
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A gang of local thugs come in and start roughing up the customers and get abusive with the daughter. Suddenly, an elaborately coifed and tastefully dressed woman shows up and rescues the young woman and her father from further harm. This is Iron Pussy.
Mysterious Object at Noon
Director (1 ep.)
event2000 star_border 6.4
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A camera crew travels through Thailand asking villagers to invent the next chapter of an ever-growing story.
A Letter to Uncle Boonmee
Director (1 ep.)
event2009 star_border 6.5
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A filmmaker captures images that characterize the violence and repression as well as the hope of rebirth and remembrance in northeastern Thailand.
Memoria
Producer (1 ep.)
event2021 star_border 6
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One morning, Jessica Holland, a Scottish orchid farmer visiting her sister in Bogotá, is woken by a loud ‘bang’. This haunting sound dispels her sleep for days, calling into question her identity and guiding her from recording studios to secluded jungle villages in an attempt to find its source.
Prosperity for 2008
Director (1 ep.)
event2008 star_border 8
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Made to celebrate the new year. A single firework travelling through the night sky.
Haiku
Director (1 ep.)
event2009 star_border 4.1
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In this video diary, Weerasethakul documents the set of Primitive Project in Nabua, Thailand, particularly the scene when teenagers are hypnotized and sleep inside a time machine.
Worldly Desires
Director (1 ep.)
event2005 star_border 5.5
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One of three films commissioned by the Jeonju International Film Festival in 2005. A couple escaped their family to look for a spiritual tree in the jungle. There is a song at night, a song that spoke about an innocent idea of love and a quest for happiness. Worldly Desires is an experimental project where I invited a filmmaker friend, Pimpaka Towira, to shoot the love story by day and the song by night. The story, Deep Red Bloody Night, was written by my assistant who wanted to reprise a forbidden love story in a more romantic time in the past. I picked a pop song, Will I be Lucky? to convey a sense of guiltless freedom one feels when being hit by love. The video is a little simulation of manners, dedicated to the memories of filmmaking in the jungle during the year 2001-2005. -Apichatpong Weerasethakul
The State of the World
Director (1 ep.)
event2007 star_border 5.3
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An omnibus project examining, well, the state of the world.
Ashes
Director (1 ep.)
event2012 star_border 5.4
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In collaboration with Lomo, an Austrian camera company, and Mubi, a global film website, Weerasethakul was invited to make a work to launch the new LomoKino, a portable motion picture camera. Ashes juxtaposes the intimacy of his daily routine with the destruction of memories and his observations of the dark side of Thailand’s social realities.
M Hotel
Director (1 ep.)
event2011 star_border 4.7
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a film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Luminous People
Director (1 ep.)
event2007
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A group of people is in a boat traveling along Mekong River that stretches along the Thai-Laos border. They are running against the wind, anticipating a farewell. In the middle of the river, the lady head of the family casts the ashes off into the stream. The white dust merges with the muddy water. The boat makes a u-turn at the bridge that links two countries. The passengers are tired and start to drift off into their own world. The film disintegrates. The crew and the cast wander off in the river of simulation. The border links the worlds of the dead and of the living. The memory of an anonymous dead father lingers. The boat still moves on as the dusk arrives. Apichatpong and his crew traveled to Nong Khai, a small town near Mekong River, and recruited local villagers to participate in the project. For two days, the crew and cast reconstructed a fake ceremony and find a narrative.
Mobile Men
Director (1 ep.)
event2008 star_border 6
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A joyful shot recorded by Weerasethakul himself and two young men who become acquainted by filming each other in the back of a moving pickup truck. Though seemingly playful, the short film is a subtle portrait of migrant workers in the north of Thailand.
Cactus River
Director (1 ep.)
event2012 star_border 6
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Cactus River is a diary of the time Apichatpong Weerasethakul visited a newlywed couple near the Mekong River.
Vampire
Writer (1 ep.)
event2008 star_border 6.4
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A film crew go in search of Nok Phii - a rare bird which feeds on the blood of other creatures.
The Anthem
Director (1 ep.)
event2006 star_border 5.5
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One of the ingrained rituals in Thai society is the blessing automatically given before certain ceremonies and events such as the playing of the Royal Anthem in movie theaters before feature presentations. This short presents a "Cinema Anthem" which comically praises and blesses the feature to come.
Untitled
Director (1 ep.)
event2019 star_border 7
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Apichatpong Weerasethakul's submission to 30/30 Vision.
I'm Still Breathing
Director (1 ep.)
event2009
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A Thai band, Modern Dog, was invited to Nabua for the making of a music video for one of their songs, I’m Still Breathing. The teens are together in the village street and start to run, some of them kicking the smoking balls and throwing them into the moving crowd. The video is a celebration of exaltation and the release of tension, echoing Thailand’s political atmosphere.
Sakda (Rousseau)
Director (1 ep.)
event2012 star_border 6
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Created in celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, this short essay centres on a monologue delivered by a reincarnation of the philosopher in twenty-first century Thailand.
Vapour
Editor (1 ep.)
event2015 star_border 6
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The clouds descend onto a village and engulf it for a day. They touch the roof tiles, the beds, the chairs, the carpets, the grass, and the bodies, infecting everything with the fever of white stupor.
Ten Years Thailand
Screenplay (1 ep.)
event2018 star_border 6.2
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A collection of short films by five Thai directors imagining their country ten years into the future.
Nitrate: To the Ghosts of the 75 Lost Philippine Silent Films (1912-1933)
Producer (1 ep.)
event2023 star_border 9.5
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Lost cinema. Lost culture. Lost country. Lost people. How to recreate the past with nothing? Cinema of the impossible. The silent past is a horror film. The smell of nitrate in the morning. How many ghosts can the cinema contain? 75 films. 22 years. What is the numerological significance? Too late. Never too late.
Cemetery of Splendor
Director (1 ep.)
event2015 star_border 5.9
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In a hospital, ten soldiers are being treated for a mysterious sleeping sickness. In a story in which dreams can be experienced by others, and in which goddesses can sit casually with mortals, a nurse learns the reason why the patients will never be cured, and forms a telepathic bond with one of them.
Venice 70: Future Reloaded
Director (1 ep.)
event2013 star_border 5.1
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Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.
Stories on Human Rights
Director (1 ep.)
event2008 star_border 2.7
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20 short films about human rights.
2019
Director (1 ep.)
event2019
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A short for his website, Kickthemachine
Rolling
Director (1 ep.)
event2015 star_border 6
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Dreams, travels, places, people.
Jenjira, Death
Director (1 ep.)
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Jenjira Pongpas-Widner describes a dream in which she discovers her lifeless body in a field.
Decameron
Director (1 ep.)
event2020 star_border 6.5
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Decameron was shot in lockdown during the Thai monsoon season, in 2020. In a dark room, a woman removes insects from a mosquito net in order to cook them. The moving light she holds briefly reveals her face, the transparent panel of the mosquito net and the insects left outside of it.
Sakda, Somchai
Director (1 ep.)
event2018
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Sakda Kaewbuadee (Tong) describes a dream in which he and his friend Somchai are in room filled with massive collection of books.
Home
Director (1 ep.)
star_border 7.7
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Home is a portrait of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s house in Chiang Mai, during monsoon season.
Sarit
Director (1 ep.)
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The bas-relief represents Sarit Thanarat, former Thai prime minister who ruled Thailand in the early 1960s. This wall is also located next to a statue of Sarit, in the city of Khon Kaen, where Apichatpong Weerasethakul grew up. The artist represented Sarit Thanarat in various artworks, calling into question the value of his sculpture as an object of worship and as a glorification of the role of the army in Thai politics. For Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Sarit was a product of American involvement during the Cold War and an archetype of generals of the army who subsequently took power through coups d’état, including the most recent in 2014.
Durmiente
Director (1 ep.)
event2022
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Durmiente shows Tilda Swinton, the lead actress of Memoria, sleeping in a bedroom as the shadows grow longer.
Night Colonies
Director (1 ep.)
event2021 star_border 7.5
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A macro view of the microorganisms that flock to lamps in the darkness.
Emerald
Director (1 ep.)
event2007 star_border 8
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Like Kamanita, the unchanged Morakot is a star burdened with (or fueled by) memories. Apichatpong collaborated with his three regular actors, who recounted their dreams, hometown life, bad moments, and love poems, to re-supply the hotel with new memories.
Fireworks (Archives)
Director (1 ep.)
event2014
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This film depicts Bunleua Sulilat’s temple/sculpture garden 'Sala Keoku', located in northern Thailand. Passages of blackness sporadically dissolve under the fitful internal illumination of sparklers, which light up to reveal Sulilat’s unorthodox temple populated with a fantastical concrete menagerie of beasts and figures; the sculptures range from the broad, whale-like contours of a frog’s face, to a cavalcade of dogs on mopeds, to a pair of skeletons partially embracing as if sitting for a double portrait. These images are interspersed with those of an older Thai couple mysteriously wandering around the temple like wraiths, the woman’s plodding progress hampered by the use of crutches.
Untitled Apichatpong Weerasethakul Dreams Project
Writer (1 ep.)
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Described as being based on Weerasethakul's dreams.
Trailer for CinDi
Director (1 ep.)
event2011
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The official trailer for the 2011 CinDi FIlm Festival. An intimate choreography blurs the boundaries between stage curtain and screen.
9 Temples to Heaven
Producer (1 ep.)
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A family of 9 takes their grandmother on a merit-making trip to 9 temples in 1 day, hoping to prolong her life. But the trip takes an unexpected turn.
Fan Dog
Director (1 ep.)
event2016 star_border 3
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For a Fiery Monkey Year.
My Mother’s Garden
Director (1 ep.)
event2007
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Glistening objects from a jewelry collection inspired by carnivorous plants are transformed into a colourful sea of garden creatures through hand-drawn animations of roots, insects and various other organisms. A loving tribute to Weerasethakul's mother's garden. Commissioned by Dior; first presented at Musée de l’Orangerie, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, to mark the opening of a new set of jewellery designed by Victoire de Castellane, 27 February 2007.
Haunted Houses
Editor (1 ep.)
event2001
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A collaboration with a group of villagers on the periphery of Khon Kaen province in the northeast of Thailand, recording them as they agree to take turns to act scenes scripted from two episodes of the TV series 'Tong Prakaisad', a rags-to-riches TV soap, in the familiar surrounding of their homes.
Like the Relentless Fury of the Pounding Waves
Director (1 ep.)
event1994
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A short documentary by Apichatpong Weerasethakul about lives connected by radio.
0116643225059
Camera Operator (1 ep.)
event1994
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0116643225059 is an early experimental film by Weerasethakul made during his time at SAIC. The work is about a long-distance telephone conversation between the filmmaker and his beloved mother in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Weerasethakul superimposed a photograph of his mother in her youth alongside his own image and his apartment in Chicago. It renders a strong bond between the artist and his family.
Windows
Camera Operator (1 ep.)
event1999
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Windows is Weerasethakul’s first work in video. It is an improvisational piece using
little physical movement to capture the “natural phenomena” occurring between the
video camera, television screen, and window.
Meteorites
Director (1 ep.)
event2007
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Made for 'Short Films for the King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 80th Birthday', 2007.
Ghost of Asia
Editor (1 ep.)
event2005
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Taking the recent tsunami in Asia as its starting point, the filmmakers have used the idea of a ghost seen wandering along the rocky coastline of a Thai island and, in a life-affirming gesture, they have invited some local children to direct the film for them, suggesting and filming the movements of the actor-ghost.
Monsoon
Editor (1 ep.)
event2011
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Made for 3.11 A Sense of Home Films project, organised by the Nara IFF Organising Committee.
This and a Million More Lights
Editor (1 ep.)
event2003
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One of several one-minute artists’ videos made for the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s 46664: Give 1 Minute of Art to AIDS campaign. A strobing fluorescent light inter-cuts scenes from an urban swimming pool; a young boy tempts the water.
Malee and the Boy
Director (1 ep.)
event1999
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The subject is a 10 year-old boy who is in charge of the microphone. He roams to places around Bangkok to gather sounds for the video. The sound indicates the direction he headed during the filming and displays his point of interests. The filmmaker is in charge of the image, film roughly along at the boy’s locations. The narrative of the film, presented in texts, is taken from a Thai comic book available around the place of the filming. This faces and places documentation can be viewed as a one-afternoon diary of a day out in Bangkok.
Footprints
Director (1 ep.)
event2014
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Weerasethakul's contribution to an omnibus production exploring analogies between football and everyday life. The project was created by Mexican film director Daniel Gruener and originally broadcast during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
La Punta
Director (1 ep.)
event2013 star_border 5
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A short film made for "Venezia 70 - Future Reloaded."
A Conversation with the Sun (Installation)
Director (1 ep.)
event2022
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Interrogating the possibilities of an existence without his memories, A Conversation with the Sun draws on selected self-documented footage over several years – the means in which the artist has chosen to record his life since he embarked on filmmaking. Existing as a personal memory archive, these images together with published conversations between the artist and Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated cognitive specters of individuals and entities such as Jiddu Krishnamurti, Salvador Dali, the Sun, and others.
On Blue
Director (1 ep.)
event2022
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A short film directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul in collaboration with composer Rafiq Bhatia and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
3.11 A Sense of Home
Director (1 ep.)
event2011 star_border 6.5
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In memory of the Japanese earthquake on 3.11, each director presents a 3 minute and 11 second short film in tribute to those who were lost that day.
Quattro Hong Kong 2
Director (1 ep.)
event2011
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Four short tales set in contemporary Hong Kong.
For Bruce
Director (1 ep.)
event2022
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This work filmed in the Peruvian jungle pays tribute to the American experimental filmmaker Bruce Baillie, who died in 2020, and whose work inspired Weerasethakul. An almost meditative vision takes in the sun reflected on rippling water, revealing the act of looking and seeing.
I-San Special
Idea (1 ep.)
event2002 star_border 5
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The soundtrack to a radio soap opera set in a luxury hotel is acted out by characters who are riding a ramshackle bus from Bangkok to a small town in Thailand’s Northeast.
Art Through Our Eyes
Director (1 ep.)
event2016
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As an omnibus of short films, Art Through Our Eyes is inspired by the art collection found at the National Gallery Singapore. Each of the five directors – Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Brillante Mendoza, Eric Khoo, Ho Yuhang and Joko Anwar – handpicked a masterpiece from the 19th and 20th century as inspiration for their short films.
For Shellie
Director (1 ep.)
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An hommage to Shellie Fleming
Fever Room
Director (1 ep.)
event2015
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"Fever Room" features Jenjira (Jen) and Banlop (Itt), two of Apichatpong’s regular actors who also appear in his film, "Cemetery of Splendour". Like the film, this projection-performance presents the layers of reality and fantasy. Apichatpong fuses his memories with the actors’ and fictionalises the narrative. Here the people takes refuge in dreams while their land is on a brink of collapse, echoing Thailand’s present state of military dictatorship.
20 Little Films
Director (1 ep.)
event2012
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Each year since 1995, the Viennale has asked a great, international director to make his or her own personal contribution to the festival: a contribution in the form of a small, approximately one-minute film, which is used as a kind of introduction to the festival. The concept of this "little films" (as Jonas Mekas once called them) is more to create a short, autonomous work, a cinematic moment that stands alone and for nothing and no-one else. Over the years this has resulted in a series of absolutely unique, exceptional works. Each director has created his/her own cinematic world between home movie and political essay, music film and minimal étude, mysterious story and radical, aesthetic abstraction on those little films, that will now be shown together for the first time on the occasion of the Viennale’s great 50th anniversary, premiering at the Locarno Film Festival.
Invisibility
Writer (1 ep.)
event2016
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Invisibility displays Weerasethakul’s continued interest in the issue of perception and memory. The installation takes threads from his recent films, Cemetery of Splendor and Fever Room, both of which feature the same actors. Here, he takes them deeper into an imaginary world and ponders the future of shared consciousness. The videos depict a landscape where the protagonists are confined to a room, along with the viewers. With no way out, they infiltrate each other’s dreams.
Invisibility mirrors the troubled state of Thailand’s politics. It proposes a decayed vision of the future where one needs to constantly evade reality. The viewing experience shifts between seeing and not seeing, fact and fiction, space and void.
The Fountains of Paradise
Screenplay (1 ep.)
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Film inspired by two things: an article written by a Thai woman who went Sri Lanka on a religious pilgrimage by climbing a holy mountain, and sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke's 'The Fountain of Paradise' which is set in a fictional land based on a Sri Lankan landscape.
Railway Sleepers
Producer (1 ep.)
event2017 star_border 7
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The first railway line in Thailand was inaugurated in 1893 – a sign of progress and prosperity. Shot over eight years on every active line of the country's railway system, this wondrous documentary offers an unprecedented immersion into the country's past and present.
An Evening Shoot
Director (1 ep.)
event2009
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A group of teens gather at a house near the rice field for the shooting of an unknown movie. Wearing army costumes, they practice with their gun, one by one, and point it at a young man, walking in the distance, who reincarnates miraculously after being shot.
Ablaze
Director (1 ep.)
event2016
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ABLAZE premiered at the 27th Singapore Film Festival, November 24, 2016
async - first light
Director (1 ep.)
event2017 star_border 6
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A collaboration between Apichatpong and Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto from his album “async”. The people falling asleep in this film are all his friends, he sent cameras to friends and asked them to shoot. Apichatpong often carries Digital Harinezumi camera with him, and completing a lot of works with this camera. This work was first exhibited at the WATARI Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo (Japan, 2017).
Making of the Spaceship
Director (1 ep.)
event2009
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The working men, the animals, and the rain orchestrated this silent video portraying a month-long, spaceship-making process.
A Dedicated Machine
Director (1 ep.)
event2009
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Nabua’s spaceship as an ideally manufactured vessel slowly lifts off from the ground and flutters in the air for a moment. Then it moves back down to the earth. This loop portrays a never-really-taking-off spaceship.
Nabua
Director (1 ep.)
event2009
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A documentation of Nabua altered into a field of lightning. The film, in the manner of an old sci-fi or horror movie, shows a set of mini-explosions creating a synchronised series of bolts of lightning like a downpour of bullets from the sky. The flashes of light reveal the surroundings, then the ground with smoke, dust, and silence.
Short Plays
Director (1 ep.)
event2014 star_border 5.1
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Football seen through the eyes of some of the best directors of the world.
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Creative Consultant (1 ep.)
event2018 star_border 6
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Composed of intimate and unencumbered moments of people in a community, this film is constructed in a form that allows the viewer an emotive impression of the Historic South - trumpeting the beauty of life and consequences of the social construction of race, while simultaneously a testament to dreaming.
Blue
Director (1 ep.)
event2018 star_border 6.1
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A woman lies awake at night. Nearby, a set of theatre backdrops unspools itself, unveiling two alternate landscapes. Upon the woman’s blue sheet, a flicker of light reflects and illuminates her realm of insomnia.
Dilbar
Director (1 ep.)
event2013
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Commissioned by The Sharjah Art Foundation
Second Love in Hong Kong
Director (1 ep.)
event2002
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Second Love in Hong Kong shares a common theme in the art works of Christelle and Apichatpong – a minimalist portrayal of hybrid fiction/non-fiction landscape. Here the filmmakers focus on an imaginary character named Hong (Swan) who travels from Thailand to Hong Kong for a housemaid job. The tale is taken from a comic book of the same title and is chosen among the thousands of romance comics that are widely read by Thai workingwomen, mostly underprivileged.
Mi Madre Siempre
Producer (1 ep.)
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Isabella, a woman in her mid-twenties, finally decides to tell her boyfriend that she is pregnant. His reaction leaves a rippling effect that causes Isabella to face her biggest fear.
TON
Director (1 ep.)
event2004
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Before Weerasethakul makes a new feature film, he conducts thorough research related to the topic of his interest. For his feature film, Tropical Malady, Apichatpong asked his colleague Ton to visit the army in the Kaeng Krachan Dam area to study the lives of soldiers and their daily routines. This video documents Ton during his research trip, which later became a reference for the main character in Tropical Malady.
Blue Propeller
Director (1 ep.)
event2013
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Blue Propeller is made to be shown with One Water. The fingernails were painted the color of the sky and the sea. But the sky was grey. The nail color instead matched the plane engine’s blue.
Nabua Song
Director (1 ep.)
event2009
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Petch, one of the young men of Nabua, composed and plays this song about his village written to commemorate the first shoot-out between the army and the farmer communists 43 years before. The song is combined with an image of Kamgiang, Petch’s friend, whose grandfather was killed by the soldiers in the field not far from his home.
The Palace (Pipittan Tee Taipei)
Director (1 ep.)
event2008 star_border 6
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There is a room at a Palace Museum that is filled with spirits. It accommodates countless of memories spanning several centuries. The room has observed the artifacts, the faces, the sounds, and the moving images. The room itself is a moving image, a moving vehicle. It is a spaceship that has been sailing through the landscapes and time, from the Ages of Stone, Bronze, the Greek, the Roman, the Communist, and the Tsai Ming-liang. Now the artifacts have disappeared, so as lives. We are in the age of extinction. (...)
Fireworks Sketch
Director (1 ep.)
event2014
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This film is a study for "Fireworks (Archives)", a fiction set at night-time amng the animal scultures at Wat Sala Kaew Ku Sculture Park. For Weerasethakul, these scultures represent a form of rebellion against tical oppression and the harshness of daily life.
Teem
Director (1 ep.)
event2007
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Teem Nov 20, 9:53 min. Teem Nov 21, 22:38 min. Teem Nov 22, 27:31 min. Each projection in this work is a daily morning portrait of Teem, the artist’s partner. As winter approached in late 2007, Teem informed Weerasethakul that he would hibernate until February 2008. As a result, he slept a lot during this time while Weerasethakul observed and sometimes disrupted his partner’s mission with his mobile phone.
Jenjira, Brother Triam
Director (1 ep.)
event2018
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For over 20 years, Werasethakul has worked with the same crew and actors. In this video, he asks two of his close collaborators to recount and perform their dreams for the camera. Here Jenjira shares a childhood dream in with her deceased brother reappears.
Father
Director (1 ep.)
event2014
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The original footage in Father was shot in 2003 by Weerasethakul’s brother when their father was undergoing kidney dialysis. Forever stuck in his memory, the artist reuses the footage here as well as in a prominent scene in his feature film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.
Bullet
Director (1 ep.)
event1993
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Bullet is Weerasethakul’s first film, an experimental, silent short that explores light
and time. Here, one can see many tropes that continue to be developed throughout
the artist’s career.
One Water
Director (1 ep.)
event2013
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Tilda Swinton, a British actress and friend of Weerasethkul, organized Film on the Rocks, a film festival in the Maldives where she invited the artist to take part in the project. While he was with her, Weerasethakul asked Swinton to recall her dreams in front of his camera. One Water portrays a poignant friendship between the actress and filmmaker, who continue to collaborate today.
Memoria, Boy at Sea
Director (1 ep.)
event2017
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The work is part of the Memoria Project, the first major series of work that is set outside of Weerasethakul’s home country. Given his affinity for the Amazon, of which Thai jungle tales were originally inspired, Weerasethakul has started to explore South America - and since 2017, has been developing a film based in Colombia. He is drawn to its topography, where active volcanoes and landslides ceaselessly transform natural landscapes. The Memoria Project presents both personal and collective memories, while retaining the artist’s fascination with illumination. A vital part of the video and photographic works is the presence of a lone protagonist on the beach. Weerasethakul worked with Canadian actor Connor Jessup who visited him during the filming of a documentary at Nuquí area in Chocó Department, western Colombia. Here, the actor is a spirit that contemplates the artist’s journey, his dream of both real and imaginary films.
For Monkeys Only
Director (1 ep.)
event2014
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For Monkeys Only - Video SD
The Parrot (Papagajka)
Thanks (1 ep.)
event2016 star_border 6.2
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A stranger arrives in Sarajevo and barges into Damir's reclusive world. Little by little she takes over his life. She absorbs his dreams, until finally she threaten his very existence.
Concrete Clouds
Producer (1 ep.)
event2013 star_border 6.4
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Amidst the post-economic crash, a man must return from abroad after his father committed suicide. After return home, he must confront his past and struggle to hold on to his present.
Primitive
Director (1 ep.)
event2009
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A series of short films in which the history of the Thai border town of Nabua is re-imagined as an elusive science fiction ghost story rooted in Thai folklore.
Fiction
Director (1 ep.)
event2018
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"Night-time, fluorescent lamps buzzing and scuttling insects a hand writing in a blank book, writing and attempting to record a dream. The image envelopes the viewer, the projection plays on all surfaces insects, hand and lights slide across the floor dream and reality collide."
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
Director (1 ep.)
event2019 star_border 5
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Over 30 filmmakers and friends of Strand Releasing have come together to honor the company’s indelible contribution to independent cinema over the past thirty years. The participating filmmakers have each created a short film for the project, all shot on iPhones.
Boys at Noon
Director (1 ep.)
event2000
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Mock documentary following the escapades of three teenagers on an afternoon jaunt.
Cinetracts '20
Director (1 ep.)
event2020 star_border 6
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A global portrait documenting the year's events, Cinetracts '20 features the work of an international lineup of 20 filmmakers. Capturing the zeitgeist in their own backyard, the artists' short films are the culmination of a year-long residency project.
October Rumbles
Director (1 ep.)
event2020 star_border 7
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The acclaimed filmmaker has created an original short film in response to the global pandemic, titled October Rumbles.
Reincarnate
Producer (1 ep.)
event2010 star_border 4.3
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A teacher and his student go on a trip to a magical island where there is urban life and tourist attractions as well as a palace and temples. Moreover, a haunting past still gnaws, spreads, mates and mutates in a loop that cannot be eliminated. It dissolves and mixes with memories affecting the present and possessing a power that can destroy the future. In this vague atmosphere, the place slowly becomes deserted like a nightmare you want to wake from but cannot resist
Flowers & Banana Wind
Director (1 ep.)
event2020
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Video to celebrate Anthology Film Archives’ 50th Anniversary
2020
Director (1 ep.)
event2020
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Short for his website, kickthemachine.
Nokia Short
Director (1 ep.)
event2003
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A short film made with a mobile phone, commissioned by Nokia as part of the promotion of the first model of a cellular phone with a built-in camera.
January Stories (version Harinezumi)
Director (1 ep.)
event2024
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This film featuring Tilda Swinton was shot early 2024, in a abandoned camp of the Kew Thab Yang Forest Preserve in Chiang Rai. The artist made two versions filmed by different cameras, resulting in two expressions. This version, filmed with a pocket camera, reflects a personal interest in low-resolution imagery as well as memory blending experiments.
Sleep Song
Director (1 ep.)
event2022
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"A ghost band only plays at night and in dreams. Tilda and Sam are carried away by their song as they practice birth and death in the realm of no time." (Weerasethakul)
Walking
Director (1 ep.)
event2022
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"A morning at home is full of vibrations. The movements of surrounding lives manifest on the wooden floor. Today, the feet are free. They become autonomous and synchronize with the leaves, the wind, and the sun. At one point, they merge. At another point, they disintegrate." (Weerasethakul)
Action et Réaction
Director (1 ep.)
event2022 star_border 2
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In 2020, young Thais protested outside ther German embassy in Bangkok over the activities of King Rama X in Germany. In the same year in Chiang Mai, students demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan--cha. In 2022, Weerasethakul filmed the "Rio Madre de Dios", while travelling in Peru. These three situations prompted the artist to examine the philosophy of Krishnamurti, who posited that reaction to things belongs to the past and cannot help humankind advance, while action is performed in full consciousness, without making a choice nor being influenced.
Solarium
Director (1 ep.)
event2023
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Produced for the Thailand Biennale, Chiang Rai, (2023), « Solarium » was inspired by a 1981 horror film, « The Sunken-Eyed Ghost », by Thai director Komarachun. This installation places the public in the mindset of the protagonist, a ghost seeking his previously torn-out eyes. Without any bearings, in the darkness, the ghost’s perceptions are depicted via a homage to the first experimental films : the experiments with light in the darkroom conducted by Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp and Fernand Léger.
A Conversation with the Sun (VR)
Director (1 ep.)
event2022
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For Aichi Triennale 2022, Weerasethakul collaborates with Japanese artists to create his first augmented and virtual reality performance and let visitors commune with invisible ghost-like presences, encounter sick and sleeping bodies, and experience time suspended in a circle. Weerasethakul, whose previous works have brought the invisible, inaudible and untouchable into our realm of the tangible, has greatly expanded the virtual space by making use of augmented and virtual reality. Fifteen audience members at a time are invited into a dark space to roam around, experiencing Weerasethakul’s visual poetry beyond the confines of language, soundscapes of silent waves by Sakamoto Ryuichi, and interactive particles of light floating through the air... They are invited into the depths of memory and existence in a dreamlike world where the origins of life and the afterlife coexist. (Chiaki Soma)
Three Rocks
Director (1 ep.)
event2022
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"Even with your eyes open, you can't see anything. You are a part of the earth's limitless manifestations." (Weerasethakul) These stones taken from the Chiang Dao Cave would sometimes spur the artist to contemplation, recalling the "obscurity of the cave and the presence of millions of stones, all different, all individual, in the sky".
Seeing Circles
Director (1 ep.)
event2020
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The videos were created with a pocket camera -its "eye" has a unique ability to see and interpret light and colour. This work introduces two "eyes", a pair for seeing communicate with one another and with other shadows, orbs, and cycles. They resolve around home, its memories, and secrets.
The Desire of the World: Jeonju Digital Project 2005
Director (1 ep.)
event2005
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Three digital short films: 'Worldly Desires' by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 'Haze' by Tsukamoto Shinya, 'Magician(s)' by Song Il-Gon
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