Thailand / Japan 2001 5 Channel-Video Installation
Supported by the Sapporo Artist In Residence Program (S-AIR), Takashi Homma, Hisashi Shibata, Katsumi Sato. Presented at Intercross Creative Center, Sapporo, Japan, 4–6 November 2001
Masumi is a PC Operator 6 minutes / Digital, 4:3, Silent / Colour Director / Camera / Editor: Apichatpong Weerasethakul Cast: Shibata Masumi
Fumiyo is a Designer 6 minutes / Digital, 4:3, Silent / Colour Director / Camera / Editor: Apichatpong Weerasethakul Cast: Takahashi Fumiyo
These two silent videos are formed as an open narrative. They ask the viewers to fill in the void the voices of the characters or the ambience, mood of the scene. The viewers construct the narratives according to his/her preconception of the image or base his/her experience through the titles. The occurred narrative(s) is (are) virtual, existing in another dimension out off the receptive senses. It can be compared to computer game structures where the player directs the consequences of the lead. Only here each protagonist is passive, contemplative, waiting for anyone to complete her existence.
I was sketching 30 minutes / Digital, 4:3, Stereo / Colour Director / Camera / Editor: Apichatpong Weerasethakul Story: Mitsuhashi Noriko, Takaomi Baba, Seiji Arai, Morimoto Rumiko, Bando Yukako
I was Sketching is an experiment of the narrative’s surface. Forms of documentary are reconstructed, sometimes at random. I also use sampling images of Thailand from my previous sampling works. Therefore they are “re-sampling” images. They are jointed to create a certain sense of a story. Yet these found (ready-made) images and sounds have their own meanings. They branch out in the viewer’s mind and form separate from his/her recollection. The viewer is sometimes wondering about the original footages’ sources. Thus the viewer is doing his/her sketch as well as the filmmaker.
Swan’s Blood 12:15 minutes / Digital, 16:9, Japanese dialogue, Stereo / Colour Director: Masahito Araki Script: Apichatpong Weerasethakul from the memory of a Thai TV show Cast: Matunaga Youji, Maria, Maruyama Mio [Also part of Haunted Houses Project]
The project tackles with different modes of representations. The excerpted story was scripted (by memory) from viewing a television series, “Swan’s Blood,” (property of the Royal Thai Army Television Channel 5) the night before I left for Sapporo. I was curious to see how the people of different continent interpret this tale, which is outlandish, but sit comfortably in a prime-time slot on Thai TV. In Sapporo, the concept is to let the Japanese filmmakers make different versions of films from the script.
Masahito Araki is a Sapporo-based film and video maker. He made this video with his own interpretation of the settings, the costumes, infusing the Thai story with Japanese contemporary landscape.
Swan’s Blood – Fujiwara Toshi. Jon Jost 8:30 minutes / Digital, 16:9, Stereo / Colour Director / Camera / Editor: Fujiwara Toshi Script: Apichatpong Weerasethakul from the memory of a Thai TV show Cast: Jon Jost [Also part of Haunted Houses Project]
A film critic Fujiwara Toshi. They offered a different version of the story.