Tuesday, April 07, 2009

ELAINE MAY AND NAOWARAT YUKTANUN ARE THE WINNERS

My poll 51 ended with 11 votes. Thanks very much to everyone who participated in it. Here is the result:

THESE ACTRESSES GAVE ME A LOT OF LAUGHS. WHICH ACTRESSES DO YOU LIKE? (You can also consider their performances which are not listed here)

1.Elaine May – SMALL TIME CROOKS (2000, Woody Allen)
+Naowarat Yuktanun – GHOST-IN-LAW (2008, Seree Phongnithi + Tanit Jitnukul, Thailand)

Each of these two actresses got 4 votes, or 36 %.

3.Anna Faris – JUST FRIENDS (2005, Roger Kumble)
+Jennifer Coolidge – LEGALLY BLONDE (2001, Robert Luketic)
+Sununta Naksompop – KOON YING BAO TUNG (A SELF-APPOINTED LADY) (Thai TV series in early 1990’s)
+Warapan Nguitrakool – LOOG KOON LUANG (2007, Pa-oon Chantornsiri, Thai play)

Each of these actresses got 3 votes, or 27 %.

7. Bette Midler – BIG BUSINESS (1988, Jim Abrahams)
+Carmen Maura – PEPI, LUCI, BOM (1980, Pedro Almodovar, Spain)
+Christine Baranski – MAMMA MIA! (2008, Phyllida Lloyd)
+Kanokwan Buranon – 3 KON OLAWENG (Thai TV series in early 1990’s)
+Lily Tomlin – ALL OF ME (1984, Carl Reiner)
+Roseanne – SHE-DEVIL (1989, Susan Seidelman)
+Sabine Azema – SMOKING/NO SMOKING (1993, Alain Resnais, France)
+Valerie Lemercier – LE DERRIERE (1999, Valerie Lemercier, France)

Each of these actresses got 2 votes, or 18 %.


15.Akeera Modesakul (aka Dia) – BABYMIME SHOW VOL.1 (2008, Thai play)
+Jerrica Lai – SELL OUT (2008, Yeo Joon Han, Malaysia)
+Nina Hagen – TICKET OF NO RETURN (1979, Ulrike Ottinger, West Germany)
+Parnrut Kritcharnchai – MAHANAKORN 2009 (Taweewat Kamnerdpetch + Paiboon Soponsuwaparp, Thai play)
+Selma Blair – THE SWEETEST THING (2002, Roger Kumble)

Each of these actresses got 1 vote, or 9 %.


20.Linda Hunt – IF LOOKS COULD KILL (1991, William Dear)

She got 0 vote.


--I like nearly all of these actresses, so I voted for 13 of them—Akeera Modesakul, Anna Faris, Carmen Maura, Elaine May, Jennifer Coolidge, Kanokwan Buranon, Naowarat Yuktanun, Nina Hagen, Parnrut Kritcharnchai, Sabine Azema, Sununta Naksompop, Valerie Lemercier, and Warapan Nguitrakool.

--One of the films that make me and my friends laugh the most is IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES (Nagisa Oshima, A++++++), but I think the laughs here result from the script, not from the performance of Eiko Matsuda.

--I think Yanee Jongwisoot is a very funny Thai actress, but I haven’t watched many of her performances. She does a great job as a game show host and a talk show host.

--I think the obvious difference between great dramatic acting and great comedic acting can be seen in the last act of LOOG KOON LUANG, in which Warapan Nguitrakool shared the stage with Chintara Sukapatana, who is a great dramatic actress. Before that act, Chintara gave a great dramatic/comedic performance as the heroine who doesn’t know what to do with her three former lovers. But when Warapan appeared on the stage, it is obvious that no one can beat Warapan in comedic performance, even Chintara. Nealy everything Warapan did elicited laughter from the audience, including her ways of speaking, her intonation, and her timing of speaking. While Chintara can make the audience sympathize with her character, it’s Warapan who can make the audience unstoppably laugh.

It’s good to see Warapan played an important role in BEFORE VALENTINE (2009, Songsak Mongkolthong, Pornchai Hongrattanaporn, Seree Phongnithi, B+), but I think the film hasn’t used the full potential of Warapan’s ability.

4 comments:

Vespertine said...

I m so happy and surprised that Elain May is the winner.

I agree with you on Warapan's acting. She's super great in Looke-khun-luang. and She is super super great in Tun Tuek 2 (Spinster 2). Her part ts more important than the previous vrsion. But the one who steals every scene is Kanokwan Buranon.

I think when Tun Tuek 1 staged 10 (or 20) years ago. No one knowed Kanokwan. She was just a new actress and she got a very supporting (but super funny) role in Tun Tuek 1.

But in Tun Tuek 2, her part is very big and very complicated. She plays a servant who is now a Duchess but she still loves to be a servant. She is so fun. And with the fact that she must practices this part while her (step)son dying in the hospital, i salute her.

I think this clip is very interesting.
(Sondi's opinion about the people behind the coup).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h-nrmOFGp8&feature=player_embedded

celinejulie said...

I haven’t seen both TUN TUEK and TUN TUEK 2, but I’m glad to hear that Warapan and Kanokwan have a chance to display their real acting ability in these plays. I just read that Kanokwan played in a few stage performances during the past ten years, but I haven’t seen any of them. I wish I had gone to see THE WILL OF A DEMENTED WOMAN (พินัยกรรมของหญิงวิกลจริต), in which Kanokwan gave a solo performance.
http://www.geocities.com/wsirilar/bankofSOLO.html

I can’t remember the first time I saw Kanokwan on TV. Maybe I saw her the first time in the TV drama MAYA, starring Chamaiporn Jaturapush, on Channel 7 in 1988. Kanokwan played a plain villainess who envied Chamaiporn in this TV drama, and had no chance to display her real ability here.

I didn’t watch every episode of 3 KON OLAWENG. Once my friend told me about an episode I missed, and it sounds so funny. My friend told me that in this episode, Kanokwan played a “talking ATM machine” (เอทีเอ็ม จ๊ะจ๋า). When a customer tries to use this ATM, Kanokwan’s face will appear on a hole which used to be the ATM screen, and she will quarrel with the customer. I don’t know why I remember the story about an episode I missed better than the episodes I watched by myself.

Vespertine said...

Yes, i remember THE WILL OF A DEMENTED WOMAN. I saw this vcd available when Dass entertainment sold it in Boomerang shop. But i didnt buy it (i m so stupid), and bought Tun Tuek vcd instead. Now i go to Boomerang and cannot find those vcd on the shelf anymore.

I think Kanokwan is very interesting. She started out as a stage actress which is very academic and highly artistic. Then she transformed her skill and acted with the cafe comedians. She can play both ways while her othe 3 Kon Aonlaweng cannot do like her. I always remember that she joked herself about her marriage with Der Dorksadao. She said "เล่นตลก เลยโดนตลกเล่น".

She also wrote a memoirs too, i just found it in website. It's a memoir called หัวอกตลกหญิง http://www.welovebook.com/BookDet.php?bID=8069

Another reason i want to praise her is in Tuen Tuek 2. When i saw it, there were one scene that Sirinuch Petch-U-rai forgot her lines then she was out of character. She tried hard to survive the stage and it's so funny,so other actresses on the stage (Pa-ooon Jantaraseeree / Warapan / Thitima Sangkapeetak / Wasan Utamayotin ) couldnt help laughing and went out of characteres too.

Only 2 actresses on the stage didnt laugh and always in the characters. They proved that they are very very in control of their performance. The first one is Acharapan Paiboonsuwan and the second is Miss Kanokwan.

celinejulie said...

It’s funny to read about accidents or unexpected things in stage performances. I just met this kind of things in DEAR DEATH (2009, Pansak Sukee, A+/A). In this stage play, there’s one scene in which the microphone of the lead actor suddenly did not function. And this stage play contains many dance movements in them and had many rhyming dialogues, which are written like poems or lyrics of songs. So the lead actor had to move his body according to the choreography and had to shout his dialogues out loud so that the audience could hear. The lead actor could not improvise his own movements so that he could fix his microphone, because all his movements and his dialogues were very fixed and could not be changed. But another actor, who played Death (พระยม), is very clever. He danced with the hero in the later part of that scene. And while he was dancing with the hero, I saw that he tried to fix the microphone of the hero at the same time. I think this kind of unexpected situation really demands the wit or the cleverness of the actors. They had to “act” and “dance” as good as they could, and they had to try to find a way to fix the problem while they were acting and dancing.

The Death actor could fix the microphone line of the hero successfully. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, a dancer who had to approach the body of the hero unintentionally touched the line of the microphone on the hero’s body and made the microphone line move from the right place, I guess. The microphone did not function again. Fortunately, there were only a few minutes left in that scene. After that scene ended and the next scene began, the microphone problem was resolved permanently.

In THEM (2008, Wannasak Sirilar, A), there was a problem at the end of the play. The character who was supposed to be shot wasn’t shot, because the gun suddenly couldn’t fire. I can’t remember exactly how the play ended. I just remember that I noticed nothing unusual at all. The actors in that scene just improvised something and ended the play smoothly in a different way. After the play ended, the director and actors came to talk on stage and revealed that actually that character should have been killed at the end of the play.

Wannasak is great at improvising. I just went to see WIMALA…QUEEN OF CROCODILE (2009, Wannasak Sirilar, A+/A). While he was playing Wimala, suddenly there was the sound of ambulance coming from the street outside the theatre. So Wannasak improvised his monologue instantly to add the sound of the ambulance into the story of the play. Everyone in the theatre laughed for his cleverness.

Talking about Acharapan Paiboonsuwan, I wished there are DVDs or VCDs of the TV series KABUANGARN KONCHAI (GANGS OF SERVANTS) (1977, Patravadi Sritrairut + Acharapan Paiboonsuwan, A++++++++++), because this TV series is great and Acharapan is very funny in it. I also wish I had watched the TV series DUANG FAI YAI MAI SONG SHUN (WHY DOESN’T THE SPOTLIGHT SHINE ON ME?), because Acharapan played the heroine who wants to be a model in this series, not just a supporting actress like in most TV series. I think this TV series was broadcast on Channel 7 around 1986. Ornnapa Krisadee also played in this TV series.