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BANGKOK NITES
This film by a Japanese director is set entirely in Thailand, especially in the red-light district of Thaniya Road where Japanese expats come to relax after a hard day’s work. The film centres on an escort woman called Luck who works to support her family in the Northeast. When Luck meets a Japanese client called Ozawa, an exsoldier with the Japanese Defense Army, she falls in love with him and brings him to see her family in the province near the Lao border, where strange things and the undying ghost of the Cold War reappears. Directed by Katsuya Tomita. Only at Bangkok Screening Room, on Rama IV.
A WRINKLE IN TIME
An adaptation of a beloved sci-fi novel from 1962, the film centres on the adventure of Meg Murray (Storm Reid), a young girl who sets out to look for her scientist father (Chris Pine) after he has disappeared during a mind-warping quest to traverse the galaxy and become stuck in the limbo of time. Helping Meg on her journey are her brother and three magical beings (played by Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling). Directed by Ava DuVernay.
THE HURRICANE HEIST
The title explains it. This heist film tells the story of a band of thieves who attempt a major robbery from a US Treasury centre in Alabama, when Category 5 Hurricane Tammy is about to crush everything in its path. Directed by Rob Cohen.
EARTH: ONE AMAZING DAY
A wildlife documentary from the BBC shows the magnificence and anguish of life and nature. The film frames the narrative through sunrise and sunset to tie together the natural drama of various animals from different parts of the planet — from Galapagos iguanas to baby zebras, lizards to glow worms, pandas and penguins. Directed by Richard Dale Lixin Fan and Peter Webber.
MONSTER FAMILY
In this animated movie, the Wishbone family are going through a rough patch. The mother (voiced by Emily Watson) becomes a romantic target of Count Dracula, who wants to turn her into a vampire. But the plan backfires when a witch curses the entire family and turns them into colourful monsters. Directed by Holger Tappe.
3AM AFTERSHOCK
In this Thai horror anthology, vengeful ghosts and restless spirits are out to terrorise people in three short movies. The first is about a toll collector who experiences strange incidents on the expressway. The second is about a painter seduced by a mysterious woman. The third is about a film shoot gone wrong when the set is invaded by an unknown force. Directed by Pawat Panagkasiri, Thammanoon Sakulboonthanom, Thanadol Nualsut and Nitiwat Cholwanichsiri.
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
In her Oscar-winning role, Frances McDormand plays a mother whose daughter was raped and killed in a small town in Missouri. When the police fail to arrest a suspect, Mildred rents three billboards and puts up angry rebukes against the authorities, setting off a chain of events that troubles the once peaceful town. Sam Rockwell plays a racist policeman, a role that won him an Oscar. Also starring Woody Harrelson. Directed by Martin McDonagh.
TOMB RAIDER
The new adaptation of the hit video game stars Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, the intrepid daughter of a missing explorer. Famed for fighting artefact thieves and archaeological bandits, Lara finds herself trapped with her enemies on an island where her father has gone missing. Directed by Roar Uthaug.
SATAN’S SLAVES
This Indonesian horror film was a major hit in its home country and other Southeast Asian markets. The story is set largely in a house where a father and his four children care for the ailing mother, a bed-bound patient who is visited by strange apparitions. Their house is next to an Islamic cemetery and the local imam has warned the family that something demonic is harassing them. Directed by Joko Anwar. Thai dubbed.
RED SPARROW
Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika, a Russian ballerina whose career suffers a hiccup and soon she is recruited into a spy school. Upon graduation Dominika is forced to join the government’s “Sparrow” programme reserved for deadly and sexy secret agents, and her assignment is to locate a traitor who’s been working with the CIA. Directed by Francis Lawrence.
DEATH WISH
A remake of a Charles Bronson’s action film from 1974, the new Death Wish stars Bruce Willis as a respected surgeon who becomes a ferocious killing machine when his wife and daughter are viciously attacked by robbers in their own home. Directed by Eli Roth.
THE MONKEY KING 3
In the sequel of the popular Journey To The West story, Aaron Kwok plays the Monkey King who accompanies a travelling monk on a pilgrimage to the remote territories. This time, they find themselves trapped in a fantastical realm populated only by women. Directed by Soi Cheang.
ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD
The story of the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother to convince his billionaire grandfather Jean Paul Getty to pay the ransom. It turns out that the rich grandfather refuses to pay ransom so the entire scenario gets more complicated. Directed by Ridley Scott.
MOLLY’S GAME
Based on a true story, Molly’s Game tells a story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ends up running the world’s most exclusive highstakes poker game to lure Hollywood celebrities, renowned athletes and business tycoons including Russian mafia members. Molly is later arrested by the FBI and is forced to depend on her lawyer who discovers the truth about her. Directed by Aaron Sorkin.
GUARDIANS OF THE TOMB
An innocent discovery of a well-preserved mummified emperor from 200 BC China unearths a 2000-year-old nightmare — a secret that should have remained buried. Directed by Kimble Rendall.
WINCHESTER
In a remote area of California lies a mansion built by eccentric firearm heiress Sarah Winchester. Inside the mansion which has over 100 rooms,
construction has been going on non-stop for 24/7. The mansion is not for herself or her niece but serves as a prison to lock up evil souls of Winchester that seek revenge. Directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig.
PHANTOM THREAD
Set in 1950s London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes his muse and lover. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
MALILA: THE FAREWELL FLOWER
This Thai romantic drama stars heart-throb Sukollawat Kanarot as Shane, a farmer who carries the baggage of a family tragedy. He meets Pich (Anuchit Sapanpong), his old lover who’s dying of a terminal disease. The two men resume an affair, before Shane decides to seek solace in monkhood as death, grief and suffering follow him like a shadow. Directed by Anucha Boonyawatana. In Thai with English subtitles.
BLACK PANTHER
The new Marvel juggernaut stars Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, who returns to his African homeland of Wakanda to take the throne after his father dies. When his old enemy (Michael B. Jordan) reappears with malicious intent, Black Panther is drawn back into a great battle. Directed by Ryan Coogler.
LADY BIRD
Irish actress Saoirse Ronan plays Lady Bird, an American teenager in Sacramento. As the confident young woman struggles to discover her place in the world, she finds friendship, love, heartache, and above all confronts her overbearing but loving mother. The film, as well as Ronan, has been nominated for the Oscars. Directed by Greta Grewig.
FIFTY SHADES FREED
Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan continue their comically steamy on-screen appearances in the final part of the E.L. James’ film adaptation. Now Anastasia and Christian have gotten married, and yet her stalker keeps threatening to sabotage their relationship. Taking the matter in her own hands, Anastasia goes for broke in order to save the man she loves. Directed by James Foley.
PAD MAN
Following a fictionalised account of Arunachalam Muruganantham’s life, this inspiring tale tells how the incredible Indian inventor and innovator made his way from a rural welder to the international arena by bringing a revolution to feminine hygiene in India. Akshay Kumar stars as the lead who first came up with India’s low-cost sanitary napkin making machine. Directed by R. Balki. Limited release at Major Ekamai, Rama III and Pattaya.
I, TONYA
Margot Robbie plays Tonya Harding, a controversial figure skating athlete. Based on a true story, the film traces Tonya’s rise to fame and her plummet to controversy when, in 1994, her ex-husband brutally attacked her rival at the US championships which Tonya went on to win. She is implicated in the crime, and the film tells her complex life story that involves her overbearing mother and ex-husband. Robbie is nominated for an Oscar for her role, so is Allison Janney, who plays Tonya’s mother.