Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Insee Daeng: You know you want it

I've mentioned a few times now that Wisit Sasanatieng is working on a new film based on the Thai costumed hero Insee Daeng (Red Eagle), who was originally personified on screen by Mitr Chaibancha back in the sixties. I came across a link to the film's official site over at Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal and thought I would pass it along:

There's not much up there right now other than a couple of slick graphics, but I imagine it's worth keeping an eye on, since the movie is scheduled for release some time this year. Wise Kwai also has a few posts detailing the announcements that have been made about the film so far, which are worth a peek.

Given Sasanatieng's obvious love for classic Thai cinema--something he demonstrated with great virtuosity and style in the wonderful Tears of the Black Tiger--he's the perfect person to be helming this project, and it's one that's well worth getting excited about. In fact, if you're not already excited about it, it's only because you're afraid someone's going to see you getting excited about it and think you're a big geek, so just get over it.

Geek.

2 comments:

Wise Kwai said...

Thanks for the mention. Wisit is trying to restart the series, and to begin with he's written enough for two films, so he's hoping to make the first film and a back-to-back sequel.

Being the unabashed Thai film geek that I am, I hope he gets to make both films.

Oh, the Red Eagle DVD I mentioned to you earlier isn't Insee Daeng, it's Jao Insee, another film in the series. It features Rom up to his usual hilarious drunken antics, and there's a woman who puts on a cowl and black catsuit and mows down guys with her machine gun. No subtitles, but it doesn't matter.

Todd said...

Thanks for the update! That news sends me into pure geek ecstasy. Or, more succinctly, "geekstasy". There was also some very helpful information in your comments section about what classic Thai films are available on DVD.

Yeah, Jao Insee: that also has a villain wearing what looks like a Michael Myers mask and a female spy wearing the reddest blouse in the history of cinema--plus a really out of control extended battle sequence at the end. Definitely no need for translation there. I'll have to upgrade from the VCD of it I currently have.

Now, from what I can tell, the only Red Eagle films that have been released on either VCD or DVD are Insee Daeng, Jao Insee and Insee Thong, though I've heard that there were at least six films in the series.
If anybody has any information about other Red Eagle movies that are available, I'd love to hear. I'd also be very interested in finding information (titles, dates and how many there actually were) on all of the films in the series.