Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, who is presenting three of his works (4BIA, Best of Times and Coming Soon) at FEFF 11, answers some questions in the press room on Saturday, 2 May.

Both a producer and a director, Thongkongtoon tries, as far as possible, to keep these two roles separate. Speaking on the current situation in the Thai cinema, he explains that as the industry begins to open itself up to the overseas market, FEFF is, for them one of the best showcases around.

On the difficulties encounter while filming 4BIA, Thongkongtoon claims that the most complicated process involved was trying to organize the fear and anxiety of the film’s protagonists so that it increased as the film progressed. In order to achieve this, he put together a focus group, comprising the whole cast, to work out the order of the four episodes in the film and how to distribute the fear factor within the story. The title, he explained, is significant because it plays on the number four (referring to the number of episodes in the film) and the word phobia.

In his opinion, the decrease in the number of horror movies produced in Thailand is due to the fact that both producers and directors are consciously trying to move away from this genre, which, while it has a long tradition, has been overly exploited.

Noemi Pierdica
Translated by Sharon Lee
Press Room - news production