Pen-Ek Ratanaruang | |
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Pen-Ek Ratanaruang at press preview for Ploy in June 2007 in Bangkok.
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Born |
Bangkok, Thailand |
March 8, 1962
Education | Pratt Institute |
Occupation | Film director, screenwriter |
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (Thai: เป็นเอก รัตนเรือง; rtgs: Pen-ek Rattanarueang; born 8 March 1962, Bangkok, Thailand) is a Thai film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his arthouse work, Last Life in the Universe, and is considered to be one of Thai cinema's leading "new wave" auteurs, alongside Wisit Sasanatieng and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. He goes by the nickname Tom and is sometimes credited as Tom Pannet.
Pen-Ek studied from 1977-85 at the Pratt Institute in New York and worked as freelance illustrator and designer with Designframe. In 1993, he started work at the Film Factory in Bangkok, where he worked with Wisit Sasanatieng. At Film Factory, Pen-Ek made several television commercials, for which he won numerous awards, including a bronze medal at the 1997 Cannes Lion Awards for a Clairol anti-dandruff shampoo spot entitled "Dance".
He made his debut feature film, Fun Bar Karaoke in 1997. It's the story of a young woman named Pu whose father falls in love with a hostess girl who's the girlfriend of a mobster. A hitman named Noi (Ray McDonald) is dispatched to kill the father, and Pu ends up falling in love with Noi. Far Bar Karaoke was screened at many film festivals after its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.