Documentary

Phantom of Illumination

Once upon a time, cinema was mainstream entertainment in Thailand. Movie theaters in Thailand were the place where families hung out. 30 years ago, there were 140 standalone movie theaters in Bangkok. As time went by, old-fashioned movie theaters are forgotten. Most of them became second-class movie theater showing double feature or pornography and eventually closed down. Thonburi Rama is the last second class movie theater that opened until 2013 , when it had to close down. After the closure of Thonburirama, Rit, a projectionist who worked there for more than 25 years became a jobless person. His knowledge of film projecting became useless. He turned into an alcoholic and tried to study Dharma. Sometimes what he spoke were things that he mixed the reality with his own fantasy. Rit went back to his hometown where his wife and daughter owned a rubber plantation, but he felt that he didn’t fit in and lost all hope.