Prachya Pinkaew Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong—that was him. Now, director Prachya is back for more action, martial arts and criticism.

I was under a lot of pressure during the production of Tom Yum Goong. After Ong Bak, people had a lot of expectations. I don’t stress out easily, but I was getting quite nervous at that time. Even before Tom Yum Goong was fi nished, the stress had vanished; I knew what I was doing. With Chocolate, I feel no pressure at all.

Everyone remembers that I’ve worked with Tony Ja. There was both praise and criticism for what we did.

I never choose between action or dialogue. They work for different purposes. But in action films, you can’t take out the action.

I don’t have any martial art skills, I don’t like fi ghting and I didn’t grow up with this kind of thing. But today, I understand the beauty in martial arts.

I started when it was diffi cult to get feedback from the audience. Today we have forums and tons of feedback. I just have to deal with it.

Web board critics are different from professional critics. Professionals respect us by signing their critiques. I’ll listen to people criticize my movies only if they have the guts to sign their names to what they write.

I want to do other kinds of film, to show people how much easier it is to make something that doesn’t have action in it.

Ong Bak was the result of a lot of research and analysis, not luck. It started when I began joking to Panna [Rittikrai, the stunt choreographer behind Tony Ja] that if we want foreigners to buy Thai movies, we need someone to put his very life on the line. It was before I’d even met Tony Ja that muay thai appeared to be the trick to do just that.

I can criticize, too—the audience, for example. They don’t know enough about cinema,
they can’t analyze what they watch. If you want to see the film industry grow in quality and quantity, the audience needs to grow with us. If moviemakers grow but the audience doesn’t, who is going to watch our movies?

Sometimes I get discouraged by what people say about action films. Instead of positive
criticism to make me stronger or to improve the fi lm industry, all I get is negative, destructive criticism.

Thai people are fi ne watching dramas, when the physical actions are believable. But when it comes to doing something with imagination, with exaggeration, all they can say is, “Nonsense.”

If the audience understands martial arts or can see its beauty, they will enjoy my films. But for others, they might need to ask themselves what they really want to see. Maybe this is not for them.

I’m a workaholic. I don’t have kids because I want to spend all my time doing what I like. These days, I’m happy to be able to entertain people. Interview by Saransri Prawatpattanakul

Chocolate will be in theaters this February.
Read the full version of this interview online
at www.bkmagazine.com.