Re:Vision: I Am With A Monk
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About
This screening will open with Len Lye’s animated short film SWINGING THE LAMBETH WALK. The film was restored by San Francisco Film Preserve and scanned utilizing Scan2Screen’s multispectral scanning technology. The original elements are preserved at the British Film Institute. This restoration was undertaken in close collaboration with the Len Lye Foundation and Ngā Taonga National Archive.
Two legendary Thai actors, Sombat Methanee and Sorapong Chatree, form an unlikely duo of a wanderer on the run and reluctant monk, facing danger at every turn. Khom Akadet’s 1980s actioner is thrilling not only in its fight scenes, but also in the careful registers between.
The 1970s and 1980s were Golden Decades for Thai action cinema, which found its very own niche somewhere between Hong Kong’s martial arts films and the actioners shot in the Philippines and Indonesia. I Am with a Monk is among the outstanding examples for that era’s art of mayhem, featuring two of its greatest stars: Sorapong Chatree and Sombat Metanee, under the guidance of madness- and excess-prone maestro Khom Akadet.
In contrast to some of Akadet’s earlier films like Phai Kam Plerng (1977) and Maha Hin (1978) which are fondly remembered for their nonchalant attitude towards narrative storytelling in favour of relentless, non-stop fighting, I Am with a Monk operates in a more relaxed register, with the characters spending quite some time setting up their moves and countermoves, often lending the action scenes an air of set piece glory. The story of a runaway who finds shelter with a monk sports the kind of sharpness that made Sergio Corbucci’s Django (1966) a genre watershed. Entertainment at its purest! – Olaf Möller, International Film Festival Rotterdam
Restored in 2024 by the Thai Film Archive from the original 35mm negative.
I Am With A Monk will screen with the following short:
MOBILE MEN (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, 2008) 4m, DCP
Contagious mirth widens to a roar in Mobile Men (2008) as a dignified relay of expression and mimicry. Two young men — carefree migrant workers — and the filmmaker — unhampered and absorbed — get to know one another from the windy corners of a speeding pickup truck in Northern Thailand. The trio seem to have just met, but to “get” each other nonetheless, invisible imprints received against glints of sunshine and a wordless permission to show off. The camera shuffles hand-to-hand between them and across various binding lavaliers — smiles, pendants, shoelaces, tattoos, and indeed microphones. Shot on a mobile phone and under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, this short form commission subverts its assumed gesture. Portraiture becomes play, rehearsal, celebration. As in most of Weerasethakul’s films, the virtual and the actual perform a secret handshake. — Elise Schierbeek
DCP provided by Kick the Machine.
Runtime
2h 6m
Year
1984
Director
Kom Akkadej
Format
DCP
Country
Thailand
Language
Thai with English subtitles
First Showing
September 26, 2026
Categories
RE:VISION — FESTIVAL OF RESTORATION AND REDISCOVERY
,
Featured
Two legendary Thai actors, Sombat Methanee and Sorapong Chatree, form an unlikely duo of a wanderer on the run and reluctant monk, facing danger at every turn. Khom Akadet’s 1980s actioner is thrilling not only in its fight scenes, but also in the careful registers between.
The 1970s and 1980s were Golden Decades for Thai action cinema, which found its very own niche somewhere between Hong Kong’s martial arts films and the actioners shot in the Philippines and Indonesia. I Am with a Monk is among the outstanding examples for that era’s art of mayhem, featuring two of its greatest stars: Sorapong Chatree and Sombat Metanee, under the guidance of madness- and excess-prone maestro Khom Akadet.
In contrast to some of Akadet’s earlier films like Phai Kam Plerng (1977) and Maha Hin (1978) which are fondly remembered for their nonchalant attitude towards narrative storytelling in favour of relentless, non-stop fighting, I Am with a Monk operates in a more relaxed register, with the characters spending quite some time setting up their moves and countermoves, often lending the action scenes an air of set piece glory. The story of a runaway who finds shelter with a monk sports the kind of sharpness that made Sergio Corbucci’s Django (1966) a genre watershed. Entertainment at its purest! – Olaf Möller, International Film Festival Rotterdam
Restored in 2024 by the Thai Film Archive from the original 35mm negative.
I Am With A Monk will screen with the following short:
MOBILE MEN (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, 2008) 4m, DCP
Contagious mirth widens to a roar in Mobile Men (2008) as a dignified relay of expression and mimicry. Two young men — carefree migrant workers — and the filmmaker — unhampered and absorbed — get to know one another from the windy corners of a speeding pickup truck in Northern Thailand. The trio seem to have just met, but to “get” each other nonetheless, invisible imprints received against glints of sunshine and a wordless permission to show off. The camera shuffles hand-to-hand between them and across various binding lavaliers — smiles, pendants, shoelaces, tattoos, and indeed microphones. Shot on a mobile phone and under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, this short form commission subverts its assumed gesture. Portraiture becomes play, rehearsal, celebration. As in most of Weerasethakul’s films, the virtual and the actual perform a secret handshake. — Elise Schierbeek
DCP provided by Kick the Machine.
Runtime
2h 6m
Year
1984
Director
Kom Akkadej
Format
DCP
Country
Thailand
Language
Thai with English subtitles
First Showing
September 26, 2026
Categories
RE:VISION — FESTIVAL OF RESTORATION AND REDISCOVERY
,
Featured
