
Directing
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Born
1962-03-08 (64)
Place of birth
Bangkok, Thailand
Known for
Directing
Credits
40 titles
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (Thai: เป็นเอก รัตนเรือง) is a Thai film director and screenwriter 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.
Known for
5.4Sao, a talented cook, accidentally meets the man who took advantage of her in the past. She sets her revenge plan in motion using her cooking skill to achieve a rather unexpected result.
Morte Cucina
2026
5.8After losing her job, a woman discovers a mysterious package on her apartment doorstep and her life takes a turn for the worse.
6ixtynin9 the Series
2023
NRThis 21-minute documentary marks the directorial debut of acclaimed Thai filmmaker Pen-Ek Ratanaruang in the documentary format. Though modest in scale, it is a charming work infused with his distinctive style and signature sensibility. Commissioned with support from Nike (Thailand) Co., Ltd., the project explores a passion for football by taking viewers into the lives of amateur players who gather on a concrete pitch beneath the Din Daeng Expressway. Pen-Ek himself was a regular participant in this football community, lending the film a personal and intimate perspective. The documentary serves as a reflection of urban dreamers struggling to find space to play the game they love, capturing their aspirations with a blend of humor, melancholy, and the uniquely ironic touch that characterizes Pen-Ek’s filmmaking.
Total Bangkok
2006
4.2An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
2011
7.1An obsessive-compulsive Japanese librarian living in Bangkok spends most of his days contemplating suicide in his apartment. His life changes when he witnesses the death of a young girl and becomes acquainted with her elder sister.
Last Life in the Universe
2003
5.9After inadvertently killing his girlfriend, a man flees Macau for Thailand in an attempt to cope with his guilt, and avoid possible arrest. But the relocation doesn't prevent his problems from following him, as his new friends could be potential enemies.
Invisible Waves
2006
Film credits
2010s · 2 titles
5.0Southeast Asia Cinema - When the rooster crows is a voice of diversity reaching for change. Brillante Mendoza, Eric Khoo, Garin Nugroho, Pen Ek Ratanaruang give voice to a region rich with traditions, ethnic groups, languages, politics, and religions. It is cinema, at its purest form, fighting for freedom of expression, documenting real lives of ordinary people, giving voice to the underdogs and the outcasts. The amalgamation of these aspects gives birth to an ultra-neo-realistic cinema language currently unique to films from this region.
Southeast Asian Cinema – When the Rooster Crows
2014
7.4A Thai documentary about 'Van VDO' the VHS shop in 1990s. The shop established the independent cinema scene for Thai audience by selling VHS of American, European, and Asian indie films. However, all of them are pirate and illegal.
The Master
2014
2000s · 4 titles
6.8Pod decides to change jobs after losing his finger at a sardine packing plant. His new job as a security guard comes with an unexpected perk in the form of a lanky maid who carries a mysterious white book.
Citizen Dog
2004
8.5Documentary about the Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike, where we see him attend film festivals, personal influences and of course the study of his main films, apart from the opinions about him by other filmmakers such as Takeshi Kitano or Kinji Fukasaku.
Electric Yakuza, Go to Hell!
2004
4.0An insightful documentary about Thai cinema, which features a colourful and long running film history, yet struggles as the industry attempts to move forward. This film examines the past and focuses on the Thai New Wave since 1997 by combining film clips, and interviews from Thai directors and others artists, like Asian hip-hop sensation Thaitanium, who are trying to create a more personal style of art.
Behind the Blur
2009
NRAn interview with five renowned artists from various fields, focusing on their beliefs, identity, working methods, and life journey—from the beginning of their careers to their eventual success in their respective disciplines.
ตัวกู-ของกู
2008
Series credits
Behind the camera
5.4Sao, a talented cook, accidentally meets the man who took advantage of her in the past. She sets her revenge plan in motion using her cooking skill to achieve a rather unexpected result.
Morte Cucina
2026
5.4Sao, a talented cook, accidentally meets the man who took advantage of her in the past. She sets her revenge plan in motion using her cooking skill to achieve a rather unexpected result.
Morte Cucina
2026
NRThis 21-minute documentary marks the directorial debut of acclaimed Thai filmmaker Pen-Ek Ratanaruang in the documentary format. Though modest in scale, it is a charming work infused with his distinctive style and signature sensibility. Commissioned with support from Nike (Thailand) Co., Ltd., the project explores a passion for football by taking viewers into the lives of amateur players who gather on a concrete pitch beneath the Din Daeng Expressway. Pen-Ek himself was a regular participant in this football community, lending the film a personal and intimate perspective. The documentary serves as a reflection of urban dreamers struggling to find space to play the game they love, capturing their aspirations with a blend of humor, melancholy, and the uniquely ironic touch that characterizes Pen-Ek’s filmmaking.
Total Bangkok
2006
4.2An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
2011
7.1An obsessive-compulsive Japanese librarian living in Bangkok spends most of his days contemplating suicide in his apartment. His life changes when he witnesses the death of a young girl and becomes acquainted with her elder sister.
Last Life in the Universe
2003
7.1An obsessive-compulsive Japanese librarian living in Bangkok spends most of his days contemplating suicide in his apartment. His life changes when he witnesses the death of a young girl and becomes acquainted with her elder sister.
Last Life in the Universe
2003
5.9After inadvertently killing his girlfriend, a man flees Macau for Thailand in an attempt to cope with his guilt, and avoid possible arrest. But the relocation doesn't prevent his problems from following him, as his new friends could be potential enemies.
Invisible Waves
2006
6.2A hitman named Tul is shot in the head during an assignment. When he wakes up from a two month coma Tul discovers that he literally sees everything upside down.
Headshot
2011
6.2A hitman named Tul is shot in the head during an assignment. When he wakes up from a two month coma Tul discovers that he literally sees everything upside down.
Headshot
2011
6.1A husband and wife are locked inside a single hotel room with a stranger named Ploy. Subtle suspicions build up to jealousy as the young woman triggers devastating consequences for the couple.
Ploy
2007
6.1A husband and wife are locked inside a single hotel room with a stranger named Ploy. Subtle suspicions build up to jealousy as the young woman triggers devastating consequences for the couple.
Ploy
2007
6.0An urban husband and wife travel to the jungle and learn just how precious their relationship is.
Nymph
2009
6.0An urban husband and wife travel to the jungle and learn just how precious their relationship is.
Nymph
2009
6.9An aspiring singer leaves his pregnant bride a radio for company when he is drafted into the army; unfit for military life, the man goes AWOL and joins a pop music troupe but soon after his wife tracks him down his life spirals out of control.
Transistor Love Story
2001
6.9An aspiring singer leaves his pregnant bride a radio for company when he is drafted into the army; unfit for military life, the man goes AWOL and joins a pop music troupe but soon after his wife tracks him down his life spirals out of control.
Transistor Love Story
2001
6.8A woman, fired from a financial corporation during the Asia crisis, returns home with no money. However, she finds a box with a fortune in front of her door, and decides to keep it. However, the people that left it there soon want it back.
6ixtynin9
1999
6.8A woman, fired from a financial corporation during the Asia crisis, returns home with no money. However, she finds a box with a fortune in front of her door, and decides to keep it. However, the people that left it there soon want it back.
6ixtynin9
1999
6.8A woman, fired from a financial corporation during the Asia crisis, returns home with no money. However, she finds a box with a fortune in front of her door, and decides to keep it. However, the people that left it there soon want it back.
6ixtynin9
1999
5.8A soap opera actress finds herself increasingly pressured by her husband, a rich foreigner entirely devoted to a charismatic cult leader.
Samui Song
2018
5.8A soap opera actress finds herself increasingly pressured by her husband, a rich foreigner entirely devoted to a charismatic cult leader.
Samui Song
2018
6.0Gatlang is the name of a small village at an altitude of 7400 feet located in Nepal. A land that no one has ever mentioned. It was hidden under a secret area at the edge of the world's sky. It was shrouded in a faint gray mist that shrouded in all directions. That place calls for us to visit.
Gatlang : Happiness, Hardship and Other Stories
2018
6.5This program features three digital short films by Asian filmmakers. Singapore veteran filmmaker Eric Khoo's NO DAY OFF (39 min) records the life of a maid who leaves her husband and baby for Singapore. Darezhan Omirbayev's ABOUT LOVE (38 min) is a bitter love story based on Anton Chekhov's novel, in which a lonely math teacher falls in love with her married university classmate. Pen-ek Ratanaruang's TWELVE TWENTY (30 min) depicts the encounters of a man and a woman on a long haul flight, where they spend the next twelve hours and twenty minutes reading, drinking, eating and watching movies and sleeping by each other's side, as if they are a married couple.
Digital Sam in Sam Saek 2006: Talk to Her
2006
5.8Pu is a young woman who is having some bad dreams. Her father, meanwhile, has fallen in love with a karaoke bar hostess girl named Yok who's the girlfriend of a mobster. A hitman named Noi is then dispatched to kill the father, and Pu ends up falling in love with Noi.
Fun Bar Karaoke
1997
5.8Pu is a young woman who is having some bad dreams. Her father, meanwhile, has fallen in love with a karaoke bar hostess girl named Yok who's the girlfriend of a mobster. A hitman named Noi is then dispatched to kill the father, and Pu ends up falling in love with Noi.
Fun Bar Karaoke
1997
4.6Sociopolitical Documentary directed by Pen Ek Ratanaruang and Pasakorn Pramoolwong narrating the forward of (sometimes backward) Thai politics since People's Party (Khana Ratsadon) established a constitutional monarchy on 24 June 1932.
Paradoxocracy
2013
3.8A stylish, urban woman ends up castaway on a deserted island, where she meets a rugged hermit. Solitude and detachment soon draw them together.
The Life of Gravity
2014
No synopsis available yet.
The Caterer
—
5.5Based on a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, this short film tells the story of a man who falls in love with a woman he sees at the check-in counter of an airport, and later sits near her inside the plane bound for Canada. The two passengers never exchange a word.
Twelve Twenty
2006
5.5Based on a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, this short film tells the story of a man who falls in love with a woman he sees at the check-in counter of an airport, and later sits near her inside the plane bound for Canada. The two passengers never exchange a word.
Twelve Twenty
2006
5.0A man came to Earth to gather water for his planet. A short made from recycled footage.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (Remix)
2010
NRTwo rookie soldiers are left at a garrison as other troops head to the city to deal with a protest. Now free, the soldiers smoke, play guitar and go fishing in the country, where they meet a girl.
Two Little Soldiers
2020
NRIt tells the secret and mysterious story of two brothers – Lablae and Kaengkhoi, and explores themes of truth and illusion.
The Brotherhood of Kaengkoi
—
Thai directors give their take on Thailand's capital city of Bangkok.
Sawasdee Bangkok
2009
