Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

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

Morte Cucina poster
5.4

Sao, 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

6ixtynin9 the Series poster
5.8

After 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

Total Bangkok poster
NR

This 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

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero poster
4.2

An 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

Last Life in the Universe poster
7.1

An 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

Invisible Waves poster
5.9

After 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

2000s · 4 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Morte Cucina poster
5.4

Sao, 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

Morte Cucina poster
5.4

Sao, 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

Total Bangkok poster
NR

This 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

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero poster
4.2

An 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

Last Life in the Universe poster
7.1

An 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

Last Life in the Universe poster
7.1

An 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

Invisible Waves poster
5.9

After 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

Headshot poster
6.2

A 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

Headshot poster
6.2

A 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

Ploy poster
6.1

A 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

Ploy poster
6.1

A 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

Nymph poster
6.0

An urban husband and wife travel to the jungle and learn just how precious their relationship is.

Nymph

2009

Nymph poster
6.0

An urban husband and wife travel to the jungle and learn just how precious their relationship is.

Nymph

2009

Transistor Love Story poster
6.9

An 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

Transistor Love Story poster
6.9

An 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

6ixtynin9 poster
6.8

A 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

6ixtynin9 poster
6.8

A 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

6ixtynin9 poster
6.8

A 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

Samui Song poster
5.8

A soap opera actress finds herself increasingly pressured by her husband, a rich foreigner entirely devoted to a charismatic cult leader.

Samui Song

2018

Samui Song poster
5.8

A soap opera actress finds herself increasingly pressured by her husband, a rich foreigner entirely devoted to a charismatic cult leader.

Samui Song

2018

Gatlang : Happiness, Hardship and Other Stories poster
6.0

Gatlang 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

Digital Sam in Sam Saek 2006: Talk to Her poster
6.5

This 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

Fun Bar Karaoke poster
5.8

Pu 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

Fun Bar Karaoke poster
5.8

Pu 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

Paradoxocracy poster
4.6

Sociopolitical 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

The Life of Gravity poster
3.8

A 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 artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Caterer

—

Twelve Twenty poster
5.5

Based 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

Twelve Twenty poster
5.5

Based 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

The Man Who Fell to Earth (Remix) poster
5.0

A man came to Earth to gather water for his planet. A short made from recycled footage.

The Man Who Fell to Earth (Remix)

2010

Two Little Soldiers poster
NR

Two 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

The Brotherhood of Kaengkoi poster
NR

It tells the secret and mysterious story of two brothers – Lablae and Kaengkhoi, and explores themes of truth and illusion.

The Brotherhood of Kaengkoi

—

No artwork available
3.2

Thai directors give their take on Thailand's capital city of Bangkok.

Sawasdee Bangkok

2009