Dear diary

Ploy has her way with words

By Suwitcha Chaiyong
Photos by Varuth Hirunyatheb and courtesy of GTH

The new movie Kidthung Wittaya (Teacher’s Diary) was inspired by an unusual true story. GTH producer Keng Jira had a friend who fell in love with a woman he’d never met after reading her diary, which she left in an office desk after quitting her job.

Nithiwat Tharatorn (Ton), who directed the blockbusters Season Change and Dear Galileo, developed this unique story into his latest film.

Teacher’s Diary is about an unemployed wrestler named Song (Bie Sukrit), who gets a job as a teacher at Baan Gang Wittay School. Located in the countryside, the school has no electricity, no tap water and no phone signal. Song’s lonely existence is enlivened when he finds a diary that belonged to a teacher named Ann (Ploy Chermarn), who was recently transferred to another school. The more that Song reads Ann’s diary, the more he longs to meet her.

Student Weekly recently met up with 39-year-old director Ton at the GTH office to talk about his romantic new movie, which is due to open at cinemas on March 20.

Student Weekly: How do you feel about the true story that inspired this film?

Ton: The story is unique and romantic. It proves that a couple can like each other because their thoughts match. They might not even know what each other looks like, but they find that their thoughts are similar and that they have similar interests.

Student Weekly: Do you think that the idea of writing a diary is old-fashioned?

Ton: Not at all. The diary format has just changed. People used to write down their thoughts and stories in a personal diary that they kept to themselves. But now Facebook and Instagram are like modern diaries. People still write down their thoughts and stories like they used to, but they allow other people to access and read their Facebook and Instagram posts.

Student Weekly: Why did you choose Ploy Cherman to play the part of a teacher in the countryside?

Ton: Ploy’s personality was right for the character of Ann. She’s bold and rebellious. It’s believable that she could live on a raft in the countryside because she’s wild and tough. I think she could survive if she was left in a forest!

Bie and Ploy have an unusual chemistry between them. They didn’t know each other. They’d never talked or had a meal together, so they were similar to the characters in the movie.

Student Weekly: What techniques do you use to make the characters in your movies seem so real and natural?

Ton: We always cast actors who are similar to the characters in the script, then let them be themselves.

For this movie, Bie and Ploy didn’t see the script until they came to film the first scene. I let them read through each scene before filming, then took the script away from them.

Bie was surprised because he always memorises scripts before going to the set. But I explained that if he memorised every word, his reactions wouldn’t seem natural. Apart from a few important scenes, he didn’t have to say the dialogue exactly as it was written in the script.

Student Weekly: Can you tell us about the school set?

Ton: It was inspired by a real school on rafts which floats around Mae Ping National Park. Our set was built at Kangkajan Dam in Phetchaburi. It wasn’t far from Bangkok, but there was no tap water, electricity and phone signal there, just like in the movie. I was impressed with the atmosphere. I think people living there would be very lonely.

Student Weekly: Were there any difficulties during the filming?

Ton: There were many difficulties. We had to take a van from Bangkok to Phetchburi every day, and move the equipment onto a raft. At the beginning there were high tides, so we couldn’t set up a movie camera on a ground because it was underwater. We had to set up the camera on a boat or a raft, which wasn’t steady. It was difficult, but it was also fun.

Student Weekly: What were you most impressed about while making this movie?

Ton: We had great teamwork. There’s one scene where Bie and Ploy swim underwater together, and Bie had to swim backwards and smile at Ploy. When I told the crew about my idea, they didn’t think it was possible, but somehow we made it happen!

Every crew member was exhausted and went through problems together. Without the great support from the crew, this film would have been impossible to make.

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