Early career Wisit studied at the Faculty of Decorative Arts at
Silpakorn University, where he was a classmate of
Nonzee Nimibutr and set designer Ek Lemchuen. He started out as an art director at the Film Factory, where he worked with
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. Among
television commercials directed by Wisit was a colorful commercial for
Wrangler Jeans that featured
Black Tiger star Chartchai Ngamsuan. Wisit continues to work at Film Factory, making commercials (particularly for the MK Restaurants
hot pot chain in Thailand) in order to supplement his income in between making feature films. He also is a cartoonist and illustrator. Wisit entered the film industry as a screenwriter for two of Nonzee's films, 1997's ''
Dang Bireley's and Young Gangsters, set in 1950s Thailand, and the ghost thriller, Nang Nak'' in 1999. Critically, and at the box office, the films were successes and marked the beginning of a "new wave" movement in the
Thai film industry.
Tears of the Black Tiger Wisit's feature-film debut was in 2000 with the colourfully audacious
Tears of the Black Tiger, a genre-blending
western. With a romantic melodrama at its core, the story involves outlaws, gunfights, horseback riding, comedic bits and big explosions. The film was a homage to an earlier era of Thai film - the contemplative 1950s dramas of pioneering director
Rattana Pestonji as well as the "bomb-the-mountains, burn-the-huts" action films of the 1960s that starred
Mitr Chaibancha. One of the leading men from the 1960s and 1970s Thai action-film era,
Sombat Metanee, lent his talents to
Tears of the Black Tiger, portraying the outlaw leader, Fai.
Tears of the Black Tiger was the first Thai film to be screened at the
Cannes Film Festival, where it was in 2001's
Un Certain Regard program. At the
Vancouver International Film Festival in 2000, it won the Dragons & Tigers Award for best new director. Other awards include best art direction at the
Gijón International Film Festival in 2001 and a jury prize at the
Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. It was also screened at the
2006 Bangkok International Film Festival as part of a tribute to Sombat Metanee.
US distribution rights for the film were purchased by
Miramax Films, which changed the ending and then shelved it indefinitely. In 2006,
Magnolia Pictures acquired the US rights to the original version of the film, and gave it a limited theatrical run in US theaters in 2007 before releasing it on DVD.
Citizen Dog Wisit's next project,
2004's
Citizen Dog, was a contemporary romantic comedy set in Bangkok that proved to be even more colourful than
Tears of the Black Tiger. Based on a novel written by Koynuch (
Siripan Techajindawong), Wisit's long-time collaborative partner and wife, and narrated by compatriot filmmaker
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang,
Citizen Dog tells the tale of two rural Thai people who come to
Bangkok to find work and fall in love. Critics have compared it to
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's
Amélie. Distribution rights outside Asia were purchased by
Luc Besson's
EuropaCorp, and it played at several film festivals, including the
Berlin Film Festival, the
Toronto International Film Festival and the
San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The film screened commercially in France in 2006.
The Unseeable In 2006, while he was working to develop some future projects, Wisit directed a low-budget Thai
horror film for
Five Star Production called
The Unseeable ().
The Unseeable marked a change for Wisit, who was restrained by budgetary concerns from the stylizations of his first two films. Additionally,
The Unseeable was the first film that he directed but did not write, with the screenplay by
Kongkiat Khomsiri, one of the "Ronin Team" credited with directing the hit Thai horror thriller,
Art of the Devil 2. While the color palette was considerably muted, compared to
Tears of the Black Tiger and
Citizen Dog, Wisit was still able to leave his nostalgic imprint on
The Unseeable by making it an homage to films of the 1930s and the stars of that era, including
Bette Davis and
Joan Crawford. Thai pop culture influences came from illustrator
Hem Vejakorn, who wrote a series of 10-
satang graphic novel ghost stories in the 1930s and '40s. The reference was so striking that the Barom Khru Foundation, which claims to supervise Hem's works, issued a statement warning Five Star Production to not violate the copyright of Hem's work. However, Wisit said the film was not an
adaptation of any of Hem's works but was generally inspired by Hem's style., which completed shooting in August 2006 and was released on November 2, 2006. In addition to a release in Thailand,
The Unseeable also had wide theatrical releases in Malaysia and Singapore, and screened at several film festivals, including the
Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film,
2007 Bangkok International Film Festival (ASEAN competition) and the
Cinemanila International Film Festival. Also in 2006, Pen-Ek became the third recipient of the
Silpathorn Award for Filmmaking, an honor given to contemporary Thai artists by the Ministry of Culture's Office of Contemporary Art and Culture.
Norasinghavatar, Red Eagle In 2007, Wisit participated in the ''Short Films Project in Commemoration of the Celebration on the Auspicious Occasion of His Majesty the King's 80th Birthday Anniversary'', in which nine short films were made in honor of King
Bhumibol Adulyadej. Other directors participating the project included fellow
Silpathorn Award winners
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang and
Apichatpong Weerasethakul and veteran filmmaker
Bhandit Rittakol. Wisit contributed
Norasinghavatar, which featured his trademark colorful and highly stylized imagery, with a blend of
khon masked dance and Thai two-handed swordplay. Though the film appears to be 3D animation, it is actually live action, but completely stylized with super-saturated colors in
post-production. Wisit was given a budget of 400,000
baht (about US$10,000), but his project's cost ballooned to 3 million, due to the special effects and post-production costs. "It's a bad habit – I can't control the money," he said in an interview.
Projects in development In 2005, when
Luc Besson's EuropaCorp picked up
Citizen Dog for distribution, the company also agreed to co-produce with
Five Star Production a long-gestating project by Wisit called
Nam Prix, which takes its name after red chilies used in
Thai cooking. A historical fantasy about Thai
pirates, the project began in 1998 as a one-page brief, but was shelved due to financial difficulties. While
Citizen Dog was told in the contemporary style of filmmaking, and
Tears of the Black Tiger portrayed an old Thai film style, Wisit has said he will endeavor to go back even further with
Nam Prix, capturing the tradition of
Thai temple painting and bring it to life. "It will be an antique Thai legend, with very traditional Thai pictures like the old wall painting. But we will animate them," he was quoted as saying on ThaiCinema.org. "We will make them move. It is not an epic, but a
folklore in order to tell our roots, our culture." As of 2007, pre-production work had been completed on
Nam Prix, with
Five Star Production awaiting Besson's EuropaCorp to provide its 50% of the budget needed to get filming under way.
Armful was initially announced by Singapore-based One Ton Cinema, which received a further pledge of backing from Hong Kong actor
Andy Lau's Focus Films. Regarding
Armful, Wisit issued the following statement: However, as of 2007, the project was on indefinite hold, awaiting more funding. ==Awards==