Movie about 2004 tsunami of Phuket shuns ‘disaster’ label

But the Spanish director of The Impossible insisted that the film – which starts with a spectacular recreation of the huge wall of water crashing onto a beachfront resort – is far from a typical “disaster movie.” “Even if the film tells the story in a very direct way, the conclusions it comes to are very complex, more complex than those usual with disaster movies,” Juan Antonio Bayona said. The earthquake-triggered tsunami on December 26, 2004 killed some 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean, including large numbers of tourists caught in the resorts of Thailand. In the Spanish-financed movie, based on the real story of a Spanish family and filmed in the south of the country, McGregor and Watts play a couple on holiday with their children in Thailand, and separated when the tsunami hits. “There was something immediately symbolic in the story of this family, which caught my attention when I heard about it for the first time,” Bayona said after a November 4 screening at the American Film Institute festival in Hollywood. After the tsunami crashes ashore and separates them, the seriously injured mother finds herself with her eldest son, while the father played by McGregor manages to save the two youngest children. The movie portrays the battle for survival amid the havoc wreaked by the wave, from devastated hotels to an over-crowded hospital.

It opens with a family enjoying a luxury holiday in spectacular beach surroundings – before the wall of water hits. “When we were looking for funding, the first thing we were told was, if we were going to make the film, we had to see” the catastrophe itself, Bayona said. “In a film like this about the tsunami, you have to see the monster face to face, and plunge your camera inside it to make filmgoers really feel what it was like to be there.” The young director focused intensely on what the characters are thinking and feeling – notably the eldest son, played by Tom Holland – with techniques including unsparing close-ups and omnipresent music. “The film starts with a shock, in a more documentary style, and as it progresses it takes on a more melodramatic tone... “We want people watching to feel emotions as intensely as the characters themselves,” Bayona said. AFP

Double champion to lead field at Laguna Phuket Triathlon 2012

Newly crowned 2012 Ironman and Ironman 70.3 triathlon double world champion Leanda Cave of Britain will lead a strong line-up at the Ironman 70.3 Laguna Phuket on December 2st. The 34-year-old Cave, who won the Ironman 70.3 world championship in Las Vegas last month and the Ironman world championship in Hawaii two weeks ago, has confirmed her participation in the third Ironman 70.3 Laguna Phuket.

"She has signed up for our Ironman 70.3 just hours after becoming the world champion in Las Vegas," said Debbie Dionysius, Laguna Phuket's assistant vice president of destination marketing. Cave is expected to face a tough challenge from Phuket defending champion Melissa Hauschildt of Australia who was fourth at this year's world championship in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the 19th Laguna Phuket Triathlon will take place on Nov 25. Australia's Belinda Granger and Czech Radka Vodickova are vying to become the event's first-ever women's triple champion. Italian Massimo Cigana, the tournament's first-ever triple champion, will return to defend his title in a bid to be a four-time champion. He will face stiff opposition from elite pros such as Chris Lieto.