‘Un’ Wuthisak Anarnkaporn: The surreal deal

Thai director ‘Un’ Wuthisak Anarnkaporn began his career as a creative before moving behind the camera, building a body of commercial work rooted in character and laugh-out-loud comedy.

Inspired by the likes of Thanonchai Sornsriwichai and Tom Kuntz, Anarnkaporn became part of a generation that helped Thai advertising travel internationally, with spots that often place everyday human behaviour inside heightened, surreal or unexpected worlds. 

Here, he talks to Jamie Madge about making a splash as an emerging filmmaker, why Thai comedy connects across cultures, and how the soil is more important than the seed when growing creative ideas.

How did you first get into directing?

Getting my first directing job was difficult, as it is for every new director.

Back when I worked as a creative, I always chose experienced directors, especially when the idea was strong or the budget was reasonable.

When I decided to become a director myself, I planned everything very carefully, as I honestly felt that my experience as a creative was not enough to make me the kind of director that I would want to hire. So, I decided to get a master’s degree in filmmaking.

While studying, I treated every project as a commercial. My instructors disagreed at first because many people think commercials are just beautiful images without storytelling. It took time, but eventually I proved to them that commercials can be narrative films too.

When I came back to Thailand, I had a commercial reel shot in New York. It looked very different from other reels in Thailand at that time, and some creatives became interested immediately.

Did it feel like you were part of a wider movement in Thai advertising?

It was a very special moment for Thai advertising, and I was lucky to be part of that generation.

Creatives, directors, agencies and producers were all pushing in the same direction at the same time. Everyone was influencing each other creatively.

I’m proud that some of the work I directed became part of that international conversation.

How do you balance ‘normal’ characters with heightened or surreal situations?

Sometimes we try to make an idea more original by asking, “How many strange things can we add?” And once we start thinking that way, we usually want to put every interesting idea into the film. That’s when the balance breaks, because the audience no longer knows how they’re supposed to view the situation.

Most of the time, I try to ask: “Why does this need to be abnormal?” That usually helps me find the answer more clearly and helps the comedy land in a more natural way. Comedy is so subjective; there is no right or wrong answer.

Above: In Krungsri First Choice’s Patient, Wuthisak Anarnkaporn places an everyday hospital scenario inside a surreal comic world.

What usually attracts you to an idea?

What attracts me the most is not really the idea at the beginning, but the potential result at the end.

In the last four or five years, I’ve realised that outstanding work is not always about how original the first idea is.

But, for me, the most important thing is the people involved in the project. The creatives, the clients, the whole team.

I always think of it this way: if the idea is the seed, then the people are the soil. And I believe the soil is even more important. Good soil can grow almost anything.

Sometimes the seed even changes during the process because everyone agrees there’s a better result. And if the people are talented enough, nobody will be too attached to the original idea, because only the people in the meeting room will have seen it, whereas the final work will eventually be seen by millions.

Why do you think Thai comedy travels so well?

I think a lot of Thai comedy that gets noticed internationally comes from the authentic portrayal of life in a still-developing country. The poverty, the inequality, the lack of education, the everyday struggles. These things are very real for us.

And somehow, we make fun of ourselves. Not in a cruel way, but in a way that helps us live with those realities.

I think that honesty makes the comedy feel human and relatable, even for people from completely different cultures. Unfortunately, I don’t think this sensibility has been explored enough outside of advertising yet.

Are there cultural nuances international audiences sometimes miss?

Absolutely. A lot of it comes from language limitations and cultural context. Thai and English are structurally very different languages, so some humour simply cannot be translated directly.

This is especially true because international audiences usually read the subtitles instead of hearing the actual rhythm and tone while watching the character’s expression at the same time.

I think the more you understand the language and the culture, the more extreme and specific the characters become. A stupid character is not just stupid anymore. He becomes the kind of stupid person who thinks everyone around him is even more stupid.

That kind of detail becomes much funnier when you fully understand the social behaviour behind it.