New Netflix movie The Lost Lotteries ushers in a slate of new Thai content – will it boost Thailand’s pop culture to compete with K-pop and K-dramas?
- Prueksa Amaruji’s new heist-comedy centres around lottery tickets, a theme the filmmaker hopes will appeal to audiences not just domestically, but abroad, too
- Netflix’s foray into Thailand will open ‘doors of opportunity’, but the director sees challenges in becoming a regional cultural powerhouse like South Korea
Ushering in Netflix’s latest slate of Thai content is The Lost Lotteries, a “heist-comedy” that director Prueksa Amaruji hopes will resonate with not just viewers in Thailand, but also international audiences.
The subject that underpins the film is universally relatable: playing the lottery, or huay in Thai. Amaruji says he and executive producer Ekachai Uekrongtham agreed that Thai people from all walks of life, regardless of social class and financial condition, buy lottery tickets.
“Winning the first prize in the Thai lottery is like a national dream – I’m also one of those dreamers – so both of us thought that creating a film about the lottery can appeal to the masses, and surely our Thai fans,” says the director, who is best known for his comedy duology, Bikeman.
“After deciding that the lottery would be central to the film’s plot, I thought about how hilarious and ironic it would be to win first prize, but then have the ticket stolen by someone too formidable to stand up to.”
Although he enjoys watching heist movies, Amaruji has never made one before, and says that his latest offering is not “as cool as Mission Impossible or Ocean’s Eleven, but is a chaotic comedy instead”.