Sobasith

by Ly Bun Yim

Cambodia - 1965

Sunday, June 2nd • 6PM
Wednesday, June 5th • 4PM
At Chaktomuk

Feature Film - 112mn

Color

Khmer with English subtitles

ScreenplayLy Bun Yim

CinematographyLy Bun Yim

MusicLy Bun Yim, Sinn Sisamouth and Yong Chheang

CastKong Sam Oeun, Virak Dara, How Pich

Format16mm

GenreFantastic

First Release1965 (Cambodia)

ProductionRunteas Pich




SynopsisIn their previous life, Sobasith and Sovan Kesor were a birds couple. Sovan Kesor, thinking that her husband was cheating on her, threw herself in the fire after swearing never to speak to men again. Sobasith followed her, promising to see her again in his next life. Later, he was reborn as the son of a rich man, while Sovan Kesor became the daughter of a king. Faithful to her previous life’s wish, she never spoke to men; so the king decided to marry her to any man who could get her to talk to men again. Everyone failed, until Sobasith came along…

AboutLy Bun Yim is one of the most important Cambodian filmmakers and Sobasith is his first huge success, making Kong Sam Oeun the new star of Khmer cinema. Starring Ly Bun Yim’s muse Virak Dara and based on a famous folktale, Sobasith contains numerous fantastic Georges Méliès-like sequences, where Ly Bun Yim joyfully reinvents special effects from the early age of cinema : giants created with the foreground and the background, apparition, disapparition and multiplication of characters, and this famous sequence where the girl crawls out on the tong of « The Genie of the Lake ». Ly Bun Yim used to say that he learnt those techniques by himself, dismantling and putting back together the camera to understand its possibilities. The film shows as well a taste of experiment in storytelling, with its short stories included in the film, that could be considered as independent short movies.

Selective filmography of Ly Bun Yim
(born in 1942)

1961- Runteas Kroursa (aka Thunderbolt in the Family)

1965 - Sobasith

1968 - Puthisen Neang Kongrey (aka 12 Sisters)

1969 - Ithik Sovann Chan Kesor

1972 - Orn euy srey orn (aka Khmer After Angkor)

1975 - Ses Samoth (aka The Sea Horse)