Kondej Jaturaurasmee is the latest Thai filmmaker to go inter. His film, Cherm (Midnight My Love), was awarded Best Picture and Best Director by the Bangkok Critics Assembly last year, and was recently awarded Best Screenplay at the Asian Film Festival in Deauville, France. The 34-year-old has done many things in his life, but this multitalented dynamo remains modest, still considering himself an underdog. In addition to directing films, he has also written screenplays (The Letter) and music with his indie band, Si Tao Thur.

I’ve wanted to produce films since I was a high school student.

Making films is more than just entertainment. I consider it a significant career.

Movies about underdogs are my favorite because I feel like I am one of them. I have an inferiority complex and sometimes I feel this attitude drives me to work harder on things to prove that I’m not mediocre.

Making music is a joyful relief. If I don’t like the way something is coming out, or I don’t believe in it, I don’t have to do it. There is no need to fake it with music.

Making a film requires much more compromise because it requires a lot of money—most of which isn’t mine. I need to understand what moviegoers want and then form my ideas around that.

Columns about readers’ experiences in porn magazines inspired me to write the screenplay for Sayew. I think magazine writers, not readers, write those letters because the writing style is so smooth.

It doesn’t matter if Ton, the male lead in The Letter, exists in the real world or not. The Letter’s message is that we should do whatever we can for the ones we love when they are still alive and with us.

My philosophy is one of escape. I believe all people like to escape—even confrontational types. Escape facilitates our dreams and gives us hope. It only becomes a problem when we can’t balance our dream world with our real life.

After seeing Cherm (Midnight My Love), someone asked me if I believed in karma. Karma is a complicated thing. Sometimes people do the right thing, but they don’t see it pay off. It’s a matter of faith, and we shouldn’t lose our faith.

The feedback for Cherm and Sayew at the Asian Film Festival was terrific. It was great to know that Thai films could speak to foreigners.

I’ve always created films for a Thai audience and have never thought about how foreign viewers would react to them.

Recently I’ve been working on a screenplay for Nu Hin The Movie. It’s interesting because I’m summarizing a long cartoon series into a two-hour film.

I’m writing songs for Pakorn “Dome” Rum’s fourth album. I’m making the songs as mainstream as possible because his third album only communicated to a niche audience. We need some hit songs to sell it.

Right now, the best things in my life are my twins. They are nine years old. I finally found that the purpose of being human is to give birth.