I didn’t know what I wanted to do in my life when I was a teenager. I didn’t have someone to be my advisor. I lived with my grandpa, an old soldier who wasn’t home very much. So it was hard to communicate with him.

I had to leave King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB) because I had no motivation to study. I had just followed a friend who wanted to study there.

I even ran away from home because I was so bored. I didn’t know what to do.

My aunt saved my life. She said, “You used to love drawing. Why don’t you study art?” I was like “Right, I love art.” So I signed up to Silapakorn University to study fine arts.
Studying art gave me happiness. It’s real fun to live with art all the time.

I became enchanted by motion pictures after a friend asked me to help make a documentary. I was thrilled every time I went onto the movie set.

It lit a fire in me. I wanted to study motion pictures but my university didn’t have a faculty. The dean told me to get 250 students to sign up and then he would open the new faculty for me. I got 270.

Directing is magic. I can give life to my imagination through sounds, color, light and pictures. I feel I can compose all these things better than others.

I am lucky I started doing what I love sooner than others. I started working as a director when I was in my third year of study.

I was a millionaire before I became a movie director. I earned more than B30 million being a commercial director for twelve years. But I got bored with my wealth and everything around me.

I felt like my work had become a routine. I just got a brief and did it. It wasn’t me anymore. So I rejected the money to become a movie director.

Life is yours. You have to fight for it, respond to it and take care of it. I told my daughter that I would help her until she graduated. Then, she had to create everything on her own. I started from zero so she can too.

I lost all my savings to my first two films: Dang Bireley’s and Young Gangsters (1997) and Nang Nak (1999). But I was so happy.

I don’t like to repeat things. People say I would be rich if I did a sequel to Dang Bireley’s but I think it’s a waste of time.

I don’t put my life into things that are tried and tested. Life is all about moving forward. Making new things is more of a challenge.

After four years making The Tsunami Warrior (2008), I moved from movies to do lakorn. It was like going back to school, because the art of making lakorn is hugely different. I had to learn everything anew.

People buy tickets to watch a movie while lakorn needs to cry for attention from an audience who are always doing other things, like the laundry or eating, while watching. So you have to make the story easy to follow. Now I’m directing Nue Mek II which is going to air on Channel 3 this July.

I’m getting more isolated as I get older. Some days I don’t want to turn on my phone. I don’t want to talk to anyone.

The lowest point of my life was a year ago. I had to pay a friend’s debt. I was his guarantor on a B4 million loan and he defaulted. I had to sell my stuff to pay it off. This lesson made me scared of trusting people again.

People in this world are pitiful. We change a lot and sometimes lose our minds because of the stress of society. Kon-Lok-Jit (Distortion) is based on the winning script from the Thailand Script Project 2010, which touches on this topic. It made me decide to direct movies again.

I think 98% of people in society have mental problems. It’s just a matter of how severe. This movie shows that everyone is at risk of going insane, so you should seek help before it’s too late.

I love diving. I have a diving school, Blue Shark Diving. I love to dive at the Similans. It’s one of the most beautiful diving spots in the world.

I don’t like Bangkok. I feel sick every time I come home to the capital.

I think one day cinema will be like likay (street theater). Movies will screen on the internet which everyone can watch anywhere. I think it’s going to happen within two years.

Being a director takes everything out of you. But if you keep doing what you love you will be successful.