Bangkok Film: Bangkok has a large number of cinemas but not all show English-language films. Some show movies with English soundtracks but many will have been dubbed into Thai. Cinemas that show films in English or with English subtitles include: EGV Multiplexes (tel: (02) 515 5555; website: www.egv.com) and Major Cineplexes (also tel: (02) 515 5555; website: www.majorcineplex.com), both with various venues throughout the city; Lido Multiplex, Rama I Road (tel: (02) 252 6498), and United Artists, located at Soi 24 Sukhumvit Road (tel: (02) 664 8711).
Nineteenth-century Bangkok features in the spectacular film Anna and the King (1999). The filming did not take place in the city as the Thais banned the book on which it was based (see Literary Notes below), as well as the earlier film, starring Yul Brynner, claiming that they were historically inaccurate. The James Bond movie, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) uses Bangkok, as well as the stunning Phang Nha Bay, as a backdrop. A 2001 epic Suriyothai (directed by Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol) depicts life in the Ayutthaya period of Thai history and the story of the heroic Queen Suriyothai, with some incredible battle scenes. Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is one of Asia's bright new hopes. His film Last Life in the Universe (2003) about a romance between a suicidal Japanese man and a Thai prostitute in Bangkok has gained critical acclaim. In 2006 he directed Digital Sam in Sam Saek 2006: Talk to Her and Invisible Waves. Some of the scenes from the very successful Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), directed by Beeban Kidron, were filmed around Soi Cowboy in Bangkok.