Thai director of ‘The Medium’ readies horror ‘Tani’ with Korea’s Lewis Taewan Kim

EXCLUSIVE: Thai filmmaker Banjong Pisanthanakun, who scored a box‑office hit with The Medium, has teamed with South Korean producers for upcoming psychological horror Tani.

The project has been set up as a Korea-Thailand collaboration, with Lewis Taewan Kim producing through his Seoul-based banner Lewis Pictures. Korea’s Solaire Partners, a subsidiary of K Wave Media, is among the financiers, while Thailand’s GDH 559 is engaged as a co‑production partner.

The story will centre on a married Korean man who travels to Thailand on a business trip. He falls for a mysterious Thai woman, unaware their encounter will plunge him into an unimaginable nightmare.

Banjong is working with a team of Korean and Thai writers on the project, which is at script stage. It is a contemporary take on Nang Tani, a female Thai spirit who is said to haunt wild banana trees. The story will feature characters from Korea and Thailand.

“I have long wanted to adapt the legend of Nang Tani but could never find the right angle until I imagined a Korean character entering the story,” says Banjong. “That shift opened a new perspective, allowing me to reinterpret the folklore in a way I believe has never been done before.”

Banjong’s previous horror film The Medium was co-produced by GDH and South Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin, which proved a significant box-office success in Korea and across Asia in 2021. Tani marks his second collaboration with the territory.

Korea’s Kim previously produced Jason Yu’s Sleep, which premiered at Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2023, and Hong Eui-jeong’s Voice Of Silence, both backed by Solaire Partners, and Bong Joon Ho’s Okja

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