Thailand’s Mono Entertainment returns to Filmart this year under the banner of motif+ after a major corporate restructuring. The company is now divided into production division motif+, headed by successful director and producer Pantham Thongsang, and home entertainment division Command N, headed by Jirun Ratthanaviriyachai, managing director of Mono Entertainment.

The first film to carry the motif+ branding is Pongpat Wachirabunjong’s Happy Birthday, which has its market premiere at this year’s FilMart. The love story between a photographer and a tour guide grossed $1.2m in December in Bangkok, an impressive box office result for a melodrama with none of the horror, action, comedy or youth drama elements that typify local box office hits.

Happy Birthday re-teams the director, writer and cast of Mono’s 2007 surprise hit Me…Myself that marked a turning point for Mono Film, rebranding the company as a producer of quality drama with potential at the international market. South Korea’s K&Entertainment picked up remake rights to the high concept romance about a man with amnesia who one day remembers that he is gay.

motif+’s second film, Roommate, is scheduled to open in Thailand on 4 June. The film, squarely aimed at local audiences, is about a group of freshmen friends living in the same apartment who form a band. Director Krun Kumanuwong is a regular collaborator of Pantham, co-writing his canine adventure film Mid Road Gang before making his directorial debut with last year’s body-swapping fantasy Valentine.

Pantham Thongsang also attends Filmart this year with HAF project xxx.

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