EXCLUSIVE: Thai-Vietnamese co-production The Chameleon Woman, which marks leading Thai post house White Light’s move into production, has added co-producers from China and Indonesia and unveiled its first cast.
The film will star Awat Ratanapintha, who won the Rising Star award from Marie Claire at Busan International Film Festival’s Asia Star Awards in 2023, alongside Prapamonton Eiamchan, whose credits include Venice title Anatomy Of Time. Awat came to notice after starring in Doi Boy, which premiered at BIFF in 2023.
Co-producers joining the project, include Patrick Joshua of Indonesia and Chinese producer Zhulin Mo, whose credits include To Kill A Mongolian Horse, which premiered in Venice film festival last year. They join White Light’s Chartchai Ketnust and Pham Gia Quy of Vietnam’s Spring Auteurs on the film.
Thailand’s Tanaseth Tulyathan has written and directed the film, about a stateless Thai Hmong woman’s desperate journey through identity, migration and memory, set in Thailand during the Communist insurgency in the 1970s.
White Light was co-founded by Chartchai and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, the DoP who has worked with Luca Guadagnino and Apichatpong Weeasethakul on films such as Call Me By Your Name, Queer, Memoria and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Spring Auteurs is a rising Vietnamese production house.
The project, which is currently in the late development and financing stage, was presented at Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Project Market 2024 and Produire au Sud 2025 at the Festival des 3 Continents in Nante, France. Production is expected to start in mid-2026.
“The Chameleon Woman is a personal exploration of identity, survival, and belonging – rooted in my immigrant journey in the U.S. and inspired by the resilience of the many women who shaped me and those who have lived through it,” said Tanaseth.
“Through the story of a stateless woman forced to assume another’s identity, the film confronts historical amnesia and celebrates those who endure in silence. It’s a tribute to forgotten voices that, once heard, speak to us all.”
