Sompote Sands

Sompote Saengduenchai (Thai: สมโพธิ แสงเดือนฉาย; RTGS: Somphot Saengdueanchai; 24 May 1941 – 26 August 2021),^[1] internationally known as Sompote Sands, was a Thai film director, special effects creator and producer best known for directing several Thai films especially tokusatsu (special effects-based) genre or monster films such as The 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army, Jumborg Ace & Giant, the illegally produced Hanuman and the Five Riders, the 1980 cult classic Crocodile,^[2] Phra Rod Meree and the 1985 fantasy monster film Magic Lizard.^[3] He was the founder and owner of Chaiyo Productions based in Bang Pa-in, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya.

Sompote Sands
สมโพธิ แสงเดือนฉาย
Born	Sompote Saengduenchai (1941-05-24)24 May 1941 Phra Pradaeng, Samut Prakan, Thailand
Died	26 August 2021 (2021-08-27) (aged 80) Bangkok, Thailand
Occupations	Filmmaker special effects creator
Years active	1973–2021
Known for	Thai tokusatsu films

Early life

Born as the youngest son in a Sino Thai family in the outskirts of Bangkok, Sompote's father was a Chinese immigrant from Guangdong. Since childhood, he dreamed of becoming a filmmaker. When he was seven years old, he left home to live in a monastery in order to fulfill his dream. He began his career in the film industry, starting as an employee in a photo studio. While he was studying at grade three, Sompote became a freelance photographer. His work was to take photos of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) in a boy scout uniform. A photo was published on the cover of Chaiyaphruek, a popular youth magazine at that time. He was also a private photographer for Jim Thompson. At the age of 15, he was the youngest photographer for Siam Rath, a newspaper with M.R. Kukrit Pramoj as the owner and editor-in-chief.^[4]

Tsuburaya co-productions and resulting controversies

In 1962, Sands received scholarships from the Government Savings Bank (GSB) and Mitsui Bank to study special effects production in Japan for two years. There he worked with at least two famous Japanese directors were Akira Kurosawa and Eiji Tsuburaya as a trainee. He offered Ejii a Buddha statue, and later he returned to Thailand and became a full-time filmmaker. Eiji's son Noboru Tsuburaya came to him to ask for help because Tsuburaya Productions was in huge debt after the death of his father. Therefore, it was the origin of working together to produce Jumborg Ace & Giant in 1974 which was very successful, and followed by a film featuring Eiji’s Ultraman characters: The 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army, released in Thailand as Hanuman Meets 7 Supermen.^[5]

In 1996, Sands presented Tsuburaya Productions with a document claiming that he had ownership of the international rights to Ultraman, the Ultra Series before 1974, and Jumborg Ace. These were all the properties licensed to Chaiyo Productions by Tsuburaya to direct The 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army and Jumborg Ace & Giant. He claimed they were turned over to him twenty years earlier in 1976 by Noboru, who died the year before.^[6] For in Thailand during this period, news was spread that Ultraman belonged to Thais because it was supposedly created by Sompote, who influenced Eiji with a photo he took of the large standing Buddha at the Sukhothai Historical Park. While Chaiyo was licensed to create international material based on these licenses, they had also created original characters under the Ultraman name, starting a franchise called "Project Ultraman". Initially set to release films and television series under this name,^[a] they were ordered by Thailand courts to cease and desist anything they were doing outside of the original licenses in April 2007.^[8] On November 20, 2017, a Los Angeles Federal Court ruled that Sands, nor his companies Chaiyo and UM Corporation, did not have ownership of the brand after a jury found that the 1976 document was not authentic.^[9] The final judgement on April 18, 2018, forbids him and his companies to use the franchise and all of its related characters, forcing him and the company to pay infringement damages.^[10]

Later life and death

After his last film Magic Lizard in 1985, he only worked on Ultraman-related media without making any movies or series again. Sands lived in a private home that used to be a Chaiyo Productions film studio. It was also a museum that housed more than one million Ultra Series-related objects, called Ultraman Land.^[5]

Sands died of cancer on 26 August 2021, at the age of 80.^[1][11]

Filmography

Films

• Chalawan (1972)
• Tah Tien (1973)
• Jumborg Ace & Giant (Yuk Wud Jaeng Vs. Jumbo A) (1974)
• The 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army (Hanuman pob Jed Yodmanud) (1974)
• Hanuman and the Five Riders (Hanuman pob Har Aimoddaeng) (1974) (A controversial production that was made without the consent of the creators of the Kamen Rider series.)
• Yod Manut Computer (1977)
• Land of Grief (Pandin Wippayoke) (1978)
• Ka Ki (1980)
• Crocodile (Chorakhe) (1980)
• Kraithong (1980)
• Phra Rod Meree (1981)
• Khun Chang Khun Phaen: Prab Chorakhe Tan Kwand (1982)
• Phra Chao Suea Panthai-Norasing (1982)
• Noble War (Suek Kumphakan) (1984)
• Space Warriors 2000 (Hanuman pop Sib-et Yodmanud) (1984)
• Kraithong II (1985)
• Magic Lizard (King-ka kay-a-sit) (1985)

Television films/ Series

• Kraithong (1970) Channel 7
• Phra Aphai Mani (1971) Channel 3
• Yai Ka Ta (1972)
• Long Prai (1973)
• Project Ultraman (suspended broadcast due to court judgment^[4])

Notes

1. RS purchased the rights to broadcast the program, originally scheduled for April 2007 on Channel 7, with a sales contract signed in November 2006.^[7]