Our picks for the best things to do in Bangkok this weekend

Walking in a world where humanity teeters on the brink, and the walls meant to protect are also what keep you trapped. Attack on Titan, Hajime Isayama’s sprawling dystopia, arrives in Bangkok not as a mere manga retrospective but as an experience – one that swells with sound, light and looming structure. The exhibition doesn’t just revisit the story’s famous walls, it builds them around you, as if to remind you where the real monsters are. Among the chaos: a 3D cinema that hurls you into a ten-minute warzone, artefacts from the series frozen in glass, and a four-metre Titan head that stares you down like it knows too much. Until Jun 18. B300-420 via here. Central World, 11am-9pm

To mark the 20th anniversary of Naruto, 54 Entertainment, in partnership with SL Experiences, presents Naruto The Gallery – an immersive exhibition that invites fans to explore the intertwined fates of Naruto and Sasuke. With seven meticulously curated zones, visitors journey through key moments, from their childhood in Konoha to their fated reunion during the Fourth Great Ninja War. The exhibition is not just a walk down memory lane, though. It showcases original storyboards, character designs and unforgettable anime scenes that reveal the heart of the series. Highlights include a stunning diorama of Hidden Leaf Village, a tribute to iconic quotes and an exclusive collaboration with five emerging Japanese artists. It’s a celebration of the anime’s legacy, full of surprises for fans both old and new. May 31-Jul 31. B250-450 via here. Free for kids below four years old. River City Bangkok, 10am-8pm

In his first solo in Thailand, Marc Butler trades spectacle for something more insidious. His miniature set-pieces, no bigger than a child’s toybox, are sugar-coated traps – vivid, stylised, sometimes cartoonish, always a little unhinged. Think Pop Art on a comedown: colour-slick surfaces masking sharp psychological edges. They catch your eye before quietly unsettling you. There are no grand gestures here, just dioramas of quiet menace. One scene might feel almost playful – until you notice the contorted bodies or the absence of exit. Another sits in a block of sterile white, as if caught mid-dissection. These aren’t just sculptures. They’re traps for the gaze, baited with charm and painted like dreams. Until Jun 22. Free. Fakafei, 10.30am-6.30pm

Some performances whisper. A Cage of Fragile Heart seethes. Directed by Madmee Pimdao Panichsamai – whose work at Bangkok Art Biennale 2024 proved she’s not interested in tidy answers – it’s a meditation on the ways we imprison ourselves, not with steel, but with roles, rituals and the gaze of others. There is only one performer, but the stage feels crowded: with duty, fear, the gnawing need to be free. David Bigander moves like a man haunted by versions of himself. Choreography by Pawida Wachirappanyaporn gives the body its own language, while poetry by Win Nimmannorrawut, better known as ‘Romantic Savage’, threads through like breath held too long. This isn’t a narrative. It’s a reckoning – where silence, movement and memory ask the only question that matters: what remains when the mask slips? Jun 7-15. B350-500 via here. River City Bangkok, 6.30pm onwards

In his latest offering, Udom Taephanich – long known for saying too much with a single raised eyebrow – turns his attention to the strange erosion of play. Not the type sold in boxes, but the kind we used to conjure instinctively, when sofa cushions became castles and questions came without hesitation. Back then, imagination was a birthright. We made monsters out of scribbles, entire worlds from cardboard. Then came the invisible border called adulthood, where mistakes became shameful and joy needed justification. A reminder that the real decay isn’t physical – it’s forgetting how to be ridiculous without apology. And maybe, just maybe, it’s reversible. Jun 7-Aug 3. B250-850 via here. The Pinnacle Hall, ICONSIAM, 11am-9pm

The first group exhibition in Bangkok to centre queer artists from Myanmar – a collective debut that feels less like a splashy arrival and more like a long-overdue exhale. Here, the works don’t shout, they ache. Across video, sculpture, performance and still image, the artists trace a line between leaving and belonging, mapping the emotional weight of homesickness, adaptation and identity in cities that offer both promise and dissonance. Some left for love, others for labour or liberty, but all carry the imprint of elsewhere. Most have sidestepped the usual white-cube trajectory – cutting their teeth in fashion editorials, commercial sets or underground scenes – and yet, the result is anything but amateur. This is not an exhibition that begs for legitimacy. It asserts its presence with quiet defiance, like a diary left open in a room you weren’t supposed to enter. Jun 7-Aug 9. Free. SAC Gallery  

Not all revolutions shout. Some unfold quietly – on a screen, in a room high above the city, where stories flicker against the walls and identities take centre stage. This two-day film event, in partnership with the Australian Embassy in Thailand, isn’t trying to be loud. It’s trying to be honest. Held on the 30th floor of the Maa-Lai Library, the setting feels more like a friend’s living room than a formal cinema. The curated selection leans into nuance, celebrating LGBTQIA+ lives not as symbols, but as people – messy, funny, flawed, alive. Jun 13-14. Free. Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok, 3pm onwards

Bangkok’s midsummer love letter to rhythm and chaos, falls firmly in the latter. A collision of sound curated by One Bangkok, the French Embassy and Alliance Française, the festival isn’t content with background music. It wants volume. It wants sweat. With five stages and over 28 acts drawn from both sides of the globe, expect molam weaving into jazz, pop flirting with techno and DJs spinning until your sense of time slips. You’ll find icons like Phum Viphurit, Gene Kasidit and Paradise Bangkok Molam International sharing the stage with newcomers and street performers. It’s unruly, inclusive and gloriously loud – a night stitched together by basslines and big feelings. Jun 14. Free. One Bangkok and Alliance Française, (time to be announced soon.)

Tong Napat Kaewmanee’s latest exhibition emerges from the hush of a bedroom long ago, where his mother once sang lullabies laced with death and demons. Sweet on the surface, these bedtime songs hid spectral warnings – folklore masquerading as comfort. Years later, after a stint in art school and the usual rites of urban teenage chaos, Napat returned home to find those eerie refrains still echoing. They weren’t just tunes – they were teachings, temperaments, even entire cosmologies handed down in whispers before sleep. Here, memory isn't nostalgia. It’s a murky blend of maternal warmth, family hierarchy, bruised affection and ghost stories like Sang Thong and the Krasue. His canvases reflect this: furious brushwork, lurid colour, stories retold not for clarity but for catharsis. Childhood, after all, was never all hat innocent. Until Jun 24. Free. BNC Creatives Art Gallery RCA, 10am-6pm  

Enhance your weekend with a delightful brunch at Bangkok Trading Post, where a selection of carefully crafted dishes, complemented by two hours of unlimited Tanqueray Gin, offers the ideal relaxed feast for friends and family. The brunch features a variety of sharing-style dishes, including starters such as Shucked Oysters, Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict and Cajun Chicken Caesar Salad. For mains, enjoy options like Steak and Fried Egg, Crispy-Crusted Salmon and Pork Schnitzel. To finish, indulge in an individual Apple Crumble Tartlet served with Yuzu Cheese Mousse, White Crumble and Vanilla Ice Cream. Until Jun 29. Reserve via 02-079-7000. Bangkok Trading Post, 137 Pillars Hotel, midday-3.30pm