Thai Filmmakers are So Screwed

It was bad enough when Thai Government censors started splashing jars of vaseline on entire scenes of Thai movies that involved people pointing guns at each other or someone smoking. This, mind you, while something as reprehensible as a woman being brutally raped on a floor is left completely untouched. Now the Thai Government is preparing a major bill that will give them carte blanche to ban films they deem to have “impact” on Thai’s “sovereignty, religion, and the monarchy”. I.e. You better not say a bad word about Thailand or the King, or no one in Thailand will ever see your film.

In quiet protest (you don’t want to protest TOO loudly in Thailand at the moment), a group of Thai filmmakers from the Thai Film Foundation, including world-renown directors Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Wisit Sasanatieng, are making a last-ditch effort to salvage any semblance of creative freedom in the Thai Cinema.

More from Variety:

The Free Thai Cinema Movement is attempting a last-ditch effort to convince the country’s members of parliament to modify several key articles of the new Thai Film and Video Act. The draft Act is to be debated by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on Wednesday…

Among the points that vex the Free Thai Cinema, the main concern is in the introduction of a film rating system that gives the state’s right to ban films. As it is currently drafted, the new law stipulates that the state can ban films that “impact (Thai) sovereignty, religion, and the monarchy”. The movement suggests that the bill should specify the nature and precise definitions of the word “impact” to prevent unfair interpretation of such open wording, especially to independent filmmakers who have little negotiating power.

What does this mean to Asian movie fans in general? Most likely, we’ll see even more weak imitations of Japanese and Korean horror films and light fluff crap like “Tiger Blade” or “Dynamite Warrior”. This is disappointing, especially considering that Thailand was starting to become a major force in the Asian film market, with a number of breakthrough films. Now filmmakers will be walking on eggshells, trying desperately not to “offend” the Thai censors. The cost of crossing Thailand’s Ministry of Culture could result in more than just the banning of your film; the possibility of imprisonment is very much real.

Head over here and here for more info on the proposed law and its almost certain negative impacts on the Thai film industry’s ability to produce substantive movies. And who are these people tasked with “saving” the Thai people? Find out here.

And American movie directors bitch and moan about having their creative freedom constrained.