Thai Television & Cinema

[jeffer]

With all the fuss being made over the current tv series about airline staff, it made me think how Thai television and cinema portray other occupations. If yelling, screaming and fighting meant a show should be yanked off the air then there wouldn't be any dramas left on Thai tv, surely.

I don't watch Thai soaps and movies a lot, mainly in passing but one occupation I don't recall getting much of an airing apart is the police force. There are certainly plenty of American movies e.g. American Gangster, The Departed and of course maybe the most famous of all, Serpico about the police and corruption, and it's only an opinion but I think many people would consider the police in America less corrupt than their Thai counterparts. The Departed is an American adaptation of a Hong Kong movie, Infernal Affairs, so they're not shy about depicting this type of thing either. Hong Kong was infamous for police corruption in the past but an enormous crackdown some years back seems to have made a big difference to the extent that I think most people visiting Hong Kong today would have some trust in the police whereas I doubt the same could be said about Thailand.

Almost anyone who has spent some time in Thailand will have experienced or have some knowledge of police corruption e.g. being asked to pay an on the spot fine for some traffic infringement whether true or imagined, it's a common occurence apparently, but I can never recall seeing on any Thai tv show someone getting stopped by the police and slipping the police officer a few baht so they can be on their way. I was wondering if anyone could give me an example of a Thai television drama or movie that covers the issue of police corruption, or is that simply another taboo subject?

[micksterbs]

Air hostesses are not a taboo subject. As you so rightly point out, all Thai dramas involve screaming, slapping and extreme bitchiness. The only difference here is that:

1. A lot of air hostesses come from reasonably well-connected families

2. Their union threatened to hurt the TV station where it matters i.e. in the pocket through reduced advertising revenues.

In the meantime, expect to see all women treated as bitches or victims, all men to be either hitmen or heroes (although even they can rape with impunity because hey, she deserved it) and everyone from Isaan is stupid/comical/ugly.

As for a true-to-life police drama, don't hold your breath. Too many vested interests.

[RueFang]

That's interesting actually..I'd never really thought about it, but it's so true! Probably all about saving face...if you bring attention to it the country will loose face. Whoever dared to make the film would probably end up dead, in jail or having to pay a lot under the table. Guess they have to stay with 'safe' subjects like mentally or physically challenged people and screaming richbitch banshees.

[micksterbs]

'Fraid so, RueFang. Personally, I'd love to see a drama dealing with police and political corruption. Hey, it would last all year! We could even mix-in a bit of police incompetence; replace the police chief in March/April (?) because he made no progress with the New Year bombing enquiries and replace him with a young, up-and-coming, shoot-from-the-hip guy to get results. Er... They still don't know which group was responsible, let alone the indivduals. Or they do know but don't want to say...