Farang Tv Actors Playing Brutal Women Beaters

[phayao]

Have you ever seen the men in brown portrayed as the bad guys in a Thai Tv soap?

I haven't.

[LadyHeather]

Have you ever seen the men in brown portrayed as the bad guys in a Thai Tv soap?

I haven't.

And yet, despite the police being portrayed as good guys on television, there are very few Thai people who consider the police to be anything but corrupt and untrustworthy. Go figure.

[Journalist]

If you think teachers are badly paid, try being an farang actor/extra in Thailand.

Even the great Joe Cummings, of Lonely Planet fame, 'treads the boards' from time to time.

[JoeThePoster]

How does one go about getting a work permit for acting?

[barky]

I saw one a couple of months ago which had a group of farang gangster guys murdering a whole village, pouring petrol on the kids and trashing the buddhist shrine. My girlfriends family were glued to it and its no wonder a lot of Thais are wary of farangs if thats the stuff they are showing. My girlfriends 10 year old nephew was scared of farangs until he met me and realised we weren't all bad guys.

As an example only and a fact of history, Jews had yellow stars on their breasts to single them out as low lifes. Here, they use a different approach, but the effect on the population is similar ie: to see all westeners as evil devils, low lifes.

[junkofdavid2]

When will Hollywood stop portraying Asian dudes a nerdy geeks?

[mmushr00m]

When will Hollywood stop portraying Asian dudes a nerdy geeks?

hehehe yep. When growing up in canuckland, everyone expected me to be good at math/science, know kung <deleted> and latter on a triad member/drug dealer.

Also wondering, how long do I need to be in Thailand before I start developing a persecution complex? Really starting to worry about that.

[Sabum]

I saw one a couple of months ago which had a group of farang gangster guys murdering a whole village, pouring petrol on the kids and trashing the buddhist shrine. My girlfriends family were glued to it and its no wonder a lot of Thais are wary of farangs if thats the stuff they are showing. My girlfriends 10 year old nephew was scared of farangs until he met me and realised we weren't all bad guys.

As an example only and a fact of history, Jews had yellow stars on their breasts to single them out as low lifes. Here, they use a different approach, but the effect on the population is similar ie: to see all westeners as evil devils, low lifes.

Oh my god, you didn't just do that did you? Yes.. yes you did, for the love of god. You just tried to correlate the events leading up to the holocaust and the way they presecuted the jews to foreign acting in Thailand. You Sir WIN. Win what? I dont know but you should certainly win something for the most outrageous post I've ever seen. Guess next step is the camps for all you fat old white guys huh?

[Smithson]

America and the UK has grown up now, But Thailand still has a few years to go.

American movies still portray foreign ppl and countries as evil and dangerous.

[thaihome]

The extent of the farang paranoia on the site and imaginative ways people create to express it never ceases to amaze me…

TH

[cymruambyth1]

The extent of the farang paranoia on the site and imaginative ways people create to express it never ceases to amaze me…

TH

Here here...and what's wrong with giving the wife/GF/Mia Noi a bit of a kicking now and then in real life anyway?

Bloody Kitchen Dwellers need a 'straightener' sometimes.

[toybits]

Ha ha. And in Western movies and children's cartoons on Cartoon Network, the bad guys are Asians. Latest Bond movie badguy was a Hong Kong Chinese. Do you remember Odd Job (Bond Movie).

You Probably heard of <deleted> Manchu in a British serial The Mystery of Dr. <deleted> Manchu, in 1923. <deleted> Manchus are seen in stereotypical depictions of Chinese villains in film and television.

Another Bond Movie featured Evil North Koreans and the main villain.

So you now know how Asians feel when they are depicted as bad guys?

[toybits]

And it is okey for the BBC to insult Philippino maids as Harry and Paul did?

[Hawkup2000]

The only thing that pisses me off about it is that most people who take part in Thai soaps tend to call themself actor/actress.

[Stephen Cleary]

About 9 years, i actually played, as a main character, a Farang Wife Beater for a Channel 7 soap opera. below is an extract form an old blog i wrote on the experience of being an actor in Thailand.

Never having had any of the main crew taking any peculiar notice of me looks before I soon realised that the reason behind the fiasco was that I had to play the part of a mean rough Farang boyfriend of one of the star girls a certain Miss ‘O’ Patjeera, I soon found out exactly what the asst director meant about height as Miss ‘O’ at 170cm was just a fraction shorter than myself.

Pretty tasty girl I was thinking there and soon had the crew having a right laugh at her expense when the first scene out of the bag was for me to give her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Not a bad job I thought this when arriving back at my gaff that evening and waited eagerly for the call to go again for the next few scenes.

After a few more weekends it was all over after I had been ditched by ‘O’ for playing around with other girls and giving her just one too many black-eyes. Man, did I have to play some mean farang or what! Actually I wasn’t too chuffed about having to play such a stereotypical role but there was no butting out. In one of the scenes I did such a fine job of slapping her in the face and throwing her to the ground that Channel 7 soon made that scene as their ‘preview’ scene for the weekend’s next showing, so there I was, every 15 minutes in the evenings for the next five days, this big mullet of a mean face of mine blown full up for the screen with me so-called girlfriend (I wish) curled up on the floor in tears.

[Sabum]

Well obviously you are a horrible person and should be punished accordingly.

[NanLaew]

well, actors could have standards in what roles they choose to accept, rather than taking roles in crappy shows which promote gratuitous violence against women, it's true. but i don't see why farang actors should have any higher standards than thais do? why does nationality come into it?

Maybe that's why I will never be an actor, would not go for acting rolls that hurts women and kids, or be a cross dresser. that is also very common in LOS TV.

MC

But farangs are all such superb actors. Take me for instance. My gf really, really thinks she is in a stable relationship. Absolutely amazing! Oscar material IMHO.

[NanLaew]

If you think teachers are badly paid, try being an farang actor/extra in Thailand.

Even the great Joe Cummings, of Lonely Planet fame, 'treads the boards' from time to time.

But I thought the farang actor/extra we see on the telly are actually underpaid teachers moonlighting... or is that another urban myth?

Either way, teaching and/or acting, Oscar material IMHO!

[NanLaew]

When will Hollywood stop portraying Asian dudes a nerdy geeks?

hehehe yep. When growing up in canuckland, everyone expected me to be good at math/science, know kung <deleted> and latter on a triad member/drug dealer.

Also wondering, how long do I need to be in Thailand before I start developing a persecution complex? Really starting to worry about that.

Not an issue mmush, you need to be a ching-ching loy percent farang to get a real, forum grabbing, 'why do all Thai hate us?' persecution complex. Unless of course you are a quality thespian already and then you should be able to wing it IMHO.

[ClaytonSeymour]

Ha ha. And in Western movies and children's cartoons on Cartoon Network, the bad guys are Asians. Latest Bond movie badguy was a Hong Kong Chinese. Do you remember Odd Job (Bond Movie).

You Probably heard of <deleted> Manchu in a British serial The Mystery of Dr. <deleted> Manchu, in 1923. <deleted> Manchus are seen in stereotypical depictions of Chinese villains in film and television.

Another Bond Movie featured Evil North Koreans and the main villain.

So you now know how Asians feel when they are depicted as bad guys?

The villains in Bond movies have been of many nationalities, the majority of which haven't been Asian, I can't be bothered listing them all so, here's the link to the Wiki page on Bond villains - go & work out for yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Bond_villains

[sassienie]

Some years ago back in the UK, I can remember the showing of a South African movie on TV.

It was made during the mid 1970s.

All the good guys were white and the baddies black.

It was the senario that, he`s black so he must have done it.

And about the movie mentioned in one of the posts where Farangs were burning down a village. I often get an urge to do this with my noisey neighbours.

[bangon04]

It's dam_n hilarious.

The censorship of farang shows-Family Guy, American Dad etc. Some thai films are very graphic with violence and it does not get censored, whilst slap stick cartoons are judged y the censors as "unheathy". Cracks me up everytime I see Mr. Giffen with his flab out-blurred because it is unsavory. And then a rape scene in a thai show is left un blurred.

And then farang portrayed as wife beaters often in prime time soaps, or criminals or whatever! Sure there are prob heaps of fat pissed expat wife beaters, but we all know how domestic violence here is a hushed subject. Any farang who tried to break up a thai man beating his partner will know. Decent thais will tell you it is not your place to step in (even if it means stopping death). Popular Thai soaps often portray an american style life soap, big cars and houses etc. Very alien to most thais.

Unfortunately thais like most cultures love their soaps. It is sad that many poor families in places like Isaan may possibly have never met a farang, but possibly think it is an accurate portrail of farang values.

What to do?

Pop culture is such a decent marker for the state of any culture. When we saw all the industrial rock become mainstream in the US (gore and hatred etc) I think many westerners understood it as a sign of the times (and the bands were making a parody of the violence of the world). I am not sure in thai society things are seen like this.

Devil's advocate - for the sake of discussion here is a Conspiracy theory - I think that Thai soaps are designed to reinforce some basic tenets of society.

1) Underlying misogyny - beating women is still OK. Women are subservient to men. Quite acceptable in many parts of asia. Women from the serving classes are available to richer men. Mia noi are a sign of success. Women have to compete with each other for male attention. And how often have we seen the "rape" which turns into a romantic "conquest" of the woman.

2) Envy of success and riches - Thais are taught to admire the rich and successful, even if they have bad characters. Big houses, servants, cars and bodyguards with guns, mia noi

3) Thai good, farang/foreign influence bad.

4) White skin good and beautiful, dark skin inferior. Why are so many Luk Kreung in Thai showbusiness?

5) Servants in Thai soaps know their place. (wouldn't even be credible to show this treatment in the west). Often slightly comic characters in a serious storyline.

For a large number of poorly educated viewers, who soak up hours and hours of this stuff every day, it is a form of desensitising. They may Tut Tut occasionally in the right places, but watching soap operas removes the incentive to educate themselves, read a book, or watch the NatGeo channel - even when they have the choice.

[bangon04]

Some years ago back in the UK, I can remember the showing of a South African movie on TV.

It was made during the mid 1970s.

All the good guys were white and the baddies black.

It was the senario that, he`s black so he must have done it.

I seem to remember that in old western movies, the baddies always wore black hats, or had excessive facial hair, so you spot them easily....

[cymruambyth1]

1) Underlying misogyny - beating women is still OK. Women are subservient to men.

As I said previously, nothing wrong with a little 'touch-up' every now and then to keep the Kitchen Dwellers in their place!