Channel 3 Panel Should Step Down Over Thai Soap Opera: Nipit

[osiboy]

hi guys,

just asked the wife about this show. she has told me that its a little too close to the truth for thai people. one storyline was about a thai lady not wanting to look after her baby and felt that trying to get a farrang would help the situation as regards finances. she went on to say that the show portrays thai people as the writers see them today. greedy, inconsiderate and lazy, always looking for the easy way out. the stories always end with the charaters losing out as they chose the wrong way to do things, the wrong path. these are her interpretations not mine.

looks like a show that is maybe trying to make a point about the thai society of today and their faults. i understand now why there are complaints as thai people and politicians alike do not like to see themselves in their real light.

pretty observant the wife ! thats how many of my friends and myself now see / look at thais, when i started coming to thailand 17 yrs ago , i cant ever remember

thais ever being rude,ignorrant,incosiderate or unhelpful then ,.... but today its everywhere, i dont like the path they are going down ................ they have always been lazy and greedy tho , i do wonder though, why is there never any useful /informative or educational programms on ???..............like how to drive safely , or the dangers of electric showers !!

[kimamey]

Television soaps are made for one and only one reason, to sell advertising space. If they reflected real life then people simply wouldn't watch them.

Of course the makers of the soaps have a financial motive that is realized by the selling of advertising. They also have social motives in fostering a complacent female population that is encouraged to use emotion and not reason to negotiate the world. And they also use the soaps to promote an East Asian concept of beauty above a Southeast Asian concept of beauty. Thus we get Sino-Thais tending to play the leading roles and ethnic Thai actors tending to play the servants in these imaginary households. This of course leads to the selling of even more "beauty" products in order to change appearances. So the goal is twofold, to make money and to manipulate certain segments of the society.

Sounds like a lot of sense.

[scorecard]

hi guys,

just asked the wife about this show. she has told me that its a little too close to the truth for thai people. one storyline was about a thai lady not wanting to look after her baby and felt that trying to get a farrang would help the situation as regards finances. she went on to say that the show portrays thai people as the writers see them today. greedy, inconsiderate and lazy, always looking for the easy way out. the stories always end with the charaters losing out as they chose the wrong way to do things, the wrong path. these are her interpretations not mine.

looks like a show that is maybe trying to make a point about the thai society of today and their faults. i understand now why there are complaints as thai people and politicians alike do not like to see themselves in their real light.

Must be some truth in your's wife's analysis but I suggest that many scenes are way beyond the everyday life of the vast majority of Thai people, and everyday real dialogue, and I wonder whether that comment could be applied to any country?

There are lot's of further points:

- The violence shown on these programs - A few weeks back our TV was on and my family were watching one of the soaps* and for quite a few minutes there was a beautiful girl, beautifully groomed, very white skin, beautiful dress, the top of the dress revealing a lot of flesh way beyond what 'normal' Thais would reveal (but not revealing the actual boobs) and she was very angry and very emotional and she's brandishing a very large knife around, just missing several people, and there were several young children in the scene, then suddenly there's a hi-so man with a pistol at her head and the minor wife of the man is encouraging him to shoot.

There's also the numerous scenes in these soaps of girls being gang raped etc etc etc.

You mentioned "I understand now why there are complaints as thai people and politicians alike do not like to see themselves in their real light. I suggest that comment applies to any culture.

You mention politicians...greed...etc .One point that personally riles me - the scaly politicians (90% of the people in the elected governmennt and their leeches) who worship money, have no values and morals, and have no conscience about stealing the wealth of Thailand, and in so doing are teaching totally wrong values to the young people of this wonderful country.

Another point - there's lots of research conducted in many countries, some of the research even 30 / 40 years ago in regard to these programs. The research proves again and again that they are addictive. Many people know these programs are not 'productive' but they get hooked. In human behavioral terms this is difficult to rationalise but there are other examples: smoking, people know it's unhealthy but they make no attempt to stop, alcohol the same.

The past research projects all highlight another point - many of the people, moreso female, who have a happy healthy family environment progressively take on the view that; 'I dont have all these problems so therefore my life in NOT normal", so they look to create problems so that they will be the same as the stars. Also well proven is that many people, all ages, all levels of education, forget that it's just a show, they see it as real life, in some cases because they want to see it as real life.

* I've tried very hard, including switching off the TV when I walk in the room and there's a soap on the box, to convince my family that these shows are damaging. But we have lots of visitors (more female than male) early/mid evening because of my son's work and his wife's work. If our TV is off, many of them just turn the TV on and switch the channel to a soap. Addicted.

[nurofiend]

After checking with some of my Thai friends, the story portrayed in this soap actually happens in Thai society. The truth hurts and they are trying to censor and/or ban this soap.

A Thai soap with a storyline of a foreigner in love getting ripped off by his Thai girlfriend/wife, will immediately be banned and everyone involved with this soap fired. IMHO

Since there are no farang in the show, please ask your friends which one of these male Thais, in the opening credits showing all the characters, is the "foreigner" being cheated by a Thai female.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inLZfNq8q_E&feature=related

This isn't about banning a soap, it's about getting properly rated (even if their rating system is ultra-conservative by Western standards). IMHO.

haha, my god that's awful....

the intro music goes on for aaages,

then just when you think its all over another tune starts and goes on for ages.....

then a cute looking girl is walking along, she looks like her voice would be the sweetest sound in the world...and BAM, a snarly loud 'nails on a chalkboard' voice ranting about air hostesses

then a rich thai guy walks out of suvarnabhumi who's whole dialogue consists of " kap kap kap kap kap kap kap ah kap kap"

priceless!

but anyway, you say there's no 'farang' in the show....the white granny looked pretty foreign to me!

also i dont get your thoughts on who's obviously meant to be a farang in the opening credits, none particularly jumped out to me?

anyway, thanks for the dodgy clip

Edited May 15, 2011 by nurofiend

[Buchholz]

After checking with some of my Thai friends, the story portrayed in this soap actually happens in Thai society. The truth hurts and they are trying to censor and/or ban this soap.

A Thai soap with a storyline of a foreigner in love getting ripped off by his Thai girlfriend/wife, will immediately be banned and everyone involved with this soap fired. IMHO

Since there are no farang in the show, please ask your friends which one of these male Thais, in the opening credits showing all the characters, is the "foreigner" being cheated by a Thai female.

This isn't about banning a soap, it's about getting properly rated (even if their rating system is ultra-conservative by Western standards). IMHO.

but anyway, you say there's no 'farang' in the show....the white granny looked pretty foreign to me!

also i dont get your thoughts on who's obviously meant to be a farang in the opening credits, none particularly jumped out to me?

anyway, thanks for the dodgy clip

Try and get a handle as to who said what in the quotes above.

You may also check out what the original poster said in reply to the nested quotes above.

.

Edited May 15, 2011 by Buchholz

[nurofiend]

After checking with some of my Thai friends, the story portrayed in this soap actually happens in Thai society. The truth hurts and they are trying to censor and/or ban this soap.

A Thai soap with a storyline of a foreigner in love getting ripped off by his Thai girlfriend/wife, will immediately be banned and everyone involved with this soap fired. IMHO

Since there are no farang in the show, please ask your friends which one of these male Thais, in the opening credits showing all the characters, is the "foreigner" being cheated by a Thai female.

This isn't about banning a soap, it's about getting properly rated (even if their rating system is ultra-conservative by Western standards). IMHO.

but anyway, you say there's no 'farang' in the show....the white granny looked pretty foreign to me!

also i dont get your thoughts on who's obviously meant to be a farang in the opening credits, none particularly jumped out to me?

anyway, thanks for the dodgy clip

Try and get a handle as to who said what in the quotes above.

You may also check out what the original poster said in reply to the nested quotes above.

.

you're right, my mistake

[Buchholz]

you're right, my mistake