Video On Sacking Of Ayutthaya Goes Viral

[webfact]

Video on sacking of Ayutthaya goes viral
Budsarakham Sinlapalavan
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The second fall of Ayutthaya to invading Burmese forces in 1767 is now the subject of a popular video on social media.

"The Fall of Ayutthaya", a clip lasting about seven minutes, uses graphics and animation to detail the historical event and compares the political situation at that time with circumstances today.

The short film was created by Kerati Wannalertsiri. It was chosen to be shown in the "Ploy-Saeng" project of the Thailand Creative and Design Centre last year.

It went public on November 13 but hit the social media only last Sunday when it appeared on the "show clip" page on Facebook. And this time, "The Fall of Ayutthaya" has attracted 32,013 likes and had been shared 47,763 times as of yesterday.

Kerati, 23, graduated in architecture from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, where he directed plays of his faculty. He has also joined the "Your TV" workshop of Nation Channel.

He said theatre taught him about the learning and thinking process and the workshop taught him how to use a video-editing program.

He produced "The Fall of Ayutthaya" for his thesis with the idea that it would be used only as instructional material to teach Thai history. But after he talked with his high school instructors he found flaws in the teaching of history. People do not really make use of the subject. Students are bored and they study Thai history only to pass the exam.

"Nobody learns history and uses it in their daily life but history has more benefits. History has given us lessons to learn from and improve the present. So I created this video to tell them," he said.

Even though Thailand has a long history, he chose the second fall of Ayutthaya because it almost cost Thais their nation.

He compares the second fall of Ayutthaya and the current political situation because he feels there are some similarities such as corruption and infighting among courtiers who put the status quo before the wellbeing of the people.

"It makes our country weak and we end up losing when an enemy attacks. Now our enemy is the global economic maelstrom, so if Thais aren't united, we can't get out of danger."

The country has developed in aspects such as business and theology but people should develop from their minds, not from outside.

"We should develop virtue."

Although this video is popular in social media, it can't make groups such as the red, yellow and multicoloured shirts harmonise, he said. Hopefully, however, they will think about whether what they're doing is for themselves or all the people, he said.

Some people who watched this video said they couldn't understand when they studied history. But the video made them understand the second fall of Ayutthaya in seven minutes. Kerati said he would make more videos like this because it doesn't only talk about history but also makes people think about the country.


-- The Nation 2013-04-25

[apetley]

Careful Kerati or you'll have it banned on the grounds of National Security making comparisons like that.

[jonclark]

""It makes our country weak and we end up losing when an enemy attacks. Now our enemy is the global economic maelstrom, so if Thais aren't united, we can't get out of danger."

It's jingoistic claptrap like this which keeps Thailand locked in a fixed mindset about the past and also the future.

[Locationthailand]

The fall of Ayutthaya happened because King Ekkatat at the time refused to turn the canon on the Burmese in fear of waking his 1,000 consorts. That was an intelligent move! The Burmese on the other hand learned from their continued mistake of repeated invasions and trashed the city rather than keep returning to be repelled. But let not the truth stand in the way of a good story. The history books are never written by the vanquished but in this case they were.

To make a film of this sounds interesting as there are a couple of other screenplays floating around about this subject for a major movie. This period, the following 10 years, created the beginning of the present Chakri Dynasty.

The figures of the viewings are way out (reported here) with more than 200,000 already

Edited April 25, 2013 by Locationthailand

[supashot]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

[Locationthailand]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

Never colonised - not invaded. And even that is not exactly (technically) correct.

[retell]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

Thailand never , Siam was

more than once and not only by the Birmese

[Thai at Heart]

As long as it represents something akin to the truth of what occured, I say, good stuff.

[Morakot]

Now our enemy is the global economic maelstrom

What a canute view!

[dru2]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

Thailand never , Siam was

more than once and not only by the Birmese

I believe you will find Thailand was invaded and occupied by the Japanese between 1941 and 1945.

[retell]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

Thailand never , Siam was

more than once and not only by the Birmese

I believe you will find Thailand was invaded and occupied by the Japanese between 1941 and 1945.

sorry forgot must have been my visarun then

[jonclark]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

Thailand never , Siam was

more than once and not only by the Birmese

I believe you will find Thailand was invaded and occupied by the Japanese between 1941 and 1945.

And before that the British had the three southern most provinces and also Phuket (Mining Tin), Whilst the French had Trang and Chantaburi back in the day.

[chainarong]

I am glad that the words to describe this video is history and as we all know history has a bad habit of repeating itself, , the rise and fall of the Shinawatra government part two, comes to mind.

[NongKhaiKid]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

Thailand never , Siam was

more than once and not only by the Birmese

I believe you will find Thailand was invaded and occupied by the Japanese between 1941 and 1945.

I believe Thai historians say that the then PM told the Japanese they would not be opposed in order to prevent death and destruction. Funny thing though, he was never seen again.

[NongKhaiKid]

Careful Kerati or you'll have it banned on the grounds of National Security making comparisons like that.

Part of the " reasoning " too was that it would harm international relations but with whom I wonder ? The rest of the world isn't interested and the Thais look down on all their immediate neighbours anyway

[fakename]

Its funny that the government dosent find reason to censore this vid.

[Credo]

All the video has to do to prevent being banned is show "Thai good, Burmese bad."

Rather simple, really.

[FarangTalk]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

Thailand never , Siam was

more than once and not only by the Birmese

I believe you will find Thailand was invaded and occupied by the Japanese between 1941 and 1945.

They were a Japanese ally. You cannot be invaded and occupied by an ally.

The Japanese were invited in while the Thais collaborated with them, being led at the time by fascist dictator Phibunsongkram, who was taking advantage of WWII by launching invasions of Western Cambodia, to claim Angkor Wat and other provinces for Thailand to further Thai nationalism. Phibunsongkram is still respected and revered by many Thais.

Thais were complicit in the construction of the Death Railway and other war crimes that the Japanese committed. The great myth is that of hundreds of thousands of Thais dying while building the railway, when the vast majority of Asians that died were Commonwealth troops, shipped in by the Thais allied to the Japanese from British Malay, Burma, Hong Kong and Singapore. Several thousand (about 8,000) Thais did perish however, but they mostly belonged to the Seri Thai movement which was fighting as a resistance movement at the time.

They were extremely lucky post-WWII as the US saw Thailand as a sphere of influence in South East Asia and did not punish them as with other powers, much to the chagrin of the British, who's influence in Thailand then waned.

[willyumiii]

The fall of Ayutthaya happened because King Ekkatat at the time refused to turn the canon on the Burmese in fear of waking his 1,000 consorts. That was an intelligent move! The Burmese on the other hand learned from their continued mistake of repeated invasions and trashed the city rather than keep returning to be repelled. But let not the truth stand in the way of a good story. The history books are never written by the vanquished but in this case they were.

To make a film of this sounds interesting as there are a couple of other screenplays floating around about this subject for a major movie. This period, the following 10 years, created the beginning of the present Chakri Dynasty.

The figures of the viewings are way out (reported here) with more than 200,000 already

Any chance of a version with English subtitles or dubbing?

[Payboy]

I find any animated informative video hard to believe if it is not narrated in a child's squeaky voice.

[dru2]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

Thailand never , Siam was

more than once and not only by the Birmese

I believe you will find Thailand was invaded and occupied by the Japanese between 1941 and 1945.

They were a Japanese ally. You cannot be invaded and occupied by an ally.

Sorry, FarangTalk, but you are wrong. Check 'Japanese Invasion of

Thailand' in Wikipedia. Thailand was invaded by Japan on December 8,

1942, and actually fought for a few hours, sustaining casualties, before

surrendering and becoming a Japanese puppet state, much like Vichy

France and the Nazis.

[chainarong]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

Thailand never , Siam was

more than once and not only by the Burmese

I believe you will find Thailand was invaded and occupied by the Japanese between 1941 and 1945.

I do believe your right brother ANZAC day for the Oz and Kiwi expats at River Kwai and hellfire pass ,burma railway.

[Greer]

_{Good on him for at least doing his bit toward the enlightenment of the general population.}

_{I don't see the Japanese invasion and occupation of the country as colonisation (making the country a true colony of Japan) - yes they invaded and occupied the place, but the end result was nothing like a full colonisation in the same way as for example the British colonising Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. In many ways, those countries did actually benefit from the colonisation, whereas I am not sure that the Japanese did anything very much FOR Thailand while they were here.}

_{I don't necessarily think that a colonisation of our country by Britain would have been a good thing, had it happened, but I feel sure that the infrastructure advantages brought by western colonising powers in many places have often been a useful legacy. It is what the host country does with that legacy that really counts.}

_{I still feel proud of Thailand; when you really look around, and see the influence that this country has had on the rest of the world, especially and most obviously because of Thai food of course, but there are other things, it really is surprising - in a very good way.}

_{Rather than the constant knocking of this country, I honestly wish people on Thai Visa would try to be a little more supportive.}

_{I am pleased to see positive criticism, by all means, and I do the same myself, but the knocking for the sake of hurt is not needed. If one hates the place or the culture, then surely its better to be someplace that one loves. I hated what Australia has become, so I left, and despite the shortcomings of my Thai homeland, it is still a wonderful place to live.}

_{Thailand has been invaded and occupied and has fought back and has survived - what of the other countries around the world that have similar histories? Those peoples are still proud of their country, and Thailand has just as much right to be a proud nation.}

_{Khun Kerati has done his bit to help bring history alive for all to see - as I said before "good on him!"}

[NongKhaiKid]

The fall of Ayutthaya happened because King Ekkatat at the time refused to turn the canon on the Burmese in fear of waking his 1,000 consorts. That was an intelligent move! The Burmese on the other hand learned from their continued mistake of repeated invasions and trashed the city rather than keep returning to be repelled. But let not the truth stand in the way of a good story. The history books are never written by the vanquished but in this case they were.

To make a film of this sounds interesting as there are a couple of other screenplays floating around about this subject for a major movie. This period, the following 10 years, created the beginning of the present Chakri Dynasty.

The figures of the viewings are way out (reported here) with more than 200,000 already

There's a couple of apt sayings about war, one is the first casualty of war is the truth and the second somwthing about the victors writing the history

[PaulHamon]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

by Europeans.

[hellodolly]

I always hear my Thai friends say that Thailand was never invaded

Thailand never , Siam was

more than once and not only by the Burmese

I believe you will find Thailand was invaded and occupied by the Japanese between 1941 and 1945.

I do believe your right brother ANZAC day for the Oz and Kiwi expats at River Kwai and hellfire pass ,burma railway.

You are correct Thailand was invaded and before any harm could come to them they decided to become allies. The Oz and Kiwi solders suffered great hard ships in the building of the bridge over the river Kwai and in hells Fire Pass. The Oz government has built a sturdy practical series of stairs and ramps down to hells fire pass with a museum at the top. They also take part in maintaining three beautiful cemeteries for the dead soldiers. Ironically it was the Koreans who over saw the work and when they were done turned it over to the Japanese at which point the living conditions for the prisoners improved.

I don't recall all the details on the Asians but I know that they were initially told they would be given jobs and there was recruitment centers all over Thailand and Malaysia to hire them. I believe there death toll was even higher than that of the prisoners.

[cup-O-coffee]

"It makes our country weak and we end up losing when an enemy attacks. Now our enemy is the global economic maelstrom, so if Thais aren't united, we can't get out of danger."

Danger? Sounds like typical Thai thinking. Blame the other guy. Create an invisible enemy and put a label on it. You have no enemies but yourselves. That is what makes you think you have enemies; your own selves. Thailand invades itself every time Parliament goes into session or election campaigns begin. Thailand continues to invade itself between parliament sessions and in between campaigns. They create campaigns to destroy campaigns. Nothing ever gets done. Talk about economic maelstrom!

It's like witnessing 20 puppies fighting over 10 teats with all the whimpering, whining, hock biting and tumbling constantly going on.

Regarding the movie; there's nothing to regard. Who cares other than the Thais?

[whybother]

hellodolly, on 25 Apr 2013 - 12:46, said:

You are correct Thailand was invaded and before any harm could come to them they decided to become allies. The Oz and Kiwi solders suffered great hard ships in the building of the bridge over the river Kwai and in hells Fire Pass. The Oz government has built a sturdy practical series of stairs and ramps down to hells fire pass with a museum at the top. They also take part in maintaining three beautiful cemeteries for the dead soldiers. Ironically it was the Koreans who over saw the work and when they were done turned it over to the Japanese at which point the living conditions for the prisoners improved.

I don't recall all the details on the Asians but I know that they were initially told they would be given jobs and there was recruitment centers all over Thailand and Malaysia to hire them. I believe there death toll was even higher than that of the prisoners.

"Ironically it was the Koreans who over saw the work and when they were done turned it over to the Japanese at which point the living conditions for the prisoners improved."

Do you have any evidence of that?

[pacharaphet]

This is not news. 200,000 hits is not viral. It was posted 6 months ago. The film isn't doing anything exciting at all. It would never be banned, its just reciting what everyone always learns. He acts like this is going to be more than memorizing dates and names, and then lists off names, dates, and movements.

[jdinasia]

""It makes our country weak and we end up losing when an enemy attacks. Now our enemy is the global economic maelstrom, so if Thais aren't united, we can't get out of danger."

It's jingoistic claptrap like this which keeps Thailand locked in a fixed mindset about the past and also the future.

Did you read the quote and think about it before you posted? "The global economic maelstrom" ..... it isn't jingoistic at all, it is naming the global economy as the enemy .... not a country like Cambodia.