What if the most famous movie characters had been Thai? Would it have worked?

[Somtamnication]

I think Chuwit would have been a killer John Wayne.

[Somtamnication]

Abbott and Costello........ Yingluck and Suthep.

[Berkshire]

U must be bored shitless.

He must be. Since I am too, how about:

Saving Private Somchai

A Fistful of Baht

Smokeless in Chiang Mai

Khun Dude, Where is My Car?

Not exactly what the OP meant, but what the heck. My brain is fried at the moment anyhow....

[Commander Tamson]

I haven't watched much Thai TV, but I have watched many Thai movies.

Yes, many of them are silly comedies, ghost films or wham bam action films; but that is true of, for example, Hollywood as well; and there is nothing wrong with that type of film if you enjoy it. Film's primary purpose is entertainment, after all.

But there are many excellent Thai films; well plotted and written, well produced with high production values, well directed and well acted.

Some examples off the top of my head (I'm giving the English titles):

• Powder Road
• Bangkok Dangerous (the original)
• One Take Only
• Tears of the Black Tiger
• Bangkok Loco
• Bang Rajan
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
• Shutter
• The Prisoners (sometimes, unfortunately, marketed in the West as 'Bangkok Hell.')
• Necromancer

Maybe the OP, and others, should broaden their horizons a little.

Oh yeah! That's why they're top or near the top of the lists at all the international film festivals! The Thais are so damn sure that their way MUST be the best that they dont even want to learn the techniques of modern international cinematogrophy. Most Thai directors, and actors for that matter, wouldn't get a job making tea on Jackanory!

[Commander Tamson]

The thing Thai's need most, is a good education in world history. They would then know where on the totem poll they actually fall.

Anyone who thinks he received a totally unbiased view of his own country's history or one that wasn't tampered with to boost nationalistic egos is beyond naive. And the fact that you think the purpose of teaching history is to trivialize the significance of any group of people on the planet is imperialistic hubris typical of colonial thinking.

A good education in world history ...

You mean a good education that taught the British that their colonization of the world was at worst benign and probably beneficial to all the "lesser" races and perpetuates the fantasy that their place on the totem poll in the 21st century is still near the top?

Deny the British empire's crimes? No, we ignore them

There is one thing you can say for the Holocaust deniers: at least they know what they are denying. In order to sustain the lies they tell, they must engage in strenuous falsification. To dismiss Britain's colonial atrocities, no such effort is required. Most people appear to be unaware that anything needs to be denied.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/23/british-empire-crimes-ignore-atrocities

Or the education that most Americans got that ignores the deplorable treatment of African Americans or the concentration camps for Japanese Americans or glosses over the atrocities Americans committed during the Mỹ Lai Massacre or in Iraq or paints Americans as the haloed saints in every war they've taken part in?

Or in Texas and Tennessee even today:

To whitewash one of the darkest practices in America history, conservatives proposed that textbooks refer to the slave trade as the “Atlantic triangular trade.”

Now Tennessee Tea Party members are taking their efforts a step further and trying to eliminate references to slavery in American history textbooks. Salon reports that Tea Partiers who fetishize America’s founders are “demanding” that students not be taught that many of them owned slaves:

Or the Japanese history teaching that covers up the consequences of their Imperialism?

Or maybe the revisionist history that is a full-time dynamic industry in Russia, up to and including the current omission of references to Putin opponents?

Your post is just so much Bullsh1t! Do you think you are the only one with enough intelligence to see through the attempted brainwashing/whitewashing of a country's own history. What you are talking about is history for the masses. Hollywood itself is the bigger rewriter of history. The schools and universities that I went to taught us to question everything and, if it interests you, to do your own research.

Your examples also show your own lack of knowledge and research. The world believes and is encouraged to be believe that the African slave trade was totally the white man's crime. Whereas in fact slavery in that continent had been endemic for centuries before any white man even stepped on its ground. The tribal leaders and their close friends - the f'ing Arabs - actually offered slaves to first explorers. Being enterprising, and remember times were very different then, they thought it a great idea to make a fast buck. Their own people sold them into slavery and would be doing it still if they could!

You're right that the British Empire has a lot to answer tfor, but I dont recall that history taught in British schools covers the bad up. The opposite in fact, British kids are actually being taught to be ashamed of their country's past. But why do most ex-colonies still use the British based legal system; economic system and conduct their business in the English language? In most of colonised Africa - Yes, the land owners were mainly European, but the local workers were by no means slaves. Most big farms/plantations had their own schools, hospitals etc. What do have now - sweet FA! And the natives are back to being slaves, in any other name, by their now native bosses.

One has to accept that times [and morals] were very different in the past - accept the so-called atrocities as a simple fact of developing and expanding empires. It's in the past, it wasn't you or your generation. We learn from history - good and bad. My father hated the Japanese to his dying day; he fought in Burma during WWII. I have many good Japanese friends and respect how they have changed their country in the last 70 years and have become the world class economy that it is.

But I suppose the history taught in Thailand is all the perfect truth. Do you need a list? That's why the population believe that praying to a mythical dragon fish, or Coot, the plastic effigy of long dead bigamist monarch or an old rotten dead tree, will surely mean that will win next week's lottery..

As for their TV and cinema - if half the script doesn't include some very bad actress bawling her eyes out or there's umpteen ghosts and demons making scary [not] noises, or some man beating the sh1t out of a woman or a kid, then it will be a flop! Violence towards woman and minors is of course perfectly okay - even [suggested] rape. But for Buddha's sake don't show a couple kissing each other, or any sex inuendo!

I'm off to watch Dr Dolittle again - now they'res a movie based on fact

[7by7]

I haven't watched much Thai TV, but I have watched many Thai movies.

Yes, many of them are silly comedies, ghost films or wham bam action films; but that is true of, for example, Hollywood as well; and there is nothing wrong with that type of film if you enjoy it. Film's primary purpose is entertainment, after all.

But there are many excellent Thai films; well plotted and written, well produced with high production values, well directed and well acted.

Some examples off the top of my head (I'm giving the English titles):

• Powder Road
• Bangkok Dangerous (the original)
• One Take Only
• Tears of the Black Tiger
• Bangkok Loco
• Bang Rajan
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
• Shutter
• The Prisoners (sometimes, unfortunately, marketed in the West as 'Bangkok Hell.')
• Necromancer

Maybe the OP, and others, should broaden their horizons a little.

Oh yeah! That's why they're top or near the top of the lists at all the international film festivals! The Thais are so damn sure that their way MUST be the best that they dont even want to learn the techniques of modern international cinematogrophy. Most Thai directors, and actors for that matter, wouldn't get a job making tea on Jackanory!

Some examples for you:

Black Silk was the first Thai film entered into an international festival; Berlin in 1961.

The Scar won a prize at the French Three Continents Festival in 1977.

Blissfully Yours won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in 2002

Tropical malady was awarded a jury prize at Cannes in 2003

Dek Hor won the Crystal Bear at Berlin in 2006

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Palm d'Or at Cannes in 2010.

But don't let facts like that interfere with your prejudices.

[Commander Tamson]

I haven't watched much Thai TV, but I have watched many Thai movies.

Yes, many of them are silly comedies, ghost films or wham bam action films; but that is true of, for example, Hollywood as well; and there is nothing wrong with that type of film if you enjoy it. Film's primary purpose is entertainment, after all.

But there are many excellent Thai films; well plotted and written, well produced with high production values, well directed and well acted.

Some examples off the top of my head (I'm giving the English titles):

• Powder Road
• Bangkok Dangerous (the original)
• One Take Only
• Tears of the Black Tiger
• Bangkok Loco
• Bang Rajan
• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
• Shutter
• The Prisoners (sometimes, unfortunately, marketed in the West as 'Bangkok Hell.')
• Necromancer

Maybe the OP, and others, should broaden their horizons a little.

Oh yeah! That's why they're top or near the top of the lists at all the international film festivals! The Thais are so dam_n sure that their way MUST be the best that they dont even want to learn the techniques of modern international cinematogrophy. Most Thai directors, and actors for that matter, wouldn't get a job making tea on Jackanory!

Some examples for you:

Black Silk was the first Thai film entered into an international festival; Berlin in 1961.

The Scar won a prize at the French Three Continents Festival in 1977.

Blissfully Yours won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in 2002

Tropical malady was awarded a jury prize at Cannes in 2003

Dek Hor won the Crystal Bear at Berlin in 2006

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Palm d'Or at Cannes in 2010.

But don't let facts like that interfere with your prejudices.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives? Give me a f'ing break. Only the French could have thought that a worthwhile film. Have you watched it? The most confusing, out of sync and story less film on the planet. But of course in typical Thai genre - full of scary [not] ghosts. And if I recall,one of his past life's was as a buffalo - edge of seat excitement. And another where he was a woman making love to a fish. I was amazed that part wasn't censored out in Thailand - maybe it was.

The World has been waiting with baited breath for Apichatpong Weerasethakul's sequel ever since.

As for your other examples - hardly rocked the movie world don't you think?

[7by7]

That you don't like them is a matter of your opinion and personal taste; the world would be a very boring place if we all liked just the same things. And Uncle Boonmee..... was a bit arty, farty; most Palm d'Or winners are!

But, as my list shows, your comment about Thai cinema and international festivals is pure <deleted>.

Maybe you should give Thai movies another chance.

If you like thrillers, start with One Take Only.

Action; Bang Rajan.

Social drama; The Prisoners.

Ghost; Shutter.

Weirdness; Bangkok Loco.

????; Tears of the Black Tiger.

[Commander Tamson]

That you don't like them is a matter of your opinion and personal taste; the world would be a very boring place if we all liked just the same things. And Uncle Boonmee..... was a bit arty, farty; most Palm d'Or winners are!

But, as my list shows, your comment about Thai cinema and international festivals is pure <deleted>.

Maybe you should give Thai movies another chance.

If you like thrillers, start with One Take Only.

Action; Bang Rajan.

Social drama; The Prisoners.

Ghost; Shutter.

Weirdness; Bangkok Loco.

????; Tears of the Black Tiger.

Okay. You are of course perfectly right. I am biased, but normally not so critical of another country's culture - and I've lived in quite a few. I think what sets me off, is every time I switch to a Thai channel on the TV, there always seems so be some woman or girl endlessly crying her eyes out. Really does my head in! One of the few things I can't seem to Jie Yen Yen about.

Should be able to download most if not all your recommendations from internet - and I promise to give them a fair viewing.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[7by7]

Please let me know what you think of them.

With so many channels to fill these days, much of UK TV is crap, too.