Hbo Special Tsunami Memorial: "afermath"

[toptuan]

Just curious if any other TV posters saw this two-spart special which premiered on Dec. 26th. My initial reactions...

Negative

A bit too heavy on the deep discussions (the sovereignty of God vs. evil in the world), interpersonal romantic scrupples, a reporter-farang-kee-nok who is an embarassment to humanity, etc. Thought all this dramatic stuff slowed down the movie and detracted rather than added to the story which has enough true background to carry itself.

Positive

• Once exception to the above: Did a good job in showing the hopeless situation of poor villagers who had to face lack of immediate response to their needs, family deaths, orphaned children, finding a place to live, vicitms of heavy-handed police action, and having their land confiscated by opportunists. I heard many stories to corroborate these events over the ensuing two years.
  

• Was impressed at how they interwove destruction scenes into the dramatic scenes. I watched the special with a Thai friend who was at Kao Lak right after the wave. He identified the sites of many of the scenes of destruction (especially around the resorts). We wondered if they got actors on the scenes right after the event (doubtful), or if they reconstructed many of the scenes to mirror accurately the destruction (expensive, meticulous), or if they used movie-magic (graphics tricks). A particluar example would be the famous beached military ship which remains as a memorial in Krabi. The movie scene appeared very authentic.
  

• Great treatment of the true story of the Thai scientist who was ridiculed and villified in the mid-90's for predicting an earthquake, tsunami, and resulting destruction along the Andaman Coast with amazing accuracy and detail. He proposed an early-warning system, but was laughed out of the halls of government and academia. Within days of the tsunami, the Thai government immediately hired him to transform his 10-year-old proposals into action.
  

Your thoughts/reaction? Incidentally, I notice the special repeats this Saturday in Thailald.

[astral]

The BBC offering focused on Thailand, AGAIN.

They seem to forget all the Indonesians and other nationalities who died...............

[jumbo]

The BBC offering focused on Thailand, AGAIN.

They seem to forget all the Indonesians and other nationalities who died...............

Maybe because most of the foreigners including brits died here??

and now you can watch without subtitles....

J

Edited December 27, 2006 by jumbo