COMMENTARY
KONG RITHDEE
Bad cops make great movie villains. Fascistic, violent, greedy, tear gas-firing, all-round filthy policemen have long been a rich source of cinematic evil - they're the ultimate symbol of corruption and power abuse. Even though good cops often emerge from the slime-infested precinct to destroy the rotten seeds - from Al Pacino's legendary Serpico to Russell Crowe in American Gangster - watching dirty, thuggish cops at work is both sad and satisfying since we know that it's partly based on reality. We're fired up seeing crooked cops because we know they really exist, because we know the movies are exposing something no authority would want to admit.
Except in Thai movies. It's so strange - counter-intuitive, even - that Thai films and TV dramas hardly feature bad-cop characters. While the whole world from Hollywood to Korea enjoys portraying dishonest cops (and having them brutally killed at the climax) Thai audiences never have the luxury of seeing vile sergeants beating up suspects or using Chinese-made tear gas canisters as if they were anti-terrorist RPGs. If cinema could function as a form of social catharsis - we vent our anger at the bad cops on screen so our off-screen anger at them would abate - then Siamese movies still have a gaping hole to fill.
Deprived of that outlet, maybe that's why we're so ready to express our mistrust of the police when occasion arises. The popular verdict after Oct 7 is that the cops were possessed by Dirty Harry or Rambo (Part III, to be precise) since they blew off the protesters' limbs like crazy kids on video games. The running emotion preceded the probe to clarify the truth of those charges; sure enough, the police still have to explain themselves since their duty is to protect the citizens, not to harm them, but the outpouring of blame testifies to our fundamental suspicion against this supposedly respected institution.
Siamese entertainment - from likay to plays and the cinema - historically doesn't have the function of questioning the establishment; the mentality is that what's entertaining must not be subversive. Censorship is another factor preventing dramatists from attacking the police. Hence what we've grown up seeing in Thai movies or on TV is only valiant cops or funny cops (many have been seen chasing ghosts, too). One of the most recycled plots in Thai films from the 1960s to the '80s is the face-off between sua or tiger, a term used to refer to notorious bandits, and a hotshot officer who disguises himself as a normal villager. The climax often involves the revelation of the policeman's identity to the leading lady, done with necessary swagger, after he's finished off the tiger.
Almost always, the police represent order and peace; they are a symbol of the feudal authority with the power to "control" the well-being of civilians.
My top cop in Thai movies is "The Black Hand," the ferocious police captain in M C Chatreechalerm Yukol's Mue Puen (Gunman, 1983). The Black Hand, so called because of the black leather glove worn on his pistol-trigger hand, was played with theatrical cool by Ron Rittichai, the actor who became a Thai Rak Thai MP and later joined Puea Pandin party. A good cop in shades, The Black Hand at least injected some degree of menace into a police character. He shows that sometimes a cop needs to be bad in order to bust the baddies.
But the most chilling portrayal of corrupt cops came in a gutsy indie film called Kon Jorn, released in 1999 and quickly disappearing from the radar. In it, director Attaporn Thaihirun (who in real life had a few run-ins with the police) depicted two police sergeants as deceitful, shameless bottom-feeders, implying that their moral standards were at the lowest rung. How on earth the movie slipped through the censors remains a mystery. Last year I nominated the film to the British Film Institute's list of cinematic hidden gems, and it was included in the final catalogue.
On TV, it's even more intreresting. Besides gallant cops in prime-time soaps, the most popular cop show on television is called Kadee Ded (roughly, Hot Cases), which is basically a comedy programme with policemen recounting bizarre or comical cases, like husband-and-wife scuffles or witch-doctor frauds. We laugh, since the cops are so chummy. It's a good effort in putting a human face on the faceless authority, but it's also a trick to glaze over the less savoury reality in the rocky relationship between the citizens and the force.
Good cops are aplenty, yes, but bad cops need to be exposed and punished. If not in real life, then at least in the alternative reality on screen. Ask Serpico: the guy wouldn't have been so honourable without all the wicked cops around him.Kong Rithdee writes about movies and popular culture in the Bangkok Post real.time section.
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