Exotic Thailand?

Exotic Thailand?

A new retrospective engages the matter of how the country has been seen over the decades by foreign filmmakers

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
Exotic Thailand?
Yutthana-Siriporn. Photos courtesy of Thai Film Archive

In July and August, the Thai Film Archive presents a programme of historical and contemporary films about Thailand as seen through the eyes of non-Thai filmmakers, from Chang (1927) to The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), and from Soi Cowboy (2009) to Pop-Aye (2017).

One of the first films shot in Siam was Nangsao Suwan (Suvarna Of Siam), in 1922, by American filmmaker Henry MacRae. In the past 100 years, the image of Siam -- later Thailand -- has been captured, presented and represented in countless films made by international filmmakers who arrived with their cameras and maybe preconceptions.

How did they see Thailand? What are the representative images of our "exotic" Kingdom (elephants, monks, beautiful women)? And how is reality reflected, invented or distorted through those eyes?

"Exotic Thailand?" will feature a programme of 14 films made in Thailand by international directors, including historical films such as Chang: A Drama Of The Wilderness (1927), A Handful Of Rice (1940) and Yutthana-Siriporn (1963), as well as contemporary films such as The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), Butterfly Man (2002), Soi Cowboy (2009), Only God Forgives (2013), The Forest (2017) and Pop-Aye (2017).

A Drama Of The Wilderness. Thai Film Archive‎

The dream of "the exotic" has driven filmmakers to travel the world since the advent of cinema. The first film shot in Thailand by non-Thais was Suvarna Of Siam, a 1922 love story starring a Thai cast and directed by Henry MacRae, an American filmmaker; the film has since been lost and what remains are a few still pictures. In 1927, Merian C. Cooper came here to make Chang: A Drama Of The Wilderness, a proto-disaster film featuring a rampaging herd of wild elephants wreaking havoc on rural villages of Siam (Cooper would return to the US and later made the original King Kong in 1933). It's interesting to note that elephants, among other symbols, would continue to be used as representative of Thailand in almost every film made by foreigners.

The Swedish film A Handful Of Rice (1940) presents our agricultural society and rural existence through a docudrama narrative. Meanwhile, Yutthana Siriporn (1963) is a German film that presents the urban landscape of Bangkok in the 1960s and a Buddhist rite -- the material and spiritual Orient come together in this film.

In later decades, the image of Thailand seen through the foreign lens is a rich mix of honest perspective and romantic Orientalism, accented by the arrival of GIs during the Vietnam War. The key images include, for example, elephants, monks, Buddhism, postcard-perfect beaches, Siamese smiles, bars, ghosts, women of the night, seedy neighbourhoods, etc. James Bond had an adventure here in The Man With The Golden Gun, which made Koh Tapu an ultimate icon of Thailand. The Elephant King (2006) is a sober portrait of two brothers in Chiang Mai, while The Hangover Part II (2011) is a less sober, wildly exaggerated exoticisation of the Kingdom. Then we have Soi Cowboy (2009), an arthouse film that puts a spin on the relationship between a Thai woman and a European man. Some of these films show Thailand in a way that no Thai films are interested in showing, and while some may present an exoticised view, others offer a clear-eyed gaze at what this country and its people really look like.

Nangsao Suwan (Suvarna Of Siam). Thai Film Archive‎

The exotic means both serenity and danger, and we have a slate of films that tackle both extremes, such as the Singaporean-directed Pop-Aye (2017), which tells the story of a Thai man on a mission to bring an elephant back to its hometown; Only God Forgives (2013), starring Ryan Gosling and Vitthaya Pan-sringam in a blood-soaked gangster thriller (no real elephants in the film, but the lead Thai character is named Chang, or Elephant); Bangkok Dangerous (1999), a Thai-hitman story by Hong Kong directors; and Lost In Thailand (2014), a Chinese road movie that launched a craze of tourism to the North of Thailand.

The "Exotic Thailand?" programme also features films produced by Tom Waller, a Thai director/producer of Irish descent who offers a unique viewpoint to Thai narrative, Butterfly Man (2002), about a British tourist and a Thai masseuse; and Ghost Of Nak (2005), a Mae Nak legend directed by an English director.

On Aug 17, a special talk session with Tom Waller and Wikanda Phromkhunthong, a film lecturer at Mahidol University, will address the "exotic" quality of Thailand from past to present, and how Thailand has been represented on the cinema screen over the past 100 years.

The programme will run from tomorrow until Aug 29, at the Film Archive. For the full programme, go to fapot.org or the Facebook page for Thai Film Archive.

 

Soi Cowboy. Thai Film Archive‎

Only God Forgives. Thai Film Archive‎

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