Thai Director Takes Fight to Censors
The Hollywood Reporter, April 2008
Censorship in Thailand has a long and complicated history, with the powers that be resorting to everything from watered-down news reports to blurred nudity to outright denial, depending on the year and topic. Despite the 1932 introduction of democracy and its associated liberties, film freedom has largely been ignored. It’s hard to believe, but Thai films in 2008 are judged using guidelines that date back to 1930.
In what many are seeing as the most recent blow to freedom of expression in Thailand, the Censorship Board has upheld its year-old decision to cut parts of acclaimed director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s latest film Syndromes and a Century. Despite a new ratings system - a first for Thailand - the appeals committee rejected his final request on the grounds that the scenes were harmful to Thai society. To add insult to injury, the board also dictated that the director cut an additional scene, over and above the original four ordered cuts.
The scenes cut include a doctor drinking whiskey and a monk playing a guitar.
“Their rationale is that I disrespect Thai culture, which is ridiculous. There is so much other crazy stuff out there - the issue is not about Thai culture, it’s about unfair treatment,” Weerasethakul said.
A recent example of arbitrary censorship was the Spartan epic 300, in which gory decapitations were de rigueur, but a brief glimpse of female breasts was blurred out. Similarly, many scenes that include a gun, a cigarette or anything remotely Buddhist often seem to have been altered by a pixel-happy trainee - but not always. It’s this lack of consistency that only serves to complicate the issue.
“They asked me how I could make such an inferior movie that degrades doctors, which was not my intention at all, as both my parents are doctors,” Weerasethakul said emphatically. “But at the same time, even if I did make a film that showed doctors in a bad light, I should be allowed to do it. I just hold a mirror up to the real world.”
To protest, Weerasethakul will run the film as censored, but with black leader in place of the missing scenes. “I have to live by Thai laws, but I also have to expose how bad the issue is,” he said. “I hope that when the audience experiences silence and darkness, it will create a dialogue about censorship and help spur the introduction of reasonable legislation.”
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