Petition: English language movies at Hua Hin cineplex

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Petition: English language movies at Hua Hin cineplex

Post by AWOL »

There has been a lot of complaints made both on HHAD and to AWOL about the situation with the only cinema in Hua Hin at Market Village, Major Cineplex, not screening the original English language versions of films the vast majority of the time, preferring to use ones dubbed into Thai. We have decided to take up the gauntlet and start a campaign to change this policy, which will kick off in next Friday's issue of AWOL, but starts today with this post.

We have set up an online petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Engl ... n_Hua_Hin/ for anyone who lives in or visits or plans to visit Hua Hin and area who would like to see a change. Please add your name to the petition to support the campaign. The plan is to present the petition by the end of September to both the local cinema and their head office. More details can be found on the petition itself.
We hope we can count on your support.
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Post by DSB »

Well done, AWOL, about time this was done.
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Post by buksida »

Good stuff, I can't think of who wouldn't sign this, even Thais like to watch original soundtrack movies.
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Post by kitechick »

Great time for this petition. I happened to email head office yesterday asking about Harry Potter and just a general complaint about no English movies.

I have Just received this response from them:

"Responses for Cinema Operations. Since receiving your message, I and my team have worked for your request.
Fortunately, Harry Potter will be showing this coming Thursday; July 30th. Hopefully you might be able to come.

There are some reasons for not having English soundtrack movies at Huahin. I apologize for that.

However, thank you so much for your valuable feedback.
If there is no customer like you spending your valuable time to share us your experience, we wouldn’t have any chance to improve our service."



Hopefully they will show it on the 30th but as their is no time stated we will have to go in to the cinema and ask and I hope the petition will be classed as valuable feedback and they can improve their services.
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Post by dtaai-maai »

kitechick wrote: There are some reasons for not having English soundtrack movies at Huahin. I apologize for that.
I note they don't give the 'reasons' though...

Therefore I assume that if your Harry Potter film is shown, it will be in Thai.
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Post by Big Boy »

Maybe if kitechick could provide that e-mail address, we could all bombard head office. We tried it a while back to the local office with no response - at least kitechick got a response.
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Post by Super Joe »

dtaai-maai wrote:
kitechick wrote:There are some reasons for not having English soundtrack movies at Huahin. I apologize for that.
I note they don't give the 'reasons' though... .
No, an explanation would be helpful.
I'd hazard a guess that the vast majority of movies have Thai soundtracks because we are in Thailand, and in Market Village the majority of shoppers, diners, bowling allyers, internet users, games area users etc are Thai, so that's where they think the most business is.

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Post by chopsticks »

This topic has also appeared on another forum. The response from the cinema manager in Market Village was that when they did try screening with an English soundtrack there was such a low attendance that it was not profitable.
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Post by Poe »

I would be happy with just English subtitles.
My vote is in.
Thanks AWOL!
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Post by Randy Cornhole »

The Cornhole has voted. Stand back and wait for the results... 8)
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Post by Big Boy »

I put my details on the petition, but jumped straight out of it when it asked me for a donation, and wouldn't let me proceed if I didn't want to donate.

Edit: Despite jumping out of the program at the payment stage, I did receive an e-mail thanking me for adding my name to the petition. The payment stage is not joined up to the adding your name stage ie they're independant of each other.
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Post by AWOL »

Super Joe wrote:
dtaai-maai wrote:
kitechick wrote:There are some reasons for not having English soundtrack movies at Huahin. I apologize for that.
I note they don't give the 'reasons' though... .
No, an explanation would be helpful.
I'd hazard a guess that the vast majority of movies have Thai soundtracks because we are in Thailand, and in Market Village the majority of shoppers, diners, bowling allyers, internet users, games area users etc are Thai, so that's where they think the most business is.

SJ
SJ,
That would be all well and good if the same applied to all cinemas nationwide, but it doesn't; if you read the petition it is the comparison between cinemas in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Khorat and Chiang Mai (for example) and Hua Hin which makes the complaints valid; you go to cinemas in any of those places and you will find regular screenings with the original soundtrack, alongside the dubbed versions. And the truth of the matter is that many, many Thais want to have the original soundtrack with Thai subtitles, so this isn't just a Thai versus farang argument.

It appears that the Hua Hin cineplex has the impression that there are not enough people in or visiting the area to make original soundtrack screenings worthwhile, and the aim of this petition is to prove them wrong - the demand is there and the only reason they feel their position is proven is because they took a survey of their existing customers! Added to that they have never made it easy for anyone to find out what is actually on at the cinema (website Thai only for example), so you have to physically go to the cinema to find out; normally, in say Bangkok or elsewhere, this wouldn't be a problem because there would be a screening that suits within an hour or so but its as rare as hens teeth at Market Village, so people stop looking. When the rare event happens of course hardly anyone turns up because they don't know about it; it isn't rocket science!

There are four screens so it wouldn't be too much to ask to have one or two days where there are regular screenings at set times of the original soundtrack version on one of them, which are advertised in advance. AWOL would be more than happy to print the times and details every week so it wouldn't even cost them anything to do that. I'm sure HHAD would also be happy to promote this too. I can absolutely guarantee that there are showings of their current offerings which are virtually empty (you only have to stand outside the cinema and observe when a movie finishes), so they could try out the original soundtracks at those times to start with and see the comparison. The most obvious point is this though - they can make money from doing this.
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Post by Georgy Porgy »

Many Thais certainly do like an English soundtrack, as it is a way of improving their English language in a pleasurable way.
I have a friend who's only English lessons were from DVD's and her language skills are excellent!
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This is Thailand?

Post by Chas »

The argument that this is Thailand and that the movies should be dubbed into Thai holds absolutely no water! ( Unless you want to claim that Bangkok is not Thailand!)

I attend movies in Bangkok every time I am in the city and I have NEVER seen a dubbed-in-Thai movie offered at any of the major multiplexes! EVER! ( You can stand in front of their 14 theater movie listings and expect them to all be "soundtrack" either Thai or English. And as you might expect, the majority of movie-goers there are Thai. (I don't know about any other Thai city.)

(Interestingly, at the multiplexes in Bkk I have frequently seen Indian movies offered . .in Hindi.)

And the dubbing is dreadful . .two actors in a booth somewhere trying to pretend they are different people. ( Close your eyes if you ever find yourself in a dubbed-in-Thai movie and you will see what I mean.) Cant see how Thai people stand it.

As a note: here in Hua Hin a week or two ago, the big "Transformers" blockbuster ran in ALL FOUR theatres . . .dubbed in Thai. So even if you wanted a choice of movies you were out of luck.

Hate to be a pessimist but I predict the following.
1. The petition will arrive.
2. The powers that be will decide to test it out.
3. They will schedule an unadvertised surprise screening of a soundtrack movie . . .some odd day and time, like next Thursday at midnight.
4. They will look at the predictably empty theater and say, "See! We told you so . .no farangs! No farang business. Forget it."

I still think that the manager here has a brother-in-law in the dubbing business and he is just helping him out with residuals. That, or kickbacks from the distribution company . . .Thai reasons that they will certainly not share with farangs.

I signed the petition though . .you never know. The movie gods may smile on us someday!


.
Last edited by Chas on Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:07 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by crazy88 »

Signed and would go on a regular basis .

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