http://www.bangkokpost.com/life/educati ... we-re-thai
No sex please, We're Thai
In the world of local television soap operas, random violence is okay, but hanky-panky? No way
* Published: 28/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
* Newspaper section: Brunch Bangkok Post
As I write this, a Thai soap opera is going on in the background on my non-flat television. A handsome man in a dirtied shirt is staggering and holding a gun. He is clearly distressed - not through any acting talents, god forbid, but his shirt isn't tucked in and that's a dead giveaway in any Thai soap. His hair remains perfectly combed, and facial features remain as rigid as those of a khunying shuffling out of an Emporium botox clinic.
I can no longer concentrate on my writing, because now he's pointing the gun at some man, slightly older, who has a frown. Down the bottom of the screen are the words "Final Episode" (Thai soapies only run for 30 or 40 episodes - any longer and viewers would be forced to think). The distressed man is pleading with the handsome guy, talking about losing everything except his dignity. As the thought crosses my mind that dignity is an emotion well beyond his acting capabilities, I slowly start to get sucked into the vacuum that is this soapie.
The music swells. Now he's offering the gunman money and a stake in his business. The gunman doesn't flinch. He points the gun higher. Surely he's not ... no, surely he's not going to - BANG!
The older guy gets it, though miraculously, despite the gun being pointed at his head, a gaping wound opens up in the guy's chest. The music is going haywire now. The older guy clutches his chest, stares at the gunman with creased eyebrows, then falls to the floor. A beautiful young lady dressed in Fly Now, who looks like she hasn't eaten a thing since Loy Krathong, rushes over and hugs the gunman.
The music shifts to a major key, a musical "Ta-Da!". Oh, so the gunman is the good guy, is he? Now I get it. I wonder what the bad guy did to warrant a bullet in his - but listen to me! Get back to work, Andrew!
The scene has upset me, and not for the juvenile acting. It's a strange anomaly that in this part of the world, gross violence on prime time television is fine, but when it comes to sex, the Thais suddenly turn into my old maiden Aunt Jess and refuse even the slightest hint of lewdness, not even after a sherry.
Thus you can't show a man making love to his wife on Thai TV, but it's quite okay for him to take out a gun and blow her brains out. The camera will even do you the favour of focusing right in on her little brain cells splattered on the wall, just in case you didn't get the idea that she's dead. But love making? Nahhh.
I once watched a soap where the lead actor and actress, in the final episode, decided to consummate their relationship. They'd been in love for weeks and weeks before this, and finally, in that last episode, they had it off. Well, that's what we assume they did. This can't be shown, since having sex, according to high-ranking officials, is not part of Thai culture, so instead we had a shot of the woman looking deep and meaningful.
Then a shot of the man looking the same. Then a fade-out and when we came back, the woman was on a bed. The man was shirtless the music rose romantically he moved forward, and - cut to a candle. A lit candle! If it had been a champagne bottle popping or a train rushing into a tunnel, or even a slow-motion pestle thump-thump-thumping the ingredients of somtam together in a mortar, I would have understood, but a candle?
Finally we came back to a shot of the man with tears streaming down his cheeks and that was the end. What happened? Why was he crying? He couldn't perform? The candle was burning his backside?
To even think in real life two attractive young Thais would have gone that long without at least a grope was stretching the imagination, but here we are in the world of Thai film and TV, where the stories are so completely out-of-this-world it's kind of fun to follow them.
You know, rich gorgeous heiress dresses up as maid to exact revenge on former lover. The actors and actresses in these dramas are in real life a dreadfully unhappy group. The actresses are stick-thin and forever scrubbing fingers after frequent restroom trips, while the actors are all jaundiced Korean-looking Thai guys hoping the gossip rags never reveal their homosexuality.
In Thai they have a verb called blum - and it's an integral part of many soaps. If you "blum" somebody, then you forcibly have sex with them. I know, I know, that's "rape", but the Thai language has a separate word for "rape" as well. This is "blum", the idea being that you rape a woman in order for her to become your girlfriend, or in order for her company to do business with you.
Now that's bizarre! The message here? Ladies, when a man rapes you, instead of going to the police and having him arrested and locked up, ya gotta either marry him or do business with his company. Worse, in the scene where an actor "blums" an actress, we see the violent part. She screams and tries to wrest herself free, while he slaps and grabs her and throws her onto the bed. That's okay to watch - a good education for any young man wanting to force himself on a girl - but when it comes to the sex, we suddenly cross to an advertisement or it's back to that bloody candle again.
Why is violence okay, but sex not? There are days when the Thai Rath newspaper publishes pictures of dead bodies on the front page alongside semi-naked women whose nipples have been "starred out". That is, some wide-eyed heavy-breathing intern in the art department has been ordered to place little stars over the nipples so that we can't see them. The mangled murdered body in the ditch is okay for us to examine, but nipples?
Perhaps we shouldn't be so shocked when fans of the Thai Port Football Club do a great rendition of British football hooliganism like last weekend at the Supachalasai Stadium. After all, these are young Thais who have grown up with death and mangled bodies on page one, and violence on the night time soapies and movies.
For any young person the messages are clear: It's wrong to have sex. Kissing is bad. Murdering is good. Exploding heads and spurting blood is good, too. And if you must have sex, for god's sake force yourself on the woman and in that way you get to make money out of it - and next time you're at Villa, pick up a dozen candles.
No Sex Please - We're Thai
No Sex Please - We're Thai
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
It is nearly the same if you look movies at the HBO channels. All scenes where you can see any tits or bum are cut out, but violence not.
The movies at truevision channel in Thai and English (you can choose the language), are not cut, but nakedness is blended over, as is any cigarette as soon as it reaches the mouth.
The movies at truevision channel in Thai and English (you can choose the language), are not cut, but nakedness is blended over, as is any cigarette as soon as it reaches the mouth.