Despite Thailand’s leaders promoting the country as a democracy, it’s still got quite a way to go until it truly is what they claim. Nowhere is this more evident than when you go to see a movie, where scenes deemed ‘harmful to Thai society’ are routinely blurred, pixelated, or just plain excised. In my latest post for The Hollywood Reporter, I detail the fight that celebrated director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has with the censorship board and their outrageous, archaic decisions to cut his film; it seems that every country in the world recognizes his films as classics, except his own, which truly sucks balls. It’s pretty ridiculous, actually – when you see a guy holding what appears to be a gun-shaped blob of pixels in his hand, you have to wonder what would have brought more scrutiny – a guy with a gun or a guy with a gun-shaped blob of pixels. Most people with a brain would say the former, but hey – this is Thailand. Often, the censorship isn’t even noticeable until you see the movie a second time – check out the screencaps below that I got from the Thai version of Music and Lyrics, versus the international version.
First, an image of Buddha in the background as it appears in the international release, and then the Thai release below it. It seems a bit silly – it’s not offensive in the least. However, this scene does include a sexy dance number, but still – is anyone going to see this, watch the girl dance, and start thinking that monks are promiscuous?
Not noticeable at all.
The next one is even more ridiculous than the first. They block about 75% of the screen! You see that gold-colored thing in the background of the top picture? That’s the belly of a Buddha statue. Pretty amateur effort in covering up naughty bits here, fellas.
“Can you hand me my glasses? Something seems a bit off.”
It’s all pretty ridiculous, especially when you see the picture below from the movie 300. Breasts – can’t have that! Decapitated body with spurting blood? Well, that’s no problem – perhaps they read this fucked-up survey that said parents were more concerned about their kids seeing male/female sex than a decapitated head.
Careful: boobs!
The whole thing reeks of hypocrisy too, as in the shot below from the badass martial arts classic Ong Bak. Apparently the censors have no problem with a bad guy brutally beating our hero’s sidekick to death in front of a Buddha statue – but a girl in her underwear in the same situation? That would cause untold harm!
Can you spot the offensive bit? Here’s a pen and paper.
Re the “violence is more acceptable than sex” issue: If a penis is bad but a severed head is acceptable, what about a severed penis (or breast, for gender equality)? Would that balance?
Personally I appreciate both sex AND violence in movies (and only the former in real life), but the image of a severed penis really grosses me out!
Watch the movie “Teeth” and tell me if you agree.
The violence thing is really weird. My current favorite is they way they will blur out a gun pointed at a guy’s head, but then show his brains being spattered all over the wall in all its full Technicolor detail when the gun goes off.
And then there’s the whole smoking thing. They blob out the cigarette, but not the smoke coming out of people’s mouths or noses, so it’s obvious they’re smoking. What’s the point?
I liked the job they did on Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd. The blood gushing from the slashed throats of Todd's victims had to be blurred out; but when [SPOILER ALERT] Helena Bonham Carter was toasted in the oven, that was perfectly OK, burn baby burn.