THAI SOCIAL MOVIES
Social problem films (หนังสาธรสังคม or หนังสาธรปัญหาสังคม) can be political or underground movies. They were produced for the purpose of consciousness raising. These movies were popular among left wing students, activists and labour unions. They targeted corruption within the bureaucracy, the influence of capitalism and the struggle of poor people. Directors like Cherd Songsri, Dokdin Kalyamal, Surasee Phatham, Yuthana Mukdasanit, MC Chatrichalerm Yukol, to cite just a few, made their names from movies dealing with rural stories. Many of them were social commentaries.
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Tong Pan is a poor peasant from Isan, Northeast area of Thailand. He has three kids and his wife is sick. He is now living in Chiang Khan as he has to move earlier from his former home flooded due to a dam construction. He is invited by a student to partipate to a seminar regarding the contruction of a new dam in Pak Chong area. He is going there hoping for changement into peasants' life. He is only a hired peasant, he has no more land. He got only 2000 Baht a year and cannot even get a forward payment from his greedy landlord to cure his sick wife. Following the October 1973 uprising, government wants to add more democracy in the decision making. Foreign engineer, professors, governmental agency officials, local inhabitants including Thong Pan join the seminar. The foreign engineer explains the great advantages of the dam from an economic point of view. But local inhabitants cannot understand spoken English! They use local Isan dialect. The governmental agency officials complain that nobody thinks about Thailand's future. It is good for the country for selling electricity abroad and anyway it is difficult to find advantages for all. The minority shall sacrifice it-self as long as it good for the majority. There is a parallel between the theory discussed at the seminar and the reality that local peasants are experimenting (houses and land flooded, no more water in rice fields during dry season and flood during rainy season as water is released from dam, no more fishes to catch, no trees to build house as forests have been cut, sickness, poverty, electricity for the rich not for the poor...). Finally participants remind that it should be good to get the feedback from locals. But Thong Pan is already gone as he knows nothing can change. One local raise that they want fertile land but also complains about officials corruption, thieves, illegal sawmills that cut forests, missing healthcare for them as they can never visit doctors. When Tong Pan reaches home, his wife is already dead. Tong Pan movie was banned following the 1976 demonstrations. Participants and directors were sent to jail or exiled following this 1976 uprising.
Social problem films (หนังสาธรสังคม or หนังสาธรปัญหาสังคม) stories point to injustice in Thai society. This genre is not popular among audiences because the stories do not support the law of karma. The villains are not punished. The social problem films in Thailand boomed from the 1970s through the mid 1980s. After the events of 14 October 1973 Thai people enjoyed a form of democracy that was provided with increased freedom. As a consequence, Thai people became more openly interested in politics and social problems. Some social problem movies deal about farmers' difficult life and their migration to Bangkok. Bangkok is a symbol for poor up-country people, i.e. dream of wealth, glittering lights of the big city and so on... Some people dream to get rich there but most of them come back home without money.
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Thongpoon is a Thai farmer coming from Udon Thani and going to Bangkok. He has spared money during five years to buy a taxi. This taxi represents the future for him and his young son. When his taxi get stolen by bad boys, his life alters. His goal is to get back his taxi by all means. He forgets his girlfriend and son. This madness leads him to prison. This movie highlights the impossible fight between poor and rich influential people, the analogy between the buffalo and the taxi for poor Isan people in Bangkok.
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It deals with the life of a family on barges that carry sand from town to town on the "Chao Praya" river. One day the wife tells her husband that she is fed up with this life. In Bangkok the wife decides to go away and to take her chance. In Bangkok she meets a woman who tries to make her enter into the prostitution world. Both wife and husband have problems in Bangkok. The youngest sister stays on the barge to take care about her sister's baby. Disappointed by Bangkok's life, the wife finally comes back to discover that her husband is now living with her sister. All are going back upcountry.
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Phlaew and Na have a small company producing ice and transporting it to customers. They share profit 50-50. They are living in a Bangkok slum where families support each other. Phaew is a nice guy. He is sending local children to school and help to send Maew, little girl having respiratory problems, to hospital. Poor children from slum have no time to do homework after school because they sell flowers, newspapers at traffic light intersections. It is a hard job to sell garlands and get revenue when it is the rainy season. Poor people has no time to study as they need to earn money to survive but get blamed by teacher when they arrive late to school or when they couldn't do homework because they were too tired. There is a contrast between rich children playing piano and poor children playing with bamboo. They dream of changing lifes, i.e. sell clothes instead of selling flower garlands. Elders are gambling and drinking. There are internal family fighting on savings. Pa, middle age woman, borrows money from local mafia den. Pa and Na lose at horse betting and Pa cannot reimburse the mafia den. Pa's husband fled away because of her gambling habit and because her daughter got handicapped by a cart while the mother played cards. Pa gets hit by mafia tough men because she cannot give money back. Phlae celebrates his birthday with all poor kids and Na. Alcohol helps them to forget their problems temporary. Phlaew discovers that Na was unfair with him since two years because he doesn't know how to read. Na didn't share the revenue honestly. Phlaew asks for 30 000 Baht to pay back Pa debts and to do good for her daughter Phae. Pa encounters Na when going to give back money to mafia. He convinces her to bet on Thai boxing following a tip he got. When he realizes that the money they bet is coming from Phlaew it is too late. Meanwhile the mafia tough guys are looking for Pa. They look after her daughter Phae to locate the mother. The local insane guy, who tries to protect Phae and Maew, is hit by a knife. Due to the fear, Maew died due to her respiratory problems. Phlaew asks for revenge. One of the participants brings them to the boss, who is getting and selling land from slums in order to build modern buildings. A deadly fight erupts in which Na gets shot. The boss gets badly hurt but survives. Slum people get caught by the Police. Before dying Maew, the little girl, has writen a text to celebrate the Bangkok 200 years anniversary. Bangkok development is done on the back of poor people. Bangkok is not an angel city anymore. People in slum are moved from one place to another following Bangkok development. To chase people from slums, their houses are often burnt. This movie highlights their difficult and poor living condition (youngsters addicted to cheap drugs, poverty, insalubrity...) but they still have a good heart towards each other in a similar way to people living in up-country villages. "คนกลางแดด" means the people under the sun. Slum people same as villagers are second class citizen.
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It shows the importance and abnegation of teachers working in Thai remote rural villages in order to intruct poor children.
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Two sisters are living together with their mother in a northern village. Their friend has gone to Bangkok and is making a good living. When their mother dies, they have also to go to Bangkok to earn money but they refuse to work in entertainment business. They finally work as domestic helpers in a high end family. Both of them love the family's son. But their family love is stronger than a rivality towards a man and they finally go back to the country side. if all rural people go to Bangkok, who will cultivate rice for Bangkok people?
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It is about "ISAN" (อีสาน), area in the Northeast of Thailand. This is the poorest area in Thailand. This movie relates the life of Koon, a small boy living in a village. It is based on the book "A Child of the Northeast" ("LUK ISAN" - ลูกอีสาน) written by Kampoon Boontawee. It has won Thailand's first SEAW ite Award in 1979. The film is shot in Lao language. It shows the harsh life of Isan farmers. Some villagers are leaving the area due to drought. Remaining villagers have to quest for water every day. Raining is not coming so a cat ceremony is organized. Water is thrown to an encaged cat in order that his shouts make the rain deity to take pity on him. Monks are the advisors of the communauty and children go to schools located inside temples. Village shops are held by Vietnamese and Chinese people who argue together to sell goods to local people. Koon's family is setting up a caravan to go to the Mun river and stock fishes for a few months. Koon learns hunting skills from his father. Koon's cousin has to marry swiftly as her parents found she spent a whole night with one young man. Molam singers visit the village bringing joy and news from the outside world. An old woman is lamenting on her future as her husband is dead and her daughter only wishes to quit the village and its harsh life. This movie is winner of several international awards and was selected for the 1983 Berlin Film Festival.
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It is about the harsh life of northern peasants. Northern peasants are poor. They have debts and are chased by borrowers. Above all they are exploited by men who buy rice at low cost knowing that peasants must pay back their debt. Due to their debts, some peasants have sold their land and leave towards big cities. Some quit in order to live in the mountains and trade opium to earn easy money but face policemen. Despite this harch life, northern peasants still help and support each other and are waiting for the yearly bountiful monsoon. The movie ends on a positive way. Poor peasants finally succeed to gain money by working hard and founding cooperatives. Borrowers get bankrupted having no more customers.
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This sad story relates the story of a man coming from countryside with his family to earn a living in Bangkok. They are living in a slum. He has two kids. He has to work hard on construction side. Their dream is to have their own home (บ้าน). His daughter is selling flowers on a street. His son is helping his mother to prepare the flowers. They have a third child. The family borrows money to build a house. His grandfather is also joining the family in Bangkok. The man becomes a fisherman and has to leave home from long periods. His wife has an affair and gets pregrant. He expelled her from home. His daughter is having an affair with a young man and he also expelled her from home. The fishing boat is caught in Cambodian seas and he is sent in jail for 6 months. His grandfather get hurt on his back and cannot walk properly anymore. His son is sent to youth jail as he robs metal to buy medicine for his grandfather. Feeling useless, the grandfather gets suicide. When he is back from Cambodia, his family is wracked. This movie depicts life in urban slums of Bangkok with all its suffering and hardship. It was the object of much enthousiasm and praise among foreigners in Thailand and Thai intellectuals. Everyone in the story suffers from an unkind fate. The problems of the whole family stem from its leader only.
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The director ChatriChalerm Yukol had done a remake of his own 1978 movie. There are new actors and similar scenario is used. This movie got three Thai awards.
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It is about a young rural man's quest for fame as a folk singer. Phaen has a great love for music and always sing at temple fairs in his village. During one fair he meets and falls in love with Sadao. On their wedding day, Phaen gives Sadao a transistor radio. Soon, Sadao is pregnant but Phaen has to leave home as he has to enter military service. While there, he enters a singing contest and wins. He spends two years in a band that never goes anywhere. After a tragic accident with his boss, he is forced to flee and work in a sugarcane plantation. But a fight causes him to lose his job. As things go from bad to worse, he is sent to prison after robbing. Finally he goes back home with empty hands and lost dreams. This movie has received many Thai awards.
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This movie is a reality film about 4 people from Isan area. They have moved to Bangkok to find a job. It deals about their life, their hopes and sorrows. 3 men and 1 woman are interviewed. The men are working as stuntman, country folk singer, aspirant comedian. The woman is a taxi driver dreaming to drive a big truck so she could be able to visit her parents more often. The stunt man is lying to his parents saying he is a real actor and he dreams to be a stuntman for superstar Tony Jaa. The aspirant comedian is willing to do all tasks and wear silly costumes as a restaurant tout in order to join a well-known comedy troupe. The country folk singer is famous but still living in a cheap motel as he wishes to go back home in Isan one day. It has been filmed over one year. They were able to achieve their dreams. Like many Isan people, they are coming to Bangkok to achieve dreams and get rich. The micro-budget documentary feature Crying Tiger couldn't cover its production costs, grossing only 1.3 million baht.
Some social problem movies (หนังสาธรสังคม) deal about conflicts between poor people, government officials (policemen, soldiers, bureaucrats) and businessmen. The plots of these films usually involve the conflicts between classes such as poor people and their oppressors. The villains are the businessmen, embezzled politicians and corrupt government officials. At the end of these films, the conflicts cannot be resolved. The poor people are always the losers and the injustices continue. In such films, monarchy and Buddhist monkhood are present to symbolize the Thai community but do not help to solve the problems of poor people. Main characters in 1970s films are often killed as they do not have the support of the bureaucratic system. A new generation of government officials, reflecting the ideals of Thais in the 1970s, become the middle class in the 1980s. They represent the hope of solving social problems and of making the bureaucratic system better.
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It is the story of a young and idealist doctor sent in a remote province in Thailand. Poor peasants lack access to public services. The district officer runs an illegal gambling house. The officials are all corrupted and try to bribe him. Dr. Khan refuses and offers medical acts at low price for inhabitants. Problems and confrontations with officials happen until he is murdered. ChatriChalerm Yukol criticized the Thai bureaucracy and presented the problems of rual area. The film was successful at box office and received good reviews. As the district officer was a corrupted character, the movie has difficulty passing the film censorship committee. ChatriChalerm Yukol showed the film to Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn and then the film passed approval. It is likely that if ChatriChalerm Yukol were not the great-grandson of King Chulalongkorn, the film wouldn't have passed the censorship committee as he couldn't have met the Prime Minister. The movie is based on a novel from Suwannee Sukontha written in 1970. The movie "เขาชื่อกานต์n" actually threw away all the main characters of the Thai classical drama (clown, maid of honor...) so it was an unconventional movie compared to the 1960s Thai movies standards.
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It is the story of a teacher called Piya (ครูปิยะ), who is an idealistic man. It shows the teachers life in a remote village in "ISAN" (อีสาน) area in the Northeast of Thailand, poorest area in Thailand. He wishes to bring knowledge to the village by teaching the young children. He even sets up a small garden to feed the poor children. He also contacts a newspaper as some influential guys are cutting trees in a protected forest causing the village to lack water. Another young lady teacher is supporting him. Unfortunately his activities against the illegal timbering cause his death as the influential guys hire a hitman. Surasee Phatham has directed a remake of his own movie in 2009 as he was never happy with the number of details that were edited out. Thirty years ago too, many young people were involved in social and political activities so many filmgoers found it easy to identify with the teacher. In 1978, everyone wanted to watch action movies but when ครูบ้านนอก and แผลเก่า were released, they were successful.
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The teacher called Piya is dead but the young lady teacher continues to stay in the village. Farmers have many debts, so are forced to sell at low price the harvest before reaping. They are being cheated. The young lady teacher convinces the farmers to unite themselves in cooperatives in order to sell in common after reaping and to get the "real" market price. One hundred chariots leaded by buffaloes bring the rice into the city. But the powerful buyers don't agree... Her life is in danger.
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It is about the story of Sommai, a barber, who is acting as a gunman ("MEU PEUN" - มือปืน) in order to get money to cure his sick boy. He is an veteran soldier who has fought in Laos but was left behind by his superior Tanu after saving his life. Now his previous superior is a policeman involved in gunman investigations. Tanu has a reputation for killing criminals. Applying gratitude ("KATANJOO" - กตัญญู) towards his previous mate, the investigation is going slowly until a younger policeman gets involved... This film highlights conflicts between poor people (the gunman and his family), the government officials (policemen and soldiers) and wealthy influential businessmen. This movie has received 5 Thai awards.
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After successful studies in Bangkok, Boonchai (บุญชัย) represents his party for member of Parliament election in rural Northeast of Thailand. Many other candicates register to the election to become member of Parliament. There are candicates of important parties with impressive list of diploma they got abroad but can they understand the poor people problems? There is a candidate backed up by the government, who is spending a lot of money to have huge billboards and is offering free gifts with his voting number. There is a funny candidate that wishes to clean the political dirt with a broom and bring light to democracy with a lantern. Boonchai has left Isan many years to study in Bangkok and has gone through the 1976 revolution. He got voting number 8. He announced to his girlfriend, who is a teacher lady, that he is trying to become member of Parliament to help the local people but she is worried as politics is a difficult and dangerous matter in Thailand. Some candidates give money for people to buy alcohol, some others give free medicine to buy the hearts and votes of local people but they don't bother to discuss with them and listen to their problems. They just promise more gifts to come. The money they spend to buy vote, they will get it back when they are elected. Boonchai is visiting villagers also on his small motorbike but he has no gifts to offer. He is not coming only for one day to change farmers life by bringing gifts but with ideas for the next four years to change their life. One taxi driver, seduced by his program, offers Boonchai to drive him anywhere he wishes. The government candidate doesn't care to visit the people as the "stupid buffalo" farmers can be bought with money. Meanwhile other candidates compete on gifs and on the biggest speakers to make their voice louder. They look like more fruit sellers! Boonchai is a local child of the region so he knows the farmers problems. He eats same food as farmers, works with farmers and propose them solution to improve their daily life and revenue increase by shifting various cultures all over the year. Villagers like his project up to the point that he starts to be a real political threat to the candidate backed up by the government. This latter decides to use bad tactics, i.e. villagers are threatened that they will not receive subsidies any more if anybody in a village votes for him, Boonchai is also accused to be a communist. Finally he is beaten by 4 tough men but it makes him more popular as many villagers support him. He is comforted to fight against adversity. The evil candidate tries to use drunkards to disturb his political meetings but they are expelled by his supporters. The evil candidate plans an outdoor cinema projection in order to disturb Boonchai's meeting hoping that people would prefer entertainment to serious politics. But it fails also. The evil candidate decides to send a team to kill Boonchai at night time when he is back from late political meetings. He succeeds to escape to assassination and villagers protect him. People voice is growing against bad politicians. Villagers provide him a gun to defend him-self. The evil candidate decides to use a hitman to get rid of Boonchai. Boonchai dies but he still wins the election as local people vote massively for him. Good men disappear and corrupted men remain... This movie gives a real image of Thai politics thirty years ago. But did nowadays Thai politics really improve? Former PM and politician MR Kukrit Pramoj appeared in this movie. Mr Kukrit showed up briefly at the beginning of the film, playing a party leader who gives a talk to the candidates. Not long after that, a new law prohibited political parties from attracting votes by playing in films.
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It is the second opus of the movie Citizen. As the Citizen I movie's main actor has died, Sorapong Chatree was used instead. It is about Thongpoon Khokpoh, a convict going out of prison, and looking for his son. His son refuses to meet him as he was left over many years. His father was in prison and his mother lives abroad with a foreigner. Thongpoon wishes to get reunited with his son. The movie deals about the lack of freedom about ex prisoners, i.e. difficulty of reinsertion, difficulty to find a job, bad image - an old convict will always be a bad man. He sympathizes with a young girl, who is a pickpocket . People don't trust Thongpoon as he is former convict but he is also not trusting the young girl when she brings back money, thinking she has stolen it. A pickpocket will always be a thief. Thongpoon is a nice guy, never wishing to break rules, never lying or doing something against law. So people call him stupid or buffalo! Thongpoon has difficulty to find a job as he is too honest and always says he is a former convict. Once you're in jail, you're always in jail, in this society. Once you get out of jail, you are still branded by the evidence. He is still an outsider. Through a misunderstanding, he is also confronted to bad policemen who don't believe Thongpoon can seek redemption but the head of police trusts Thongpoon. When a car bumps him, he refuses to sue the car driver and blames his own careless mistake. Finally the car driver seeing his kindness recruits him in his restaurant for tourists. Unfortunately one of his former inmates abducts his son and threatens Thongpoon to hurt his son if Thongpoon doesn't kill his boss, who has an issue with local mafia. Thongpoon's choice is difficult and is put in analogy with an ongoing Ramayakian dance (Rama facing demons) in the restaurant. Finally Thongpoon simulates his boss' murder in order to be reunited with his son and has to work hand in hand with the policeman, who formerly looked down on him, to stop the gangsters. The policeman acknowledges his misjudment on Thongpoon. Thongpoon, his son and the young girl are leaving to Udon Thani. This film highlights conflicts between poor people (Thongpoon, the pickpocket girl), the government officials (policemen) and wealthy influential businessmen.
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It is about a big company, which wants to expel slum inhabitants in order to build a modern complex. A young teacher called Somsri is representing the slum and is fighting against the company. This movie shows the power of big Thai companies over slums, Thai rich people power over poor people and the Thai useless bureaucracy. Hopefully a Thai official and a lawyer are helping the teacher Somsri as the slum inhabitants are fully in their rights. Unfortunately, the big company doesn't hesitate to use strong ways such a fire, threats and gunmen. The slum finally wins but the lawyer and teacher Somsri lose their life. The movie is based on an activist teacher in the Klong Toei slum area. The idea on which the movie was based is the real life of teacher Pratheep Ungsongtham. She was called the slum angel.
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This movie is a remake of the movie "Dr. Khan" shot in 1973 but with new actors. The previous version was directed by ChatriChalerm Yukol.
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Jack refuses to be a scapegoat and to be involved in a big corruption scheme managed by his boss. As a killer is trying to get rid of him, he has to flee in Switzerland. There he meets another Thai man, who has fled for similar issue. They wish to fight against the corrupted Thai society but there are too many people in the system and the numbers keep increasing. They alone cannot possibly change anything when the majority still sticks to the old system. A hitman finds Jack back in Switzerland. A young woman, who in fact Jack's boss daughter, is helping him. Is she truly helping Jack or protecting her father? This movie grabs 10 awards.
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A rich young boy is fond of a girl living in a slum. The boy's father, who is deputy, has decided to expropriate the slum inhabitants in order to build an estate. The young boy decides to help the inhabitants to build a wall around the slum. Their love story is endangered by the slum inhabitants, who doubt about the young boy sincerity, and his father, who doesn't accept a poor bride and doesn't hesitate to destroy the slum by fire. Shall their love overcome all these obstacles?
Some social problem movies (หนังสาธรสังคม) deal about environmental problems (deforestation, coral destruction, sea overexploitation and so on...).
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ChatriChalerm Yukol portrays environmental problems in this movie about the sea overexploitation in South of Thailand. Sam is a young fisherman living with an old man. Sam has a lazy girlfriend called Boonta. The old man has also adopted a young girl, Dookmai, 10 years ago when her parents died in a forceful storm over the sea. Such forceful storm accompanied with a yellowing sky is called อุกาฟ้าเหลือง. The old man lives in harmony with the sea and blames fishermen who uses grenades to catch fish. These grenades kill many fishes and destroy the coral, which hosts fishes. Once the coral is dead, fishes disappear. It is an easy way to get immediately many fishes but without thinking about the future impacts. It is forbidden by law but a local politician with the fishermen boss is preventing any changes. Boonta wants a better life and convinces Sam to leave the old man in order to work with other fishermen and earn more money. Sam is working hard on a big drifter with huge nets that catch big, small fishes and even species that are not edible. if fishermen catch small fishes, those small fishes can never grow and reproduce them-selves. The old man successfully succeeds to have the sea police to capture a fishboat using grenades to catch fishes. One fisherman group leader promises to get his revenge. Meanwhile the local politician and the fishermen boss have arguments. The local politician hires a hitman to kill him. The hitman knows Boonta since her youth. Boonta is seduced by the man as he is offering to her an opportunity to leave the South and go to Bangkok. They become lovers. The fishermen boss is killed but before his death tells everything to Sam. Sam repeats to Boonta, who then tells her lover, the hitman. Following a tragic chase in the mangrove, the hitman kills her and decides to get rid of Sam also. Followed by the hitman and the fisherman group leader, Sam, who is injured, take refuges in the old man's house. The old man, knowing that another forceful storm is coming, goes to face the hitman in order to slow him down. He dies but both the hitman and the fisherman group leader disappear within the sea due to forceful storm. Those who hurted the sea have been punished by the sea. It is certainly Sor Asanajinda's best role ever as an old fisherman respecting the sea.
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It is about forest exploitation by rich people. Boonsong is an elephant keeper, who is having debts with a local and influent pawner. The pawner is supported by a local corrupted police officer. Kamroon is a ranger fighting against illegal loggers in order to protect the forest. Some gunmen try to get rid of Kamroon but Boonsong helps him. Boosong has to do illegal logging in order to pay back his debt to the pawner. Kamroon wants to help him but is killed by the corrupted policeman, who also wants to suppress Boonsong... This movie puts the stress on forest diminishing size due to overexploitation and illegal logging, elephants lacking work as the forest is getting smaller, corrupted policemen, influential people escaping troubles, illiterate poor people exploited by rich Chinese pawners, companies possessing official logging concessions and cheating by adding illegal logging, the helplessness of the simple people as well as the animals caught up in this struggle. The film failed at box office and lost around 7 millions baht. The long history of debate around the Chinese control over business in Thailand is one of the most deep and daring assertions in this movie. This movie touches deeply controversial issues such as the Thai state failing to protect its people against illegal interests. During the filming in the Northeast of Thailand local gangsters, probably working for illegal logging interest, attacked the film crew and one member was killed.
This Thai Social movie page 1 contains 24 records.
ThaiWorldView movie database contains 491 records.
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