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Twilight Over Burma is banned by the Thai film censor from showing at a film festival
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7th July 2016
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| See article from
khaosodenglish.com |
Twilight Over Burma is a 2015 Austria TV drama by Sabine Derflinger. Starring Zoe Addams, Sahajak Boonthanakit and Daweerit Chullasapya.
The U.S. scholarships Austrian student Inge and young mining student from
Burma Sao Kya Seng fall in love. But it's only at the lavish wedding ceremony that Inge discovers her husband is the ruling prince of the Shan state of Burma. After a coup staged by the Burmese military, Sao is imprisoned. Inge does everything she can to
free him. Base on the true story of Inge Sargent.
Burma: Banned from June 2016 film festival An Austrian TV movie, Twilight Over Burma, has been banned from a Burmese human rights film festival by the local
film censor. Burma's Film Classification Board's deputy director general Daw Thida Tin told the BBC that the film had been banned for the sake of national unity and also the stability of the country and of our people . the film festival
organisers say they were also told that the censors saw the film as damaging to the image of the army. Thailand: Banned from July 2016 film festival The film was banned by the Thai film censor from a film festival of
films made in Thailand. The reason was attributed to solidarity amongst dictatorships. Though the organisers have not issued any official statement, the reason behind the withdrawal is said to be related to bilateral ties between Thailand and Burma.
The film, known in Thai as Singsaengchan and was mainly shot in Chiang Mai province and at Inle Lake in Shan State's capital Tongyi.
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Thai court upholds ban on trans film with a brief gay sex scene
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| 26th December 2015
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| See article from
gaystarnews.com |
The Thai Administrative Court has ruled that a LGBTI-themed film, Insects in the Backyard which has been banned since 2010, violates Section 287 of the Criminal Code. The court says the short pornographic scene in the film violates Thai laws
that prohibit the screening of pornographic films, in their entirety, or in part; and has impacts on morality and social decency. The film by indie filmmaker Tanwarin Sukkhapisit reportedly contains an offending three-second scene where
characters in the film are seen watching an X-rated gay movie which depicts graphic depiction of sexual organs and sexual intercourse, according to the Bangkok Post. The court said the film can only be screened if the offending scene is cut to get
a 20+ for audiences above the age of 20. Following the film's ban by the Culture Ministry's National Film Board in 2010, the film's director filed a case with the Administrative Court to challenge the ban, making her the first filmmaker in
Thailand to do so. |
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Thai film censors unban horror film featuring a buddhist monk after cuts
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| 19th October
2015
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| 13th October 2015. See article from prachatai.com |
Thailand's state film censors at the Ministry of Censorship Culture have banned a horror film centring on the life of a teenage monk after the movie caused a stir among Buddhist hardliners who claimed that the film insults Buddhism. Producers said in
a tweet that it has to postpone screening the film Abat ('offense' in the Pali language, the language of Theravada Buddhism). The movie company stated: The movie has been banned by the Film and Media Screening
Committee (the committee of the Department of Cultural Promotion under the Ministry of Culture).
The Ministry informed the movie's producer and distributor that the film needs to be cut before it could go on screen. On 23
September 2015, five Buddhist organisations, namely the Association of Scholars for Buddhism, the Buddhism Protection Centre of Thailand, the Buddhist Women's Association, the Network to Protect the Nation, Religion, and Monarchy, and the Buddhists
Network, issued a joint statement to the Ministry of Culture against the film. The statement which was submitted to Veera Rojpojanarat, the Minister of Culture, urged him to review the content of the film. It was also sent to the film producers asking
them to rethink whether the film is appropriate for screening in the country. In the statement, the five religious organisations wrote that the content of the movie shows disrespect towards Buddhism and Buddhist monks in the country and is valueless
. The film is about a delinquent teenager who was forced by his parents to ordain as a Buddhist monk, but continues with his usual layman lifestyle while developing a sexual relationship with a young female protagonist, which later leads him
to uncover the dark secrets in his monastery. One of the controversial scenes in the film which shows the leading protagonist in a Buddhist monk's robe touching a woman, an action which is prohibited in the Buddhist monks' code of conduct Surapot
Taweesak, a Buddhist and philosophy scholar, however, shared his thoughts on the matter through Matichon News that there is nothing wrong with the film. He said that the call to ban the film shows a lack of tolerance and disrespect towards freedom
of expression, which ironically goes against the principles of freedom of thought in Buddhism itself. Update: Passed 18 after cuts 17th October 2015. See
article from bangkokpost.com Arpat , the new name of the banned Thai film Arbat , passed the censorship board
on Friday and was issued with an 18-plus rating after cuts. (Note, the actual name uses a Thai letter with no equivalence in English. It is half way between b and p, hence there's a choice of which to use in transliteration to English) Several
'sensitive' scenes have been cut from the original version, and a warning text appears at the start. State censors who judged the film yesterday were different from those who banned the previous version of the film on Monday. The ban was imposed
on the grounds that the movie would tarnish the image of Buddhism through telling a story of misbehaving monks, (a sensitive issue in Thailand as there are plenty of misbehaving monks, many are just regular guys doing their duty of a short term stint as
a monk, often under pressure from families). The new version has been censored of a scene of a young monk kissing a girl, a monk drinking alcohol and a monk touching the head of a Buddha statue, among others. A warning stressing the film is
a work of fiction has been inserted at the start of the film. Prachya admits that the title change, from Arbat to Arpat, may sound like a silly move , but he said it is a strategy to submit the new film for consideration while
retaining the right to appeal for a new verdict of the original film: We want to appeal for a permit of the original Arbat, but the process takes a long time, so we presented the re-edited version and called it Arpat
instead.
Update: More on Thai film censorship 19th October 2015. See article from bangkokpost.com
The hullabaloo around the Thai film Arpat is the latest example of problems caused by what some people in the film industry perceive as flaws in the Film and Video Act 2008. Some of the controversial aspects of the law, which was passed by the
coup-appointed National Legislative Assembly, include the composition of the censor committees, and the measure that allows a film to be banned for national security reasons. Also criticised were a conservative interpretation of the rules, and most
importantly strict state control over film, compared to lighter regulation of other cheaper and more accessible media such as television and print. Many filmmakers believe the law, which introduced the rating system, poses many problems. Manit
Sriwanichpoom, whose film Shakespeare Must Die was banned in 2012., said: The law says the rating committee consists of four government officials and three representatives from the private sector, but what happens is
that these three 'private representatives' are often those who are close to the bureaucrats, and they have to be approved by the bureaucrats first. That means the state still controls the thinking and the judgement.
The first film
banned under the new film law was Insect in the Backyard in 2010. It tells the story of a transgender father and his two children, one of them a male prostitute. According to Kajornsak Putthanupap, who chaired the committee that banned the film
Arpat, there are six rotating committees taking turns to watch films and give a rating. He said Arpat was initially banned because it might create unnecessary conflicts in society if the committee had let it pass . But for filmmakers, such
thinking is unfair treatment to film, given the fact that content in other media, such as magazines or television, does not require state approval before its release. Pantham Thongsang, a film producer who has campaigned for a fairer film law for the
past 10 years, said: Some committees rely purely on their imagination that if a film has been released, such and such a bad thing would happen. It's like you forbid someone from leaving the house because you imagine he
might go out and kill someone.
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Screening of a film version of 1984 cancelled after police warning
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| 12th
June 2014
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| See article from
bangkokpost.com |
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a 1984 UK Sci-Fi romance by Michael Radford. Starring John Hurt, Richard Burton and Suzanna Hamilton.
Summary Notes After The Atomic War the
world is divided into three states. London is a city in Oceania, ruled by a party who has total control over all its citizens. Winston Smith is one of the bureaucrats, rewriting history in one of the departments. One day he commits the crime of falling
in love with Julia. They try to escape Big Brother's listening and viewing devices, but, of course, nobody can really escape...
A screening of 1984 , the film version of George Orwell's anti-authoritarian novel, has been
cancelled in Thailand after police claimed it breached a ban on political gatherings, an organiser said. The novel by George Orwell has become one of the unofficial symbols of resistance against military rule. The Punya Movieclub in Chiang
Mai said it was scheduled to screen the film but decided to cancel the showing after police said it would be illegal, according to one of the organisers who said: We just wanted to show the content of the film because
many people are talking about it right now... We show all types of movies. We didn't want to start a political movement. When we found out the police had a problem with our event we decided to cancel, because we are afraid the
people who come to watch will face problems.
Political assemblies of more than five people were banned under martial law and continued after the coup by army chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha. The ban is enforced very selectively, and has never
been invoked at a cinema. One form of resistance to the coup has been reader - individuals or small groups sitting on public walkways reading Orwell's novel. Last week, protesters unfurled a giant poster of Gen Prayuth's face with the words
Thailand 1984 written below. The three-finger salute from The Hunger Games films has become another symbol of resistance against the junta, which has curtailed some freedom of speech and the press. |
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| 11th June 2014
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A court case attempting to revoke Thailand's ban of Shakespeare Must Die rumbles on through the current period of military dictatorship See
article from theguardian.com |
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Banned Thai film gets a showing at South Korean film festival
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| 24th August 2012
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| See
article from
screendaily.com
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Banned Thai political drama Shakespeare Must Die , directed by Ing K, will be among the films screening in the Asian Competition section of the 6th Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival (CinDi). The director said at the opening ceremony:
I thank CinDi for inviting my film even though they had to ship it under a secret name -- Teenage Love Story -- because the film is banned in Thailand, where people live in fear. I'm suing the government so I shouldn't
even be here. We are fighting because in Thailand, directors have less than human rights. But I promise Shakespeare Must Die is not boring. I made it like a Mexican soap opera and a Thai horror film. You can see it, even though
Thai people can't see it.
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18th April 2012 | |
| Thailand's film censors ban Shakespeare Must Die based on Macbeth
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4th April 2012. From bangkokpost.com |
A new Thai film based on William Shakespeare's, Macbeth , has been banned by censors on the grounds that its content may cause disunity among the people. Shakespeare Tong Tai , or Shakespeare Must Die , is directed by Ing K
and Manit Sriwanichpoom. The film is the first Thai rendition of Macbeth, a bloodstained tragedy in which a Scottish general, with the help of his insidious wife, assassinates a king to pave his way to the throne. The film includes a
contemporary allegory about a fictitious nation where a popular politician rises up the echelons of power. A document from the Ministry of Culture's Office of Film and Video says that since the film undermines the unity of people in the country
, the censorship committee refuses to give permission to screen it in Thailand. The committee that banned the film was chaired by Police Major General Anek Samplang. The film-makers will appeal against the decision. Shakespeare Must Die
runs for 178 minutes and was partly funded by the Ministry of Culture under the 2010 Thai Khem Khaeng stimulus scheme. Update: Macbeth not quite historical enough 6th April 2012. From
dailyrecord.com
Thailand's film censors have banned an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, claiming it could inflame political passions in the country where it is taboo to criticize the monarchy. One of the film's main characters is a dictator named Dear Leader,
who resembles former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose ouster in a 2006 coup sparked years of political turmoil between his supporters and critics. Ing K., the film's director, said the censorship committee objected to
anti-monarchy overtones in the film as well as politically charged content, including a scene based on an iconic photo from Bangkok's 1976 student uprising showing a demonstrator being lynched. The committee questioned why we wanted to bring
back violent pain from the past to make people angry, Ing K. said in an interview. The censors also disliked the attire of a murderer in the film, who wore a bright red hooded cloak, the same color worn by the pro-Thaksin demonstrators known as the
Red Shirts. The director called the ruling absurd and a reflection of the fear in Thai society. She said the character resembling Thaksin could represent any leader accused of corruption and abuse of power: When Cambodians watch
this they'll think it's Hun Sen. When Libyans watch it they would think it's Gadhafi. Ing K. said she plans to appeal the ban. Offsite: An interview with the director 18th April 2012. From
bangkokpost.com
Why do you think the film has been banned? It's the climate of fear. Most of us are not fanatics, but we're trapped between fanatics of all stripes and we live in fear. That's why we were banned.
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24th May 2010 | | |
Director criticises censorship restraints on Thai film makers
| 22nd May 2010.
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Thai arthouse director Apichatpong Weerasethakul slammed the country's tough censorship rules as his latest movie entered the race for the top Cannes film festival award. Acclaimed by many Western film critics for his auteur offerings, his
latest movie Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is a parable on a cinema that's also dying or dead , he said: But you cannot blame Thai film-makers. They cannot do anything because of these censorship laws. We cannot make a movie on the current situation,
he added, due to laws that ban threats to national security. Anything can be thrown into that. The film-maker, who said he flew out of Bangkok as the city was burning , expressed hoped that something will change for the best
from the current chaos. Thailand is a violent country, he said. It's controlled by a group of mafia. In his movie, Uncle Boonmee is sufffering from acute kidney failure and has decided to spend his last days in the jungle, where
the ghost of his dead wife returns along with his missing son, turned into a hairy monkey ghost. Update: Palme d'Or 24th May 2010. Based on
article from guardian.co.uk Asian cinema tonight emerged as the surprise winner of this year's Cannes film festival when a lyrically beautiful and often surreal Thai movie took the Palme d'Or.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives , directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, already had the best title of the 19 films in competition. Jury chairman Tim Burton named it best film, seeing off films from an impressive roster of film
makers that included Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Abbas Kiarostami. Burton said deciding the Palme d'Or had felt like an easy choice. The jury saw the film early and it stayed in their heads throughout the festival, he said. The world is getting
smaller and more westernised, more Hollywoodised and this is a film where I felt I was watching from another country. It was using fantasy elements but in a way I'd never seen before so I just felt it was like a beautiful, strange dream. Accepting the award, Weerasethakul, the first Thai winner of the Palme d'Or, said:
I would like to thank all the spirits and all the ghosts in Thailand who made it possible for me to be here.
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17th March 2008 | |
| Thai director to present censored film with blanks
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From the Nation
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After dealing with the censorship of his film for nearly a year, Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul will finally screen his acclaimed Sang Sattawat (Syndromes and a Century), with silent, black frames to replace six scenes the Board
of Censors found objectionable.
It's cynical, but actually it's a statement for the audience to make them aware that they are being blinded from getting information in this society, says the director.
Apichatpong first planned to
show Syndromes last April in a limited release in Bangkok cinemas, but he cancelled the screenings when the censors said four scenes had to go. A petition against the action was started, and the director formed the Free Thai Cinema Movement to
call for better treatment for filmmakers.
With the election of a new government and a new film law on the books, Apichatpong said he submitted his film to the censors again, hoping they would view it differently. The censors asked that two more
scenes be excised.
I was wrong. It's worse than the first time, but it was still worth the effort. I learned that the problem with the new film law is not the law itself, but the people who will be enforcing it, he says.
For a
limited-release screening by the Thai Film Foundation, Syndromes will have the six censored scenes replaced by silent, scratched black frames - the longest of which runs for seven minutes.
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12th March 2008 | |
| Thai Appeal over art house cuts rejected
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From the Bangkok Post
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The Thai censorship appeals committee has upheld the decision to cut four scenes from the art-house movie Saeng Satawat (Syndromes and a Century) and ordered the director to cut an additional scene as well. We upheld the verdict because the
movie contains inappropriate images of doctors and monks, said Police Major-General Somdej Khaokam of the Central Investigation Bureau, who chaired the hearing yesterday.
The film's director, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, appealed after the
Censorship Board ordered him to cut four scenes from Saeng Satawat last April.
These scenes featured a monk playing a guitar, doctors drinking whisky, doctors kissing and two monks playing with a radio-controlled toy.
The appeal committee
ordered him to also cut a scene showing statues of Prince Mahidol of Songkhla and the late Princess Mother.
Apichatpong, who defended his case before the committee, expressed his extreme disappointmentL It was like I was on trial for being a
communist . But he said he would cut the film as instructed: I will release the mutilated version as a statement and as a historical record of Thailand.
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