A Thai Film about Cambodian King

C

champthong

sarNie Hatchling
15.12.2007

A proposed Thai-produced documentary about the Khmer Empire's greatest ruler, Jayavarman VII, is causing concern in the Cambodian media.

It's the latest dust-up for Thai-Cambodian relations, which have been on the rocky side in recent years, and Thai cultural exports have been at the root of the disputes.

In 2003, riots erupted in Phnom Penh when a Cambodian newspaper printed falsely attributed quotes from Thai soap opera actress Suvanant Kongying, who was alleged to have said Angkor belonged to Thailand and had been stolen by Cambodia. Things quickly got out of hand. Thailand's fairly new embassy was burned and several Thai-owned businesses were ransacked.

Last year, there was the debacle that was Ghost Game - a crass slasher about a fictional reality game set in what was unmistakably the former Khmer Rouge torture center of Tuol Sleng.

This time around, Thai diplomats are working overtime to assure the Cambodians of their best intentions, saying that an (unnamed) Thai production company is seeking to make the documentary, but will do so only if it receives Cambodian technical assistance, and if the plan is opposed, they'll drop the project.

The Director-General of the Department of Information [of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs] of Thailand asked the Thai film production company, and they got a comment back, saying that that this film has a good purpose, the company that wants to support and promote Cambodia with the production of a film about this famous King of good reputation is similar to when they made a film in Thailand, related to the Thai King Pra Naresuan [1590-1605]. The Thai film production company stated that it is just a plan, and if it moves on towards the production process, the Thai side would like to get help with technical assistance. As for the content of the story, everything is to be written and managed by the Cambodian side.

“The same release stated that the Thai film production company reaffirmed that the purpose is to help support the Cambodian side; however, if there would be a strong reaction, the company would also agree to stop the process, unless, in future, the Cambodian side finds it is useful and asks for help from the Thai side - then the company is always happy to help and support.

“A senior official of the Royal Academy of Cambodia had spoken to Rasmei Kampuchea early this week about a Thai research group that wants to produce a film about the Khmer heroic King Preah Bat Jayavarman VII.

“Such an idea is opposed by many officials of Cambodian culture and history, because it would cause historical confusion.� Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.15, #4463, 15.12.2007

~Radio Free Asia in translation by KI-Media, the Mirror, et
 
dfemc

dfemc

sarNie Adult
interesting. this was on RFA, i'll have to listen to that. this will be interesting to follow up. media has taken a huge role in diplomatic relation building among SEA nations as of recently, it's a very exciting time in the political and economic arena of SEA. thnx for the share champ.
 
yak

yak

sarNie Adult
so they want to make a movie about our king? if yah.. i hope they go with the story... instead adding stupid stuff..
 
D

Diamend

sarNie Oldmaid
ummmm i dunno what to say but dat is interesting like erybody else said lol dat movie ghost game i really think they shouldn't have made it. i know it's just a movie but it's just wrong to be makin a movie bout real people who suffered for real and turn them into evil ghosts in a movie. and i know da setting wasn't at da real prison (they made up some other name for it) but it's obvious dat it was referring to da real prison. i didn't watch it. khlaach bahb LOL
 
yak

yak

sarNie Adult
Phon said:
add or not add. history isn't accurate anyway. :D
Click to expand...
true... i agree with u.. dam phon ur every where am at... lol... but anyways.. i think they should stick with their own history.. i understand that they have a long ass history with us... but they should do their king thing... leave us alone... lol... coz we haven't make our history movie yet.. even though we have but i just think they should leave it to us...
 
P

Phon

sarNie Adult
yak said:
true... i agree with u.. dam phon ur every where am at... lol... but anyways.. i think they should stick with their own history.. i understand that they have a long ass history with us... but they should do their king thing... leave us alone... lol... coz we haven't make our history movie yet.. even though we have but i just think they should leave it to us...
Click to expand...

Yeah I know I am everywhere ahahaha so watch out dont talk about me....lol jk :tease:
 
Mister Bubbub

Mister Bubbub

sarNie Egg
I feel like there's a time bomb that is going to be explode if the production goes through. I don't think I've watch the ghost game movie, but I've seen the one where they were making a present to past medieval lakorn with the supposed Cambodian princesses and a 'great' General. But I'm kind of in the grey area with this situation. There's going to be a lot of controversy if it goes through, but I believe we should be open mind about it as well. :\
 
D

diana507

sarNie Juvenile
oh wow.
not trying to sound dumb but why do cambodia and thailand not get along? what happened?
sorry for asking but i just dont know.
 
T

thai-lakorn-fan-forever

sarNie Oldmaid
diana507 said:
oh wow.
not trying to sound dumb but why do cambodia and thailand not get along? what happened?
sorry for asking but i just dont know.
Click to expand...
the majority of cambodia dislikes thailand because they blame the thais for taking the cambodian culture and adapting it and claiming it as thai culture (i.e. apsaras, food, music, etc.)...cambodia feels that thailand "backstabbed" them by fighting them (AGES ago) and taking all that; cambodia still feels superiority because, previously, cambodia was a larger nation and covered laos and thailand...

personally, i think that they should just LET IT GO! gosh...the past is the past; there's no use holding onto age-old grudges; cambodia holds the perspective that thailand wouldn't be as advanced or whatever now if it weren't for cambodia -- well, i think that if they felt this way, cambodia should just work towards building itself towards being more advanced like the other surrounding nations, rather than sitting in corruption and waiting to criticize thailand.
 
sajenna

sajenna

sarNie Oldmaid
every country wants to copy an other country,it's what i think.cambodian people want to be like european or american but omg,they are "vulgaires"!
 
KhoOnxNouxWanxJai

KhoOnxNouxWanxJai

Staff member
Wow I don't know what I can say about this issue because I'm ThaiLaoBodian and I don't embrace any of my cultures more than I do the other. However I am more Laos Oriented because my father. When it comes to this issue, to be neutral I would have to say that regarding the history between the two country the movie should be made. Why? Most likely Thailand will get the history as close if not as accurate as possible considering their roots are fairly similar. At the same time There is already controversy between the two country so this could be a breaking point. I rather have a country that has a similar background to make the documentary then a western country to do it; Like when Anna and the King was made. Although the movie was pretty decent many of my ignorant friends thought all along that the movie was about a Cambodian King, I was like clearly he is speaking Thai, but At that time Thailand was Called Siam; so they didn't understand it whats the difference? I didn't want to explain it to them. >.O

Yeah I know my post doesn't really make sense, but I hardly ever do;
 
D

diana507

sarNie Juvenile
oh thanks everybody i didnt really know that, i just always hear all the khmer adults sayin stuff about thailand and didnt really know why!
 
amikrazie

amikrazie

sarNie Oldmaid
i say do it...drop the grudges already..not making cambodia any better by creating more enemies, causing conflicts!


Cant we all just Get Along!!??
 
Mister Bubbub

Mister Bubbub

sarNie Egg
Some of you guys are a bit harsh. If you have something to say, say it in a constructive and neutral way rather than say it in a bias tone. Also, providing sources of your knowledge of the story behind the tension between Cambodia and Thailand would be nice too so it could actually be reliable.

Cambodia have the right to decline Thailand for not making a history movie about our King. And I think people should respect that. And I believe Cambodia have the ability to make a history movie of our own King when the time comes. There's more to it than meets the eye. And I suggest that everyone should not believe in everything that people say or write, learn how to question their statement and or facts. What's their source? What's their knowledge/expertise of it? Rather than take their word for it. Or you can just go do some research, I say GOOGLE! :eek:

Everything has a reason. Why do the Chinese and Koreans hates the Japanese? Why do the Middle East hates America? I can go on and on but I'm not.

And someone says "Let it go!" earlier, its a good suggestion but its easier being said than done. :| It's sort of like asking a rape victim to forget the fact that he/she have been rape. Or the fact that the Nazi have killed millions of Jews and other innocent people. Oh right, "LET IT GO" the "past is the past". (Bad example, but I'm just trying to get a point across so ignore the unrelated issue of it) Plus, the government are the ones that usually string a long the hatred rather than the 'people' because in the end its all got to do with politics. And please don't just assume your knowledge of history. As a Cambodian I do feel offended by some of the posts and this is not something I would normally feel or say (and that says a lot).

If we can all just get along, then there wouldn't be war going on now in certain parts of the world right? /sarcasm/ At least, Cambodia and Thailand are not at war for 100+years like certain countries in the middle east. The majority of people wants world peace, but I don't think that it's going to be happening anytime soon. :|

p.s. (two posts up) a lot of the khmer adults nowadays are saying stuff about thai is not really from the 'ancient past' its usually to do with when they went to reside on the border land during the khmer rouge regime. i've heard of harsh stories of thai soldiers and stuff from my parents who did reside there during the war. so i think the harsh stories are from then.
 
amikrazie

amikrazie

sarNie Oldmaid
yea, i actually dont like to get into politic talks cause at the end it usuallys head towards an argument.
i'm not going in that direction neither!
i guess i was too young to remember any of these bad/good experiences that my parents and all of the other cambodians who did.


but anyways i do agree with what you said. ok, so whatever cambodia decides it is really up to them..we are in america. what can we do other than just hope that nothing bad comes out of this subject/project.

i also wanted to add however..i dont see a reason for anyone to hold a grudge for the rest of their lives neither. life is just too short!

(i see this might also start another argument..k im gonna shush now) :mellow:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top